Thursday, April 1, 2010

Lake of the Ozarks - 3/26/2010

We started in 6-Mile Cove fishing the main point and hump. The water temp was 40 with a slight SE wind. We fished from the west side casting into the wind to drag our baits back at us. Fan casted all around the "hump" on this point and found no bites. With this being our first stop we decided the water was too cold for them to be up this far and headed to our next spot.

Our next stop was in Indian Creek, way up on right hand side fishing chunk rock in 20' of water pounding the shoreline with stick baits & lipless. We caught 0 fish.

Pulled back to a pocket short of the point and fished from there towards the point. This was smaller chunk rock (fist sized). We were in 12' of water casting parallel to the shoreline with a lipless letting it sink and pulling it across the bottom. We caught 1 largemouth 3.5# in 12' of water. We think this fish was roaming the area and not a pattern fish.

The overall weather was sunny skies with a slight wind. Air temp was in the 50s and water temp was in the low 40s.

After this we moved back to the very end of the Gravois Arm. VERY shallow water. The lake is down about 6' so when we powered down off the big motor we were in 1.5' of water. we worked the docks with jigs back to some deeper water. We finally found 3.5' of water and ran into 2 guys catching them on stick baits around docks. Jason had one fish to the boat that got off. It may have been a short but was caught under the corner of the dock. I just don't think they had moved up that far.

Water temp in this area was in the upper 40s and topped out at 48.5.

Ran back down the Gravois Arm to a couple of main points. Water temp dropped back down to the low 40s. We fan casted lipless cranks setting the boat in 20' of water and casting up to the shallows. We would let the bait sink and pull it from the shallows to the deeper water hoping some fish might be staging out close to deep water but found no fish.

Moved back up into another cove and fished some big docks at a marina. Switched to a jig and fished the large chunk rock along the shoreline. Water temps had moved back into the low to mid 40s. We didn't fish here long and decided to run to the dam.

Fished the north side of the dam from where the dam meets the shoreline west. We were throwing stick baits, lipless cranks and jigs. We actually threw quite a bit more than that, but those were our main choices. We fished west along the bluff into the first cove. The cove has quite a few transition banks so we kept working these areas. On the north side (back) of this cove we hooked up with a short on a stick bait. It was up on the shoreline right at a transition pocket. As we came around the secondary point, we started paralleling the shoreline with a lipless. In 8' of water with water temps in the low to mid 40s we hooked up another largemouth, but didn't land it. It was right at the 15" mark, or so it seemed. We finished working the cove and called it a day. We got off the water around 7:30.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Keep Your Hands, Toes and Everything Else WARM

As the snows start to melt and the sun starts peaking it's head out we all start to go a little stir crazy. Yet, there are still many days where those temps dip down near or below that freezing mark. Well, be prepared for those days. I have found a great little web site that wholesales HotHands 2, HotHands Bigger & (my personal favorite) Toasti Toes! The website is HandWarmers.net and they will take care of you. They sell in bulk and have great pricing (The Toasti Toes are less than $1.00 a piece!)

So go check them out. They are straight forward people that sell a great product at a great price and will get it to you fast! http://handwarmers.net

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Mississippi River Walleyes - 2/28/2010

Matthew and I headed out on the Mississippi River (Pool 26) this morning to try our hand at catching some walleye. We decided to put in up around Winfield to avoid the frigid ride from Riverside up to the dam. The ramp was not very friendly to boaters, but it did the trick. We put in on the slough next to the dam. The water was about a foot or so deep, but the bottom was just river mud so it we were able to just slide across (through) the mud to deeper water. We drifted along both shorelines using the down imaging and side imaging in an attempt to locate fish. We were able to locate some fish, but with the current, we couldn't sit in one place to fish for those fish specifically. We made several passes over the same area and never even got a nibble. There were 2 other boats in the area, but they too were not getting bit. We couldn't stay out all that long and called it quits around 1:00. Although we didn't catch any fish, it was nice to get the boat out. We also learned a little from watching the other boats. They would run up near the dam (nearly center of the river) and drift down, then repeat in a slightly different line. I'll make mention here that the water temp was 30.5 deg F, with small chuncks of ice floating around in the water. Oh, well, this is why they call it "fishing". We'll try it again soon.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

