Experienced a new kind of fishing this weekend on a trip to the Mississippi River. There are a number of "lock and dam" structures to help tugs push barges of grain and coal up and down the river. We went to Lock and Dam #4 at Alma, WI to fish from the Great Alma Fishing Float. The float is a series of linked rafts anchored just below the Lock and Dam. Here is a photo looking west from the bluffs above Alma looking down on the river. The fishing float is on the west side below the first gates on the far side of the river.
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To get to the float, we took a five-minute shuttle ride from Alma on the Wisconsin side to the Minnesota side.
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We caught eight species in two days of fishing: bass, northern, bluegill, sauger, perch, rockbass, sheephead, and dogfish. We also saw other people catch catfish and gar. Here's a nice sheephead. Fun to catch, but not to eat.
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Other wildlife included bald eagles and osprey as well as this softshell turtle about as big as a dinner plate.
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Here are two more views of the Lock and Dam. We have plans to go next year in May. The current is probably too fast to take my 'toon safely. If I had trolling motor, I'd seriously think about it - not directly below the dam, but more towards a backwater eddy near the fishing float.
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To get to the float, we took a five-minute shuttle ride from Alma on the Wisconsin side to the Minnesota side.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
We caught eight species in two days of fishing: bass, northern, bluegill, sauger, perch, rockbass, sheephead, and dogfish. We also saw other people catch catfish and gar. Here's a nice sheephead. Fun to catch, but not to eat.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Other wildlife included bald eagles and osprey as well as this softshell turtle about as big as a dinner plate.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]
Here are two more views of the Lock and Dam. We have plans to go next year in May. The current is probably too fast to take my 'toon safely. If I had trolling motor, I'd seriously think about it - not directly below the dam, but more towards a backwater eddy near the fishing float.
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