Pool 2 Report (2020)

Monday the catfish were on fire! Jig and a minnow upper Pool 2, no real size, but lots of fun. Some eyes, sheepies and smallies too.

Same for me when I was out and saw you Dave. Mixed bag from 0600 to 0900 but the flow was up quite a bit and the water was a touch dirty. Didn’t have enough time to try cranks.

Might hit the south end Friday afternoon for a bit.

Was out tonight for a few hours. Debris had cleared up a lot and the flow was down slightly. Nice night and very few boats out. I struggled the first couple hours trolling then found some fish on wingdams. Couldn’t get anything on cranks but they were hitting jig and crawler. Water temp was almost 80F. I got a big one to snap tonight just shy of 29″.

Good luck tomorrow Matt!

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Wow! Nice one Jason!!

Yesterday was fun. Fished the upper end again and flow is up and the water has a lot of debris in it. The Corp must be doing something with the dam as the flow would change in a moments notice. Caught a decent mix of walleye and crappies and a few other species.

The crank bait bite was back on for walleyes….haven’t had that for awhile. No real big fish but a few in the upper teens.

Water still close to 80 and clear.

Launched out of 494 tonight. Fished from 6:00 til 11:30. Catfishing was good, they were up pretty shallow and were all plump. There didn’t seem to be hardly any debris coming down and water clarity seemed pretty normal.

Since this is a walleye report…we didn’t catch any.

Went to my shore spot yesterday late morning. Hadn’t been out there since Spring (which was very slow) and had a nice 3 hour trip. 4 walleye all 12-14, one small sauger, a smallie and an upper 20s THICK pike. Wasn’t getting any bites until I started throwing a #6 Rippin Rap. All fish were caught on that. No size but nice to get some solid bites again.

Thanks everyone for your reports. I bought a tiller rig so will be fishing Pool 2 and the St. Croix more often.

With the current flow, what’s a good launch if you are solo and want to stay within 2 miles of the landing and troll/pitch some cranks?

Breaking in a new motor.

Jim wrote:

Thanks everyone for your reports. I bought a tiller rig so will be fishing Pool 2 and the St. Croix more often.

With the current flow, what’s a good launch if you are solo and want to stay within 2 miles of the landing and troll/pitch some cranks?

Breaking in a new motor.

I’d shoot for either hidden falls or 494. Tons of water to pitch and troll. Both are manageable by yourself. Hidden falls to troll shorelines. 494 and you can pitch wing dams.

Thanks Matt! I will post a report. Except for 2 outings this spring, have not fished Pool 2 in a long time.

I haven’t been there in a while, but just a heads up that there isn’t a dock at Hidden Falls usually.

Maybe Matt or someone else can chime in if there is one there now.

Cody Meyers wrote:

I haven’t been there in a while, but just a heads up that there isn’t a dock at Hidden Falls usually.

Maybe Matt or someone else can chime in if there is one there now.

I’ve fished from dam to dam and my vote would be Lion’s Levee actually. It is the easiest place to launch on P2 and has the greatest access to wingdams and plenty of good trolling runs too. Its bigger water and your chance of catching fish is slightly lower than say, the stretch above St. Paul, where most fish are easy to find because they concentrate along the shoreline current seams. But if you’re willing to put in a little time to locate fish you have a much better chance at a quality fish (>=24″) down river IMO.

No dock at Hidden Falls but nice beach.

I don’t disagree on Lions – it’s a nice launch. Just depends on where you want to fish. I agree, up north it’s a numbers game. Further south it’s about size.

Lotta options!

Slow, but beautiful, morning. 2 tiny walleyes and a sheepshead. Launched at HF and trolled shorelines 8:30 – 11:00. No debris and water was 70 F.

Fewer rocks on upstream side of the landing.

Does it pay to be out at sunrise this time of year?

Jim wrote:

Slow, but beautiful, morning. 2 tiny walleyes and a sheepshead. Launched at HF and trolled shorelines 8:30 – 11:00. No debris and water was 70 F.

Fewer rocks on upstream side of the landing.

Does it pay to be out at sunrise this time of year?

