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Like others, I mainly use the NWS to check river levels before I go, if available. There's actually portions of the Mississippi and Rum river up here in MN that are on street view. Someone went down with a canoe / boat and a 360* camera attached. Pretty cool to be able to look at portions I haven't fished and get a feel for how the banks look. I'll also use street view if it's available at any bridge crossing over the river. Navionics has depth charts for a good chunk of the bigger rivers, but best used as a general guide.

I just need to watch out for low bridges when shuttling..

I was getting a great SI image just floating down the river at .5-1mph. I just leave the scroll speed set to auto and let the unit figure it out.

It has been a rough fall. Mid to late August was great, but have been on the struggle bus since then. Floated the Rum on Saturday, got skunked. Buddy got one little Smallmouth. Had what looked like some decent pikes take swings at what I was throwing, but they never seemed to really commit. At least it was a nice day on the water.

Spent Saturday with a float down the Mississippi north of Elk River. Continued the trend of plenty of smaller fish with one decent one, although this time the decent one waited till the end. A little over 17" for the big one, plenty of 14-16" and a handful of dinks. Lots of mid sized fish in the faster current and rocks. Seems like the big ones have gone deep, and with all the shallow water this year I'm out of practice on the deeper water. Also been finding it hard to slow down and fish plastics.. just can't get into it this year. I think the next trip I may need to leave all the hard lures at home and force myself to throw some tubes.. Went up to Mille Lacs on Sunday and got.. a big ole' skunk. Realized about halfway up there that I forgot my Garmin, but didn't think it would be too big a deal as I was planning on fishing shallower anyways. I saw some smallies hanging around the reeds, but just couldn't get them to hit, no matter what I threw. Topwater, wake bait, jerk bait, swim bait, nerd rig.. couldn't seal the deal. At least it was a nice day on the water!

I have a Garmin Echomap 73SV, using the Scotty transducer arm / head unit mount to attach it to the rail on my kayak. I just place the battery in the front and stuff the power cables under the netting. The Scotty transducer arm is a bit flexy, but not an issue in open water and has helped out when I'm not paying attention and run the ducer into some rocks. Surprised how far it can flex without breaking.. Only downside is mainly due to my kayak, Jackson Bite FD. No rail to mount it by the seat, so it's up by the pedal drive. If I'm not paying attention I can bump it with my foot, and it's a bit farther away than I'd like. Also can't quite get the transducer down far enough to fully clear the prop drive, so it blocks out some of the SI on the left side. Planning on working up another mount over the winter to bring it closer to the seat, so that'll solve those issues. I didn't want to run any cables through the hull or use the scupper mount for the transducer, when I'm on the river it would just be added weight.

I've had some pike just teleport to my lure. Always fun to see. One of my more memorable smallmouth catches was casting a ripstop into a section of shallow, clear slackwater. Saw a big smallie, at least 20 feet away, turn the rocket boosters on to grab it. The big tails on those river fish give them some serious speed. Trying to play keep away when the smaller ones are active is always fun, the speed at which they can maneuver in the water is amazing.

Yeah, end of August was really good for me but things have been slow, at least for the bigger fish. Spent the weekend floating the upper Mississippi. Saturday started off with an 18.5" smallie on a top water, then a few more here and there throughout the day but nothing really worth measuring. Same with Sunday, 18" smallie right away then little guys the rest of the day. Smaller fish have been really aggressive the last few weeks on the river, but just haven't been able to find where the bigger ones have gone. River was up at least a foot, probably 1.5' since I was last there two weeks ago. Couldn't measure the exact water temp but it felt pretty warm for October.

I'd only trim if needed. My other baitcaster.. I don't even remember what braid I'm running on it anymore. Been on for probably 5+ years at this point and still fine.

I figure the fading will help for next season - good guide to use for pulling off and trimming the most used top layer. I've been using the Alberto knot for the leader connection and have no issue, even with the tag ends trimmed almost up to the knot.

I think any of the small 4" units are a good start, along with a battery box and a clamp-on transducer mount if the main goal is portability. I have rails on my kayak so I just use the Scotty transducer mount, a little flexy but that's been a benefit when I'm not paying attention and run the ducer into rocks... I'm partial to the Garmin units, I had a Striker 4+ that worked great.

I've been using the lime green 15# 832 on my baitcaster and have been happy with it. No fish lost due to main line breaks yet this year. As @Bankc mentioned, the color has faded a bit but that doesn't bug me.

