Favorite Fishing Destinations Countdown: No. 8 - Upper Mississippi River, Minnesota

Thank you to Darl Black for use of his photos, including this one of Steve Dezurik and me looking mighty goofy in our matching shirts and hats but displaying the kind of smallmouths that make certain stretches of the Mississippi River so fun to fish, plus the close-up of a another Mississippi River smallie that is inserted below.

I can't think of another fishery that flies under the radar quite like the Mississippi River upstream of Minneapolis for smallmouth bass. Based both on my experience and all I've ever heard from others who have visited my favorite sections, the fishing is simply exceptional. I believe the main reason it gets minimal acclaim is its location. Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 Lakes, after all, and anglers there have a "lakes" mentality. So many lakes in all parts of the state offer great fishing, often with fishing resorts on their banks, that the rivers get overlooked. Closely related, Minnesota is walleye country, and many anglers there simply don't care about smallmouth bass.

I've always likened the character of the fishing to what you can experience on a large Appalachian or Ozarks stream at its absolute best, except instead of catching smallmouths that average 3/4 pound, you catch fish that are mostly between 2 and 4 pounds, and any given fish that bites could be an absolute trophy. We didn't have means to weigh my biggest from the river, but I've caught a lot of big Great Lakes smallmouths, and I'm certain a giant that I caught on a Zell Pop in the Brainerd section about 10 years ago was very close to 6 pounds.

Beyond producing fast numbers, the stretches of the Upper Mississippi that I like best offer a style of fishing that I think is really fun. It's classic river fishing -- staying on the move and targeting eddies, current run-outs, ambush points behind rocks, etc. The fish are mostly shallow and in predictable river spots, and if you pay attention you can really pattern them. They'll also crush topwater during the summer. During one three day-trip, I kept a popper on one rod and a shallow dropshot on the other the entire time and never considered trying anything else.

The Mississippi River has many great smallmouth fishing sections, including a few above dams that can be fished effectively from a bass boat. However, the specific sections that I'm mostly talking about are the Monticello/Elk River section, which I'm guessing is about 30 miles upstream of Minneapolis, and the Brainerd section, quite a bit farther up the river. Both of these sections have to be floated, fished from a jetboat or waded in select spots because of plentiful shoal habitat.

I'm not sure when I'll have opportunity to return to the Upper Mississippi, but I'm constantly looking forward to that next time!

Daydreams about Ice Things

It happens every year. Usually about this time. Sometimes sooner. I see posts from friends about days spent on ice-covered lakes or read about ice fishing events, and my mind strays north. Way north. One minute I'm focused on a task at my computer, working from my home in Georgia. Then my mind strays to a small nameless lake in Northern Minnesota, a reservoir in the Black Hills or the edge of Presque Isle Bay in Pennsylvania, where I'm on bundled in winter gear, kneeling on ice, holding a tiny rod and starting intently at a my graph.

Soon I snap out of it and get back to whatever I had been doing, but it doesn't take much to send me back to wherever I just was or to jump to somewhere else. Sometimes I can look at a few of a buddy's posts or visit Jeff Sundin's fishing reports to do a bit of vicarious fishing and get it out of my system. At least that's what I tell myself. It probably actually makes things worse.

It really hit me this week when I realized the St. Paul Ice Fishing and Winter Sport Show is this weekend (starts tomorrow afternoon). It's a giant show that sort of kicks off the season (although folks way to the north and at high elevations in the West have been ice fishing for a couple of weeks now) and is show I've always wanted to attend. I'm hopeful that some year it will be a good fit for me.

The ice dreaming has been worse for the past couple of years because I haven't done any of the real stuff. I made a few multi-day trips north per winter for several years to fish, take photos and gather story material, but ice fishing hasn't fit with work needs for the past couple of winters. I've mostly gone south instead of north to fish during the winter, which most folks would say is the sensible thing to do anyway.

I enjoy ice fishing way to much for a guy who lives in Georgia. I even bought an auger, ice scoop and sled a couple of years ago, and I already had the clothes, rods, electronics and lure. So I could drive north and be self sufficient if need be. For the moment, I guess I'll just keep dreaming and hopefully will find good reason pack up the ice stuff and head toward ice country some time this winter!

