{"id":7790,"date":"2025-08-15T14:05:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T19:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/?p=7790"},"modified":"2025-08-26T16:52:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T21:52:30","slug":"mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/","title":{"rendered":"Mississippi River Fishing in August is Unpredictable"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

2025 has been a strange year for fishing the Mississippi River in Minnesota. The water level has been unusually high in August, making it more challenging to find fish.\u00a0The water this year is also unusually brown, with sediment from the frequent rain making the Big Muddy nickname a good fit this year even late in the fishing season.\u00a0BGS fishing partners Bill Huefner and Scott Lepak added to the unpredictability by selecting a Saturday when rain was lurking to the south and a full moon was waiting to add chaos that evening. This was offset by the fact that the wildfire smoke was nonexistent for the day and Bill and Scott were coming off a lucky streak. Bill\u2019s Friday attendance at the Lynx game produced a win and Scott\u2019s attendance led to a win by the Twins. Adding to their optimism was their regular, late-season, ace Mississippi smallmouth bass guide Tommy Steffen<\/a>, who indicated that the bite has been pretty good.\u00a0“Pretty good” in guide speak means “run as fast as you can to the boat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a burger and beer strategy session at an undisclosed local watering hole (fishing veterans never give away their best fishing or bar locations), Bill and Scott met Tommy and jumped onto the river. Bill and Scott have been fishing the Mississippi for decades and know that you are never sure what you are going to get \u2013 especially when the water is high and cloudy. That held true this year as Scott enticed a northern to hit on a Ned rig and guide Tommy managed to briefly hook 2 bass on a single popper bait. Bill and Scott pointed out to Tommy that a treble hook for a guide should result in 3 fish at a time but acknowledged they had never seen two fish on the same bait before. The biggest piece of strange belonged to Bill when a large musky hit a bass that Bill had hooked and was bringing to the boat. Musky and bass disappeared into the murky water with the outcome unknown \u2013 a reminder that you just don\u2019t know what is under you in that river. As George Orwell once said, “my best fishing memory is about some fish that I never caught.” That musky and bass battle was the memory of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to the northern, musky and bass in the river, the stretch Bill and Scott fished also had entertainment from an eagle, loon, duck and heron throughout the afternoon. Tommy indicated that the eagle had snatched a smallmouth bass out of the river that morning. Despite threats from muskies, eagles and the occasional fisherman, smallmouth bass remain supremely confident that they are top-level predators. River smallmouths are particularly aggressive, and the fight they provide makes them one of the greatest species to fish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The afternoon produced around 30 smallmouths according to Bill and Scott. They said they actually forgot to count so that might be a little low, but since they are catch-and-release fishermen, you can\u2019t trust that their estimate was accurate either. What was accurate was that Bill got the biggest smallmouth at 19-1\/2 inches and round. It was another great day on a great river.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

2025 has been a strange year for fishing the Mississippi River in Minnesota. The water level has been unusually high in August, making it more challenging to find fish.\u00a0The water this year is also unusually brown, with sediment from the frequent rain making the Big Muddy nickname a good fit this year even late in the fishing season.\u00a0BGS fishing partners Bill Huefner and Scott Lepak added to the unpredictability by selecting a Saturday when rain was lurking to the south and a full moon was waiting to add chaos that evening. This was offset by the fact that the wildfire smoke was nonexistent for the day and Bill and Scott were coming off a lucky streak. Bill\u2019s Friday attendance at the Lynx game produced a win and Scott\u2019s attendance led to a win by the Twins. Adding to their optimism was their regular, late-season, ace Mississippi smallmouth bass guide Tommy Steffen, who indicated that the bite has been pretty good.\u00a0“Pretty good” in guide speak means “run as fast as you can to the boat.” After a burger and beer strategy session at an undisclosed local watering hole (fishing veterans never give away their best fishing or bar locations), Bill and Scott met Tommy and jumped onto the river. Bill and Scott have been fishing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8,22,25],"tags":[73,122,72],"coauthors":[50],"yoast_head":"\nMississippi River Fishing in August is Unpredictable - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mississippi River Fishing in August is Unpredictable - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"2025 has been a strange year for fishing the Mississippi River in Minnesota. The water level has been unusually high in August, making it more challenging to find fish.\u00a0The water this year is also unusually brown, with sediment from the frequent rain making the Big Muddy nickname a good fit this year even late in the fishing season.