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Old 06-05-12, 02:27 PM   #1
MikeA57
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Default Fishing the Mighty Mississippi

I know that a lot of you guys fish the MS River up north. I however am down south at Memphis. A couple of weeks ago my boys and I were given 100 acres to hunt on in MS that lies between the levee and the bank of the MS River. The bank leading down to the edge of the water is riprap for most, if not all of the property. The day we made our first trek onto the land the river was about 20' down from the top of the bank.

One feature of the place that is in its favor is the fact that there are a series of rock jetties that jut out into the water about 200-300' from shore. I figure that in between those jetties will be some good fishing. I'm wondering though about how to fish them. Can you guys give me any advice about this? We will most likely be fishing from atop those jetties at least to begin with. I've got a 14' Lowe Big Jon with a 48" bottom and a 25 hp Merc that my Dad bought to fish along the Ohio River but, the MS is on a whole other scale from the Ohio current wise. I'm not too sure about getting that boat out on it (although we saw several boats around the 16' size going up and down the river the day we were there.)

I'm interested in catching bass, bream, and crappie from around there if I can. A few guys I know have told me that the stripers hang out there and also there are hybrids. I'm thinking there probably isn't too much cover for crappie or maybe even for bass but I thought they may lurk in the rocks close to the end where the current dies off.

Here's a couple of pictures that I took from our first trip there. It was kind of tough to get down to the water's edge on the riprap. It can be treacherous!! They are about 12-15' out of the water right now.

- 1st pic is from South end looking North. Jetties can be seen at the far right of the picture.
- 2nd pic is looking from the North End towards the South end of the property. Last jetty is just past the sand beach in the picture.
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Old 06-05-12, 03:20 PM   #2
F16 1UB
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Default Backwater

Mike,

Aren't there any backwater creeks close by that you can get into? I fished the OH River for 25 years & we always did best in the backwater. Catfish should be good either location. Just watch for barge wakes on the main.
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Old 06-05-12, 05:00 PM   #3
joedog
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Default

I'm up north but grew up on the Miss River.
Almost every kid I knew had a 12-16 foot flat bottom (jon boat) with a 25 on the back. no electronics, no trolling motor. I'm thinking your boat is fine, at least to start out.
Crappies will usually be in deeper back water pockets or lagoons and the bream and bass will follow, usually followed by pike.
In my opinion F16 is right on.
Now with that said, rip rap can be a small mouth magnet.
The leeves (rock dams) were put in up here to slow the current down way before the large dam craze. The down stream side usually works just like a break on any body of water. Shelter for small 'eatable' minnows, craws ect. You know what follows them.
Lillmule I think fishes the Sippi down there and that man knows his craft. Cats will hide and feed at the leeves too. If you decide to boat throw a lippless 'along the rip rap banks or a squarebill would probably work. Can do the same from atop the leeves.
We used to take original floating Rapalas, tie a splitshop a foot up the line and work the raps. the splitshot helps to almost suspend the floaters but retrieving along raps will keep it pretty much in stike zone the whole retrieve. Jigs always work at rock dams (leeves).
Anyway my main objective was to let you know about the boat.
Looks great and flat out beautiful.

Have fun, catch fish, be safe.
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Old 06-06-12, 11:05 AM   #4
MikeA57
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Yeah, the property is about a mile in length. We tried going from south to north first but the grass got so thick we couldn't get very far. Next, we worked our way along the shore (at the top) from north to south and got about 1/2 mile before we decided to turn back. So we have yet to get to the jetties and the beach to see what they are like and how accessible they are. So I think our first order of business is to get a road cleared through so we can access those areas and also the feed plots that were regularly planted in the past. There is a boat ramp about 1 1/2 miles north of the property so it should be easy to put in there and come down to it. I just need to get that boat re-rigged to use for fishing. It needs some work...

As far as backwater creeks, I'll have to check. I know that there are some channels that lead to some larger lakes but a number of them are privately owned so I'm not sure about fishing them. And, there may be a number of creeks and sloughs that I don't know about that may be fishable too.

I'll try some of your suggestions too joedog. I fish a Rapala quite often but never though about putting a small splitshot on the line to keep it weighted down. I know we do want to try running some trot lines from one jetty to the next and see what we get too.

Last edited by MikeA57; 06-06-12 at 11:12 AM. Reason: Added content
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