Vicarious Ice

The St. Paul Ice Show (which is a big one) was last weekend, and friends from the North and the West are starting to post pictures of lakes freezing, gear being prepared, fish from past winters, and even a few fresh ice catches from this season, and all that has me daydreaming.

Most places don't have good ice yet, but a few do, and conditions are changing quickly. I don't have any ice-fishing plans this winter, as of now, and I don't see where hitting the ice will likely fit with work needs, so it might be another winter of vicarious ice fishing.

Don't ask why someone who lives in Georgia wants to travel way north during the winter. I know I'm way in the minority, and it's hard to really explain. I really enjoy ice fishing, though, and I miss the ice culture when I don't get the chance to get up there. I'm originally from Minnesota, and one friend suggests that it's just in my blood. Maybe he's right.

Ice Ready

It's official: I'm ice equipped. With the recent purchase of an auger, a few accessories like a scoop and bait pucks, and even a sled to drag stuff onto the lake, I now own the basic stuff needed to point the car north and go ice fishing on my own. I still don't own loads of gear or possess years of experience, but I have enough and know just enough to go and am excited about that idea.

 

I haven't set any ice plans in stone yet for this winter, but I have a couple of likely plans going. I'm certain I'll make it north at least a couple of times, and I'll likely do so by driving and try out my own gear at least once.

 

I'm actually debating traveling to the St. Paul Ice Show the first weekend in December to meet folks and learn much more, so if the ice is well in place by then I might add a couple of hard-water play days at that time. I've never been to that show, but it's the biggest one out there, and from what I can tell, the whole US ice community pretty well gathers on one place that weekend. It's a long drive to Minnesota, though, so we'll see.

 

First things first. The catfish are biting on the Santee Cooper lakes, and I'm headed that way tomorrow!

6 Favorite Fish from 2014

Toward the end of the year I always like looking back at favorite fishing trips, days on the water and specific fish. For the moment, I'm going focus on specific fish and what made each a favorite. And I'll just go ahead and apologize now to any extra cool fish from this year that I'm not thinking about at the moment.

Northern Minnesota Tulibee - It was neither a trophy nor a kind of fish that most anglers even target. So why was it one of my favorites? Mostly, I suppose, because I'd never caught a tulibee, and being sort of a wannabe northern woodsman during the winter, I'm intrigued by all things ice. It also was a fun catch because I marked just inches beneath the ice when I was fishing near the bottom for bluegills, so I reeled up quickly and started jigging with a very short line. It hammered the bait and just about pulled the rod out of my hand.


Green Bay Smallmouth - We didn't have scales, so I can't assign an actual weight. I'm guessing high 5s, at least, though, and it may even have outweighed a 5-11 (my biggest weighed smallmouth) that I caught from Erie about a month later. This particular fish, which came from a small Green Bay tributary, was an extra prize and very satisfying because enduring winter weather made fishing unusual tough that week. I caught it on a Get Bit Baits Crawling Tube.

Lake Pactola Lake Trout - The cool thing abut the laker was how similar it was to another lake I caught a few years ago while ice fishing on the same lake. Both days I was fishing with Tyler French on days based out of Deadwood and we were jigging over deep points, and I caught both fish on minnow-tipped Lindy Watsit Grubs!

Niagara River Brown Trout - My biggest brown ever - right around 10 pounds - and I caught in the midst of catching a gazillion jumbo smallmouths on tubes at the mouth of the Niagara River with Capt. Frank Campbell. Again, it was a Get Bit Baits Crawling Tube that did the job. That day was actually one of my favorites from last year, but I suppose that's another story for another time.

El Salto Largemouth - It was my first trip to Angler's Inn at Mexico's Lake El Salto in about15 years, and the 9-2 largemouth I caught on the first full day of the trip might have been my biggest bass since last time I was there. I've caught a few big pond bass that I haven't weighed, so I'm not sure about that, but it was sure one of the biggest in quite a few years. It was a classic El Salto fish that hit a big Power Worm fished through flooded trees. My first trip to El Salto, by the way, yielded a 10 1/2, which remains the biggest bass I've ever weighed.

