Lacrosse Wisconsin ?? Advice

[fozzype]

Thinking about running up to upper Mississippi first of September.  Any advice on how it fishes, concerns, navigation, or where to stay?

[willyfish]

Frog heaven up there from the tournaments I've seen on TV

[sjcorpst]

I fish up there all the time ( I live in Iowa) and it's a Bass fisherman's paradise.  Bring plenty of buzz baits, frogs chatterbaits and jigs and Keitech 3.8 baits.  I fish mostly in Pool 9 which is below LaCrosse, but it all fishes the same.  The fish are out on the main channel along rock and near the various creeks and sleuths coming into the channel.  Just be careful of the wing dams, stay outside of the channel markers and don't be running the shorelines.  Wing dams will eat up your lower unit if you hit one.  I attached a picture of a typical catch up there, with some running larger.  September is a perfect time to go.

[Quillback]

The BPT Redcrest championship is being held on pools 7 and 8 from August 21-25.  If you have the time to watch some live coverage you can pick up some tips.

[sjcorpst]

23 minutes ago, Quillback said:

The BPT Redcrest championship is being held on pools 7 and 8 from August 21-25.  If you have the time to watch some live coverage you can pick up some tips.

The Redcrest will be an excellent way to pick up on some tips.  I've marshaled several BASS events up there and those guys catch them.

[ness]

12 hours ago, fozzype said:

Thinking about running up to upper Mississippi first of September.  Any advice on how it fishes, concerns, navigation, or where to stay?

I think @Mitch f might have some recent experience up there. 

[Dewayne French]

I was up there for the open and even though my placement was low it is a good fishery.  Our timing was way off we had high water to low water in our event. It was 3 feet high on Friday before the tournament started to about normal and still falling the Thursday it stated.  Frogs, swimbaits, tube baits, 4" worms.  Main river had better concentrations of fish and the back waters had better size.  Top water should have been a big player, but i just think with so much current and fluctuations that was a  factor.  Braid to 6 lb floro you can fish about what you want.  If your in the current a lot it will drain those batteries , just a word of experience .  

[PAT92B]

I fished up there last October we missed the good bite by a week.  Still caught plenty of fish almost every fish we caught were out of Lawrence lake a backwater on the Minnesota side throwing chatterbaits. We stayed in Stoddard Wisconsin at Waters edge resort it is about 10 miles south of Lacrosse. It was a nice place to stay had there own boat ramp, restaurant and a bar within walking distance. Great view of the river and good prices. 

[Mitch f]

On 8/11/2019 at 12:12 PM, ness said:

I think @Mitch f might have some recent experience up there. 

Driving home from our Upper Mississippi trip from above Minneapolis. We had 2 average days and 2 that were off the charts good. We used topwater mostly and square bill crank baits. Caught some nice fish. The key, as usual, was finding the right speed current and depth. Combine that with structure of some type and they were almost always cooperating. 

[Macsimus]

23 hours ago, Mitch f said:

Driving home from our Upper Mississippi trip from above Minneapolis. We had 2 average days and 2 that were off the charts good. We used topwater mostly and square bill crank baits. Caught some nice fish. The key, as usual, was finding the right speed current and depth. Combine that with structure of some type and they were almost always cooperating. 

That's quite a different experience than the La Crosse area. Many years of C & R regs have produced a quality fishery there for sure but it isn't bass boat territory!