Wisconsin has a fishing resource that sometimes seems to be overlooked by all except those living adjacent to it. It's the Mississippi, the largest river on the North American continent. It makes up roughly 230 miles of the state's western border and offers an amazing variety of fish and fishing.

Large mouth bass and pan fish are found in the backwaters and sloughs. Smallmouth are taken along retaining walls and wing dams. Walleyes and sauger frequent tail waters of the many large dams. Northern pike haunt weed beds. In spring, stripers run in the main channel. Besides there are catfish and bullheads galore. it's a piscatorial omnibus.

Unlike Lake Michigan or Superior, anglers here need no charter boats or deep sea trolling rigs. Sometimes bank fishers outnumber boat fishers and out-fish them too.

For the fly fisher with a canoe or small boat the river is seventh heaven. Back waters, sloughs, and islands abound, their banks a clutter of toppled in trees and overhanging brush. Stumps and weeds provide more cover. Scattered duckwort beds help shade the bottom.

Downed trees in shallow water are always good morning and evening bets for fly rodders after pan fish. Their small lures can be presented without alarming splashes.

Here the channels around islands and through bayous are often fifteen or more feet deep. In some the bottoms slope sharply so many windfalls lie in deep water. Such spots harbor fish all day. Both crappies and bluegills go deep during the bright part of the day, but where such cover is available, tend to stay around it. Early morning and evening hours find them closer to the surface again.

The right fly at the right depth will take fish from such water even in mid-day. A large bluegill on a fly in deep water will quicken the pulse of the most blase fly fisher.

Remember where you used to find rabbits on a sunny winter day when you hunted them as a youngster? Underbrush piles or corn shocks? No, they were usually sitting in grass tufts a few yards away from such cover. The same thing is often true about crappies in late summer and autumn. If they don't seem to be in cover in deep water, try out around it like you did for rabbits. You're pretty apt to find some within a 50 to 75 foot radius of their "brush pile".

A Mississippi River fly fisher should have two reels, (or one reel with an extra spool) one with floating line and one with sinking. For the latter a "sink-tip" probably is best. It allows the front part of the line to submerge to reasonable depths yet can be lifted from the water without seriously overloading the rod.

One tip about changing lines and reels, don't try to string line through the guides, leader first. It's much easier to fold the line and pull that through, drawing the leader after. In a canoe, it's safer too.

Probably one reason more people don't fish the Mississippi is that it's so big. Two miles across in many places and with so many sloughs and back waters, selecting the right place can seem a formidable problem. A good way to start is to choose a location and make inquiries there as to the best spots for the kind of fishing you want.

A few days ago, Bob Turner and I did just that. With a little travel trailer behind, a canoe on top, and high hopes, we headed for Blackhawk Park, a Corps of Engineers operated campground on the river just north of DeSoto.

Neither of us had been there before, but a friend that knew we liked to fly fish had told us about the camp, and thought we would find the fishing there good.

We arrived shortly after noon and parked the trailer on a wooded site next to a boat ramp. The river was high due to recent rains and a cold east wind and more rain had moved in. Not what you could call propitious conditions.

We put the canoe in anyway, and proceeded to explore the water the camp fronted on. The friend that told us about the place, had emphasized that a fallen tree just across from the launching site had produced some nice bluegills for him a few days earlier. This and other likely water was worked over to no avail. The whole afternoon failed to net even one keeper.

Checking with other anglers brought the same story. They weren't having any luck either. Cold fronts and east winds are noted for putting down fish and we had both.

Inquiries in town brought more sympathy than information. The consensus was that the fish weren't biting.

Then we hit pay dirt. A Standard Station attendant seemed genuinely anxious to help. He told us his brother had connected with some big bluegills the night before not far from our camp. They had been caught near a newly blown down tree and he told us exactly where it was. He said he felt bad about not being able to get away to fish it himself.

The next day vindicated our faith in fly fishing and incidentally, in our friend at the Standard Station. The fallen tree was exactly where he said it was, and after easing within casting distance, we proceeded to catch fish.

Turner started taking crappies right away. He was using a sink tip line and I a floater. By the time I got changed to a sinking line the flurry was nearly over. A couple of hits and that was it.

Crappies have a disconcerting way of taking gently and swimming along at the same speed as the fly, then merely opening their mouth and releasing it when they realize they have something fraudulent. It's not the easiest thing to recognize their takes in deep water.

Later, as the weather cleared, we both took very good bluegills and some more crappies. Fishing was sporadic however. We would try other places and return. All of our bluegills and most of the crappies came from around this tree.

Turner had some new flies he had designed and tied himself. They have a silver body ribbed with oval tinsel and a gray squirrel tail shell-back. The white tips on the squirrel hair give the fly a white tail. Most of our fish were taken on these. The pattern has no name yet, but it's a dandy. I expect we will be hearing more about this one.

Other boats moved in and out of our area. None of them had been too successful.

The next day dawned clear and warm. We fished a little while early in the morning and took some more on Turner's new fly. Then it was time to go home.

Take my word for it. The big river is worth trying no matter what kind of fishing you like. If you're a fly fisher, it's a must.