I’ve been sick, haven’t been out. Whole family has sinus infections that are kicking are collective behind.
That’s no good. Hope everyone feels better soon
I’ll be out most of the day tomorrow – I’ll post a report. Probably be mainly mid-day so we’ll see. I’ll be pulling cranks but might also get out some live bait.
Got out today for the first time on pool 2 after recently moving to the Cities. FW and I went for a boat ride and I decided to drop a line. In a short time hooked into this dandy. Looking forward to more trips to pool 2.
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Hey, cool! Congrats! You’ll grow to love it down there and you’ll be addicted. You’ve been warned.
As for me, made it down tonight on shore for a bit. One small pike and a 19” walleye that I got on my way out. Right before I rolled my ankle and went down hard…. First a treble hook in my leg now this. I think I need to stay away for a walleye…er..while. See what I mean
Got out today for the first time on pool 2 after recently moving to the Cities. FW and I went for a boat ride and I decided to drop a line. In a short time hooked into this dandy. Looking forward to more trips to pool 2.
Nice fish….you’ll be hooked now.
Got out today for the first time on pool 2 after recently moving to the Cities. FW and I went for a boat ride and I decided to drop a line. In a short time hooked into this dandy. Looking forward to more trips to pool 2.
Welcome to the area, and nice fish!
Decent action today. Caught a few eyes in the upper teens trolling downstream. Got into some really nice crappies in a few spots.
Tried to get the jigging raps going with limited success. I still haven’t figured them out.
Caught this monster by the dam.
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Look at the teeth on that killer — Congrats on the new PB!
Nice. Yeah, won’t be long til those crappies put on the feed bag, even way upstream.
I went out cruising from 5-7 last night on my neighbor’s sweet old Glastron that he rebuilt this year. That thing is smooth as butter, but not exactly a fishing boat with nothing but a 150 I/O. Still, he wanted proof of the p2 trolling bite so I obliged.
He did his best to manage speed but we were moving way faster than I would ever think would be productive. He doesn’t have a depth-finder so was a little gun-shy about riding too close to shore, so I put the shallow sticks away and pounded bottom with the largest size flicker shads. First 10 minutes we boated a small sauger and a feisty channel cat that treated us to some acrobatics. It was kinda fun because he’s not a frequent angler and was really excited to get some action.
It’s not very often that I impress anybody but my kid 
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>AUTO_5 wrote:</div>
I’ve heard a few things about P2 walleyes liking it fast. Like really fast.Like 4 mph fast?????
Last weekend I was trolling at ~3.5mph going downstream and I’ve caught them going as fast as 4.5mph. I’m a believer that the warmer the water the faster you should go.
I have been know to throw out a decent wake when trolling pool 2. The fish don’t care, so I like to cover a lot of ground and find out where they are and what colors are working, then slow down a bit and put the hurt on them.
I’ve burned some cranks on p2 before, this was just silly. It was to the point where I was expecting the lure to just blow out. I didn’t have GPS or anything but I’m guessing our “total” speed was closer to 6mph with the current.
I think getting skunked from time to time earlier in the summer has given me a false impression of how finicky these fish are; that can all go out the window when it gets HOT.
Made it out there last night and hauled in a handful of sauger and walleye pulling cranks. Caught most of the fish in the 8-12′ range. Speed was about 2.5-2.7mph down river and 1.8-2.0mph going up. Red was the clear winner colorwise.
On a side note, if anyone is down at the 494 launch and comes across a fiberglass boat cover bow in the grass near the sidewalk going over the hill…that would be mine 
I have done will with burst of speed trolling. This is usually in the spring when the water first hits 60 degrees. They seem to prefer fast jigs (Hair Jigs) and some fast cranks sometimes when we hit these temps. Mid May into June. Good to see some of you having success in the summer months doing this. I usually put the cranks away this time of year and stick to jigs with some meat right now for Mr. Walter down there.
Burst of speed were the key when it worked for me. either sharp turns or just cranking up the speed in short burst.
Speed and purple cranks working right now!
Speed and purple cranks working right now!
Don’t be giving people color and speed! They’ll be no fish left to catch!
I always start with purple….never seems to fail even when using jig and minnow.
Sorry, wrong forum, purple as fast was for the great lakes
Purple, red, yellow, green, orange. Whatever, they eat it.
Dave I think I waved to you on my way up to the dam around 6 maybe.
Jake, think I saw your truck as I was leaving about 10. Seems like you’re the last guy in the park more often than not, hope it was a good night for you.
