For more on Fishing the Mississippi River, visit www.greatriver.com/fish.htm
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About our Weekly Fishing Report
Gotta tell you, a picture is worth 1000 words!!! Take a look at these fish photos from Clements Fishing Barge in Genoa, Wisconsin! Thanks, Mark!!!
As often as he can find the time, I receive an informative, and often fascinating, fishing report from Mark Clements at the Genoa, Wisconsin, fishing barge. If the fish are not biting, he tells us that and tells us why not. If they are biting, he tells us where and what on.
A note about the fishing barges: Commercial "fishing barges" are located on the upper Mississippi River below the Lock and Dam on most of the river pools. These fishing barges provide an opportunity for travelers to experience some of the best fishing in the Midwest for a minimal fee. The barges offer ferry service from shore to the barge. Fishing barges and access points are all noted in Discover! America's Great River Road.
Above is a picture at the fishing barge of a sturgeon caught on the Mississippi River, not far from La Crosse. Lake Sturgeon, by the way, must be released. Smaller river sturgeon are fair game. Wouldn't that give you a shock! So what's it like to catch a fish this big? Here's a You-Tube video of catching a giant catfish (and there we start a whole new set of urban legends!!) Check out our FISHING category in the Mississippi River Blog!
Click here to see a video of fishing from a Barge: http://www.wxow.com/global/video/flash/popupplayer.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=4265546&at1=News&h1=Fishing&rnd=76141569
June 21, 2010... The River's UP Again!
Hi all, can you believe the water has creeped back up? All these little rain showers keep bringing the river up. Fishing isn't too bad right now, a little slow yesterday. During the week we got sauger on minnows, a few on jigs, we nailed a bunch of catfish...some big
mudcat on minnows and worms, bass were in along the rocks and white bass up on the wall. Some decent fishing going on right now.
May 11, 2010... Monster Fish!
Still getting some monster fish. Several big catfish again, a few huge lake sturgeon have been on and landed. They were thrown back before I could get a picture, but hey, that is just fine! Bluegills are still around pretty thick. The Northern are chasing them something fierce though. Sometimes you have a bluegill on and a northern will come up and grab it. Pretty exciting when your just fishing for bluegills. Today they got quite a few walleye and sauger on minnows. Not many people around with all this nasty cold weather.
April 28, 2010... Bluegills and SPRING. The River's dropping!
Bluegills, bluegills and more bluegills...doesn't really matter where you fish on the barge right now, but the river is full of bluegills. They are up and down the river from what I have heard and some very nice size ones I might add. Still some perch around as well. Almost all have come in on worms, but you would be surprised at how many were caught on Jigs!!! Even caught a few on a floating jig... Some walleye and sauger still coming in as well, not a lot, but many, many smaller fish. Of course the sheephead have been running wild as well, not to worry about not catching any fish, just drop a lure in and your sure to catch something. Whitebass are coming in now as well as the water begins to finally warm up and head up towards 60 degrees...a lot of nice fishing going on. Great weather this week and the fishing should continue to get even better. Keeping Cameron busy cleaning bluegills. We have had two messes for supper now...nothing better than fresh fish for supper.
We hope you enjoy this frequently updated fishing page. Please let others know. If you want to submit your own fishing report, feel free to email us.
November 4, 2009... Fish are biting like mad
Hey, the fish are biting like mad right now. Walleye, sauger and perch are coming in really well right now on jigs, floating jigs and on minnows. Weather is suppose to be really nice the next couple of weeks. Look for some great fishing. The local TV station was here last week, check out their video (LINK ABOVE) of the barge.
November 2, 2009... Fishing is Great and getting better every day
Fishing was great this weekend, well it actually got better every day starting on Friday. Yesterday I actually had some fishermen tell me they got tired catching fish! What is up with that?! How can you ever get tired catching fish??
There were a lot of sauger coming in, tons of sauger, and it was nice seeing all the keeper walleye for a change. This must be one of the later falls I have seen. Weeds are no longer as big a problem and its been very easy to fish. Many were coming in on minnows. Hair jigs and floaters are still working well too. Nice day of fishing yesterday and with this higher water for fall the fishing should be tremendous all month.
October 27, 2009... Fishing is Great as Weeds clear up
Fish were being taken home on Saturday! Walleye and sauger with a few perch sprinkled in for good measure. Most were still coming in on just a river rig and a minnow, but hair jigs were working as well. Floating jigs on a river rig were very effective for walleye and sauger. Color didn't matter too much but a lot of guys were using white jigs or Blue/white jigs this weekend. Sunday was weedy in the morning and cleared up enough to fish in the afternoon.
October 20, 2009... Mark's clarification of his 10/19/09 letter
I sent out an email yesterday about the fishing and my concern about the amount of weeds in the river. It has been explained to me that I should clarify my statement, and they are right. The weeds that we see coming down, won't last, in fact they are already clearing up. What we see is the "by-product" of what the FWS is trying to create for ducks.
The food they want for ducks isn't the problem, its what comes with it that is. The river does need the weed growth for fish, that has always been here. It creates a lot of micro organisms and places for small fry to feed and hide. The problem is that there is just now too much of it and it is clogging up areas for fish to grow, feed and for winter habitat. This has been discussed many times the last several years.