Red Lake Walleye -The best walleye from my most recent trip wasn't a genuine trophy by Minnesota walleye standards -- just a good quality fish. However, I caught it from the first sleeper ice house I've ever spent a night in, and I caught just moments after arriving. I probably hadn't been fishing two minutes when the fish hit, and I was surprised to bring up a thick-bodied walleye that landed right in the middle of the Red Lake slot and therefore went right back down into the hole almost as quickly as it came out.

Chill Challenge Embraced

December fishing on the Nantahala River. Photo by Asher Samsel.

Duluth Trading Company proposed a Chill Challenge -- a test of one of their Flannel Shirt Jacs against the elements during my winter fishing excursion. Two rounds into testing, the Shirt Jac has moved to the top of my favorites list for when I need a seriously warm layer that fits comfortably. Beyond casual coat wear on cold mornings around town, which it also works well for, I've used it for a few days of trout fishing in the North Carolina mountains and for a recent ice trip to northern Minnesota.

The trout outing brought snow and sleet on two different days, and pretty cold brisk lows. My hands reminded me of the cold when I fished without gloves, but I was how impressed by how warm my body remained. Same story in Minnesota, where lows hit close to zero and the highest high in a few days was somewhere around freezing. I admittedly wore an insulated ice suit for kneeling on the ice and fishing in fresh falling snow, but the Shirt Jac provided the most important body-warming layer.

The DTC Flannel Shirt Jac seems somewhat heavy when you simply pick it up because it combines 8-ounce flannel as an outside layer and 200 gram fleece as an inside layer. The cut must be perfect, though, because it is amazingly comfortable to wear despite the weight in hand.

Of course, the Chill Challenge has only just begun for me. Existing winter plans include trout in Missouri and more ice-fishing in Minnesota and most likely will include several days in local trout streams and on nearby ponds, plus some other ice fishing, possibly in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and/or South Dakota.

Lots of unknowns about fishing plans for the rest of the winter. What I do know is that I'll remain plenty warm!

Good Night Walleyes

Home for tonight has holes in the floor. In fact it's where I've caught walleyes throughout the day today, in one of Red Lake Remote's sleeper fish houses.

It was tempting to just keep fishing, but tiredness won, so now I'm in a bunk, amazingly comfortable, considering that it is somewhere around zero just outside the fish house. it's my first night ever on the ice and I suspect I'll sleep very well, maybe even dreaming about walleyes.

Travel Delay Irony

Traveling to Minnesota during December, I know travel delays are a legitimate possibility. It should be no surprise that instead of reaching my destination early in the afternoon and maybe even fishing a little, I've spent the day in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport, and won't get to my hotel till nearly midnight.

The irony of it all is that the delay and a missed connection came from ice on the wings this morning in Atlanta!  It's 40 degrees and raining in Minneapolis. The other irony is that I could have driven to Minnesota in the time I'll end up traveling today.

Travel Ready

Well. The first leg went smoothly. Ninety-six miles from home to ATL, plus parking, check-in and security, and as of now flight number one appears to be ontime. I'd never flown with a fishfinder, and that was seamless in security.

In an hour or so I fly to MSP. Third leg is from Minneapolis to the Bemidji, Minn. regional airport, and then I drive another 45 minutes or so.

Travel is a bit of a task, but I do like traveling to Minnesota. I was born there, so maybe it's in my blood, but admit to being somewhat of a Northwoodsman wannabe. I can't travel north during the winter without at least starting the Viking beard and sporting the Duluth Trading Company plaid flannel.

Obviously I like the fishing itself in Minnesota. It goes well beyond that, though. I like the whole fishing culture that saturates northern Minnesota. If seems like most people there fish some, and even if they don't, they can talk fishing,.and they seem to appreciate the traveling anglers who feed the economy.

I also like cool little bait shops, woodland lakes, snow and ice.

I even like the cold, but I suppose that's easier to say when you can get on a plane and return to Georgia at the end of the week!

