mississippi river pool#9

[brewcityfishr]

hit the barge both saturday & sunday. the bite is on!! we kept our 2 day limit of 36 saugers and walleyes. we threw back atleast 30 smaller fish which was awesome to see. also had a few jumbo crappies and white bass in the mix. best rigs were wolf river rigs and mississippi killer jigs tipped with large fatheads. awesome weekend of fishing! i cant wait to get back up here. the barge will be closeing nov. 18th. good fishin'

[Eric Haataja]

Great report!

[brewcityfishr]

made the trip back to the barge today. the bite was off compared to the last month. fished 7am-1:30 pm, we ended the day with 1 legal fish. my pops lost 3 legals that got off at the surface, and we shot back 7 shorts. worked very hard for em'. nobody was hitting them today. the eagles were out in force! that was awesome to see!!! good fishin'

[Fish247]

Caught her monday afternoon on a jig and plastic. Fished around 3 hrs and only had three fish to show for but she was worth it. 20 fow along the main river channel was where most of the action was happening. Fish were being caught but the locals were doing best by far. 30in around 9-10lbs.

[Eric Haataja]

Congrats on that nice eye!!

[Bosman]

See as I reside in De Soto, WI located 11 miles south of the Genoa L&D and infamous Clements Barge and 2 miles north of the HWY 82 dike (Lansing,IA) - I do 80% of my fishing on Pool 9. Grew up on the Mississippi down in Potosi, WI (Pool 11) and have been fishing old man river since I was boy.
New to the site and look forward to sharing some fishing info on WIBIGFISH.com as the weeks turn months turn to years.

Clements barge is running through Nov 23rd before they pull the plug for the open water season. Mark typically has some great fishing up there but for some reason this fall the larger eyes just haven't migrated that far up river.
Walleye are undoubtly the ultimate prize most anglers seek out roamin up and down P9 with Bass being a close second. Cannot say I let these species alone as I do target them from time to time but my true passion is panfish - specifically Crappie!

Water temp has dropped into the upper 30's. Ice is forming in the backwater sloughs such as Green Lake (Blackhawk Park). The Green is one of the first areas on P9 to ice up for the winter. It won't be too much longer before the hardwater gear is tossed in the trunk and becomes a permanet fixture until mid-March. At this point, mother nature pending - I'm thinking ice will be thick enough to support my perfectly physique body by the weekend of Dec 6th.

Here are some pics of a few I brought home this past fall.........

[brewcityfishr]

Great report Bosman...I try to get up there atleast once a year to fish the barge, but we passed this fall and fished the wolf river for a little change. the walleye bite has been great on the wolf this year! I hope to make it back before ice up!

[Bosman]

First hardwater trip of the season on the western front AND ITS STILL ONLY NOVEMBER:))))

Spent upwards of 4 1/2 hours on the ice over at the Green this morning. Pre-dawn crappie bite wasn't there - all though I spoke to a fellow hole hopper who indicated a few black specs were pulled through the ice early yesterday morning. #10 Firetiger Diamond caught the eye of more than one gill this morning. Ah....Nothing like the sight of a yellow-belly doing the "helicopter dance" under the ice as he's funnelled up to hole:) Did pick up one short perch for what it's worth. Brought a baker's dozen of gills home for the liking. Tossed back countless bait size gills. Biggest was 8 1/2 inches. Majority were in the 7 & 1/2 to 7 3/4 range. No herd bulls, that's for sure. Bite was your typical hardwater Mississippi pattern. Fast & furious for 10 minutes followed by a 30 minute lull. And NO folks - when a Burlington Northern rumbles by - that's not the super secret code for fish to start biting nor stop biting! I hear that comment nearly every time I'm on the hardwater.

As for the ice conditions - a solid 2" up near the landing but it dwindled down to MAYBE an 1.5" where I called home this morning. Not to worry to much folks....the water is 3 to 4 feet deep. If a guy goes through your like a dart stuck in the board - only the board in this instances is mud!

[Bosman]

Hardwater fishing the river the first month of the season has been interesting to say the least. Overall ice conditions are ever so fluctuating from day to day. Fresh snow cover, wind, and fluctuating warmer temps continue to be the enemy. The latest snow accumulation plus two days of temps in the 40's (Friday & Saturday) transformed the top into a slushy/watery mess. Real deal slop! Grayish black ice dotted the back water sloughs resembling mid March ice conditions - not late December! Previously drilled holes are usually the epicenter of such weak spots but they can occur anywhere. If you see one of these conditions two words of advice - STAY AWAY!
The famous tailwaters or walleye target areas are reserved for fools with a death wish. No fish is worth the high risk of going through in these areas. The current will sweep you under before you have time to grab a pick. We need at least a solid week of NO SNOW, little wind, and sub zero temps to harden weak areas back up and even consider targeting tailwaters. There's been a few local reports of would-be bucketeers taking an icy bath in the backwaters the past week.

