Bridge pilings

Has anybody ever fished around bridge pilings/abutments/whatever they’re called, like the ones right there under the 494 bridge? I’ve driven around those particular ones a bunch looking at my graph, and it does look very fishy. Think I’ve even marked a few fish on the downstream side. I’ve dropped a jig down around them quite a bit but have never hooked a fish. Seems like they’d hold fish… just curious!

When I’ve fished off the pier under 494 I’ve put enough weight on to get my bait close to the pilings and caught carp, catfish and like 1 walleye.
DT

Back in the early 90’s during the sauger boom on pool 2 you could get fish off those spots. These days not really worth the time IMO. Also some of those piling wash outs are 30+ feet deep. Not good pulling fish out from that deep.

-J.

Have you tried a crappie jig along those pilings? Algae growth on those harbors a ton of small foods that sunfish and crappies will flock to in cold water. Find some slack water areas right on those pilings and use a float to control depth. Star a couple feet down and increase the depth a foot at a time until you find fish.

1/32 or 1/16 head with a 1″ Gulp minnow. Try the same head sizes having hair or feathers, like the flu-flu head. Maybe add a waxie to the hair jigs.

Thanks for the replies!

We used to fish bridge pilings on the Chippewa River periodically. It took a considerable amount of weight to keep presentations in the current seam/slack water created by the pilings as I’d generally cast beyond them first and work back toward the boat. For us it wasn’t very productive and was usually just a last stop on the way back to the landing. A lot of the fish we marked in these locations and managed to hook were drum and the occasional catfish. I’m sure they do hold other types of fish depending on flow, location, and time of year. It cannot hurt to give it a quick try.