Ice: Love It or Hate It

Like most things, fishing has it's subgroups, and many anglers I spend time with are very specialized in their interests. Some dedicated bass fishermen would just as well go grocery shopping as wade a trout stream, and the same concept applies equally in the other direction. Others, like me, enjoy a little bit of everything, while still others fall somewhere in-between.

For all the preferences of species and fishing styles that can exist, though, I don't think anything polarizes fishermen quite like ice fishing. I'd say more dedicated anglers than not want nothing to do with walking on ice in 8-degree weather and trying to pull fish through little holes. I hear that perspective a lot, especially from fisherman friends from this part of the country, when I talk about my ice fishing plans.

Those folks who like ice fishing tend to love ice fishing. Few fishermen I've met just like it OK. Even in the heart of ice country, there are basically two camps. Either you quit fishing or venture south when the lakes freeze or you spend as many days as possible ice fishing while the opportunity exists.

If you glance at this blog even occasionally, you know I fall in the "love ice fishing" school. I'm Minnesota bound on Monday and am more than a little eager to get back on the ice!

Cold Weather; Hot Fishing

Because cold front conditions legitimately do affect fish behavior under the ice, just as they do in most other fishing settings, fishermen have a general perception that extreme cold equals tough fishing. That's not always true, as Jeff Sundin has seen for the last month or more. Temperatures in Northern Minnesota have been brutally cold (even for Northern Minnesota), but it has been that way every day, which has made conditions stable the fish's behavior predictable.

Jeff has shown me that first hand for the past couple of big days, with jumbo bluegill and nice crappie that haven't been the least bit shy about eating. This morning it was -25 when I woke up and -20 when we started fishing. Afternoon high was 10. We began catching fish soon after putting down baits.

We're also not having to go super finesse or work the fish forever. I caught my fish on a Lindy Bug matched with a waxworm. Jeff caught most his with a Watsit Grub. Jon Thelen, who I joined in a shelter most of today, mixed up a Lindy Micro Slick Jig and Tungsten Toad. The fish were deep, probably as deep as they'll be all winter, but they weren't at all shy about biting.

While bluegills and crappie definitely have been the main attraction, I managed to land my first-ever tulibee today (hard fighting and really fun). I also added a rock bass to my 2014 fish list. Those two fish brought the total to nine. Maybe I can reach double digits tomorrow!

My Sort of Travel Day

Typically travel days aren't my favorites, but today has been quite fun. Long, no doubt. But fun. The start was good simply because it was eventless. Driving through Atlanta and then working my way through airport parking, check-in and security were smooth, and my plane took off on time.

The flight itself was more enjoyable than most because I ended up sitting beside a fly shop manager and guide from Montana who was flying home from his first fishing trip to Chile. I enjoyed lots of good conversation about trout, out West, in South America and in the Southeast -- and about ice-fishing.

Flight two was fun too because I had my own row, which meant I could look out the window AND have space. Flying from Minneapolis to Bemidji, the plane never goes terribly high, so you can watch the landscapes from start to finish. I enjoyed seeing the snowy fields and forests and the frozen, snow-covered lakes, including roads and footpaths leading to villages of ice huts.

From Bemidji I drove an hour or so through beautiful snowy Northwoods before meeting Jeff Sundin, stopping just long enough to check into my hotel and change clothes and then heading for a lake. We only had a couple of hours of fishing time, but that was plenty to catch several bluegill and crappie and to get some good photo work. There aren't many days that I start at my home in North Georgia and finish on the ice, catching fish.

I'm looking forward to a couple of full days of fishing, beginning tomorrow!

Next Species?

I'm fairly certain that I'll get to add to my 2014 fish species list some time this week while ice-fishing in Minnesota, but I wonder how many species will get added and which will come first. Having already logged a yellow perch, bluegill and black crappie, my first guess is a walleye. A pike seems fairly likely, too. A bass less slightly less likely, but very possible. Of course, I hope I can catch something cool and different like a whitefish of some sort or an eelpout, because I'm unlikely to catch one of those anywhere else I'm apt to fish, but I'll take anything that wants to bite. Year's tally, at the moment, stands at seven species.

