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Mark Walters - Columnist

(An Outdoorsman’s Journal) - Hello friends.

This week’s trip took place on the Mississippi River north of La Crosse, near Buffalo City.

Sunday, April 20

High 67, low 44

For myself this would be a simple trip. My plan was to head up to Wabasha, Minnesota and fish for crappie and perch on backwaters of the Mississippi River, between Wisconsin and Minnesota.

I had planned on fishing from shore, on the road leading to Wabasha as well as out of my canoe. At night, the bed of my pickup would serve as my home.

I have learned over the years to go with the flow and the flow changed just south of Alma as I was driving north on Highway 35 to Wabasha. I spotted three fishermen fishing from shore and figured I should stop and see how their luck was and what they were catching.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Buchholz, a European style taxidermist from Mondovi. I told Mike my plan of heading to Wabasha and while I was talking to him he caught two crappie, of which one was 10 inches and the other a hefty 12-incher. Buchholz who is an avid fisherman told me to go buy some minnows and spend my outing right where we were at.

The backwaters that the three fishermen were working actually is only productive during the high water season each spring and is well known with the locals as a good spot to catch crappie.

I would spend the daylight hours out of the next 30 hours at this honey hole and had a blast fishing next to some really good shore fishermen and women.

The best way to fish the crappie was with an ice fishing jig, a minnow and a bobber. Generally, the most successful method of fishing was by casting your bobber as far from shore as you could get it, and then being patient while occasionally twitching your line to create action.

I met some really good shoreline fishermen over the next two days and felt like I became friends with a few people that I fished next to.

The spot we were fishing was only big enough for about five or six fishermen at a time and there was almost constant action, which was not always created by hungry crappie.

Dog fish, were numerous and when someone got one on, the people fishing on each side of that person had to reel in to avoid a tangled mess. On Monday, I caught six-dog fish, which I think is the most of this extremely strong and unpopular species of fish I have ever caught in one day.

On Sunday afternoon, I had the pleasure of fishing next to Bob Secrist and his three-year old grandson Ashlan. Like the other locals, Bob Secrist new that high water was the time to be fishing the “culvert” and it was interesting watching Bob’s challenges as he tried to catch fish, have Ashlan catch fish and not have Ashlan fall in the water.

Patricia Powers is from Lookout, and she definitely knows how to catch fish. I listened to Patricia’s stories, and watched her catch about four crappie to every one that I caught.

Something that I noticed after having a whole lot of time to do nothing, but watch bobbers, is that I had more action when a train passed by. We were fishing about fifty yards from a train tracks and on Monday, trains came through about every 10 minutes.

During the last two hours of daylight on Sunday, I filleted five-crappie and a jumbo perch and cooked them up on my Coleman Peak 1 stove.

It was interesting to watch the skill levels and manners of different people. Everyone I observed put their fish on ice, in a cooler, versus the old stringer or fish bag. Some people would give other fishermen plenty of distance even if it meant fishing in a spot that was not as productive. Others would cast right over the top of their neighbors, lines.

A person could become quite good at this relatively inexpensive form of fishing and do a lot of relaxing while they are at it.

I will return!

Sunset

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