Mississippi River fishing in Pools 8 and 9

Which pool are you fishing?

A pool is the stretch of water held back by one lock and dam, and it takes the number of the dam at its downstream end. Pool 8 ends at Lock and Dam 8, adjacent to the village of Genoa, Wisconsin, at river mile 679.2. Pool 9 ends at Lock and Dam 9, about three river miles below Lynxville, at river mile 647.9. Everything upstream of a dam to the next dam is that dam's pool.

That means the water in front of Genoa belongs to two different pools depending on which side of the dam you are on, and the regulations differ across those few hundred feet. Both dams went into operation in 1937 and both sit inside the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge, which has run261 river miles from Wabasha, Minnesota to Rock Island, Illinois since 1924.

The two pools are not the same kind of water. Pool 8 takes the La Crosse River from the Wisconsin side and the Root River from Minnesota, plus a maintained minimum flow down the old Black River channel, and its middle section is braided with islands and small sloughs. Pool 9 is longer, wider and fed by a single major tributary, the Upper Iowa River, entering at river mile 671. If you fish structure, that difference matters more than the acreage does.

Why does the bag limit change when you pass Lock and Dam 8?

Because Wisconsin writes its boundary-water rules per pool, not per river, and Pool 9 is governed by two chapters at once. Chapter NR 21 covers the Wisconsin-Minnesota boundary waters. Chapter NR 22 covers the Wisconsin-Iowa boundary waters. Both chapters list Pool 9 — and they have to, because the Iowa-Minnesota state line crosses the pool at approximately river mile 673.8, near New Albin, Iowa.

The first two columns come fromNR 21.04and the third fromNR 22.04. Read down the catfish rows and you can see the practical problem: ten fish in aggregate with a single thirty-inch allowance in the upper part of Pool 9, no bag limit at all a few miles downstream, and nothing on the water tells you when you crossed.

Which state's license covers you out there?

Reciprocity between Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa means a valid license from either adjoining state lets you fish the boundary waters. The boundary-water area is not the bank — the department defines it by the railroad tracks that parallel both sides of the river, which is a wider strip than most anglers assume and covers the backwaters behind the levee in many places.

The rule people get backwards is the resident one: residents must hold a resident license from their own state when fishing their own state's boundary water. A Wisconsin resident with a Minnesota nonresident license is not covered on the Wisconsin side. OurMississippi River license finder runs your residency, age and trip length against the three states' current price tables and tells you which one to buy.

Four days a year the question does not arise at all. Both boundary-water chapters waive the license requirement on the first Saturday and following Sunday in June and the third Saturday and following Sunday in January. Bag limits, size limits and closed areas all still apply on those days.

What else lives here besides walleye?

More than 119 species, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources — more than any inland lake in the state. Alongside walleye and sauger that includes largemouth and smallmouth bass, channel and flathead catfish, northern pike, bluegill, crappie and white bass, plus riverine species like blue sucker, shorthead redhorse and bigmouth buffalo that you will not find in a Wisconsin lake.

Lake sturgeon and paddlefish are both listed with no open season on the boundary waters. If you hook one, it goes back. Shovelnose sturgeon is a separate species with its own rules and is legal downstream of the Red Wing dam.

Once a fish is in the boat and you want a weight without a scale,our fish weight calculator runs published standard-weight equations for the three species most people ask about, and there are species-specific versions forwalleye andchannel catfish that deal with sauger identification and the fork-length trap respectively.

How do you read the water before you drive?

Stage matters more than the forecast on a river this size. Both pool guides carry a live gauge readout pulled from the United States Geological Survey, refreshed in your browser, showing the agency's own observation time rather than the moment you loaded the page. Pool 8 has a gauge inside it at Brownsville, Minnesota. Pool 9 does not have a working real-time gauge of its own, so its page uses the next one downstream and says so plainly on the page.

Season here is continuous for the game fish most people chase, so the calendar rarely locks you out — the river does. A rising Root River after rain pushes fish off the main channel into the sloughs on Pool 8; a hard pull of current below Lock and Dam 8 concentrates walleye and catfish on the dam face and ruins a soft mono spool. In late summer the backwaters on both pools warm and weed up, and largemouth become the better bet than a midday channel run. Check the gauge first, then decide whether the hour is worth taking.

For the timing question — whether the hour you can actually get away is worth fishing —our best fishing time calculator scores light, moon position, moon phase and barometric trend separately, and labels how strong the evidence is behind each factor rather than blending them into a percentage nobody can check.

Which pools does this guide cover in detail?

Two, in depth, rather than fourteen at a glance. We fish these ones.

• Pool 8 fishing guide — 23.3miles from La Crosse to the dam at Genoa, 20,800 acres, braided islands through the middle and the tightest walleye bag limit on the reach.
• Pool 9 fishing guide —31.3 miles down to Lynxville,29,125 acres, three states, and the mid-pool rule change described above.

Questions anglers ask about fishing the Upper Mississippi

Do I need a Wisconsin license to fish the Mississippi at Genoa?

Not necessarily. A valid license from either adjoining state covers the boundary waters, which the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources defines as the area between the railroad tracks that parallel both sides of the river. The catch is that residents must hold their own state’s resident license when fishing their own state’s boundary water, so a Wisconsin resident cannot fish the Wisconsin side on a Minnesota license.

Are there days when no fishing license is required?

Yes, four of them. Wisconsin Administrative Code NR 21.015 and NR 22.015 both waive the license requirement on the first Saturday and following Sunday in June and the third Saturday and following Sunday in January. The waiver covers the license only. Every bag limit, size limit and closed area still applies.

Is the walleye season ever closed on Pools 8 and 9?

No. Wisconsin lists walleye and sauger as a continuous season on the Mississippi River, along with bass, pike, catfish and every panfish species. What changes through the year is the size and bag structure by pool, not the calendar.

How many fish species are in the Upper Mississippi?

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources puts it at more than 119, which is more than any inland lake in the state. That count includes paddlefish, lake sturgeon and shovelnose sturgeon alongside the walleye, sauger, bass, catfish and panfish most anglers are targeting.

Which pool is better, 8 or 9?

They fish differently rather than better or worse. Pool 8 is 20,800 acres with a braided middle section of islands and sloughs and two significant tributaries. Pool 9 is 29,125 acres, longer at 31.3 miles, with one major tributary and a more generous walleye bag limit. Pool 9 also crosses two state lines, which complicates the paperwork.