mississippi river Mississippi River Fishing Reports Pools 9-15

[Rick]

Mississippi River Pool 9

Tail water stage at Lansing is 8.2 feet and expected to rise rapidly to 12 feet by next week. Ice conditions are deteriorating making it unsafe to ice fish. Sauger - Good: For anglers venturing into Minnesota and Wisconsin waters the sauger bite at the Genoa dam has been good with heavy fishing pressure.

Mississippi River Pool 10

Tail water stage at Lynxville is 15.2 feet. River levels are predicted to rise rapidly to near 22 feet by next week. Ice conditions are deteriorating making it unsafe to ice fish. Sauger - Good: The tail waters still have a lot of current due to the high water going into the winter. This has made fishing for sauger challenging as they may not be staging in their normal locations. Walleye - Fair: Some smaller walleyes are being caught on jig and minnow.

Mississippi River Pool 11

Guttenberg tail water stage is 8.2 feet. River levels are expected to rise rapidly to near 13 feet by next week. Ice conditions are deteriorating making it unsafe to ice fish. Sauger - Good: Some sauger are being caught in the tail water on jigs and minnows or three-way rigs. Walleye - Fair: A few smaller walleyes are being reported mostly being caught on three way rigs or jig and minnow.

Ice conditions are deteriorating making it unsafe for ice fishing. River levels are expected to rise rapidly over the next week. Many areas are predicted to rise 6 feet by this time next week. Those wishing to fish walleye and sauger should go soon before high river levels make it hard to find fish. With the rapid rising water boaters should be cautious for floating debris and ice.

Mississippi River Pool 12

The river level at Dubuque is 9.4 feet and expected to rise to 12.5 feet by noon March 21. Tail water fishing is occurring with good success. A few reports of ice fishing, but with warming weather use extreme caution. Sauger - Excellent: Fishing in the tail waters are yielding fish using a jig and minnow combo and three-ways tipped with a minnow. Walleye - Excellent: Fish are being caught using jig and minnow combos as well as three ways. Some are dragging stick baits with varied success.

Mississippi River Pool 13

River level at Bellevue is 7.9 feet and expected to rise to 10.9 feet by March 21 at noon. No reports of ice fishing were available. Sauger - Excellent: Fishing in the tail waters is excellent, fish range from 8 to 18 inches. Walleye - Excellent: Fishing in the tail waters is excellent with numerous sublegal walleye being caught, but some keepers are also be caught and a number of 20-27 releasers as well.

Mississippi River Pool 14

The river level at Clinton is 7.5 feet and expected to rise to 9.6 feet by noon on March 21. Sauger - Excellent: Fish range from 8 to 18 inches. Anglers are using jigs tipped with a minnow, three ways and some stick baits and some one-eyes were being used as well. Walleye - Excellent: Fish are being caught in the tail waters using jigs and minnow, three ways and even some are dragging stick baits producing good catches.

Due to warming weather most ice fishing from pools 12-15 is not recommended. Heavy snow pack in Wisconsin and Minnesota will cause the river to rise rapidly with projections of 3 feet plus to the current water level by March 21 will make fishing more difficult.

[delmuts]

The river levels are expected to climb til around 11 april to possible record levels.

[delmuts]

FINALLY had a chance to take the boat over to the river this weekend!( Harpers area)

The river is still up, so one has to watch for logs etc. while moving. Saturday, the boat traffic was really bad.( you had the pleasure boaters as well as there was two different bass tournaments going on!) Fishing was slow! The bass guys i talked to had to work hard for what they got, and the panfishing almost shut down.

Sunday was a different day! the boat traffic was way down, and the fish were willing to bite. We did ok on panfish, but the size was running small.( gils) The guys pleasure bass fishing did very well back in the flooded trees. The water temp was 81 in the 5-6 ft depth, and clarity was about 2 feet.

[delmuts]

Made it over to harpers this weekend. The river is still about 5 ft. above normal pool.They have been doing well on northerns, but was slow fri. and sat. ( all the boat trafic from guys prefishing for sat. tourn. didn't help! saturday was a zoo!)Did find some gils, but had to get back into down trees to find anything to bite. Lots of little ones , but could have gotten enough for a meal , but my patience ran out of being tangled in trees!

Didn't fish sunday do to thunder storms in the morning, and promised to take wife and a friend on a boat ride.

[delmuts]

Been doing most of my fishing off the dock at my wifes' trailer near Harpersferry,Iowa. With the water being so low the panfish bite has slowed on the dock, but the report from others that they have been doing well on gils, perch, and a few crappies.

But!! The northern fishing has bee VERY good off the dock! A guy down the line was catching his limmit every day with most being 5#+. ( he has a fit when i release them! )WE've manage numerous fish with two going 33" and one that was 37.5.

