Annual Mississipi Trip w/Pete & Greg Jones of Mid-West Outdoors

Pete is friends with Greg Jones who is an editor and sometime TV personality with Mid-West Outdoors Magazine and Mid-West Outdoors TV. This is the third year in a row where Pete and I went fishing with Greg to help him pre-fish for the St. Stephens Lions Smallmouth Tournament. Last year I got to go out two different times. Greg is an expert in navigating this particular stretch of river which has many treacherous areas.

Originally the plan was to meet around 5PM at the County Park Access South of Rice. I arrived at the Park around 4:30PM and did some fishing from shore. On my 2nd or 3rd cast I hooked up with this 12" smallie on a spinnerbait.

About 20 minutes later I caught a 9" smallie on a frog pattern Rapala Skitter Prop. With this success I thought fishing was going to be good. There was a lot of weeds washing down the river, which was up and running pretty good due to recent rains. FYI- The day was kind of cool (70's) and overcast.

At about 5:30PM Pete showed up to tell me we were launching out of the Royalton Access, so I quickly got in the truck and headed North. We basically started drifting down river right from the campground access. It didn't take long and Pete was hooked with a good smallie which bit a Heddon Torpedo. Pete was unhappy with my attempted net job, even though it was him who was failing to bring the fish into be netted at a proper angle, so he took the net and netted it himself. I made a cast close to the same area with a bullfrog Berkley Frenzy Popper and got a hit from a good fish but it came off after about 4 seconds. Greg thought it was a good fish. Pete started throwing a spinnerbait and caught a fish or two and was getting bites, while Greg got his first fish on a jig. I tried throwing my Mille Lacs Smallie Special spinnerbait but it wasn't getting anything. Pete was getting bites and bumps on the spinnerbait and catching a few decent but not big fish. I think Greg got a fish or two but I don't remember on what. Eventually I borrowed a spinnerbait from Greg because it was obvious my spinnerbait wasn't drawing strikes. I managed to catch two dinks. Pete got this one, which was the biggest of the night.

I proceeded to have a muskie smash and steal Greg's spinnerbait, so I borrowed another one. I got this 15.5" fish on that spinnerbait and it was my biggest of the night.
It would also be my last spinnerbait fish.

We made a run up the river farther North than we had previously gone the past two years. As it started getting dark a the surface bite started picking up and I caught a couple of 13" smallies on the purple Berkley Frenzy Popper in addition to missing several bites. Greg and Pete were getting fish too. It was pretty dark when I had a good fish hit the Frenzy Popper. It fought on the surface at the beginning of the battle and then dogged as it got by the boat. Turned out to be about a 4lb Channel Cat. We stopped fishing shortly after that because it had just gotten too dark.

Pete caught the most and biggest smallmouth, and I caught the least smallmouth, but my cat was the big fish of the trip and boy did it put up a good fight.

Again: Miss with Pete and Greg.

Thursday July 31st

As discussed we were able to get out on the Mississippi again with Greg Jones of Mid-
West Outdoors TV & Magazine. Originally we were going to meet him at 6PM but that got kicked back to after 7PM. On this night we would launch by Royalton which is a pretty good distance up river from where we launched on Monday. I ended up recognizing this stretch of the river from fishing it last year.

We started out drifting right from the launch on the East side of the river and I was throwing my white/chart Spinnerbait. It didn't take long and Gregg was hooked up on a Smithwick Devils Horse topwater. Greg got another fish and so I switched up to a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper. The popper didn't produce any fish and Greg got another couple on the Devil's Horse, so when we ended our drift and headed up river I asked Greg if he had a Rapala Skitter Prop and he did in kind of a lime green color and he put a feathered Mustad Triple Grip on the back.

We ran up a little ways close to where we started on last year. It was not long into the next drift when I had a good strike on the Skitter Prop. I was hooked up until the fish jumped and sent the lure flying back right at us and into the boat just missing me and Pete. A little farther down river I had a hit and miss, hit and miss, hit and miss, but the 4th time was the charm and I landed this nice smallie.


On one cast the Skitter Prop was just annihilated by this smallmouth, it was awesome:


As we were rolling down river Pete and Greg got into an argument about where Pete should be making his casts. Greg made a suggestion and Pete was having none of it. While they were sniping at one another Pete landed an 18 inch smallie which was the big one of the night. Pete also caught a 22+ inch pike that he insisted go in the livewell over my and Greg's protests.

