I’m with you guys. I’ve turned into a spring and fall fisherman because of the pleasure boaters and jet skiers. Over the years the river has only been fishable for me until the first armada comes locking through on their voyage up or down river. Nothing p’d me off more than to be on a good wing dam bite only to be blown off the area by cabin cruisers throwing up 4 foot waves. So I found refuge in the back water cuts. Now even that is gone because the jet skiers that are tired of flying over cabin cruiser wakes are getting their kicks running through the sloughs and backwater cuts. Last year I was fishing pool 9 below Hwy 82 when 2 jet skiers came flying through a vast field of arrowhead and lilypads. When they reached the open water they turned hard left and came past me at full throttle at a distance of about 6 feet. They never saw me.That was enough for me. It’s not worth it for me to drive 200 miles for a weekend fishing trip when I get to fish about 4 hours each morning before the armadas start running the river.
I guess it’s no different whether you fish rivers or lakes. It’s something that we all have to put up with during the summer months. So until I can retire and fish during the week, I’ll have to be happy fishing in seasons that are more suitable for fishing and less suitable for watersports. It seems that there aren’t any places to get away from PWC anymore. Waterways are getting more and more crowded every year.
Can’t wait for fall
Beav

Hougs, congratulations to you both. What a great looking fishing partner you have. Hope you have a hard time keeping her out of the boat from now on. Just in time for fathers day too.
Beav

I’ve never been one to turn down worms. Thanks.
It’s good to read that there are alot of people out there doing really well on that presentation, be it lakes or rivers. Glad I could contribute to other anglers success. That’s what writers are striving for. Educating fellow anglers, and then seeing that they’ve done well with what you’ve tried to convey is the best reward that somebody like me could ask for. Since I’m not fishing much, it’s good to see that there are people out there picking up the slack for me.
Beav

I’m not dead yet!
Nice to know that I’ve been missed. Thanks guys. I still visit from time to time, but to tell you the truth, I haven’t been on The River since around Easter. In fact, I haven’t been fishing much anywhere. Having a six year old involved in weekend hockey among other things has kept me off the water alot this year.
But like James said, I stepped down from the Pro-Staff status and went back to just being a fisherman. So don’t you guys read anything into it. It was purely a business and personal decission that was made on my part and Steve and James were upright guys and honored my request.
You haven’t heard the last of me. As soon as I get a chance to fish, I might actually have something to post about.
One thing is for sure, it looks like the whole ring-worm thing wasn’t just a fad afterall
Gotta get some of them sherbert ones myself.
Beav

Boone, that is correct, all of my articles have been deleted at my request.

I am no longer a member of the EFN Pro-Staff, and have moved on to something else.

Even though I am no longer a pro-staff member, I am still a visitor and will continue to be one. I check the boards daily, just as I have since the beginning.

The removal of the articles was done strictly as a business decision.

This is still the place to come for river information even though my writings no longer appear.

Beav

I should add to this post that since I wrote that article, I have purchased a couple of St Croix Avid crankbait rods and they are sweeeeeeet!

They may not handle the bigger, deeper diving cranks, but for Shad Raps and Wiggle Warts and small Wally Divers and the like, they are the nicest, lightest cranking sticks that I have ever owned.

Can’t wait to get out and use ’em this year.

Beav

I run a Ranger Cherokee. It is a Crestliner hull with a Ranger interior.

I used to have a Lund Pro Angler, and was going to get another Lund until I saw the Cherokees. You get the benefit of the all welded Crestliner hull plus a roomy, well thought out Ranger interior.

Beav

Jig/plastic

Jack Remus, who used to own and operate Jacks Jigs out of Milwaukee died last year. His sister and other family members are still in business. 414 482 2336

Just checked out that NOAA site……..awesome information, thanks for the link.

If you start at http://www.crh.noaa.gov/mpx

you can go through all sorts of water condition reports. Very detailed, very cool.

Beav

Weird….I’ve never seen that page before. Seems odd that they would only be predicting flood stage for one location, that being the Wabasha area. Down in my neck of the woods, it says 8′ below flood stage.

I usually look at the USACE site for river info. All of their measurements are based on feet above sea level. If you click on bulletins, you can check out The Daily Bulletin and they give you the 5 day flow forecast. It doesn’t show ant substantial changes coming other than the flow increasing about 1,000 cfm every day for the next few days. Usually if there is a chance of flooding, they post an advisory bulletin.

http://www.mvp-wc.usace.army.mil

Beav

They aren’t much to look at anymore. Busted fins from moving, turning brown and ugly from being in the basement.