Same with my Garmin 73SV. SI works as soon as I start moving. With a pedal drive, I can easily cruise at 2mph or so and it's a very clear image. I have the scroll speed set on auto, the unit does a good job.

Spent Sunday on Mille Lacs. One 16.75" right away in the morning, then nothing until evening when I got 3 more from 17-19" and missed 2. Spent the day fishing shallow but it doesn't seem like the majority of the smallies have moved up yet.

I've been on a hard bait kick this year.. just gets boring fishing tubes / nerd rigs. Mostly river fishing or Mille lacs. 1. Berkley Choppo, size 120 matte black. Smallies were going nuts over this in mid-late August. Had one day with 6 18"+ on it. 2. Berkley Jointed Flicker Shad, size 7 crawfish color. Got a bonus 28" walleye on Mille Lacs with this. Downside is smaller pike seem to also love it, think I'm up to 3 lost from bite offs. 3. Berkley Wakebull, size 70 black/chartreuse. Had no idea what a wake bait was until I randomly picked one up a couple months ago. Quickly moving up to my #1 spot. Can fish it anywhere from the surface to about a foot down. Smallies will hit this thing like a freight train. Not trying to be a Berkley ad here, I've just been using them more due to the lower cost compared to Rapala, but they aren't as durable. Don't come with the greatest hooks, and the paint gets beat up pretty quick where the trebles hit the body.

I've got a friend who goes down the Mays ledges on the Brule in Wisconsin standing on the gunwales of the rental canoe. Crazy good balance. I prefer standing and fishing. I picked up an Ascend 12t from Cabela's last year, and it was alright. Not the most stable and the seat was pretty low to the deck, so getting up and down was interesting. Picked up a Jackson Bite FD this summer and it's sooo much better. Super stable for standing, and the seat is higher so it's easier to get my old butt out of it. Only issue I have is when I'm floating the river and paying too much attention to fishing. Some of those rocks are sneaky, but haven't fallen out yet. Had a couple of forced sit downs, though.

I mainly do Smallmouth fishing, these are the 4 that consistently make it into the kayak: Baitcasters: Shimano SLX 150 DC / St. Croix Bass X 7' M Fast - Suffix 832 15lb braid flouro leader -- New setup this year that I bought mainly for crank / jerk baits, but I really like it so it tends to get used for just about everything Shimano Citica 200 / Shimano Convergence 6'6" MH Fast - 30lb braid flouro leader -- First baitcaster I ever bought, years ago. Workhorse that keeps truckin'. Bigger lures or throwing into cover. Spinning: Pflueger President XT 25 / Fenwick Aetos 6' 9" ML XFast - 8lb flouro -- Finesse. Tubes, smaller plastics. Sunfish catcher if the big fish aren't biting. Pflueger calls it a size 25 but it's more of a 1000 size reel. Pflueger President 3000 size / Fenwick Aetos 7' M Fast - 10lb mono -- Backup rod, mainly. __ Force of habit that I tend to pick fast action rods. Next plan is to a moderate action setup and see how I like it.

I need some of your luck. Had straight 40 lb braid to a weightless t-rig worm for throwing into pads / weeds. Got to the edge of the pads and watched as a big pike came up, snatched the whole thing in his mouth, turned his head and I felt the slightest tug.. cut through that line like butter. Not a big deal with plastics, but when I'm throwing $8-15 hard lures I'd rather not let the fish keep them.

I'm not sure how braid got the 'pike won't bite it off' reputation, but I've had those toothy critters slice through braid more often than not. I've gone to flouro leaders on both of my baitcasting setups. Started out using a double uni for the braid to leader connection, but have since switched to alberto as I find it easier to tie. Haven't had one fail. Floating down the Miss with a buddy earlier this year, he was using straight braid and I had a flouro leader. I was catching fish, he wasn't. About halfway through the float I tied a flouro leader on for him and he started catching some. Not scientific at all (he's not quite as avid a fisherman as me), and even I didn't think that river smallies would care that much about the line.. but it reinforce my decision to use flouro leaders.

I've had some where I swear they got their mouth on it before it even hit the water. I love river fishing for Smallies. I did have a pike launch itself straight vertical out of the water, tail and everything, in the process of totally missing my top water on the lake this year, that was pretty neat.

Hello all, just discovered this forum. Based out of the north metro here in Minnesota. Been fishing off and on most of my life, decided to get a bit more serious about it a few years ago. Mainly fish out of my kayak, focusing on the upper Mississippi for Smallmouth.