river fish????

Hey guys, I am a diehard Reelfoot fisherman, but being right here by the River and catching oxbow and creek crappie in the fall has got me fired up to fish theemain river. There really isn't mush cover in the channel, but there have been a bunch of wing dams built up and down the river in the past 10-15 years. in most places they have created mini-impoundments or slack water areas.

Does anyone fish them or any part of the main Mississippi River and HOW????

Any help would be appreciated.

also, same question for sauger

rushcreekoutdoor

From my limited experience with main river fishing...you will usually find the best action in adjoining slack water areas. If there is any current, structure and cover become very important. In significant current, the crappie will hang out on the downstream side of cover in the slack-water eddy caused by the obstruction of flow.

I'm sure that there are large concentrations of crappie in the main river, but it will be difficult to "stay on" the crappie day in and day out. Considering that we are discussing the Mighty Mississippi, there will usually be signifcant fluctuations in water level from week to week. River crappie can be outstanding or leave you skunked. Other than that, I would give it a shot. You don't know 'till you try it.

thats what I think, behind the dams and in the standing water behind sandbars maybe??? People used to catch stripers all the time behind the dams, so why not crappie.
rushcreekoutdoor

I had answered this on the Tn. website where I first saw the question, but I thought I would put it on here, too.

Years ago Rayo Breckinridge had a fishing show on the Jonesboro tv station. On one trip he was crappie fishing on the Miss. River, and I believe it was around Blytheville. I know it was somewhere in Crittenden County. He tore up the crappie fishing minnows under corks behind dikes or wing dams. He said on the show that when the river was at 5 ft. or below on the Memphis gauge and was stable or falling slowly that he did well in the slack water behing dikes, wing dams and sand bars. As I recall he was fishing in the really hot part of the summer.

I can't say that my memory is that great, but I wrote some notes on a Crittenden County map I had.

Osceola. I remember because he was always talking about fishing "visible cover that you could see with your naked eye" as if there was any other kind.