Catching Smallmouth and Largemouth Bass on the Upper Mississippi River: A Guide to Pools 2-10

Video Transcription

What's up everybody, This is Omnia fishing's lake breakdown. Everyone Bob Downey here. I grew up around the twin cities St. Paul Minneapolis of Minnesota and I lived in Hudson Wisconsin for about 10 years out of my life, I've grown up fishing the upper Mississippi River, which to me that's basically pools like two through nine or 10 or so. There's 7 or 8-9 pools in that section that I consider the upper Mississippi River, I've fished a lot over the course of my life, one of my favorite fisheries that I've ever fished. 

Small mouth, large mouth, super dynamic, really fun place to fish and we're gonna talk a little bit about it today, pull for the Mississippi River runs from Red Wing Minnesota all the way down to Alma Wisconsin. It is a gigantic pool. It contains Lake Pepin, which is basically a huge wide spot in the river pool four has got to be one of the longest, if not the longest pools on the upper Mississippi River, it's extremely dynamic due to having Lake Pepin right in the middle of it. It almost splits the pool into two completely different fisheries above Lake Pepin, you've got a phenomenal walleye fishery, dirtier water, less vegetation, there's some back waters to be had, but it's a lot of main river, current oriented fishing lake Pepin itself. The current slows down. It's also a great walleye fishery and a phenomenal smallmouth fishery as well in the summertime, there's a lot of sand points, sand flats and those small mouth and large mouth will get up and feed on bait in that area.

Once you get below Lake Pepin, the Chippewa River dumps into the system and adds a lot of clean water to the river. Below Pepin is where you start to see the Mississippi River really clean up in water clarity uh compared to pools to three in the upper section of four. And that water clarity allows for more vegetation growth. And that's really where you start seeing your best large mouth and small mouth fishing on the river system. In the upper Mississippi River is that section from Wabash aw down to alma on the bottom end of pool four is a great area for bass fishing on the upper Mississippi River.

There's tons of different types of structures that you're gonna find throughout each pool, some pools have more grass, some pools have more rock and more sand and wood. Everyone varies a little bit, but the main structures, you're going to find our grass, sand drops, rock and wood of some sort, whether that's lay downs or stumps and along with that, the one dynamic the river has that other places don't is current and that plays a huge role in how those different pieces of structures set up and how you fish them, you know, smallmouth tend to like more current main river stuff. Large mouth, they certainly like current, but they want less of it. And so that's why you find large mouths more so in the backwaters and vegetation type areas. So along with the structures be cognizant of the type of current, fast current versus slow current versus no current at all. And that's going to really play a big role in how you fish. Those different different types of structures.

Water clarity on the upper Mississippi can vary greatly from one pool to the next. Some of the pools have very little vegetation and therefore the water clarity is going to be dirtier. Some of the pools have a ton of vegetation in larger backwaters full of huge grass flats, as well as river systems that dump into them that dumping cleaner or dirtier water. I'm pulled to the Minnesota River dumps into it and it creates a lot of mud in that pool pool for for example, has the Chippewa River dumping into it, which for the most part dumps clean water and in turn creates a really clean pool on pools four and five, so every pool varies a little bit in terms of water clarity, some are quite muddy, some are very clear. And then if we get a rain system and floods generally, they muddy up quite a bit. But those lower pools are cleaner and the upper pools are generally a little bit dirtier.

Forage on the upper Mississippi River is extremely dynamic. There is no shortage of food for fish on the upper Mississippi river, we have bluegill perch crappie, there's shad crayfish and what I would call pin minnows, they're really tiny minnows, they almost look the size of a pin that you would. So with. And so these fish, they definitely do not have a shortage of bait fish and forage to feed on, which creates a really healthy system. Really good numbers and in turn pretty chunky fish on the upper Mississippi River, there are tons of species of fish available for people to catch. I know I'm going to miss a few, but off top of my head, walleye pike, small mouth, large mouth perch, crappie, bluegill, you got carp gar and then all your forage base, you know, shad minnows, crayfish, that sort of deal, but tons of opportunities to catch multiple species of fish, There's catfish to a lot of cat fisherman up here for large mouth, you know, a couple of my staple bates. I really try and keep it simple on the river. You can certainly make it complicated. But I personally don't think you need to, if you're coming to the river, fishing for large mouth.

Frog is probably my number one choice. Always got to have a frog on no matter what time of year, Even that early spring time you get a warm afternoon frog can be really good texas rig. Number two. Um, you know, whether you're punching it in mats, flipping cut bank with it flipping wood pads, stumps, texas rig is always a go to. Lastly for large mouth is a swim jig. Pretty much throwing white green pumpkin or black blue, depending on the time of year and the water clarity that I'm fishing for. Smallmouth. I really love a swim bait just with an exposed hook, throw it on a bait caster. I love throwing it around sand drops, wing dams, current breaks, you can drag it on the bottom two for smallmouth. Um, second is a tube. You can fish a tube with an open hook. I personally like throwing what's called a stupid tube for smallmouth on the river. Some sort of dragon bait, you know, you can throw a net in their Carolina rig as well.

And lastly you gotta have a top water walking bait. Um, this is uh, skitter v from Rapallo to um, walking style spook bait, vixen shower blows any of those are really good on the river for small mouth and large mouth at certain times of the year two. So those are three techniques and baits that I like for small mouth as well as large mouth to put a bunch of fish in the boat on the upper Mississippi River. If you're looking for better tackle recommendations that fit your fishing style, sign up today for a free Omnia fishing account and fill out your profile where you can favorite species, lakes brands and more to experience the most personalized tackle shopping online.