This tournament was a challenge for every one! The mighty Mississippi was rolling mud due to the disastrous flooding in 2009. Because of the flooding the vegetation in the pool were the tournament took off from had not taken hold at all so the fishing in this favorite pool was real bad! I had fished a tournament here 15 years ago 3 pools up out of Moline. In that BASSMASTER tournament I ran down 2 locks and had a good tournament.

So in this tournament all I had to do was lock up 1 time to reach this area. The water color was better and so was the fishing but only a little better. Also half the field of 100 figured this out also.

The first day I locked up and fished in a back water maze in 1 to 2 feet of water pitching a War Eagle spinner bait to wood. I managed 3 fish just over 6 pounds and that had me in the money! Can you believe that!

On day two I returned to the same area and hade 3 or 4 good hits only to catch one of them. With 2 fish I would have made the cut but unfortunately I was done and on my way home on Saturday.

Believe it or not that was good enough for 68^th place.

The river is fishing badly right now but the people there are great!

I made some new friends and plan on revenge on the Mississippi the next time we return.

Rick Morris