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!