Better sleep now, I suppose. It'll be time to leave for the airport before I know it!

Northbound Plane

Jeff Sundin with a pretty northern Minnesota bluegill

Come Monday, I'm once again airport bound to travel well to the north for a few days of ice play. I'm looking forward to spending time with Jeff Sundin in northern Minnesota, where the outlook for lows around zero and highs approaching 20 would be an absolute heat wave, were it to hold true.

It has been cold there. Seriously cold. However, walleyes and panfish alike have bit well from the reports I have read. The combination of major slush problems through the first half of the season and brutal cold through most of the winter has kept fishing pressure comparatively light this year, and seemingly that has been good for the bite.

I'm not sure yet what we'll be targeting. Walleyes? Crappie? 'Gills? Whatever it is, I'll be ready. I've already bought my license, which begins the very hour I'm scheduled to land, so if it turns out to be practical to hit the ice for a while on Monday afternoon, I'll be ready to go.

Watch here, on my facebook fishing page and on my Twitter feed for pictures and reports.

Open Window Weather?

Considering the cold that crashed through less than a week ago and the snow and ice that plagued southern roadways, it's kind hard to believe just how nice it is outside today. Local weather reports 63, and I'm confident it's every bit of that, with the sun shining brightly and only light breeze. Sadly, I'm mostly just weather watching through a window (an open window, if you can believe that) and haven't gone farther outside the house than the garbage can. I'd love to visit a creek this week, but next week's travel plans and stuff due collectively suggest that I probably need to sit right here and write fish stories.

Unless I do slip out somewhere for a few hours this week, my next fishing time will be spent on the ice in Northern Minnesota, where highs have hovered somewhere around zero and lows have gone way below that most days for the past few weeks. I am not complaining, though. It's my own choice to chase after ice-fishing stories and photos instead of going to Florida to fish for bass or snook this time of year, and in truth I don't mind the cold for ice-fishing.

New Year Fishes

And so we begin anew. New friends, new places, new fishing adventures and almost certainly a nice dose of time enjoyed with old friends on favored waters and around familiar fish camps.

So where will this year's fishing adventures take me? Many, many unknowns there. I don't even know where I'll spend my first fishing days of the new year. The soonest solid plan puts me on ice in Pennsylvania in a week and a half (as much as an ice plan is every solid), but I may travel to South Carolina between now and then, and it's certainly not impossible that I steal a day or part of a day to visit a pond or a trout stream close to home.

Looking at my calendar, at appears 2014 might include quite a bit of fishing in the North. Confirmed travel plans, as of now, have me fishing in seven different states, and those seven include Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and New York.

The seven states with the set plans don't include Georgia, but I'm fairly confident I'll spend at least one day fishing around home some time in the next 52 weeks. I suppose the same could be said about both Carolinas.

Fishing dreams and a trip I hope to make include a big western swing, possibly in September. The Walnut Valley Festival takes Nathaniel and me to Kansas most Septembers, so assuming we make that trip this year, I may work around the notion that we'd already be more than halfway to the Rockies and make some trout fishing plans. That would mean a lot of driving and gas and a pretty long block away from home, but I sure could use the material we could gather on such a trip, and I've never spent time stream fishing in the American West.

The trout trip, like most 2014 fishing plans, remains a big maybe. Whatever waters I get to discover, species I get to target and folks I get to meet, I'm looking forward to it, and I'm grateful for each opportunity ahead.

Vicarious Ice

I admit it. I spend far too much time looking at weather conditions in Minnesota the Dakotas and the rest of ice country. I wonder about how the ice is thickening and get concerned about strong winds or heavy snowfalls that might break up or sink newly forming ice. Most aren't even places I'm likely to travel this winter. When home is Georgia and every ice trip calls for at least a couple of airplane rides, it's tough to bring everything together more than a couple of times per winter. I just like to watch how things are developing and joining my friends in various parts of the ice belt as they anticipate good ice and time on it.

I also enjoy reading the reports and seeing the photos and am thankful that social media sites let me see who is catching what, and where -- sometimes almost as it is happening. Occasionally I even pull up Google Maps, type in a few things and think, "Hmmmm. It would only be a 20-hour drive to..." So far I've only thought about it!