ESPN Fantasy Fishing

Join our ESPN Fantasy Fishing Group

Group: Hunt & Fish Missouri
Password: conservation

Monday, January 18, 2010

Rabbit Hunting - 1/17/2010


James and I went up to White Memorial Conservation Area on Sunday morning. We pulled up to the CA around 7:15. Temperature was right at freezing and there was a lot of fog in the area. Beautiful day for hunting. As we started the day the dog was really anxious and was barking on just about any rabbit trail, new or old.
It took some time to get our first rabbit up. Chip (the dog) was working in a thicket on the edge of the woods while James and I were walking the outer edge. Chip had pushed a rabbit out of the thicket, and was on it's trail. However, he ran the rabbit down through the woods then just stopped and came back up towards us. I have no idea what happened with that rabbit.
Because of the way Chip was barking on every scent, we didn't pay much attention to him as we crossed over a grass field. He took off away from us baying and going crazy. As we listened to him, we realized he was circling and decided he was actually on a rabbit. We staged ourselves on either side of a brush pile where we thought the rabbit came from. As Chip approached we never did see the rabbit and had to move on.
Not much further across the same grass field Chip was in front of me working a thicket and I watched him get a rabbit up and start the chase. He ran the rabbit in a huge circle for about 15 minutes. We setup on either side of a small depression that lead from the woods back to where Chip jumped the rabbit. Unfortuneately, James saw the rabbit on another deppression that was just out of shooting range. Chip stayed on him, but we never saw this rabbit either. (there is a video of this chase. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSpC9pCuqC8)
As we were making our way back to the truck Chip jumped another rabbit in a brush pile and was right on him. However, this one crossed the road outside of the CA and we called the dog off. I'm not losing my dog over a stupid rabbit.
It was a great trip and I am really impressed with how well Chip worked. It usally takes him about 4 or 5 outings to start turning the rabbit, but he proved me wrong this trip.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Rabbit Hunting - 12/20/09 - Whiteside

Our first rabbit hunt of the season, and really of the last two years. We didn't get out last season at all, so my beagle, Chip, was a little rough for wear. There were 4 of us that went, and it was the first hunt ever for James. We had to be back in St. Charles by 11:30 so we left the house at 6:00. By 7:00 we were at Whiteside putting on our insulated bibs and extra layers of fleece... it was cold (24 F). It didn't take long and we had our first jump of the day. I got him up in a small field and got the dog on him within a minute or so. Chip lost the rabbit aobout 150 yards out. There were a lot of BIG piles of fallen timber that I think they were holding up in. We continued and had another field jumper. This one came out of a creek and crossed a large field. James could have gotten a shot off, but with a new gun, didn't get the safety off in time to shoot. Again we got the dog on it and again Chip lost the rabbit. I don't recall the third rabbit... but the forth one Jeff kicked up and the shit was so thick I had problems seeing my feet. Needless to say, Jeff didn't know where the rabbit went so we couldn't get the dog on the scent and we pushed on. The last one came up between us (all 4 of us) and the dog got right on it. 50 yards away was another one of these HUGE timber piles. Yeah... Chip could have lost him, but I'm pretty sure that rabbit ran in the pile. All in all, it was a good day. Weather was good, snow on the ground and we had 5 rabbit up on public ground with one dog.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Lewis Boats Fall Bass Tournament - 10/24/2009

Matt & I fished our first tournament on Saturday. We prefished on Friday and did pretty good. Our plan was to hit all of our spots to see what produced. We figure we had 4 keepers in the boat, and could have had more, but lost a couple because I&...#039;m stupid. The problem came with the High front that moved in over night. Fishing conditions changed dramatically. We had a lot ov 14 inch fish Saturday afternoon and one that was 1/16" shy of making the cut. Luckily we didn't quit fishing and with about 8 minutes to spare, Matt put one keeper in the boat. The big bass was 6+ pounds and first place was 16.5 pounds. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to the guys at Lewis that put it on and to Derek for all the help!

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Mississippi River - 9/27/09

Mark and I hit the river about 7:30 this morning. It was a beautiful morning. Crisp air, fog rolling off the river and a smooth ride to our first spot. We were targeting white bass again. We were fishing a dike break between two islands and the water really flows through there. We got nothing on our first spot so we decided to move. This time we headed out to the main river. We fished a U shaped dike on the outside, main cannel side. We caught 2 at this location. Then we moved over to the ouside, bank side of the dike. Again, we caugh two and I had one on, run straight at me and then under the boat. I had my drag too tight and as he went under the boat he came off the hook. He had that pole doubled over. I know it was a good fish. The key to this spot was we were sitting in about 2 feet of water on the inside current break and fishing out in the current where it dropped to about 8 feet. I think they were sitting on that ridge. Anyway, we worked our way down river fishing the same spot on 2 other dikes, but they produced nothing. Then we fished the backside of a partially submerged dike and caught 2 more. This spot has a LOT of potential. The back side of the dike has some sand on it and the water rolls over the rocks and creates a lot of turbulance. Then it drops to about 10 feet. We went back to our first spot and fished the opposite side which only produced a drum (on a spinner bait at that). It was a good day and we pulled out at Noon. A big thank you to Mark for going along. We've been trying to do this for quite a while. Now to get Matt Douglas out on the water with me!

