Practice is underway for the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at the Mississippi River. We caught up with Jeff “Gussy” Gustafson out on the water to see how he’s fairing midway through his preparation for the final Elite event of the season.
“We’re getting beautiful weather this week,” said Gussy. “It’s just been a dream summer day. Calm, sunny and just an awesome day to be out.”
Though there’s a myriad of cash, prizes and qualifications on the line for the 90 anglers competing on Pools 7, 8 and 9 of this expansive stretch of the Mississippi River, there was a lack of urgency in Gussy’s voice.
“I’m lucky this week. I get to have fun and just sort of enjoy the week.”
After a solid performance last week on Lake Oahe, Gussy all but locked up his berth into the 2023 Bassmaster Classic — the main focus for a couple dozen anglers as the Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year race comes to a close.
This sense of security regarding his position in the points race provides Gussy the luxury of playing it safe on a fishery where there are many ways things can go wrong in a hurry.
“I’m not taking many risks this week. I think I’ve got the Classic made after last week. Life’s good in that regard, so I get to fish with a little bit less pressure this week.”
No doubt Gussy’s calm demeanor still requires intentional effort on his part, as he acknowledged that $10,000 is still a big deal. He plans to fish very hard to try and win one of those coveted checks.
“I still want to catch some fish and have a good finish to the season.”
But when formulating his game plan, Gussy intends to “play it safe” and stay on Pool 8, instead of locking up or down into adjacent Pools 7 and 9. The most concering variable accompanying one of these locking scenarios is barge traffic.
“In general, I’m kind of an anti-locker. The only places where I’ve really locked are in Florida where there are no barges. I’ve fished too many tournaments where guys have not made it in.”
Gussy referenced one horror story in particular where a barge got stuck in a Tennessee River lock and dozens of anglers were stranded.
“I think it was in 2016, we were at Pickwick and I think 40 guys went up to Wilson and a barge got stuck and none of them made it back.”
These are the kinds of things the anglers competing on the Mississippi River will have to consider when mapping out their approach this week. Some anglers, needing a big showing to make the Classic or have a shot at the AOY title, may very well roll the dice. If the gamble pays off, it will pay big dividends.
Gussy isn’t one of those guys. Instead, he just wants to catch a few fish and make it through the week unscathed. To do that, he’ll still have to be careful as he moves around on the Mississippi. The water is normal pool for this time of year, but it’s a good bit lower than when the anglers have been here previously.
“If it’s kind of shallow, I’ve just been going slow and fishing my way through stuff. I don’t think there’s as much rock and boat-wrecking stuff. I think it’s more like sandbars and just sort of shallow in general.”
These sandbars could likely claim a lower unit though, and certainly beach a boat. We’ve seen anglers sharing videos on social media where the latter has occurred during practice already.
Adding to the skinny water and risk of getting locked out, anglers will also have to take the possibility of a fog delay into consideration when prepping their playbook for the week. The first two mornings of practice have seen heavy fog in places. Plan A may be to lock into Pool 9, but in the event of a two-hour fog delay, there has to be a Plan B ready to roll into action.
For Gussy, it’s just a simpler plan to stay on Pool 8, where he can bear down and figure something out through the remainder of practice. So far, so good at the midway point, as he’s swapped the spinning gear from last week for the power-fishing tools he’ll need to pull largemouth out of vegetation here on the Mississippi.
“I’ve been getting a few bites. The standard tackle, straight braid all the way. There’s grass everywhere. You could spend your lifetime casting at stuff out here. So it’s kind of fun in that regard. But the fishing in general I think is kind of tough.”
With so much shallow vegetation available, eliminating water in pursuit of particularly productive stretches has been key.
“I found a couple little areas today where the fish are actually grouped up pretty good in a weed mat. Then it’s hours of the odd one here and there. That’s not really very productive.”
“A couple times, I’ve cast it out four times in a row and got bites. So there’s obviously a little something different there that’s holding them. So, I’m not really putting a waypoint down now unless I get two bites in a small area.”
With the largemouth bite a little spotty, it’ll be interesting to see if smallmouth will play here on the Mississippi like they have in the past. Gussy offers up his synopsis on the smallmouth situation.
“I saw one big one today come up under a topwater, and I caught one 2 1/2-pounder just fishing some main river points. So I think there’s something to covering ground and finding some rocks or some points in the current to hit. But I don’t know if I’m going to spend a lot of time really trying to target smallmouth.”
Though Gussy is a big-water smallmouth guru, he admits these fish don’t really fall under his expertise.
“My smallmouth background isn’t that valuable as this place. It’s true river fishing for sure.”
These smallmouth behave more like Coosa River spotted bass in many ways, which several southeastern anglers in the field are very familiar with. Those anglers have a better chance of doing well with smallmouth here than the big-water guys, in Gussy’s opinion. Anglers familiar with river fishing and with experience here pose the biggest threat to bronze bass outdoing a bag of green ones.
“A guy like Feider maybe, that has some history here. I’m sure you’re going to see somebody catch some smallmouth. But the spring and fall is really when the smallmouth are more of a factor I think.”
With smallmouth, largemouth, multiple pools, barge traffic, fog and shallow water hazards to take into consideration, there’s a lot to figure out during practice. This will be a fun one to watch unfold as the anglers that build and execute the best game plans rise through the ranks over the next few days. Tune into Bassmaster.com to watch all the action starting Friday morning.
