Pool 2 Report (2020)

boone wrote:

Most experienced, die-hards will go out until the authorities barricade off the ramps.

then sometimes we drive around the barricades and get yelled at by the cops when we return to the landing.

Good luck Josh – great advice from Boone there!

Really appreciate the input! Trying tomorrow for the first time so we will see how it goes

JasonP wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>boone wrote:</div>
Most experienced, die-hards will go out until the authorities barricade off the ramps.

then sometimes we drive around the barricades and get yelled at by the cops when we return to the landing.

Good luck Josh – great advice from Boone there!

Or even sometimes float the Boat right over the
Top of barricades 😉

Really appreciate the input! Trying tomorrow for the first time so we will see how it goes

About 8 days ago, a good portion of the Minnesota River watershed got pounded with heavy rain. The river rose something like 14 feet at Henderson and Jordan. That water is making it’s way through St. Paul now. Because the soils in the Minnesota water shed are made of fine particles, and the watershed is intensive row crop agriculture, heavy rains there make for very muddy water. I went to fish Pool 2 last Tuesday hoping to beat the impending muddy water but the river looked so muddy at St. Paul Park that I went to the St. Croix instead. I haven’t seen a recent report from P2 but I suspect it’s still very muddy.

I’d suggest you fish the Mississippi upstream of the confluence. It’s a nice stretch of river that will be much cleaner than downstream of the confluence.

The water is back down 2′ from last Friday/Saturday but I find that south of the confluence it helps to have stable levels for a couple of days after a big rise. I’ve caught fish in the dirty water but it can be a real grind.

You don’t get the size of fish above the confluence but with the clear water the bite will better and you should find multi-species right now. I might try to head down a couple of nights this week and I’ll post a report. Been a couple of weeks since I’ve been out.

I was out there on Sunday morning.. Smallies were active. The water was pretty dirty yet (6-7 inch vis). Cant beat a crawler on a jig right now but crank baits caught some fish too.

Any reports from this week? I’m taking Friday off and fishing…..water looks like it has come back down and is probably cleared.

I was out on Monday afternoon for about a half hour. Trolled just upstream from the confluence with no luck. Then something came up and I had to get off the water unfortunately.

Led to another question though…do people prefer trolling upstream or downstream? Saw someone pick up a nice fish trolling downstream. Feel like I’ve always done better going downstream on pool 4 now that I think about it.

SoDakangler wrote:

I was out on Monday afternoon for about a half hour. Trolled just upstream from the confluence with no luck. Then something came up and I had to get off the water unfortunately.

Led to another question though…do people prefer trolling upstream or downstream? Saw someone pick up a nice fish trolling downstream. Feel like I’ve always done better going downstream on pool 4 now that I think about it.

I do both and usually have more luck trolling fast downstream in the warmer water. I assume it’s because the fish don’t chase as much as react. Going upstream I think the fish can chase and I have more short strikes. The downstream strikes are sometimes violent compared to upstream. If I find a run that has fish I’ll troll it both ways to get a pattern. Many times I’ll spot lock and throw cranks on a productive spot.

The last week or so of river fishing has been OK for me. I have been able to put a milk run together of run-n-gun spots. I say OK because I’m really only getting a few fish per trip, but the quality is pretty decent. No huge fish either – but many in the 24-27 inch range. I have been pitching jigs to current seams (including some wingdams) with live bait and trolling flicker shad along seams as well. I have had to fish all the way from the airport to spring lake to put together a run but as long as the tuna boats aren’t out in full force its still pretty fun. I can’t find leeches anymore and switched to crawlers mid-week and didn’t notice a different (except in my wallet).

I suppose with today’s big rain along the MN river watershed the river will muddy up again. Just when it was starting to clean up…

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I hate to admit it but I’ve never used live bait out there. If you’re throwing live bait on jigs are you using shiners or leeches?

Probably leeches or crawlers. Fatheads or other minnows once the water cools.

I’m just tipping jigs with crawlers.

Sometimes I think I’m the only one who can catch small walleyes on Pool 2. Seems everyone else can’t catch one under 20″. Must be a special talent.

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Good day out there for me. Targeted crappies and ended up with a really nice mixed bag including a couple monster smallies. Plus, I think this is a saugeye?

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I would say sauger, I’m not seeing much for walleye. But I didn’t see it in person. Is hidden falls open?

I think you’re right….the colors were amazing on it. Usually the sauger I catch down there are more muted.

Hidden falls is open but you need to come in through the neighborhood. The East river road is closed just south of the ford bridge. I think it’s also closed by Cleveland.

Matt,

I would say just a sauger also, doesn’t look like a white tip on the tail that I can see. I agree that most saugers down there are muted I have seen some variety down there. A few summers ago I caught a sauger that was all black with just a little white on the belly.

That one might have been in the wood instead of on rock or sand.

This is one of the more colored up sauger that I’ve caught down there and it’s not even close to yours.

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A buddy caught this one out there last summer. Super cool coloring.

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Cool fish!

I was down to P2 for a couple hours last night. Beautiful night. Very busy at the landing and on the water though. Saw a new first – some guy was in the bow of his runabout layng backward against the wiNdshield and reaching over to steer the boat.

We caught two eyes two smallies and a pike. One eye was 25. All on jig and crawler.

Was out Wednesday evening for a bit on the upper end. Level was barely up but the flow was much faster than the weekend.

Good mixed bag of fish….crappies, walleye, smallies, pike, kitties, sheepies. Most on jig and live bait in current seams.

I keep seeing the word “Smallie”. That has my interest. Might have to get down there one of these evenings.

SR

Matt Moen wrote:

kitties

What’s a kittie? Catfish?

gim wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
kitties

What’s a kittie? Catfish?

Yep…..

Steve Root wrote:

I keep seeing the word “Smallie”. That has my interest. Might have to get down there one of these evenings.

SR

Get your butt down there, Steve! My buddy Tyler missed a couple on the fly rod the other night. This one was from last weekend. 19.5”. The 20” smallies still eludes me.

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When I was out on P2 Saturday, it looked like a catfish tournament took off from the 494 ramp at 5:00 p.m. From what I could tell, it looked like nearly all the boats headed down stream.

Anybody fish it or know the results? I kept seeing quite a few of nice looking catfish boats throughout the day and was wondering why there were so many. Then when I went by the 494 ramp, I could see them staging there for the 5:00 p.m. take-off.

Boone, its called the wisker run. Dtro puts it on every year. I usually fish it. This is one of the few that i did not. They post results on FB. Two biggest fish combined by total weight takes it. Sounded like the bite was slow but some nice fish caught..

“It was a slower bite for sure with about 25 total fish entered, but there were also a few really nice ones!
Thanks to everyone for participating.
1st place went to Louis and Laci with 40.8 lbs
2nd was Joe and Doug with 39.8 lbs and also big fish of the night
3rd went to Jason and Clint with 34.0 lbs
4th was Phil, Vong, and Josh with 28.0 lbs”

Was out yesterday morning till noon. Fishing was ok. We hit a bunch of spots and we were about to get skunked when the last trolling run produced seven fish. The flow was up and the water clarity was good but there was a lot of debris coming down making it hard to keep the baits down. Nothing on crawlers everything in cranks. Biggest was 23. Debris should be cleaned up Soon if not already.