Mississippi River

Finally done with ice fishing and back to good old open water! Was skunked the first time I went out last Friday, but I was just happy to be able to fish an open body of water. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to catch anything Sunday either, but I managed to land a few pike. Was targeting crappie, but I suppose you can't control what will bite. Hopefully, this Saturday, the panfish will be up a bit shallower and be biting on some worms. Anyway, had a great day fishing from sun-up into a few hours past noon, and I'm hoping to keep fishing here until the lakes around me thaw.

Jerkbait was the only thing working today. Most likely will be the last time out until spring.

Lastly, about 10 minutes before I left, my bobber got pulled under by this aggressive guy. Nice way to end off the cold afternoon. I might try to get out fishing one more time this season two weeks from now, but at the moment, deer hunting is now going to take priority.

Two pike today. Ended up being so cold with the rain and wind that we had to head back early, but that didn't stop me from landing a couple of pike. The second one is probably the skinniest pike I've ever caught before.

One rock bass, too.

One decent little pike to satisfy my urge yesterday. Might be heading out tomorrow to catch some more. I might use some Rapalas as well to see how those fare against the toothy rockets.

People were fishing in the spot where I normally fish almost every time we come here, so I had to fish under the bridge for almost the entire day (roughly five hours). But, about an hour before we left, they packed up and gave me the spot, and of course, as soon as I start fishing there, the rock bass came out to play. The bite was still unbelievably slow yesterday, but at least I got a decent bit of action. Recently, though, I've been getting that pike itch again. So, later tonight, I'm going to try and get some sucker minnows and get that toothy action again.

I decided to try a different color beetle yesterday because I have finally ran out of the standard white ones. Looks like it paid off. Probably the biggest smallmouth I've caught since summertime. Also, he absolutely destroyed my jig during the fight, I've never had anything like this happen before. I had to actually use pliers to bend the hook out enough to get it out of its mouth. The hook was bent in a circle and pierced through the lip twice, just like a lip earring, zero chance that fish could have gotten off.