I caught all of them up in Vilas County, and would take them right to the taxidermist and he would skin ’em out right away and give us the meat. We’d stuff ’em with Stove Top stuffing, wrap ’em in foil and put ’em on the Weber.

Didn’t know or care about CPR back then, but it wasn’t long until we started putting anything over 20″ back. We had a place on the lake where we were catching those fish, so we felt good about saving them for ourselves. Money in the bank I figured…..and I still feel that way. My dad used to freak out when I’d catch a big walleye and let it go, but the times that he grew up in were way different than these days. I guess when you had to catch fish to survive in the depression, you have a different mindset forever………but that’s a different subject all together.

Beav

I’ve got a stringer mount in my basement from 8 3/4 to 11 1/4 #s. 5 fish that I wish that I would have let go. It was 20 years ago and I didn’t know better. I’ll never mount another fish, but I’ll hang up a bunch of pictures of them.

Beav

Good points for you also Mavz. As usual, the only thing constant in fishing is that there is nothing constant.

If I were to rephrase….I’d have to add the term “actively feeding fish.” You make a strong point that sometimes they need a little prodding. Whether it’s smell or a piece of nightcrawler, sometimes they need a nudge to make the neutral fish bite. Why else would ‘fish attractants’ still fill the shelves in sporting goods stores. I know some guys that wont fish with anything unless they blast it with a little juice of some sort. Whatever works or whatever it takes, putting fish in the boat is what it is all about.

I must admit, I carry a tube of garlic flavored cooking oil in my boat, I use scented plastics and salted plastics. Does it make a difference? I’ll never know if it was what caused the trigger to be pulled.

Beav

As I have mentioned in the articles that I’ve written, I think river fish are reactive feeders, more agressive than their lake cousins. If a river fish, which I feel feeds like a trout by ambushing prey in current breaks and edges, took the time to smell something before he ate it, he’d be a skinny representative of his species. I don’t think river walleyes or sauger rely on their sense of smell to feed.

See it, react to it, eat it…..or go hungry.

I’ve talked to the people from the USACE on several occasions, and they STRESS that their mission is to maintain a navagable barge channel. operate the locks and dams, and that’s it. They are not here to manipulate water levels to control flooding or for any other reason.

Beav

I’ll always remember that the corps was caught fudging numbers in order to push through their pet project with the lock expansion. Busted by their own people and nothing happened to them. That still pi$$es me off. Their own watchdogs blew the whistle and they got away with it.

I know after last years flooding that there are silted in areas all over the river. I called and asked about what was going to be done and was told that the mission of the corps is to maintain a navagable barge channel first and foremost. Anything else is extra.

So, basicly, if you pilot a barge, they’re working for you. If you are concerned about silted in backwaters and sloughs that are silted shut that used to be open……..maybe they’ll get to that later. That came from a guy at the corps that I talked to.

The articles about the shady number deals are probably still available around here somewhere. I know that I sent copies to James. Perhaps we can dig them up for people to read who didn’t get the chance.

I also talked to a guy in Washington DC who works for the Dept of Fish and Wildlife. He said The Upper Mississippi River Fish and Wildlife Refuge was created with fishermen and hunters in mind. However, the USACE does not work to help preserve it. Imagine that, two government agencies that can’t work together.

Well, at least they made wingdams.

Beav

Well, I finally got a chance to fish alittle bit this weekend. Friday I froze my butt, was greeted by rising water and increased flows, but the water was still 36………skunked.

Sat I fished from 5:30 til mother nature whipped up the wind machine. When the whitecaps started I headed back to the trailer to do some deer hunting projects.

20’s at night is not going to improve the fishing.

Ran in to lots of guys pre-fishing for the WAT, everybody was looking, but not too many were catching. One area of active fish up near the Genoa dam, but that’s all that I heard.

Warm weather and rain this week. Lows in the mid 40’s at night will give the fish a kick in the tail. We need warmer water.

I should mention that I fished Pool 9 the whole time.

Better days are coming.

Can’t wait to see what wins the tourney. The wind blew 20-30 all night and was still howling this morning when I left.

Beav

During the spring, when the water temps get into the 40’s, it’s not odd to catch walleyes, smallmouth, largemouth all in the same area. Some years when the water is high and I wind up in the bushes and the willows and the logs, I Texas rig ’em for walleyes. The rig doesn’t matter, getting it in the fishes face is what matters.

Beav

It’s 200 miles from my house to my trailer near De Soto.

Wish I was as close to the river as I am to Lake Michigan.

Beav

I would shorten it before I’d add a stinger. Think about it, over the course of an entire season, how many fish above 15″ are caught because of a stinger compared to how many little crappers are.

Never found a need to use a stinger. In fact, I think if you did add a stinger, you just might make it harder to get it out of a fishes throat that you want to release.

