Pool 10 Panfish

This past Saturday I was able to head back to the Mighty Mississippi river in search of some panfish.  My bass fishing buddy, Trent joined me on this adventure.  We hit some backwaters of Pool 10 and quickly started catching gills and crappies.  Trent has used a Vexilar a couple times in his life, so I turned the FLX-12 on, gave the ten-second intro and he was off.  I rigged him up with a 23-inch rod with a spring bobber.  It didn't take him long before he was catching fish at a good pace.  The Mississippi is known for all kinds of fish, but in this deeper backwater area the panfish are there to stay, all winter long.  It is the matter of punching holes to find them, and then punching more holes to find them again.  For the day we caught bluegills, white and black crappie along with some largemouth bass. 


Perhaps it was the water we were in, or the weather conditions this day but a spoon sure did catch fish when a typical ice jig did not.  It seemed like the fish needed a change of pace for awhile.  I would load the spoon up with 2 or 3 whole waxworms and they would kill it.  It didn't last long but when they ate it they were good sized fish too, crappies and bluegills.  Just goes to show that some experimentation can help you get a few more fish to the top of the ice.
It was another great day on the Mighty Mississippi River!

This spoon caught many of the larger fish on the day
when they wouldn't bite a jig.