I'm not sure if it's the ice culture, the ridiculousness of the conditions or the fishing itself that I like best. I suppose it's a blend, and I know the visual game of watching fish on electronics and figuring out the bite plays a major part. Whatever the mix of reasons, there's little doubt that I'm way more interested in pulling fish though holes in the ice than are most fishermen who call Georgia home. I have ice plans in mid-January in Western Pennsylvania. Whether I'll make another trip between now and then I'm not sure. If not, I'll have to keep ice-fishing vicariously.

Anticipating Ice

With more cold temperatures creeping into the North Georgia forecast and plenty of other signs that fall is giving way to winter, I probably should be scouting opportunities to travel to Florida to fish for bass or maybe South Louisiana to chase redfish or speckled trout. I suppose I'm not that sensible, though, because instead I find myself looking at 10-day forecasts in places like Deer River, Minn., Erie, Pa. and Granby, Colo., hoping to see good ice-forming outlooks and wondering how the lakes are coming along.

I like to watch fishing reports posted by Jeff Sundin, a northern Minnesota fishing guide who gets regular reports from other anglers and always begins driving the countryside and checking ice conditions first-hand around this time of year. Jeff is careful about where he walks and doesn't fish before it's prudent, but once he starts seeing ice, he'll begin stepping onto shallow margin areas and may check the thickness with a chisel, and he has a lot of eyes around the area that contribute to his annual "ice watch."

Meanwhile, back in Georgia, I find myself dreaming and scheming about possible northern excursions to fish through the ice as I re-spool little spinning reels and restock ice lure boxes. Maybe it's my native Minnesota blood, but I'm awfully fond of bundling up and walking out on the ice for someone who grew up in Florida and calls Georgia home. No ice plans have been in stone for this winter, but I suspect it won't be long.

No Snow Today

My most recent fishing trip, which was a little more than a week ago, had me landing in Minneapolis in the middle of the Twin Cities' first major snowstorm of the year. Somewhat amazingly, the plane landed on time. However, travel north out of the cities was slow and somewhat treacherous. We drove out of the heaviest snow but not out of the cold. The highest high in three days of fishing was 12 degrees. That's what you should expect when you fish in northern Minnesota in December, though, so I'm not complaining. And the ice served up big fun.

Today's travel forecast looks much better. I'm flying now, and the pilot just announced that it's 71 and sunny in Dallas.  That's not my final destination, but I feel confident that the weather is pretty nice in Tulsa.  A front will push through, and it looks like Thursday morning will be pretty chilly. Still I'll bet we won't have to hurry and take picture of our fish before they get coated in ice.

Stay tuned for fishing reports from Eufaula and Fort Gibson.

Why Ice Fishing?

"I'm glad it's you, not me," I often hear from friends when I talk about upcoming ice plans, and I always agree that I'm glad it's me, not them. Although I cannot argue true that conditions sometimes get brutal, I really enjoy fishing through little holes in the ice. In fact, it's one of my favorite ways to fish.

In truth the extreme conditions add appeal. There's something oddly exciting about bundling up and braving the elements when it's stupidly cold. Long traditions, the beauty of frozen lakes and the whole ice culture also play into the appeal, and maybe there's even an element of a draw to my roots. I consider the Georgia mountains home and have lived most of my life in warm climates, but I was born in Minnesota, as were both of my parents.

The number one appeal to me, though, is the game of watching a flasher, spotting fish, reading their responses based on movements in the water column, band width and color, and figuring out how to make them bite. It's so fun fun to work a fish and finally do just the right lift, jiggle or bait switch. The fish's mark suddenly rises, merges with the lure's mark and turns thick and red, and you can almost set the hook before you feel the strike. The whole game is so visual and interactive that I suspect it's appeal is somewhat similar to that of trying to call wild turkeys into gun range.

My first ice trip of this winter is now in the books, and no others are planned yet. Only time will tell whether I'll do more, with much depending on the timing of any possible trip and the material I think I could get from it. From a fishing fun standpoint, I definitely hope to hit the ice again a time or two more this winter.