The fishing wasn't fast but we were getting bit and the average size was a quality fish around 15.5 inches. As it got dark I put on a bullfrog Frenzy Popper and we got in a hot stretch of water and I pulled my last to fish of the night. It was dark enough that I really couldn't see the bite, I would just hear and feel it.

For the night I had 7 to 9 fish caught total which isn't bad for about an hour and a half of fishing.

Mississippi with Pete and Greg Jones of Mid-West Outdoors

Last year, almost a year to the day, I went fishing with Pete and Greg on the Mississippi River. I was lucky enough to get to do this again this year yesterday on July 27th and we might go out again on Thursday. Once again this year Greg is getting ready to fish a tournament and is trying to get a feel for the water. We have been getting a lot of rain recently and just as I expected the river was up and a more murky than last year. We were on the water around 6:45PM and the wind was blowing pretty good. We didn't run nearly as far up river as we did last year most likely due to our limited time before dark. We started fishing the West shore.

Since we were 3 to the boat I only brought 2 rods. I started out trying a clown Spro Bronzeye Frog. I had put a rattle in the bait that weighed a little to much and the frog would sink quickly if I didn't keep it coming in pretty steady. In 15 minutes I had maybe one hit and so I switched up to a 1/4oz Chart/White Strike King Spinnerbait with Chart. blades. Nobody had caught anything when I switched baits but Greg did have a blow up on his buzzbait. I put the first fish in the boat, a 9inch Pike. Greg and I spotted a nice 18+ inch Smallie but we couldn't get it to go. I had a good hit but it didn't hook up and towards the end of our drift I caught the first Smallie which was about a 10 inch fish.

We went back up the river and this time drifted down the East shore. It wasn't long into the drift when I tied into a 16.75" Smallie which was the big fish of the night. I didn't get a picture of this fish because the camera batteries went dead. When I was messing around with the camera Pete lost a big smallmouth on the way in. We caught several fish as we entered a shoot that went by some islands. If the water wasn't up it would have been to shallow to take this route and we did get hung up once as it was. We didn't have any luck in the shoot or behind the Islands.

It was after 8PM and we made a longer run up river to a spot just behind some islands. A huge eagle flew out of a tree almost right above us as we were moving in behind an Island. Greg had a fish miss his buzzbait and I cast around the same area with a bullfrog colored Berkley Frenzy Popper and was rewarded with a high leaping hard fighting 16.5 inch smallie. I didn't get a picture of this fish because it was bleeding pretty good and I wanted to get it back in the water ASAP. I fished the popper the rest of the night and caught several more smallies. The popper was the most productive lure in the boat, although Pete had quite a few missed fish on an in-line spinner. The fish stopped hitting about the time the mosquito's started coming out which was actually later than you would think. I ended up with 8 to 10 smallies total which was best out of the 3 of us.

Smallies on the Mississippi

Monday July 28th.
Pete woke me up at about 3:30PM and asked me if I wanted to go fishing. I wasn't enthusiastic about it but I said OK. Then Pete informed me we would be going to fish Smallmouth on the Mississippi with his friend Greg Jones from Mid-West Outdoors. This perked me up quite a bit and we were out the door around 4PM.

We met Greg in St. Cloud around 5PM and headed North. Greg is a Salesmen, Editor, and TV guy with Mid-West outdoors and he is also a Mississippi River Rat. His command of the river was impressive as we ran the river at full speed even though the area we were to fish has a lot of shallow stretches. I saw a couple of eagles and a bi-plane.

I started out with a Frenzy Rattlebait, Pete tried a Strike King Rocket Shad, and Greg had on a small white buzzbait. Greg started getting some hits on the buzzbait and I switched to a swim jig. Greg kept showing us we were around fish and so I switched pretty quick to a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper. It didn't take long and I was catching fish. I think my 3rd fish was a small pike. Basically we drifted down the river until it got to dark to fish. The fish were not suicidal but the action was pretty steady. I got the biggest smallie at just under 19 inches and that was the only one we got over 18." There was a good mix of fish between 10" and 17" plus Pete got a nice Pike. I think all but 1 fish were on topwater. I swear I casted that Popper straight into the big fishes mouth cause I didn't see it hit the water and there was no swirl but the fish was on immediately.

I had a lot of fun. Greg is a really good guy and even had an interesting story about seeing a UFO on the river that looked like a flying telephone pole. Someone was with him so he has a witness. Unfortunatly they didn't get close enough to find out what they were actually seeing but it was flying and it was big.