Mississippi River Stoddard Islands

Marina launch not good. The park launch looked better 

Phishd perch hole 4-5" ice below 2" of mush . Fish wanted waxwormz 

Their was less water on the ice here vs other places we fished.   8+" of ice is what we had.      Got a few perch.

Ice only 5" in perch hole in spots hammered em need meat

Lotsa sorting 4wheelr safe don't let the water on top scare u

Gill bite was hot when you found them. 12 ft worked for us. Perch was a tough bite for us. Just couldn't get on them.

Got up for a week,  did well on perch and gills.  6 to 8 ft. of water near weeds.  Jig head with a chunk of crawler on it was working for us. One rod with a bobber and one off the side with no float.  Pace would only allow one pole when we figured out which one they wanted.

Find a bit of flow with  greener weeds. Some are starting to brown up. More flow equals greener weeds. 

Got out a little bit on Friday night and Saturday morning. Found nice perch in 7 to 9 feet just off weed beds on 1/8 chartreuse jig heads with a chunk of crawler. Leave a bit of tail hanging.  Also picked ?up some nice gills, but had to sort them in the same area. Not sure if the color matters,  it's what I had on.

I love that river. 

The Perch and Gills have been on the bite. Love this time of year. Fun to catch and great to eat. Time to book your adventure.

Therapy - I’m guessing so and I won’t be down there anytime soon regardless of what they say. Gonna wanna be upstream of that spill for a cpl years.