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.

Mark Twain, Salt River & J Lake

This past weekend we got together for the annual bowling team fishing trip up at Mark Twain. Some took off on Friday, while the rest of us got up there after work. On Friday, the forecast was for rain and cooler temperatures all weekend. Luckily the rain didn't make it to us, but the cooler temperatures did. Jeff and I hit the lake at 7:00 Friday evening where we were greeted with high, muddy water and lots of trash floating in the Lake. The other guys had been up in Little Indian Creek all day and only had 3 fish, so we figured we would try somewhere else. We got the boat in the water and ran to Dry Fork. Dry Fork was really, really muddy and only 55#&176;. Not knowing where they were yet, we dabbled the edges of the shorline about 3-feet out with a jig and minnow combo, but caught nothing. We ran out of there about 8:30 and pulled out. The following day we ran north to Little Indian Creek and started with the same pattern we were using in Dry Fork. We dabbled the shorline edges about 3' out with a jig head and minnow (no skirt) and again, nothing so we moved to working the trees. This produced a few fish, but they were scattered and hard to find. The combo seemed to be 18-feet of water at about 3 to 6-foot down right against the tree. The water temperature was about 64#&176; in Little Indian Creek, while the air temperature started in the 50s and got up to the upper 60s. We worked several coves in Little Indian and then ended up working bobbers along the shorline, 12 to 18-inches below the surface at 1 to 3-feet off the edge. Between the two boats, this produced 6 or 7 fish, but only 2 keepers. For the first full day of fishing we ended up with 11 fish between 3 boats. Not a stellar day. Which is why we decided to try below the dam on Sunday. Being in fiberglass boats, we didn't pull up on the rocks right below the dam, so we tied up to some trees down below the rocks and worked the small eddies along the bank. We caught several fish, but only 3 that were close to keepers, and they weren't even that big. Water temp was only 55#&176;, with the air temp reaching the lower 70s for the day. After fighting the current for half the day, we decided to give J Lake a try. By 2:00 we were on J Lake. The water temp in J was 65#&176;, high and muddy. Similar to the rest of the waters we fished over the weekend. The lake edges are really shallow. We targeted bass, while some of the other targeted crappie. No one produced anything. We threw worms, spinners, jigs, buzz baits, you name it, we threw it. Oh well, maybe when the water coditions are a little better.