Drastic Changes

It's amazing the difference a week can make.  This applies anywhere in the sport of bass fishing, but even more so this week in Wisconsin.  Last Tuesday brought high's in the mid-80's and by Thursday the snow was flying.  Some areas received 15+ inches, while most areas around La Crosse got just a few inches.  With the snow came the drastic drop in air temps which in turn dropped the water temp of the Mississippi River by nearly 15 degrees in some areas.  Main channel areas dropped from the low 50's to the low 40's in the matter of just a few days.  This made for some particularly interesting conditions for the second tournament of the season.

Saturday brought the first of three MSBC tournaments to pools 7, 8, and 9 of the Mississippi River.  I was once again fishing with Torry Rhoades.  Last week had shown some good staging action for largemouths and with no time for either of us to pre-fish for this tournament, we were winging it.  We decided to return to the same areas that we fished the week prior.  We knew that the conditions had changed drastically from the week prior, but we felt that the fish would likely still be in the same areas.  While our assumptions were probably right, the fish did not want to cooperate.  We managed a nice 4 pounder early in the day, but only managed to pick up two other small keepers in the morning.  We decided to make the move north and try and pick up some smallmouth with only a few hours left in the tournament day.  Our efforts didn't pay off and we only caught one more keeper the rest of the day.  The reaction bait bite has yet to really turn on.  Typically lipless cranks and jerkbaits shine with these water temps, but it seems the only bites we can get are with slow moving plastics.  The decision to look for smallies was the right one, but with no practice we were really fishing history.  Smallies dominated this event with an awesome bag of nearly 25 lbs for six fish took top prizes.  Check out the following link to hear what the winners were up to.

http://northrhoadesoutdoors.com/


Next weekend we head to pool 5A for the opener of the River Road season.  The weather is looking promising, but with rising water from the recent snow melt,  conditions should be interesting.


Lesson Learned

Never fish history.  Even if you have lots of local knowledge, you won't be able to compete with the guys who put their time in.  Work hard or stay home.