Bass fishing on the Upper Mississippi is a lot better than most give it credit for.

Relatively speaking, you don't hear a lot about bass fishing on the Upper Mississippi River. Maybe it's because walleye fishing is equally as popular on the river and in the states that border it. Or maybe it's because largemouths don't grow to double-digit size in the river. Whatever the reason, you seldom see the Upper Mississippi on the list of top-10 bass fishing hot spots that gets published from time to time in national bass fishing publications. Maybe an honorable mention. But that's about it.

Many southern states stake their claim to king of the bass fishing world. No doubt, states such as Texas, Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana pump out some huge largemouths and harbor a tremendous population of bass anglers. Then there's California with its recent explosion of near-world-record bass. And when fishermen can target bedding females, you'll see a fair number of five-fish limits that top 25 pounds in places like Santee-Cooper, Toho, Clear, and even Lake of the Ozarks. On the brown side of the fence, you have mid-south Tennessee River impoundments such as Pickwick and Kentucky, and highland reservoirs such as Dale Hollow that give up some giant smallmouths. But all year long, when you factor in a combination of average size, winning weights, and numbers of limits weighed in, the Upper Mississippi more than holds its own. Big bass is about the only category the Big Muddy comes up short in.

To get an idea of how the Upper Mississippi stacks up, let's compare tournament results between it and the state of Oklahoma. Why Oklahoma? Several reasons. First of all, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation has been utilizing self-reported tournament results as a means of evaluating fishery quality for a number of years. It's a great, low-cost method of monitoring trends for the ODWC, and an even better example of how a state wildlife agency can partner with bass tournament organizations. Because of this activity, we have easy access to comparison data. Secondly, the Oklahoma program looks only at reservoirs, making this a reservoir vs. river comparison. Oklahoma also gets significantly more bass fishing publicity. Grand Lake, Lake Eufaula, Lake Texoma, and Fort Gibson Lake have all hosted professional-level, national-circuit events over the last 20 years compared to just a few on the Upper Mississippi during the same time period. The Sooner State is also home to some long-time touring bass pros, such as Jimmy Houston, Ken Cook, Kenyon Hill, and Edwin Evers and averages more than 20 local and regional events every week. Finally, Oklahoma is in a much warmer climate and is arguably part of the "bass belt" that stretches from Oklahoma and Texas east to the Atlantic coast.

Oklahoma's data comes from a 2005 study including results from 723 tournaments on 60 different lakes. The Upper Mississippi data is from 62 tournament days on a dozen different river pools from Red Wing, Minnesota to Alton, Illinois.

Surprised? With the exception of biggest bass, heaviest limit, and average big bass, the Upper Mississippi wins every category. As far as average big bass goes, both pretty much come in at 4-1/2 pounds. The most impressive statistics for the river, obviously are the average winning weight (a three-pound-per-fish average), percentage of anglers or teams weighing at least one fish, and the percentage of anglers or teams weighing in a limit of bass.

Now you may be thinking, "Oklahoma's data comes from 60 different lakes? There must be some dogs in there bringing the average down." But even when we look at the very best, they still don't top the river in most of the categories. Highest average winning weight in Oklahoma? Broken Bow Lake at 14.69 lb. Less than the Upper Mississippi average of 15.22 lb. Highest percentage of anglers or teams weighing at least one bass? Murray Lake at 82%. Less than the Upper Mississippi average of 88%. The highest overall ranking that combined all fishery quality factors went to Fort Gibson Lake. It gave up at least one keeper to 73% of anglers or teams in tournaments, had an average bass weight of 2.38 lb., and an average winning weight of 13.84 lb. Average big bass in tournaments on Fort Gibson was over 6 pounds...the only category it had a clear advantage in.

The Upper Mississippi River, despite the fact that there is continual habitat degredation taking place due to backwater siltation and island erosion, has a very strong fishery. Hopefully, the Environmental Management Program (EMP) funding will be around at a reasonable level in the future to ensure that habitiat rehabilitation projects continue. It would be a shame to lose a fishery this good.