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I can’t say I don’t like fishing the spawn but I’m not the biggest fan of sight fishing for bass on beds. Especially when I’m stuck on the bank. But we’re lucky in South Louisiana and the fish are on beds while some guys are still waiting for their lakes to thaw. Boat is in the shop so I decided to hit some of my old bank fishing spots this weekend. Started out with a topwater walking bait and a small popper to catch the early morning topwater bite. Gave up on that plan after about a hour. Something crushed my 1/2oz shad color Mini Max with a 6th Sense Juggle Minnow trailer. I’m guessing the fish chased it down and hit it from behind bc he knocked about 3 feet of slack into my line and the vibration stopped. I reeled as fast as I could and finally caught up with him and set the hook. Felt like I got a good hookset but I guess I was wrong. I could feel some of his weight on my line for about 5 or 6 turns of the reel handle but it felt like he was swimming straight at me. He came off and broke the surface and did a little flip just show himself and tick me off. It looked like a decent fish. At least a decent one for the area around 2-3lbs. This got my hopes of fishing my strength and covering water, so then I tried to force a reaction bait bite for most of the 12 hours I spent fishing and finished the day without a bass. A tiny goggle eye that bit my trick worm got the skunk off me about an hour and half before I quit. This morning I decided to go back to the same body of water but fish in a different area. I had noticed a few beds along the bank in the area I fished Saturday, but didn’t see any fish on them and the ones I did see didn’t seem to be locked on. The area I went to today had a few more beds, but they were in slightly deeper water. I could still see the fish, but it was much easier to lose them especially when they darted away to chase something or bc they were spooked. Fished a few different beds and couldn’t really get the fish’s attention. After trying almost every type of plastic know. to man, I finally got a little male that was interested. Lure was a custom deal made by a former sponsor who is no longer in business. Straight black beaver style bait. Similar to a Berkley Pit Boss with the four thin tails, but the body on this one is thinner and ribbed. Went through 3 lures before I caught the first bass of the day. He kept picking the lure up by the tail and when I’d try to set the hook my lure would come back missing one or multiple tails. I almost exclusively use a T-rig when I’m bed fishing, but I decided to change it up bc the bite was so finicky. I had a Dirty Jigs pitching jig tied on already, and he seemed much more irritated by the jig, but wouldn’t bite it. I figured maybe it was the profile so I tried a new jig I bought a few weeks ago and it was all the difference. A 5/16oz Black Blue Tip Evergreen IR Finesse Jig was the ticket. I made 4 pitches into the bed and he grabbed it. This time he got the hook right through the top of the mouth. I was using a black Zoom Super Chunk trailer, but the fish knocked it off during the fight. I took the plastics I was using earlier and cut a little bit more than half of the body off and removed the two middle tails and made chunk style trailers out of them. The jig was definitely the deal bc I went back to the fish that had ignored my T-rig earlier and caught 4 more smaller males that were 1-1.lbs. I did see a female sitting out a little deeper on one of the beds. She was posted up using an 18 wheeler tire right for cover. She was at least 4 pounder… maybe bigger. I caught the male and released him on the other side of the road to see if I could get her to bite without him there. She did move up and set up on the outside edge of the bed but she liked that tire and didn’t want to move. I did everything I could to tick her off trying to get her to bite. Pitched my jig right on top of her. Shook it in front of her face. I even used my “go to” move for when bedding fish are being difficult and not biting. I pitched my jig over her so that she was between me and the lure and pulled it so it was almost under her and picked the bait up with a little bit of force and hit her in the belly. I wasn’t trying to snag the fish…. Just tick her off. Well she was def ticked but it didn’t help make her bite. After I hit her with the “go to” move she took off into the grass out a little deeper than her tire. I left her alone and checked back about 45 mins later before I went home. I could barely see her, but she was back on the tire but this time she was on the opposite side away from the bed and had half of her body tucked in the grass.

A few weeks ago, my girlfriend was home from college on break. She ended up getting an extra day off out of the deal due to her class schedule, so she had asked if we could go fishing. You REALLY have to twist my arm hard for that, so I took the day off work and took her down to the Mississippi River as I had a tournament coming up and needed to do some prefishing for that. Conditions weren't that great with on and off rain, high winds, cool temps, and water getting dirtier and faster moving by the hour. Couple all that with the fact that I had only spent a total of 6-7 hours on this pool and it was looking like it could be a tough trip for her. I give her huge props as she hung in there though and shook off some of her rust and did catch a few. They may not have been big, but she kept the skunk out of her end of the boat. Here's what we managed to get on camera. I'm not going to lie, I'm a lucky guy. I've got a girl who I've managed to get somewhat addicted to fishing. She's still green to a lot of it as I just got her into it a little less than a year ago, but she's getting better every trip and it's been awesome watching her grow in the sport! Looks like I've got a keeper!

When most people think about fishing for largemouth bass they think of fishing ponds and lakes. When it comes to rivers most think of smallmouth, walleyes, catfish and many other species but rarely to they think of largemouth. Since I live close to the Mississippi River I like to bass fish there and I've noticed that it's completely different than fishing a pond or lake. I was curious if any members here are experienced river fisherman and wanted to know if you had any advice. How do you fish a river different than a lake and why? It really is amazing how different it can be.

