Another bump from below signals a fish on, to the angler bobbing above in the choppy tailwaters. Through a winter with less than ideal ice fishing, the Mississippi River offers a winter refuge to the coveralls and gloves crowd. Dozens of them crowd the tailwaters on a good day; boats bobbing in the waves as they try to zero in on the hot pockets of saugers and the occasional walleye below the dam.

"We took a limit today. Probably caught another limit, but a lotta smaller ones (thrown back). There was a lot of fish caught out there today," reviewed angler Jimmy Oberfoel, as he trailered his boat at the Guttenberg ramp a few days ago. Oberfoel, from Sherrill, and a couple fishing partners get out two or three times a week during the cold weather. In their cooler, a nice 15 inch sauger flopped across the rest of the catch; ranging from about the same size to a little smaller. "They've had a bite up here the last three, four days. People have been catching fish," offered Oberfoel. "And word gets out like a sprinkling can, when the fish are biting."

Most anglers go with live minnows on jigs. Oberfoel prefers plastic. "We had a combination of colors (today); what you'd call a firecracker, light blue and white. And they got 'em on chartreuse, too. The secret to catching fish out here in the winter time is give 'em what they want. Some days, they want white; some days, red or blue. It depends on what they're looking for."

Even in cold, windy weather, there are almost always a couple boats bobbing in the current. On weekends, and in good weather, that can swell to a couple dozen motoring up to within the legal limit of the locks, then trolling downstream through spots showing fish on the fishfinders. Downstream, more anglers work over the wing dams. The parking lot is filled with license plates from all over eastern Iowa and southwest Wisconsin.

For much of the week at Guttenberg, creel clerk John Heiar checks in with them. "A typical boat has three people on board. They've been out maybe three hours; sometimes four or more," says Heiar. "They're keeping their limit a lot of the time. For the past two weeks; it was kind of 'hit and miss,' depending on where they would go."

For the most part, it is saugers they are after and it is saugers they take home. The popular game fish-a close cousin to walleyes-crowd into the tailwaters through the winter. Besides the number of anglers and how many fish they kept, Heiar wants to know how many fish they released, how often they come, what they were fishing for and whether they were satisfied with their trip. "That usually depends on if the fish are biting that day," he admitted.

The winter fishing dynamics are of special interest to biologists on the river, too. Tailwaters below the next three Mississippi River dams-at Dubuque, Bellevue and Fulton-are closed from December through March 15. A multi-year study hopes to determine the impact of winter fishing pressure. In a 'normal' winter, ice locks out anglers for much of the season; reducing fishing pressure. Over the last decade, though, there have been only one or two such winters. Biologists show a corresponding drop in sauger numbers, as they survey populations through the year. Their concern is, that too many saugers are being taken or even when immediately released, that smaller saugers are dying in larger numbers; perhaps because of air bladder damage caused by being pulled up from higher pressure depths.

With the three tailwaters off limits during the winter, biologists will compare growth and population densities of certain 'year classes' with those at Guttenberg, New Boston and other fisheries that remain open. Through late January, Heiar had seen eight to 10 instances of bladders extending from mouths of smaller saugers. While that might not considered a high percentage, it comes from a pool without the 60 to 80 foot depths of Bellevue, for instance.

In the meantime, fishing in those open waters...as well as areas downstream from the closed tailwaters...remains as a cold weather escape for anglers waiting for spring.

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