EARLY SEASON FISHING ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER
By Mike Yurk
bassinmajor@yahoo.com
Spring came early this year after the last two years of long and lingering winters. Easter was also early this year and the Monday after Easter we were on our way to the Mississippi River. The weathermen on television said to expect rain and as I pulled out of my driveway in Hudson, Wisconsin a light dribble of rain splattered on the windshield.
There were three of us on this early season fishing trip, Scott Clark from Hudson, Wisconsin, Doug Hurd of Eagan, Minn., and this writer.
I had been on the river several times earlier in the last two weeks, in part to break in a new four stroke fifty Mercury motor, but still managed to get some fishing in. The fishing had been slow but I was assured by several bait shops that was going to get better once warmer spring weather arrived.
LOW, CLEAR WATER
The river itself is different this year due to the lack of snow during the winter with corresponding weaker runoff from the thaw. I have been fishing the Mississippi River, usually starting sometime in the middle of March until the regular fishing season opens on the first Saturday in May, for the last fifteen years. Never have I seen the river this low this time of year. Typically we normally have high water and in several years flooding.
The Mississippi River is a popular place for spring walleye and sauger fishing.
Probably as a by-product of the low water and lack of runoff the Mississippi River is as clear as I have ever seen it too. Usually we find chocolate brown water in the spring. However, the current was surprisingly strong considering the lack of water in the river. In many places it was hard to get a three quarter ounce jig to stay on the bottom.
We launched at Evert’s Resort in Hagar City on the Wisconsin side of the river and motored upriver from there to the lock and dam north of Red Wing, Minn. Any of the locks and dams on the Mississippi are prime spots for early season walleye and sauger fishing.
We went to the dam side and eased into about twenty five feet of water close to the island dividing the dam from the lock. On the lock side the water is fairly slow and quiet but on the dam side there is a much stronger current that attracts fish. The current is like a magnet for fish. When we dropped anchor we were about three boat lengths from the rocky bank.
DEEP WATER VERSUS SHALLOW WATER
The rule of thumb when fishing the river is to fish deeper water when the water is low or normal and to fish shallow when the river is high. I use twenty feet as the median depth so when I want to fish shallow water I go less than twenty and conversely when I need to fish deeper I go over twenty feet.
Scott Clark (left) and the Mike Yurk show off two fish they caught at the same time. The white bass that Mike is holding seems to be showing up earlier this year.
Fishing closer to the bank the current is a not as strong making it easier to get our jigs to the bottom. As well it is easier for bait fish to hold in the lighter current and anytime you find bait fish you can be reasonably sure to find game fish.
Within the last few days warmer weather had burst forth with temperatures reaching into the seventies. But today temperatures were in the low fifties and the rain we expected had blown out leaving light gray clouds laced with blue skies. Strong winds made it seem colder then what it actually was but still it was a lot warmer than it had been when I first got on the river in mid-March.
It didn’t take long to get the first strike. It was a small walleye we released. Finally I felt a harder tap on my line and when setting the hook felt greater resistance. I pulled in a keeper sauger that went into the live well. From there we steadily were getting strikes.
The fish were hitting lightly. Normally there was just one tap and that was it or we felt weight as we lifted the jig off the bottom.
USE HEAVY JIGS
We were fishing with three-quarter ounce jigs. Doug and Scott were using Northland Fireball jigs with a stinger hook. I was using a three way rig I developed for river fishing. It consists of a three way swivel, a foot long leader with a three quarter ounce round jig head and another foot and a half foot long leader with three chartreuse beads and a number six or eight hook. Regardless of what we were using the common denominator was that all three jigs had some chartreuse and they all caught fish.
It was early afternoon and we were filling the live well with sauger. We needed to keep enough fish for a couple of fish fries. Doug pulled up on his spinning rod and it was bent in half as a fish raced off. Scott dropped his spinning rod to grab the net and a couple moments later Doug led an eighteen inch sauger into the net. It was biggest fish of the day. Doug reached in, grabbed the fish and pulled it out. As he did so we saw it was oozing spawn. Doug twisted the hook out and we took a quick photo before he slipped it back in the water.
Bigger fish full of spawn, like the one Doug caught, are the future of fishing. They need to be released. There are enough smaller fish to keep for eating. Let the breeders live to eventually replenish the fish we keep today. By the end of the day we caught about half a dozen fish, all bigger fish full of spawn, which we released.
Doug Hurd shows off a keeper sauger taken on a chartreuse jig. Because of the strong current it is necessary to use heaver jigs such as three quarters or one ounce jigs.
WHITE BASS ARE EARLY THIS YEAR
It was late afternoon. I felt a hard hit on my bait and when I set the hook I felt a solid weight as the fish raced off. I turned the fish but it kept pulling way, line slicing through the water as it darted off. It left like a good fish and I yelled for the net. Scott grabbed the net about the time I saw the fish. The flat profile and silvery color identified it as a white bass and I told Scott I guess I didn’t need the net after all. As he dropped the net he felt a tap and set the hook on a fish as it too raced away.
By the time I hoisted my fish into the boat, Doug was netting Scott’s fish which was a keeper sauger. All three of us caught a couple of white bass during the day and we remarked it seemed a bit early in the season to be getting white bass. Usually in the last half of April the white bass will come in from Lake Pepin south of Red Wing. They will be in large schools and it is not uncommon for two fishermen to catch a hundred of them in a day. But in these early days of the season, catching white bass now is a bit unusual. We are not sure what it means but perhaps the spring cycle may be a bit earlier this year.
The Mississippi River is much lower and clear this year.
An hour later we were heading back to the landing. We had eleven fish in the live well and with the smaller fish, the white bass and the bigger breeding stock we released we guessed we caught over fifty fish. It looks like the predictions of the fishing picking up with the warmer weather were correct.
As the weather continues to improve the fishing should as well. Some of the larger walleyes should start to more in and there is the spring white bass run later this month. There is lots of good fishing to expect this spring on the Mississippi River.
Editor’s Note: Mike Yurk’s column is sponsored by Warner’s Dock in New Richmond, Wisconsin. Warner’s Dock is the premier marine dealer in northwestern Wisconsin. They have a complete supply of new and used boats, motors, and trailers as well as other marine supplies plus a complete maintenance staff for all your boating needs. They can be contacted through their website at www.warnersdock.com or by telephone at 1-888-222-3625.