Ending Summer with a Bang

I was able to fish the Mississippi River for three days this past weekend.  This was in preparation for the Hot Rod Baits Bass Series final tournament of the season.  As you probably know, I am a school teacher, so this was a great way to end my summer break.  Having three days to fish one of the best bass fisheries in the Midwest is always a treat, and it certainly didn't disappoint this time around.

Dan Sweeney and I teamed up for this event at Pool 9 out of Lansing, Iowa.  We were able to fish Friday and Saturday to try and find the best quality of bass we could.  The river was a bit lower than normal, but the water quality was fantastic everywhere we fished.  We were greeted by clean water and a mild to low flow from the Mighty Mississippi.  Typical summer patterns on the river were holding true, bass were hanging on the wing dams, points and weeds where current was present.  Our practice fishing time led us to four areas that we planned to hit during the tournament hours on Sunday, we were feeling pretty good about this, as all four were within 5 miles of each other. 

Popular baits for us were bladed jigs, Texas-Rigged Hot Rod Baits Tubes with a Reins tungsten weight, swim jigs and an IMA Lures Little Stik, a topwater walking bait.  Having the proper Quantum rod/reel combo is very important for each of these baits.  With their wide selection of rods and reels it is so easy to get the perfect combo for any bait. These different baits were key in the many areas we fished, but come tournament day, it came down to one bait.  We caught all our keeper bass on the IMA Little Stik.  It was an amazing day of topwater action.  We ended up staying in our first area all day, never having to move around.  Shallow water next to a deeper channel was the key area for both largemouth and smallmouth bass.  The smallmouth were using the shallow water to feed and the largemouth were traveling the deeper channel.  

At the end of the day, we had three smallmouth bass and two largemouth bass to complete our limit.  Our best five bass weighed 15.26 pounds, good enough for 2nd place in this event.  We were very pleased with our weight and finishing second against this group of anglers is an accomplishment. Catching so many bass on topwater baits throughout the entire day may never happen again, however I will always remember what we learned this past weekend about the behaviors of bass on the Mississippi River, and as always, I can't wait to get the boat back there to look for more beautiful river bass.

The IMA Little Stik is a walking bait
that is 5.5 inches long and weighs an ounce