As for the fishing - I've been concentrating on areas with less than 5 feet of water with no current for obvious reasons. Pic from yesterdays take home. Shoved a fair number of nice size gills back down the hole as the day wore on. I left all electronics in the trunk figuring if I get wet at least my electronics wouldn't. While there are still a few pannies hanging in the shallows, the majority have transitiond into mid winter patterns seeking out deeper pockets. Best bait was a lime green Rat Finkee tipped with a couple of waxies. Active gills were running real shallow yesterday and with the overcast skies - made for a perfect day to site fish them. Did pick up one unexpected crappie yesterday. Never caught one in this particular area in my life so I just to keep him!

Speaking of crappies, the shad die off hasn't occured yet, which has historically triggered a pretty good crappie bite for several days. Usually takes a lengthy subzero temperature stretch to kill off the buffet line in early to mid January. It's also a factor that causes these schools of crappie to disperse until last ice in which they start to school back up again.

[Bosman]

The muscles of old man winter continue to flex. A far cry from my last report! January weather conditions have been just brutal. Backwater ice conditions range from 15" to 24" and snow cover has blanketed the ice for 4 weeks now. Finding some green weeds adjacent to moving water or deeper water is the key to putting some gills on the ice right now. For gills the Fire Tiger Diamond tipped with waxies or a glow green Rat Finkee tipped with Gulp maggots is the best ticket. Crappie (my favorite species to chase) have schooled up pretty tight right now. Ambush points between weed beds and current have been the most productive. Setting up over the weeds or adjacent to the weeds - not as good for the papermouths. Lil Cecils fished baitless have been the only weapon of choice on the business end of my 5' Pulsator rods this season. Purple glitter & pink/white combo's have both produced. I had to include the pic of the 24", 4lb Northern. These fish are a dime a dozen on pool 9 and a far cry from by PB. The significance of this fish is he came on a purple glitter cecil on 2 lb Vanish with my Pulsator. It was a 10 to 15 minute battle that found me on my knees a couple three times with a good 10" of pole down the hole. For those of you that don't know what a Pulsator rod is....the line feeds up through the center of hollow blank (no eye guides). The reel is a $1.99 speciality built into the wooden handle. In other words YOUR arm serves as the drag. These poles are blast pulling shallow water pannies through the ice with it and not meant to go off teasing lunker bass and pike with. It's not totally uncommon for a pike or lunker bass to nail a cecil but when they do that's usually the last time you see that particular cecil....

L&D #8 (Genoa) has been fishable for a little over 3 weeks now. For reasons I don't understand the corp left 2 gates on the Wisconsin side open this winter. That in turn has caused a lot of dangerous shove ice up by the short wall and got me to thinking those white tips can wait until ice out for an all out Kalin 5" pumpkinseed attack. A couple of times I did stop, I targeted the the long wall, specifically the current break. Chrome Blue # 5 jigging rap tricked more than one walleye. Dead sticking a minnow head on a Demon also produced one nice marble eye. I don't carry the camera with me on the tailwaters.

Couple more weeks and the Jumbo Perch will be moving into attack range I hope to get some bruisers to post some pictures next month.

[Eric Haataja]

Thanks for the reports Bosman!

[fuzzyfishin]

Went up to pool 9. Fished all day/night till 8pm. Took out three,2eyes and 20in sauger. fishin was slow many dinks. 3/8 to 1/2 chart jigs worked best. Caught the sauger on 1/4chart with gulp draggin the botom. Sat remained about the same. Took home 4, 1 eye and 3 dink saugers (was real hungry)
Water seemed to have come up some with the rain. Water temp was at freezin. Fri weather seamed to be about perfect. fish didn't know it however. Sat- rain and cold made fishin just barable. Not much to show for 2 guy's. Had a great time just to get out.

Good luck

[walleyewackr]

me and my dad did out annual trip to the barge this past weekend, been doin it for around 6 years or so now, fishin was very tough with that cold front that rolled in friday night, still managed around 30 fish or so on killer jigs and leeches and crawlers, also dad caught the only walleyes on wolf river rigs and crawlers, ended up wit 2 eyes, 8 sauger, bunch of sheepshead, some other stuff, saw quite a few small lake sturgeon caught as well as sand sturgeon and a few flatheads in the 6-10lb range. stayed at the captians quarters for the first time and would highly recommend it to anyone that goes that way very reasonable rates and it makes you feel at home-heres dad with a monster sheepy estimated at around 17lbs