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Driveway Fishing...

 


We threw everything from lead weights to a pink butterfly.. no fish ... They did catch me a few times though. :)
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Sunday, September 20, 2009

Mississippi River - 9/20/2009

My brother-in-law, Dave, and I hit the river around 7:00 this morning. There was a slight drizzle coming down, with temps in the 60's (both ambient & water). We were going to target whites and wipers. We headed to the first dike I wanted to try and started casting into the current break. Both using crank baits, after a few casts & about 15 minutes, I wanted to tie on a different crank. As I'm re-tying, I was trying to explain to Dave how the stripes fight and how much fun they are, and BLAMO, Dave says, oh, here's one. After the first one we caugh a couple more and the rain started coming down. We also caught 2 drum on crank baits. As the fish quit biting, and the rain started to realy dump on us, we decided to call it quits. We were home by 9:00.

Of course it stopped raining by 10:30, but we were already done for the day. We'll try to get out again real soon.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

Mississippi River - 9/6/2009

Today Adam and I took a trip out on the river. We were just going out to get a line wet and get out on the boat. We started by working the downstream side of a dike. Adam was using a snake and I was tossing a crank bait. This produced nothing, so we switched up to plastics and still nothing. We then started working some laydowns on the upstream side of the dike. We flipped jigs, tossed crank baits, threw spinners, you name it, we threw it but produced nothing. We didn't have much time but decided to work the current break where the water came around the end of the dike. We were both working the crank bait and it produced two stripers (or whites, or hybrids, or whatever they are). One was about 9 inches, the other was 13.5". These things put up a great fight. The bigger one was stripping line of my spool and was really giving it it's all. It was a lot of fun. I'll be targeting them again on my next trip out. -cld

Dove Season - Opening Day 2009

Dove season opened this past Tuesday, and as we usually do, Les and I took the day off to go throw lead and see if we could knock a few down. Gary met us at Greg & Cindy's before sun-up and we took our places. We had standing corn on one side and soybeans on another with a telephone line at the split. This typically produces birds for us. However, on this cool opening day, there were just not many birds flying. I ended up getting 5 but lost one in the soybeans. Les and Gary each got one, and around 11:00 we gave up. We hadn't seen a bird in over an hour and just got discouraged. Come to find out Brad went down that evening and nearly limited out. I heard other stories that as the day went on, the birds started coming in.

We went down again on Saturday morning. Got there before sun-up again, but sat in the barn for a couple of hours as the rain just kept coming down. Finally around 9:00 or so the rain lightened up enough that a few birds were moving around. We shot at a couple that were probably too far to shoot, but when you've been sitting for so long, you'll shoot at anything. Then we walked across the field (the corn was now cut) towards a small patch of tree. One bird flew in and any of us could have shot it, but I pulled my trigger first and that was our only bird of the day.

Saturday night I cooked all the birds for some friends and they were really good. I filet them off the breast bone then put a piece of pepper jack cheese and a jalapeno slice between the two halves. Wrap the whole thing with half a slice of bacon and put a toothpick through it to hold it all together. Once on the grill, we dab them in barbecue sauce just before we pull them off the grill. They are delicious! - cld

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Lake Carlyle - 8/23/2009

Just got back from across the border. Made my way to Illinois this morning to meet up with my buddy Jay to do a little fishing. Carlyle is about 15 minutes from his house so that was today's destination. It's a shallow lake. We were fishing in 3' - 5' of water out in the middel of the lake. There are deeper spots, but we were after white bass. We started on a large flat near the center of the lake and caught one or two. I was using a crank bait or a rattle trap. Jay was using crappie jig looped about 18" above a weighted spoon. This was the "local" favorite, as told to him by the bait shop. We fished a few more spots and had about 4 landed total. Watched one guy using the same rig Jay was using, but with a crank on the end of it pull one after another in. We couldn't get it to work. On our last area, there were boats nearly running over one another, everyone using the same setup. I finally tied the rig on with a crank bait 18" below the jig. And wouldn't you know, I had about a 15" white in the boat. It flopped out before I could pick it up or measure it. that was the last fish caught and we headed for the house.

