What a week on the Mighty Missouri River. Lots of wind, dropping water levels, shifting channels the list could go on and on.

The fishing definitely isn’t red hot on the river yet. Things may be delayed a bit after the recent cut in flows out of the garrison tailrace, but rest assured the fish will make their way towards Bismarck this fall.

One observation from fishing this week. Lots of bait in river system at the moment. Seems to be a little of everything also. We saw shad,baby drum, perch, shiners, smelt you name it turning up in the livewell. The fish you do catch are pretty healthy looking!

Another thing we witnessed was a rapid drop in water. In fact during the tournament yesterday (Saturday) we actually saw while on the water fishing the river drop in areas almost a foot. It made for a sketchy ride back up river.

The bulk of the fish however are still way south. My guess is after a week here or so they will start to move north after the flows settle in a bit. This is a fairly normal situation for this time of year.

Fish are being caught if you are patient and in the right areas. Jigs and cranks are both working if you are in the areas where the fish are.

Putting your boat in the river will also be a bit of a problem as some of the ramps are not unusable. I’ll report on that as we go and as I figure out this week which ones are still usable. I do know of a few that are not or possibly not.

Congrats to my good friends Jacob Miller, Jordan Binstock and Darrin Miller for grinding out 14.14 pounds of walleye to win this years Fall Big Muddy. The weights were tight in this one. I had the privilege or misfortune lol however you want to look at it of watching them boat all of their fish. You guys are true fishermen in every sense of the word!

I have a few openings yet left for this fall. If you are looking to get out get ahold of me to see if we can find you a date!