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!

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.

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