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Mississippi River - 8/2/2009

Matthew and I headed out on Sunday morning about 7:30. It was a beautiful morning. Crisp air and so much fog coming off the water that you could only see about 50 yards or so. The plan was to fish a few new spots Matt picked out by looking at Google Earth. With all the fog and limited visibility we decided to try the back side of a dike that he had marked. It was close to home so we wouldn't have to fight the fog too long. We came up on ths spot and it looked great. Some nice slow backwater and a great current break around the tip of the dike. We started at the current break throwing spinners, but nothing. So we worked the dike slowly back to the shorline and then down the shorline around some laydowns. We pulled one short off the dike and nothing off the laydowns. We fished the area for a little over an hour and around 9:00 decided to run North up towards Winfield. As the dam was coming into view and we were nearing our second fishing spot something was happening with the motor. As I slowed down it started violently vibrating. We killed the engine and raised the motor to have a look. Matt says "Well that's the problem. You're missing the tip of a blade on the prop. How in the hell does this happen. We were running along, 20+ feet of water, no 'thump' no 'shutter' nothing. Just a little vibration, and then a lot of vibration. So we decided we could take our time and limp home on the trolling motor, and fish at the same time. As we are making our way out of the main channel to the Missouri shorline, the trolling motor decided to stop working. Yeah, we are now having one of those days that happens to every boat owner, it's just a matter of time. We ended up tying up to a dock in Winfield and called Bryan to up and pick one of us up. He took me back to Riverside to put the Wellcraft in and go get the fishing boat. Of course I didn't have the key for the hitch so we had to run back to my house to get the key to unlock the Skeeter trailer so we could hook up the Wellcraft and put it in. We finally did and 2 hours later we had both boats back on the trailer and were headed to the house. We were home by 2:30. Wow, what a day. Now the question is, how much will be under warranty. I'm hoping they realize there was something wrong with the prop for this to happen.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Illinois & Mississippi River


Made a run by myself today. It was a beautiful morning. Put in around 7:30 AM and ran up the Illinois. WOT all the way up to Hardin will burn 1/4 tank of fuel. On the way back I fished every lake inlet, creek, creavis that entered the river. That produced 2 fish, both shorts. I threw white spinnerbaits, plastic craws and crank baits. Then I came back and fished Pole Star and the rock between Pole Star and Duck Club. Ran into a couple buddies at Duck Club. They were having the same luck I was having. Oh well. More boat ride today than fishing. Ended up burning up 18 gallons of fuel (1/2 tank). Maybe we'll do better next week.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Slow Night


Cameron and i went out on the river Tuesday night to do a little fishing. We decided not to hit the marinas and fish some rip rap. The fishing was slow and the only fish of the day was a 6lbs Drum

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Mississippi River - Pool 26

Mr. Maher and I hit the river around 6:30 and decided to try som sloughs. We tried the first one on the Missouri side as you head down river from Riverside. It was a bust. Current was moving way to fast through there. The next one we tried was where Eagle's Landing (aka Heartland) is. This one was more promising. Current was slower, but we just didn't have the confidence fishing these conditinos. Next was back to our favorite marina. We started by pitching to the docks as we worked our way to the back. This produced one 12" fish. Then as we got around the back side, Matt lost another 12" fish (gotta set the hook). As we made it around to my favorite hole, Matt put another 12" fish in the boat. My hole produced for me once again, this time giving up a 16-1/2" fighter. We had one more hit where it didn't take the hook, just the plastic and hung me up, bastard. It was a pretty good night. 3 fish in the boat and the potential for another 2 or 3 all in an hours time. - cld

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Mississippi River - Pool 26 (Polestar)

Got out for a couple hours this morning. It was cool and a bit windy. Water was muddy, but not up too high. Went back into Polestar to try my luck. Started with a jig and didn't get anything. Worked the dock down the east side and all the pilings in the back. Switched to a craw to work the rocks and got one 12" fish out of a little hole where I had gotten bitten on before. I guess that's better than I usually do. Continued to work the craw around the rock and flipped it around the docks. Nothing more was hitting. Hopefully I'll get out again on Tuesday and then this weekend the family and I will be down at Table Rock. Going to try my luck at some Kentucky bass and smallmouth.

