LA CROSSE, Wis. — After a long winter, the Great Lakes Division of the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Presented by T-H Marine will begin its season on the Upper Mississippi River out of La Crosse on April 18. While Pools 7-9 are no strangers to BFL competition in this division, each season is a little different based on spring weather patterns, river water levels and whether smallmouth or largemouth will dominate.
These are all things to watch leading up to the event, but one thing is certain: The fish will be biting somewhere on the river.
What to expect
Onalaska, Wisconsin’s Cade Laufenberg has scored six of his 11 MLF wins out of La Crosse and knows this section of the river as well as just about anyone. He reports that the weather so far this spring has been nothing short of a roller coaster, so he and every other angler in the region are hoping for some stability.
“It’s pretty close to normal as to where the fish are, but it’s been a super weird year with warm stretches in February and March with some really cold days mixed in,” he said. “They had 30 inches of snow up north of here, and then it was 70 degrees and melted it all, which all came down in the tributaries and into the river and made it muddy. But I think by the time of this BFL, things should be stabilized if we don’t get a bunch of rain. The one wild card is going to be the water level.”
Part of the strategy for fishing out of La Crosse is deciding which pool to fish. Any of the three in play has a shot to produce the win, but Laufenberg is banking on two being the biggest factors.
“From what I’m seeing, I think Pools 7 and 8 will be the best. Pool 9 has been fishing tough,” he said. “It could happen on the lower half of Pool 8 or in Lake Onalaska; those are two of the best areas for the bigger bags of largemouth.”
Smallmouth and largemouth both have a chance to win this event, but recent trends have seen the largemouth population on the rise.
“This last fall, we saw some of the biggest largemouth bags I’ve ever seen weighed in,” he said. “I think that trend is going to continue, because they are in a population boom right now. The smallmouth numbers on the river are still phenomenal, but they are the same size they’ve always been, and the largemouth have gotten much bigger.”
Baits to bring
If targeting largemouth, Laufenberg said it would be wise to look for emergent vegetation, and baits like a ChatterBait and swim jig will be solid choices. For those looking to target smallmouth, he says that moving baits like lipless crankbaits around drops, current seams and wing dams outside of spawning areas will be effective.
What will it take?
Mike Feldermann won last year’s season opener with 22 pounds, 13 ounces – a stout weight for the river. Laufenberg expects similar things this year.
“It should take somewhere between 21 and 23 pounds again, as it has in the last two season openers,” he shared. “It should also take around 17 pounds just to get a check.”