By B.A.S.S. Communications Staff
LA CROSSE, Wis. — Cool times could lead to hot action. So says Bassmaster Elite Series angler Seth Feider, as the Minnesota standout eyes the upcoming Bassmaster Open at the Mississippi River.
Competition days will be Sept. Thursday through Saturday with daily takeoffs from Veterans Freedom Park. located at 120 Clinton St. in La Crosse at 6:30 a.m. CT, with weigh-ins each day at the park at 2:30 p.m.
With nature signaling summer’s impending conclusion, a few nights of significantly cooler temperatures and daytime highs briefly dropping into the mid-to upper 60s will prompt fish to prepare for seasonal shifting. That cooldown during the week before the event has been followed will quickly yield by warming trend – basically, the fireworks formula for this event.
“Those cold nights should actually make fishing quite a bit better by triggering the fall feed bag,” Feider said. “You get out of the dog days of summer and get the fall transition going.
“We’ll still have some lingering summer patterns. We’ll still have some fish where they’ve been the past few months, and some new things will start developing throughout practice and the tournament.”
Feider said the smallmouth will pull out of smaller creeks or up from deep-water haunts and start positioning on shallow main-river spots like sand breaks, wing dams and anything creating current seams. Largemouth that have spent the warmer months tucked under mats in the backwaters and side chutes will be moving to main-river wood and weeds.
As Feider notes, the cooler weather will also take a common summertime vexation off the table – tiny baitfish. The warmer months often find the fish fixating on small minnows and ignoring most lures.
“Those cold nights are going to get those fish off those little minnows and on the bigger baits,” Feider said. “The fish focus on those minnows because that’s what’s shallow during the summertime, but once it gets cold, it makes the bigger bait move shallow and that makes the fish easier to catch.”
Another factor likely to positively impact the tournament is water level. As Feider pointed out, tournament waters (pools 7, 8 and 9) are not facing flood conditions, but the water’s higher than it’s been at this time in recent years.
“This year, it’s been relatively high all year and it should stay at that level (through the tournament),” Feider said. “I think the river’s in a lot better state than it’s been the last couple of summers and falls. That will make the bite a lot better than it typically is this time of year, because there’ll be more water, more current, and the fish will be more active.”
Taking all of this into consideration, Feider said he can see smallmouth or largemouth winning the event, but mixed bags are the likely route to victory.
“If it gets a lot colder than (what has been forecasted), smallmouth could dominate, but everything starts biting when it gets cold,” Feider said. “The largemouth will show up really good, too; maybe not numbers, but size will get really good.
“It’s the same deal will smallmouth. You can go out in the summer and catch a pile of smallmouth; they’re just not the right ones. For some reason, when it gets cold the big ones start showing up.”
Feider believes the entirety of tournament waters could be in play, but if there is a wild card for this event, it’s going to be the Black River. A Mississippi River tributary entering near La Crosse, the Black River feeds Lake Onalaska, a nearly 4-mile-wide reservoir within Pool 8.
As Feider points out, this area hosts a lot of local tournaments, so it receives regular stockings via release fish. Moreover, Feider said the Black River actually fishes more like a lake and that could bring the live sonar strategy into play.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if the tournament is won there, or if some people made Top 10s 'Scoping in the Black River,” Feider said. “That’s got to be the biggest X-factor. I could see someone shaking a minnow in the Black River and winning the tournament.
“Other than that, it’s going to be your typical frogging and flipping for largemouth, and maybe a swim jig and a stickworm around wood and weeds. The smallmouth will be (caught on) topwaters, jerkbaits or maybe a Carolina rig or a tube.”
Without question, locking from Pool 8, where the field takes off, and fishing Pool 7 or Pool 9 presents the most important calculation anglers will need to make. Feider believes the expanded playing field justifies sacrificing some fishing time with the locking schedule.
“I think it’s worth it, but you definitely need to have something in Pool 8, whether you’re locking or not,” Feider said. “If you do lock, you have to be aware of the barge traffic and allow yourself plenty of time to get back for weigh-ins.
“If I lock into another pool and catch my goal weight, I’ll go ahead and lock back through,” Feider said. “I generally give myself a couple hours until I have to check in, but if I catch 20 pounds at 9 o’clock, I’ll go ahead and lock back through.”
Referencing what he considers stout local tournament results, Feider said the higher water and cooler weather has him expecting heavy weights.
“Local events have been catching big bags all summer, and most have needed over 20 pounds to win,” he said. “I think it could potentially take over 60 pounds to win and, realistically, 17 to 18 a day to make the Top 10 cut.”