Monday, June 22, 2009

Mississippi River - Pool 26 (Winfield Slough)

Got back out on the Mississippi River on Sunday morning. Put the boat in at Riverside around 6:00AM and ran north to Windfield. Fished the slough next to the Windfield dam. There were a few bank fishermen that said they weren't doing any good. I mainly fished the rip-rap that forms the bridge base and then I fished under the bridge. Had a couple hard thumps, but couldn't get anything to take the bait. Fished a chat spinner and a white spinner, a green and chart crank and a black/chart craw. The plastic is what got the thumps. I was suprised to find 12+ feet of water under the bridge. The rest of the area is fairly shallow (under 9 feet) but the bridge is deeper. After a while I ran back down to Pole Star (seems to be the go-to spot) and worked my way in there with a spinner. Talked to another guy fishing who had not caught any bass. He was using a jig and a spinner. Started to continue back but saw two other boats fishing in there so I called it quits and headed for home. Another skunked day on the river.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Mississippi River - Pool 26 (Dardene Creek & Pole Star

The discussion of tonight's fishing trip started early in the day. We had to watch the radar close as there were some pretty severe storms headed towards St. Louis. At 5:00 we decided the worse portion of the storms would be south of us so we were going to try to get our fishing trip in. It was raining when we got to the harbor, but isn't that why we spend all that money on good rain gear? We put the Skeeter in at Riverside and decided to just start working the shorline right there and work our way up into Dardene Creek. There was a lot of good rip-rap to work, but spinner baits produced no bites. There were a lot of bait fish jumping, but no bass. So we decided to make a run to one of my favorite harbors, Pole Star. By now the rain had quit and the water was just glass. A 65 MPH run down to Pole Star took very little time and we were fishing again. We have heard rumors that crappie can be caught around the docks here so the plan was to work the rip-rap for bass and then as we had to move around the docks, get the crappie rigs out and work the docks, the work the rip-rap for bass again. We worked our way in, throwing spinners off the front and the back of the boat. Up on the shoreline and out just a bit. Then we setup the 10' crappie rods with jigs and Power Baits. Worked these around the edges of the dock. As we came around the backside of the first dock I got a hit. I was a bit excited, I thought I had an awesome crappie on. Instead, I had to play out a nice 15", 1lb 8oz bass. This is on a 10' crappie pole with a itty-bitty crappie real and 4lb line. It really wasn't that bad, but it was a nice fish. We contiuned with our plan, alternating between the two poles as we made our way to the back of Pole Star. Right at the sunset I was working a plastic bait up on the shore in this little hole and my line moved from one side of the boat to the other. I reeled down and felt tention so I set the hook. Pulled it out of it's mouth. Quick fix the hook and I threw it back up in there. Nothing. Again back up in there, apologizing to Matt for holding this spot, nothing. Once again, up in the same spot, working very slow. Tap, Tap, Tap... I hold on. The bait starts to move again, I reel down, feel tention on the line and set the hook. Bait comes out of the water, no fish. At this point it's getting dark. I threw in there 3 more times and didn't get another hit. Matt and I decided to call it a day and run for the house. What started as a wet nasty evening turned into a great night on the river. Got a busy weekend coming up so it'll probably be next Tuesday before we get out on the Skeeter again. - cld

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Mississippi River - Alton Pool (Hideaway & Pole Star)

All three of us (Adam, Matt & I) went out on the river this morning. We put in around 8:30 and ran south to Hideaway Harbor. We figured we cheat a little bit since they had a bass tournament go out of there yesterday. Water temp was running around 72° in about a foot and a half of water. Yeah, it was shallow. We fished the whole area clockwise starting at the mount and ending at the ramp. The quote of the day was from a guy on the ramp. Conversation went like this. "Doing any good?" "No, but it's better than sitting at home" "Yeah, I'm married too". It was pretty funny. About that time Adam threw a spinner up along the rip rap along the ramp and we had our first river bass. It was right at 13 inches. That was it for that area so we ran back up river to Pole Star Marina. I keep hearing that people were pulling fish out of this harbor and today, we would too. Matt had the luck in Pole Star. We fished clockwise again. As we came out of the pack area, Matt (from the back of the boat) threw a spinner into this little pocket on the bank about 10 times, and on the 11th cast, wham-o! Fish ON! It was a little nicer fish. Just over 14 inches. He had one more that didn't measure before we ran for home. Good morning on the river. Congrats to Matt & Adam for showing me up. - cld

Monday, June 1, 2009

NICE FISH!

