Early September at the River

The Tri-County Bass Club hosted a buddy format tournament this past weekend out of Pool 10.  My buddy Brian Bowles and I had the weekend open, so we decided to give it a try.  We both knew it would be a challenge, as we didn't want to take any time off of work on Friday to go scout around.  This was a two-day event, so when we showed up at the river on Friday night, it was all about "gut feelings" on where the bass might be.
I knew the water temps were still high, and the current was not flowing into many backwater areas.  This told us to stay close to the main channel, and major backwater cuts that always have current.  This was a wise decision and we were able to catch 5 keepers on that first day.  We both knew that weight would put us in the hunt, depending on what we could do on Sunday.  We caught fish on crankbaits, swimjigs, spinnerbaits, topwater, Hot Rod Baits Tubes, and Big Craws, so the fish weren't acting fussy, it was just hard to locate a 14inch+ bass.

We knew we could probably duplicate another 5 fish on Sunday in Pool 10, but we decided to go for broke, we locked up to pool 9 after only hitting two areas in Pool 10 on Sunday.  The current was better in Pool 9, but the fishing was as tough.  We tried main channel rocks and current breaks with NO results.  I figured it was time to put our heads down and hit the weeds for the remainder of the day.  This was a good move, and we collected our 5 fish again for the weigh-in.  On this day though, Optimum Baits Furbit Frogs, and Hot Rod Baits Big Craws were the ticket.  One of us would work the heavy weeds with a frog, while the other would pitch the weed edge.  The action was slow, but when we were bit, it was normally a solid keeper.
We weighed in a 5-fish limit both days and had just under 20# for the two day event.  It was good enough for 2nd place.  The winners of the event; caught all their keepers after seeing some seagulls crashing the surface on shad, they followed over and caught limits both days in the same area.  Good for them for using all the clues of Mother Nature, bad for us as we weren't quite that fortunate to see such signals!
Another great weekend on the Mighty Mississippi River, sad to say, but the weekends are winding down, so every trip to the big river is cherished by me!