'Status quo' fishing foreseen on Mississippi River

Biologists and veteran anglers predict a status quo fishing season on the Mississippi River.

“You have to remember, the status quo is very high quality,” said Kevin Hanson, a fisheries technician with the Department of Natural Resources at Guttenberg.

The river, which forms Iowa's eastern border, has strong populations of almost all game and panfish species, he said.

“To me, that's what's so unique about the Mississippi. You really don't know what you are going to catch,” said Mike Steuck, a DNR fisheries research biologist stationed at Bellevue.

Most reaches of the river rate from above average to excellent for walleye, sauger, largemouth and smallmouth bass, crappies, bluegill, yellow perch, catfish, northern pike and sheepshead, the biologists said.

“I'm probably a little biased but I think the Mississippi is one of the state's top fisheries,”

said Steuck, who will present two seminars – one on the river's walleyes and sauger, another on its crappies and bluegills – at next weekend's Eastern Iowa Sportshow in the UNI-Dome at Cedar Falls.

Because of its vastness, the river can be tough for beginners to figure out – a factor that discourages some people from trying it. But those who do will generally be rewarded, Steuck said.

“We want people to catch fish. Call us if you have questions (563-872-4976),” he said.

Vance Gordon of Marion, who has fished for bass in the Mississippi for the past 40 years, said the quality of the fishery has been on a generally upward trajectory through those four decades.

Bass fishing in Pool 9 near Lansing, Gordon's favorite haunt, dipped in recent years by most accounts – a decline generally attributed to winter kills. But the numbers of big bass last fall and the ease with which they could be caught “really changed my mind about that,” said Gordon, who now concludes: “I must have been doing something wrong.”

Scott Gritters, the DNR fisheries biologist at Guttenberg, said he was equally impressed this winter when a video camera lowered beneath the Mississippi ice revealed rank upon rank of big largemouth bass.

The number, size distribution and nearly even ratio of smallmouth and largemouth bass make the Upper Mississippi the state's premier bass fishery, Gritters said.

Both Steuck and Gritters also praised the spring walleye and sauger bite that's under way right now below the Mississippi River dams.

Referring to the prospects of a substantial and perhaps protracted spring flood on the river, Gritters advised: “Go tailwater fishing now. It might be awhile before you're able to hit the water once the melt starts.”

In recent years, with increasingly clear water encouraging the growth of vegetation, both yellow perch and northern pike have flourished in the Upper Mississippi, providing anglers with additional opportunities, according to both Gritters and Steuck.