Adam and I did some fishing Saturday morning. We tried out cart first. The normal minnows were not producing much a couple of catfish and a cart bass.We decided to try our luck up at New Town. The fish in new town were loving the minnows we caught a bunch of bass and a few nice catfish. I caught a nice one on a swim bait also.This is the one I caught on the swim bait. The other photos are all minnows.








Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Mark Twain Lake (modified)

It finally happened. We went up to Mark Twain Lake this weekend to do a little crappie fishing and take my nephew fishing for the first time and we actually got into them. They were post-spawn, but they were just coming off the banks and setting up on the trees. It was a whole lot of fun. I went up Saturday morning and got on the lake around 7:00. The first stop was our honey hole up in Little Indian Creek. This area produced one crappie off a tree and a lot of sunfish. I actually left up there due to the amount of sunfish. Next I shot over to Dry Fork. This is where I started working the trees. I was finding them about 18 inches down, right on the trees. The water was fairly murky and about 75º with clear skies and a high around 85º with a steady to falling barometer. You had to lay your jig in there just right to get them to hit. The were lying in the shadow of the tree so you had to work not only the tree, but the shadows too. I had 6 in the boat (all over 9”, mostly 10”+) by noon when Dave and Ryan got there. Most of them were caught before 10:00, after that, the bite stopped. We took Ryan back up to Little Indian Creek and let him catch some bluegill since we knew they were stacked in there. He had fun and we only caught one more crappie before we pulled out around 3:30/4:00.


Sunday was a whole lot better. First thing that morning we made a run to Pigeon Roost. We hit a cove in there and tried to fish the bank. We had heard rumors they were still spawning, but this was just a rumor as after an hour or so, we had not caught a fish. We then switched back to working the trees in the same cove. Sure enough, we started catching fish. Conditions were identical to the day before except the crappier were spread out in the water column. We found them anywhere from 6 feet down to 18 inches down. Again, the 10-foot pole worked perfectly for this. Ryan was working a jig under a bobber and cast just beyond the base of a tree. He worked it up to the tree and let it stand. It took about 10 seconds and he was reeling as fast as he could. He put a 12-inch crappie in the boat, laid his pole down and said he had the biggest fish of the day and he was done. It was pretty funny and it was a really good fish. By the noon that day we had 9 fish in the boat and took Dave and Ryan in to head for home. They took the fish home to share with their family and Les got in the boat with me as we headed back to Dry Fork to catch 11 more which would give me a limit and enough to take home and feed us and our wives. Again, they were stacked on the trees about 4 feet down. The water temp was near 80º and murky. We didn’t use minnows all weekend. We were using a chartreuse jigs and Gulp! Crappie Niblets. I don’t know if I’ll ever buy another minnow again, unless I’m in Canada. It was a great tip that I have to thank the people at South Fork for. I got some more tips at the cleaning station on Sunday evening, but I’ll have to try them out for myself before I pass them along. We went out in the pouring rain on Monday, but didn't catch any keepers and after an hour of fishing in a downpour we threw in the towel and headed for home. It was a great trip and I’m looking forward to more trips up there this summer.

Saturday, May 16, 2009

Mississippi River - Pool 26 (Harbors)

Saturday morning looked as though it was just going to pour, but the forecast was for no rain and the radar was empty. Savannah, Alan and I headed out on the Mississippi again for another try at those pesky river largemouths. The water was right at action stage and was on the rise from all the rain we got on Friday. We decided to stick to the marinas. As it turns out, there was also a bass tournament on the river today, so that hurt our chances a bit more. We started at Polestar Marina. They have a lot of rip rap on their shoreline. We were both throwing plastics today. I started with a jig and creature, but quickly switched over to a Texas rig. We worked almost all the way back but there were two other boats back there fishing the tournament so we didn't want to bother them and decided to try another spot. We ran down to Woodland and worked the back of their marina. They have a couple of culvert pipes that supposedly hold bass, but they didn't show us that. Alan did get a bite on a plastic worm, but couldn't get it to hook up. I eventually started throwing a spinner and got a bite, but again, couldn't get it to hook up. Talking to some of the other boats out there, they were catching fish. One of these days I'll get to catch a bucket mouth on the Mississippi. But it won't be today. - cld
Oh, forgot the conditions. It was overcast skies with a rising barometer. The water and air were both around 65° with the river on the rise.