Well, despite getting to fish later into 2016 than I ever have before, the winter seemed to drag on forever. However, the ice is all gone, I've had the boat out to make sure everything was working as it should, and I've got a tournament fast approaching. The fishing season is still closed on most inland waters in WI (I know, it's dumb), but the waters of the Mississippi River have an open season year round. Last Friday, my dad and I had a chance to head down to Fountain City and get out on a stretch of river that neither of us had fished before. We really lucked out weather wise as rain was in the forecast, but it was dying down just as we got there, and didn't come again until just before we were ready to leave. Water temps were between 49 (main river) and 53 (backwaters). Despite the warmer surface temps, the bass seemed sluggish and weren't willing to chase anything down, but were still willing to eat. Almost everything we caught was on either small craws light texas rigged, or on a jig. In the 6 hours we fished, we managed to land somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 bass. All but 3 were of legal size and very healthy for their size. We also caught 3 norhterns, 3 dogfish (bowfin), and lost at least 7 other fish. Fish were relating to shallow wood close to deeper water. A few such areas we caught multiple fish off a single piece of cover with our highest being 3 bass on 3 consecutive casts to one piece. Overall, it was a great way to start the year off, and it has me excited to get back! I'm currently working on trying to take tomorrow off work so I can get at least one more day of prefishing in before the tourney and seeing if I can locate some areas with a little bigger fish. **Warning** Pic heavy post as excitement of rippin' lips kept the camera flashing!

This past weekend I fished in a tournament out on the Mississippi River. Out tournament waters covered 3 pools as always, but I really only have experience on one. That required us to lock up, which was not a big deal. We had seen a barge out on the river and it didn't dawn on us right away but obviously he was going to have to lock as well. We headed back down to the lock, and there were 2 of our competitors pulling up the same time we did. The lock master came out and told us he couldn't let us through because the tug boat captain had vetoed the request. The barge was about 1 to 1 1/2 miles out yet, but was on "final approach". Admittedly the lock master let us know there was plenty of time to get us through and have the lock prepared for the barge by the time he got there, but he couldn't make that decision. He said it usually takes about an hour to get them through and being that it was around 1, that would have still put us in ok shape. We headed back out to hit a few close spots quick. Apparently, things weren't going quite as smoothly as normal since it took just under two hours for them to get the barge locked through. Ended up getting DQ'ed with the 2 other boats in our club, as well as a couple boats that were headed up stream for a different tournament as well. Tough way to learn a lesson, but maybe my experience will help someone else avoid doing the same. If you see a barge on a system with locks, don't hesitate RUN ASAP!!

I finally got a chance to get on the water this past weekend, which is just in time to since the first tourney of the year is next weekend. My dad and I headed down to the Mississippi River since it's the only place around with open season right now. Saturday was spent probing a lot of backwater areas with water temps in the upper 50's and I believe even 60* in one area. Fishing wasn't fast and furious by any means, but we caught quite a few northerns most of which were on the small side. Towards the end of the day we ventured closer to the main river and caught a few better fish, but only hooked into one smallie that was probably 16". Sunday proved to be a better day for us. We stayed a lot closer to the main river and cool water which was roughly 47* to 51*. Again, we managed to catch a bunch of northerns along the way, with a few better sized ones decent for eating. My dad pulled in a 23" walleye and I had a bonus crappie that t-boned my jerkbait We didn't fish as long, but manage a limit of bass as we bounced from spot to spot.The two best were 4lbs a piece one being brown and the other being green. In total we probably had 14 1/2 lbs with one squeeker. The best producing baits this weekend were by far and away jerkbaits with all but a few fish falling for them. Surprisingly, we did better fishing the colder water even in some places with current. Hopefully we can get on them next weekend and start the tourney season out with a win! A few highlights from the weekend:

These past two weekends I've finally gotten the chance to get out on the water and after sitting out for the stupid time of the year most commonly refereed to as winter, it felt great! We didn't catch much the first weekend, but this last weekend we got into them pretty good. I'm just hoping this week long cold front isn't going to turn them back off again for the tourney next weekend.

This past weekend, I got to fish in the first club tourney of the year that was over on the Mississippi River in pools 4, 5, and 5a. The morning started off early and brisk. When we left the house at 4 am the temp was in the low 30's and dropped to into the upper 20's before take off. Luckily with the rise of the sun it was back into the 30's at take off. The water temp had dropped a good 7-8 degrees since my prefishing trip the weekend before so I had my fingers crossed that the fish we had found were at least close to the same area. The morning definitely didn't start as planned. My motor, was having some issues and a last minute landing change (due to a city ordinance) had over 11 miles of river and a lock sitting between us and our primary area. Someone must have been looking over our shoulder though. We pulled up to the lock just as the doors were opening. Despite freezing our butts off, we made it to our first spot; a very shallow sand flat with current running over the top with a quick drop into deeper water on the back side. It only took us about 10 minutes before my dad got the first hit on a jerkbait, but missed it and had the same thing happen two casts later. Shortly after that is when the magic happened, we managed to boat 6 keepers off this tiny little stretch with all but two being over 3 lbs. and one of the two that were under was just barely under. We had our limit in just over an hour and caught the 6th shortly after. When things finally slowed down, we worked out way out and went over to another area we were going to hit. We had idled up a creek arm a little ways to another small area that we thought held some fish. We weren't there for more than 15 minutes when I pulled in an 18" smallie that bumped our smallest. Didn't get to cull after that, but that was ok. We ended up finishing in second place with a 5 fish total of 17.41 lbs All the keepers were caught on either a Rapala Shadow Rap, an Xcalibur XCS100, or a Bomber Suspending Long A. Hand an absolute blast and am pumped to get back out again!

I have a lot of questions, but first thing. Would I be wasting my time trying to fish back waters of the river this time of year? The river is mostly still frozen over so I know those back water creeks and run offs will still be frozen too, where should i start? Any advice would be awesome!!