Tournament Day - Miss. River, Wabasha, MN

When I first saw the Mississippi River tournament on our club schedule earlier this year I was a little worried because I had never been on the river before. I was scared the current would be strong and that I wouldn’t know how to run the river and avoid the wing dams. However, when my uncle took me out and showed me around a little bit my worries were gone. It’s easy to run the river if you just be smart about it and stay between the markers. The current for mid to late summer wasn’t that strong either; which is probably the norm for this time of year.

With my worries about the river behind me, it was now time to catch some fish. My uncle fly fishes the river for smallies, so we fished the main river quite a bit during practice. I had a 4lb smallie in practice a couple 1.5-2lbers and also a solid 3lb largemouth. My practice day went pretty good and I felt fairly confident that I could catch 5-10lbs to wrap up the AOY title for my club.

I started the day on a wing dam in the main channel hoping to get into some smallmouth. I was throwing a silver zara spook and a rapala skitter pop. I fished a wing dam that had fish on it during practice for about 45 minutes with no luck. As I was pulling away from the wingdam going upriver I threw one last long cast with my popper and a good smallie nailed it. I was happy to have one in the boat. I was hoping to have about 2-3 in the boat after that spot, but the top water bite just wasn’t happening like it was the prior week.

I next went to an area where I caught the 3lb largemouth in practice. It was really a sweet spot that gave up a lot of fish for me in the tournament. It was a channel off the main river channel that had some good current flowing though it. It was 2-3ft deep on top and quick dropped of into 10-15ft of water. On the drop was both rocks and weeds. I ended up finishing my 4 fish limit (wisconsin rules on the river) in this spot with an All Terrain Finesse Jig and an All Terrain Rattling Jig. One went 18inches and the others were about 15-17 inches. I also caught fish in this spot on a drop shot with a white fluke and a texas rigged white tube with and EZ-tube inserted weight.

I would throw my lure up on the rocks or in the grass that was in the stronger current. They would either hit the bait on the initial fall or as the current washed the bait into the deeper water. I probably pulled 10-12 fish of this little spot. They were just schooled up in the current right on the steep break. Now, this spot wasn’t phenomenal, but it definitely has some potential. I was able to finish the day with a little over 9lbs for 4 fish. On the river I’d say that’s mediocre to decent. I lost one good 2.5-3lb fish on a drop shot that jumped off right in front of me that would have helped, but I still had enough to earn my second consecutice AOY title for my club which felt really good. I didn’t have as flashy of a season this year as 2007 when I won 4 in a row, but I felt I fished solid this year and scrapped out decent limits during the tougher events.

Carl Spande took first in the tournament with 10+ pounds in the countless backwater areas. He really had a nice bag for 4 fish and I believe some All Terrain Stick worms caught some of the fish he weighed in J. Nice job Carl!

I really had a fun time out there and will definitely be going back in the future. I won’t be able to fish the state tournament down there this year, but really wish I could.

Here is a list of lures that worked for me:
All Terrain Jigs: both finesse (1/4oz) and regular pitching (3/8oz) jigs
Colors: brown/amber/blk and black/blue
All Terrain Tubes: rigged with an ez-tube weight insert in 1/16oz. I really felt this inserted weight helped to keep me from getting hung up on rocks, grass and wood. I used a 3/0 EWG Gamakastu hook.
Drop Shot: 1/8oz weight, stand-out hook, white zoom fluke (“the fluke”, not the super fluke or the fluke jr. the mid-sized one)
Rapala Skitter Pop: Had a white underbelly like the minnows and shad in the river.