There needs to be more discussion about fishing. Fish habitat in particular. Deeper areas for fish to go in the winter and around the islands they are building. This is what we want to see and hear. More discussion about fishing. If you do contact the Fish and Wildlife Service, please do it in a polite manner expressing your desire to see more done for fishing on the river.
Your brand new, greatly expanded Volume 1, of Discover! America's Great River Road.
From St. Paul to Dubuque, we've added hundreds of new entries, new photos, maps, and charts in a completely redesigned format to make it easier than ever to use.
"Morning Run"
Available as a 5x7 Real Photo note card in our FISHING NOTE CARD assortment, or as a frame-ready print. $15 for 5 individually packaged cards.
October 19, 2009
Fishing was terrible on Friday and Saturday. It wasn't the fish's fault but the weeds that came down the river were just horrible. The boat fishermen out on the Wisconsin side were a little better off, but this was the worst we have ever seen it on the river.
The weeds are a product of the US Fish and Wildlife trying to make more feed for ducks. They want to create more and more areas for ducks to feed and those that were here this weekend can see the result. The Service has always been concerned mainly with ducks while the DNR is concerned with the fishing, but the federal money is being used to create more shallow areas and to create draw downs for more weeds.
We keep telling them, this isn't what the
river used to look like and its making it impossible to fish at times. We need
you to contact their office and tell them how disturbing it is to you the tax
payer and the customer how bad it is at times. See below for the address.
The good news is that it will pass, it got better on Sunday morning and we
actually caught some nice fish. It should clear up and be better fishing
the end of this week. There are a lot of fish in there right now. When it is
clear, you can catch 40 or 50 fish!
US Fish and Wildlife Service, Jim Nissen, 555 Lester Avenue, Onalaska,
Wisconsin 54650 or 608-783-8434 or
Jim_nissen@fws.gov
October 5, 2009
Wow, some very nice walleye came in yesterday. There were 4 or 5 in the 8 to 10 pound range. All were caught on either purple or green hair jigs. Saw a few limit of sauger and walleye go home yesterday as well. Now we are even getting some very nice perch too. Not a lot of them, but it was great to see them coming in. A few northern were in there chasing the sauger and perch around as well. Tons of shad and bait fish in the water. Looks like the fall fishing is upon us now. Be sure to get some minnows when you come out. The fish are really into the live bait right now. Water went up almost 8 inches yesterday and its finally cooling down, should be the start of a great fall.
SEPTEMBER 30, 2009
As the weather starts to get a little colder we are starting to see a lot more fish now. Still a lot of small walleye and sauger being caught, but now we are getting some keeper size fish too. Whitebass are up on the wall in pretty good numbers, a couple northern being landed and still getting some nice catfish. September has always been a good month to catch catfish on the river. They are getting them on stink bait, worms or live bait for the mudcat.
I will attach a picture of a 35 pound mudcat that was caught this last weekend. A very nice job as it was caught on an ultra lite rod.
(COMMENT: from James Hartley: "The 35 pound is not a 'mud cat' ..please call the finest eating cat in the river by a proper name.. he is a flat head, yellow cat or oppalusa.. he tastes very good even at 30 plus pounds.. ")
Walleye and sauger are coming in on hair jigs and on live bait. Be sure to get some minnows before you head out. Color has ranged from the blue/chartreuse combinations to the purple combinations...you can still fish with either 5/8 or 1/2 oz lures.
September 9th, 2009
Mark Clements just sent us a fishing report from his
commercial fishing barge near the Genoa Lock & Dam. For for on fishing,
visit
www.greatriver.com/fish.htm
Fishing has been pretty good the last few days, especially in the morning hours. Afternoons have been slow, but in the morning we are catching walleye, sauger and catfish. A few bluegills but not too many right now. Up on the wall getting some whitebass on jigs or spinners. The walleye and sauger have been small, but several people have been able to get some eaters to take home. Mainly on minnows, or jigs tipped with minnows. Live bait has been the best bet though. Catfish have come in on worms, catfish bait or some live bait for mudcat.
February 23, 2009
Looks like the boats are slamming the walleye today. Had two boats come back to the bait shop in a little over two hours with their limits already! Must be some great bait we sell here...Minnows with hair jigs were the best bet we have been told. Seems like we are selling a lot of different colors, hard to pinpoint which one is working the best.
We will be open on the barge on Thursday, March 19th. Should have the lunch stand open that weekend as well, might not be a full menu, but hopefully we will have that soon after. Prices are all the same as last year. We did add a free day of fishing for the ladies on Mother's Day weekend, but you can check out our calendar on our web site. It should be all updated now. We have added a larger T.V for the cabin and lowered it, per many requests! Should be a small fish cleaning table in place by spring as well. Taking plenty of orders for the cabin this spring, so get your reservations in early. Be sure to contact the motels and cabins in the area for rooms this spring.
Come visit us at the Madison Sport Show this week. Then next week is the Milwaukee Sport Show. Hey, we added a 1 ounce Killer Jig to our line this year and they are going fast. We have had so many requests for this through the years. We won't have all the colors but will have the most popular and we can do special orders given enough time. See you at the shows. ~Mark Clements, Genoa Fishing Barge