[delmuts]

Was up to fish off the dock at my wife's place by Harpers Ferry.( across from Nobles landing)

Monday did well on gils and a few jumbo perch. (Brought home 14 gils and 4 perch)

Wed. ( had to go up to open trailer so guy could blow out water lines) brought home 4 gils and 2 perch.

Fri., very slow. Only caught 1 keeper gil and 1 perch. Got more small bass than anything else.

Mon. most fish were caught by letting a hair jig tipped with wax worms just drift and bounce in the waves.

Wed. most caught on a 2 in. power minnow( modified!) under a jig.

Fri. everything on the power minnow.

[JIvers]

I drove over to Sabula, Iowa yesterday, with the aim of fishing the Mississippi River backwaters just south of town. Last year I found some promising shallow water on Lower Sabula Lake, and wanted to try that out. When I got there, no one was on the patch of water, so I went out on what I think is called Middle Sabula Lake and found the edge of the 20' deep cut there. There was probably seven to eight inches of good ice beneath me.

I marked a LOT of fish, usually around ten feet down, but could seldom get any of them to bite. I do not have a working underwater camera right now, but I suspect most of those fish I was marking were shad. Every so often, I would pull up a crappie, so they weren't all shad.

I kept four 10" crappie, and threw back four or five smaller ones, in about two hours of fishing. I did not get started nearly as early as I wanted, and so I did not have time to look around or fish as long as I would liked. Still, for my first time on that particular body of water, I was satisfied. Next time, I hope to look around and find some contours, bumps, or cover that will hold fish along that deep trough.

[JIvers]

When I was at Sabula last weekend, people told me there had been good catches of "ring perch" (as yellow perch are called in parts of Iowa ), but I did not catch any perch myself, or see any caught. Between the perch report and the decent crappie bite I found, I decided to drive over again early yesterday in time for the sunrise bite.

I actually caught more crappie yesterday than I did last weekend, but they were smaller: no eaters. No perch this time, either.

The crappie bite died in the 20' dredge cut above the dike a couple hours after sunrise, so I decided to get away from the crowds there and move to the shallow water below the dike, in what I think is called Lower Sabula Lake. The water there on the edge of the weeds is about five feet deep, and reminds me of shallow backwaters further north where I learned to ice-fish.

Sometimes getting away from the crowd produces, and sometimes the crowd knows what they are doing. Yesterday was one of the times where the crowd was right, because I did not catch a thing in a couple hours fishing the shallow water below the dike. No panfish, no action on the tip-up I put down in case there were Northern or largemouth cruising that area.

I was told the crappie and perch bite has started to slow down for everyone there, and given the pressure they are getting I believe it. I am going to wait until late ice before I make another trip over to the Savannah/Sabula area, but I still like what I have found there.

[delmuts]

Been fishing the river  the last few weekends. Having the water up makes it even more of a challenge. I have not been able to pin point the pan fish with the river up, but been having fun with the northern , some bass, and one very nice walleye I caught on a spinner bait  from shore Sunday!

[delmuts]

Fishing in the Harpers area is getting better. Some decent Northern and pan fish in the back waters. Haven't talked to any one that tried fishing around the wing dams yet. Some  walleye, gils, and sauger were being caught drifting crawlers.

 I did ok fishing the back water at my wife's place for perch and blue gills, when the scum would allow. Sure WISH the northern would leave my foam float/bobber alone though!!! They keep thinking it is some thing to eat. Had to let one swim for couple of minutes before it would let go!   I've had to retire two of them due to being chewed up!

[delmuts]

Got to play on the river this weekend. River was up some. With the cool days and North winds , water was clear. With the strong South winds it got some what dirty. One has to deal with grass coming down. Guys have been doing well on walleye. Most drifting crawlers, but some trolling cranks in the off channel areas. We did ok on panfish in the back water. Guys brought in some nice gils and a few crappie, ( I'm guessing off of wing dams)  we did ok on perch, ( my wife kicked my butt using crawlers over my plastics!) and a few northern. ( biggest I got was about 8lbs.

[delmuts]

Was at the river this weekend, fishing from my wife's and couple of the neighbors docks. Very slim on blue gill, but did well on perch. Had a problem with the northern. Some bit me off, several tried to eat my float, and had one latch on to the 4 in. perch I was reeling in and didn't want to let go! 

[delmuts]

Nothing big to talk about.

 The first weekend of Oct. Fishing was decent for walleye and crappie if you found them. Had the boat there but never figured them out.( others did!)  Planned to stay till Tues., but Sunday night they dropped the water level almost 8 inches. Talked to other guys that said the fishing had shut down. Had problems getting out of the back waters by my wifes' place. Called her to bring the trailer later. This was Monday morn. Well she did, had also loaded the other stuff and said we were headed home!

 Last weekend was a shore fisherman. Caught a few small mouth and a 12 in. gizzard shad! They had brought the water back up some, but lots of grass coming down river.   Water temps was 59  the first of Oct. Was told 55 last weekend.

 Shutting down the trailer this weekend. BUMMER!!