If you’ve been using them for bass, you probably never saw a need to use a stinger for them. Same holds true for walleyes.

Beav

Hougs….I remember being with a guy who caught his first fish on a ringworm as it tumbled helplessly over the top of a wingdam. I can’t remember his exact words, but I think it was something like…”Holy cow! Did he smack that thing!”

Makes me smile just thinking about it.

Beav

It really makes me smile to read stories like this. I bet that fish thumped the tar out of that worm just like we’ve been telling you.

See, all it takes is giving them a chance. Some guys will use them after they catch fish on their usual presentation and then figure….well, now I’ll give it a try. Others will try it when their regular technique isn’t producing. Others will say…”Here I go.” and take out nothing but ringworms…..that’s what I did…..for four days.

See, we weren’t kidding.

You, my friend, are hooked just as that walleye was.

Congrats.

Beav

Go to the ‘articles’ section and read the piece that I wrote. It goes into detail about fishing ringworms and the shallow water/downstream drift theory that I think is critical for presentation.

Beav

Ringworms didn’t just come out on the market, they’ve been out for 30 years.

10 years ago Larry Erickson showed the pros how to use them when he kicked everybodys rump in a walleye tournament fishing as an amateur.

In-Fisherman and Walleye Insider both ran stories on them and some guys tried them and started catching fish, while others tried them once or twice and then put them away.

People are hot about ringworms now after reading about success, and again learning the finer points of how to present them. Some will succeed and continue to worm, others will try them for a few trips and then go back to their traditional methods when they get tired of trying.

Others will continue to use them as a major part of their jigging presentations.

They are just like every other lure out there. Anglers will have varying degrees of success with them. That is the one thing that will determine how long their popularity lasts.

Me? I’ll be using them til real worms are feeding on me. It’ll take me that long to use up all the ones that I bought.

Beav

I thought that was my wifes handle.

Warden Stone, where are you?

I’m sure this is a large ‘grey area’.

You know those fish that you hook under the chin? We’ve all had ’em. You swear you feel a ‘tap’, you set the hook and the fish is hooked under the jaw. Well, I saw a video from an underwater camera that showed a walleye hit a jig just as the jig touched bottom. It was like the fish was pinning the jig to the bottom, probably the same way that they capture prey. Where did the walleye hit the jig? Same place it would hit a minnow, right at the head. So, the walleye hit the jig head, putting the hook where?……..right under it’s bottom jaw, which is right where it was hooked when the guy taking the video reeled it in. Foul hooked fish?

I think some bass tourneys spell out in the rules that any fish hooked in front of the gill covers are legal, while others say that the hook must be in the inside of the mouth.

We’ve all caught walleyes on cranks that were hooked outside the mouth. Are they legal? Ask Warden Stone for clarification on this one.

Beav

I know that they work. I said that they WERE NOT designed to be snagging tools.

As far as the regs……WI regs….”It is illegal to keep foul hooked, snagged, or any fish hooked outside of the mouth.”

Check the WI regs, I’m quoting them verbatum.

Well said EYES. I fish them like a plastic shad. Short upsweep with a slow drop. It also helps if you use a little softer rod…..or at least that’s the way it seems to me. They hit it on the drop just like a plastic shad.

Beav

Let’s put it this way. Blade baits are not designed to be snag baits, but they have a tendency to foul hook fish in the wrong hands.

I’ve seen guys that are very adept at fishing blade baits sit up by a dam and catch every fish in the mouth while the guys in the boat less than 10 yards away are bringing in fish ass first or sideways. I don’t care how good you are at fishing blade baits, you will unintentionally snag a fish from time to time. Do the right thing and throw foul hooked fish back.

I think blade baits get a bad rep because we’ve all seen guys rippin’ these baits as hard as they can and anything that gets a hook in it goes in the boat.

I sat at Lynxville last year and watched it first hand. Six guys that were done duck hunting for the day were tied up to the wall. 2 guys in one boat…..every fish in the mouth. 4 guys in the second boat bringing in fish and shoving them in a burlap bag……2 out of 15 fish were caught in the face, the rest were hooked in various locations. As I edged closer with my electric motor, one guy very stratigically took of his coat and draped it over the side of the boat to hide the registration #.

One of the jerks even said something when he saw the FTR logo on my boat about guys here talking about size and bag limits…..”When this is the best fishing that I’ve had in years.”

The regs are black and white…..all foul hooked fish must be returned.

You have to fish with your concience. You know whether a fish ‘hit’ your lure or not. Tell the snaggers that it’s against the law to keep foul hooked fish….while you’re jotting their reg # down.

Beav