Pretty standard night for me but I also landed this pike which was fun for a change. Don’t laugh at my hold, this toothy devil bloodied my hand pretty good. 
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Hey, don’t be showing people landmarks in photos, there will be no fish left by this weekend!
Was that you flying downstream about 8:30pm up near the dam? Whoever it was was in a small boat like yours and I waved.
Every trip down lately I can bank on catching a walleye every time after dark in this one tiny spot, which is what I did tonight again, 18” eye. Oh yeah and one crappie. I’ve caught 2 pike in my last 2 trips down. Ever since the water has come down and stabilized there seems to be more of them in the area
Hey, don’t be showing people landmarks in photos, there will be no fish left by this weekend!
Was that you flying downstream about 8:30pm up near the dam? Whoever it was was in a small boat like yours and I waved.
Every trip down lately I can bank on catching a <em class=”ido-tag-em”>walleye every time after dark in this one tiny spot, which is what I did tonight again, 18” eye. Oh yeah and one crappie. I’ve caught 2 <em class=”ido-tag-em”>pike in my last 2 trips down. Ever since the water has come down and stabilized there seems to be more of them in the area
Haha my bad. Gotta protect that super secret spot!
Don’t think that was me, I would’ve stopped to say hi. I drifted down hugging the opposite shore line before you started I think.
Purple, red, yellow, green, orange. Whatever, they eat it.
Dave I think I waved to you on my way up to the dam around 6 maybe.
Jake, think I saw your truck as I was leaving about 10. Seems like you’re the last guy in the park more often than not, hope it was a good night for you.
Pretty standard night for me but I also landed this <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>pike which was fun for a change. Don’t laugh at my hold, this toothy devil bloodied my hand pretty good.
Yup, that was me! I thought the afternoon was going to be amazing when I dropped a crank over the side of the boat and a LMB grabbed it instantly, fun fight with fish jumping and zero line out. It just turned out to be very good.
I got a little frustrated, ready to head home, 4 kayaks spread across both sides of the ramp. I was solo with the dogs, so I hate to leave them in the boat or car too long when trying to load the boat, so I waited for the ramp to be clear before heading to shore. And I waited, and waited, and waited. I fished around the ramp for 30 minutes and they never moved. I finally pulled on shore and just watched them for another 10 while they backed up a van and then just kind of sat there, shuffling kayaks from the back of a van to the trailer. Eventually I just jumped in the truck and started backing down the ramp and they were nice enough to move the kayaks. But I wonder how long they planned on just sitting at the ramp? Geez.
The last few trips we’ve been finding about a dozen of these in 4 hours of fishing. Trolling seams fast, 3 mph and faster down stream.
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I got a little frustrated, ready to head home, 4 kayaks spread across both sides of the ramp. I was solo with the dogs, so I hate to leave them in the boat or car too long when trying to load the boat, so I waited for the ramp to be clear before heading to shore. And I waited, and waited, and waited. I fished around the ramp for 30 minutes and they never moved. I finally pulled on shore and just watched them for another 10 while they backed up a van and then just kind of sat there, shuffling kayaks from the back of a van to the trailer. Eventually I just jumped in the truck and started backing down the ramp and they were nice enough to move the kayaks. But I wonder how long they planned on just sitting at the ramp? Geez.
All night? Seriously, I’ve been there. I talked to that group of paddlers on the water and they were really friendly and eager to tell me about all the fish surfacing by the dam (pro tip, right?!$)
I just don’t think they realize what an inconvenience it is to block the entire two lane ramp for an extended period of time.
With my crazy car-topper setup it takes me about 15 minutes to load up since everything has to come out of the boat. I go out of my way to make room for others and try to come back late when there’s not likely to be ramp traffic.
I think they just assume that if nobody is physically there, then it is no big deal. To me, it is like camping out on a public road. If no cars come, you are ok, but it is still a stupid and rude thing to do. Especially since you don’t even need the ramp to access the river with a kayak or canoe.
My favorite this summer has been multiple encounters with a a guy who seems pretty drunk. He pulls his Nissan down to the bottom of the ramp in the middle of both lanes, opens the windows and blasts Tupac while tossing sticks to his dog. He’s super loud, every other word is an effer, and he’s dying to tell you about all the huge walleyes he’s caught on the river. Never once seen him with a rod & reel but he’s the master!
I will give kudos to Wilderness Inquiry, the guided group with the big voyageur canoes. They unload the canoes to the grassy area next to the ramp, do all their instruction there outta the way, and launch from the shore without using the ramp. That’s how it’s done.
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