I don’t know if they bite better at sunrise this time of year because I never get up early enough to be on the water at sunrise, at least in the summer. But last weekend we caught fish sporadically from 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. in the mid/lower section of the pool But it’s not uncommon for me to have dead periods, say 2-3 hours, where I don’t catch much of anything. Maybe you just fished a period where they were not actively feeding. A few weeks ago I fished the Hidden Falls section in the late afternoon and only caught one dink sauger in three hours of trying.

I would agree….time of day seems to be very hit or miss. Last weekend it was late afternoon when I had the best bite. I had a couple trips in a row where the trolling bite was slooowwww.

I just move constantly. I also have live bait with me this time of year. If you see a current seam that looks fishy pitch a jig and bait in there for a few minutes.

I was out there last night just fishing wing damns. It was pretty slow. Did catch a 22 and a sumo white bass. Possibly the largest I’ve ever caught. Didn’t go far and didn’t stay late. Both fish on Bombers. My buddy got one eye on a crawler.

Water is cooling nicely. Had 68 Degrees yesterday. Caught 11 walleye and two sheep mostly on crank baits. Biggest two were 24”. Water is low and slow.

I fished South of Lions last evening for a few hours, and there wasn’t a whole lot going on. I managed a few fish on a variety of stuff, but it was pretty slow. Hair jigs, cranks, and plastics produced one or two fish each.

I have managed to get out on P2 a few times this summer. Which is significantly more than the past few years combined. Hoping to hit it hard this fall. See you guys out there!

Thx for the report Drew. I guess I will give it a try today and see if it’s going. Looks like a nice day to be down there anyway.

Report: got out there around 4pm and fished south. Tried bait, plastics, and cranks on rocks mostly. Only got two smaller eyes but heard some other guys were doing better trolling. Lost one bigger fish on a wingdam – broke my line. That doesn’t happen very often and I’m seeing a lot more pike this year so who knows. Water temps are steadily dropping and were around 60 I think… Forgot my humminbird at home.

Quiet on here lately. Got out yesterday to guide JasonP around. Ended up putting him on a few fish in the afternoon. Not a bad day all in all with about a dozen or so fish in the boat. Water is cooling fast at 51 degrees. Down almost 10 degrees in a week.

Weather yesterday was spectacular until the wind switched from the north.

This in was agonizingly close to 28” so we’ll round up and say it was.

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Nice fish!

We got skunked yesterday trolling and jigging between the confluence and lock and dam #1. Going out again this afternoon. Any suggestions?

JasonP needed guiding???? Hard to believe.

We got out yesterday as well. Saw Matt and jason a few times. Pretty tough over all, fished mostly south.

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suzuki wrote:

JasonP needed guiding???? Hard to believe.

Maybe a little tongue in cheek……he’s a terrible tipper though.

@luttes which boat were you guys in? Saw a few regulars out there yesterday. I think the wind forecast kept some people away. From about 10-2pm it was near perfect conditions.

We were in a white Triton. It was beautiful once the wind died down a little. We were out from 730-100. Saw 53 degree water temps. Actually saw some flow over the dams though which was nice. Fish came on hair, plastic, and cranks.

luttes wrote:

We were in a white Triton. It was beautiful once the wind died down a little. We were out from 730-100. Saw 53 degree water temps. Actually saw some flow over the dams though which was nice. Fish came on hair, plastic, and cranks.

That’s what I thought. We got going about 10 and it was perfect. Agreed the flow was up a bit which helped. Threw hair and plastics a bit but live bait was the ticket for us. A few on cranks.

Matt Moen wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>suzuki wrote:</div>
JasonP needed guiding???? Hard to believe.

Maybe a little tongue in cheek……he’s a terrible tipper though.

nah – its true. All I can catch lately are bass.

thank god they have been on the chew though – here’s a few from the last couple weeks. largest was 20+”

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The last one looks like a crappie to me Jason. A big one too

I was out there Saturday as well. I should have stopped and said hi.. Sorry. I you guys ( Matt and Jason ) when I was on the way back south to the launch.

Fishing has been pretty good in my boat the last few weeks. Numbers are down but size has been great! I am tempted to go tonight. Will report back if I do. Fishing in the snow always pays off!!