\u00a0BGS fishing partners Bill Huefner and Scott Lepak added to the unpredictability by selecting a Saturday when rain was lurking to the south and a full moon was waiting to add chaos that evening. This was offset by the fact that the wildfire smoke was nonexistent for the day and Bill and Scott were coming off a lucky streak. Bill\u2019s Friday attendance at the Lynx game produced a win and Scott\u2019s attendance led to a win by the Twins. Adding to their optimism was their regular, late-season, ace Mississippi smallmouth bass guide Tommy Steffen, who indicated that the bite has been pretty good.\u00a0“Pretty good” in guide speak means “run as fast as you can to the boat.” After a burger and beer strategy session at an undisclosed local watering hole (fishing veterans never give away their best fishing or bar locations), Bill and Scott met Tommy and jumped onto the river. Bill and Scott have been fishing...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-08-15T19:05:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-08-26T21:52:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2025-fishing-3-768x1024.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scott M. Lepak\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scott M. Lepak\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/\",\"name\":\"Mississippi River Fishing in August is Unpredictable - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2025-08-15T19:05:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-08-26T21:52:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66b5ef0a1b2eaa89b6dde075b3d9b0a6\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mississippi River Fishing in August is Unpredictable\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.\",\"description\":\"Attorneys at Law\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66b5ef0a1b2eaa89b6dde075b3d9b0a6\",\"name\":\"Scott M. Lepak\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/4d3323cc41490a136617d6b22f37cf31\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c8130f58b1313edcdf2fd2d55cc06d76?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c8130f58b1313edcdf2fd2d55cc06d76?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Scott M. Lepak\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/author\/scott-m-lepak\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mississippi River Fishing in August is Unpredictable - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mississippi River Fishing in August is Unpredictable - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.","og_description":"2025 has been a strange year for fishing the Mississippi River in Minnesota. The water level has been unusually high in August, making it more challenging to find fish.\u00a0The water this year is also unusually brown, with sediment from the frequent rain making the Big Muddy nickname a good fit this year even late in the fishing season.\u00a0BGS fishing partners Bill Huefner and Scott Lepak added to the unpredictability by selecting a Saturday when rain was lurking to the south and a full moon was waiting to add chaos that evening. This was offset by the fact that the wildfire smoke was nonexistent for the day and Bill and Scott were coming off a lucky streak. Bill\u2019s Friday attendance at the Lynx game produced a win and Scott\u2019s attendance led to a win by the Twins. Adding to their optimism was their regular, late-season, ace Mississippi smallmouth bass guide Tommy Steffen, who indicated that the bite has been pretty good.\u00a0“Pretty good” in guide speak means “run as fast as you can to the boat.” After a burger and beer strategy session at an undisclosed local watering hole (fishing veterans never give away their best fishing or bar locations), Bill and Scott met Tommy and jumped onto the river. Bill and Scott have been fishing...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/","og_site_name":"Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.","article_published_time":"2025-08-15T19:05:05+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-08-26T21:52:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/2025-fishing-3-768x1024.jpg"}],"author":"Scott M. Lepak","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Scott M. Lepak","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/","url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/","name":"Mississippi River Fishing in August is Unpredictable - Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2025-08-15T19:05:05+00:00","dateModified":"2025-08-26T21:52:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66b5ef0a1b2eaa89b6dde075b3d9b0a6"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/2025\/08\/15\/mississippi-river-fishing-in-august-is-unpredictable\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mississippi River Fishing in August is Unpredictable"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/","name":"Barna, Guzy & Steffen, LTD.","description":"Attorneys at Law","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/66b5ef0a1b2eaa89b6dde075b3d9b0a6","name":"Scott M. Lepak","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/4d3323cc41490a136617d6b22f37cf31","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c8130f58b1313edcdf2fd2d55cc06d76?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/c8130f58b1313edcdf2fd2d55cc06d76?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Scott M. Lepak"},"url":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/author\/scott-m-lepak\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7790"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7790"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7805,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7790\/revisions\/7805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7790"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bgs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=7790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}