Pool 2 Report (2020)

Cody, yeah that was my little tan Lund. Was good to get the winter beater out again before it gets a pre winter oil change. Not the nicest day out but gotta get acclimated sooner or later.

For those of you that run your motors all winter and don’t have a heated garage, what do you do when you take the boat out of the river when temps are really low? I just put on a new honda 4stroke, and planning to run it for another month but want to be careful.

Jared Cameron wrote:

For those of you that run your motors all winter and don’t have a heated garage, what do you do when you take the boat out of the river when temps are really low? I just put on a new honda 4stroke, and planning to run it for another month but want to be careful.

After you pull the boat out of the water, drop the motor down all the way and let all of the water drain out for a minute or so. After that you should be good to go. Nothing else in the engine will expand while in cold temps. For more tips, check out this video by Mr. James Holst himself.

In other news, got out last night from 5-9:30 and didn’t get a single bite. flow seemed up a bit and water was around 40 degrees. Sat on dams and current seams, pitched hair, plastics, cranks, huskys, nothing was interested.

on one of Mr. Boley’s recent videos he explains what he does at the ramp.

Hey All-

Got out for the evening into the dark with Luttes last night. Pitched wing dams and current seams with plastics and stick baits. Not so much as a bump! Anyone having action after dark on P2 this week? May try the Croix or P4 this weekend instead

Sam

We were out on 10/29 and 10/30 on P2. For us definitely a morning bite. We struggled in the evening also, did catch a few in the evening but nothing much of size. Our bigger fish came in the morning on stick baits. By noon the bite was pretty much over. Also caught a bonus musky.

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Had good numbers today, but nothin for size. It was windy today, very windy.

Nice fish guys! Did you get a measurement on the ‘ski?

Yes but I don’t recall. It wasn’t very big, maybe 37/38. I wasn’t much excited until Drew informed how rare it is to catch a musky on P2 and I got home and searched for confirmed musky catches on P2.

Yeah its actually pretty cool! I have only ever seen one other caught in P2 and that was a 42 in my buddy caught at minnehaha creek 20 years ago. Nice fish guys.

I caught a juvenile Muskie this year on P2…same day I snagged a Gar. Both were firsts on P2. I caught them both in the feeder channel (water treatment plant?) north of the 494 bridge were the barges tie up on the east side.

Saw a pretty decent one caught near the dam a few years ago. Guy caught it shore fishing off the island. It went 43″ I think.

Still waiting for my P2 muskie. Awesome catch!

I saw a mid 30s ski landed up by the dam in March or April this year.

This was 5 or so yrs ago late fall by the confluence

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Anybody having any luck on P2? Was out from 10:30 to 5:30 yesterday and fished both sides of 494. Spots south of 494 that had been producing on stick baits a few days ago seemed empty of fish and the slow bite for us north of 494 continued.

I was wondering the same thing gonefishin! I was doing really well and everything has just slowed or halted! I really think it’s these major temp swings. The St.croix was lights out last week and it’s slowed considerably as well. Ild like other to chime in and give a bit of insight and observations on the bite. Heading out the next couple days just don’t know what best option is. That’s why it’s fishing right. I’ll let you know what I find👍!

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We caught good numbers on Sunday morning, but they were all small. And obviously it was in the 30s and not the 70s that day. I haven’t talked to anybody who’s been out since then.

I was out yesterday. There were several other boats out as well. It was very slow for us – one eye in the boat. I’m sure there are fish eating somewhere, but we didn’t find them.

john23 – one night last week as we were about to leave the landing someone was just coming to get his trailer and we had a brief discussion on the bit. By the look of your picture was that you?

Found a few fish monday afternoon. School of white bass in one area. School of small walleyes in another. Overall bite seemed slow to me. Every fall seems to have peaks and Valleys in bite. In a few days or a week they will get going again. That or spend more time out there to figure out where the active ones are.

gonefishin wrote:

john23 – one night last week as we were about to leave the landing someone was just coming to get his trailer and we had a brief discussion on the bit. By the look of your picture was that you?

Sorry, wasn’t me

I took Monday off and fished P2 and found a very tough bite. Fished for about 5 hours in the morning and got skunked! Threw plastics… sticks.. hair… blades.. and not so much as a bump. Glad I’m not the only one who’s found it slow this week. I had been starting to question my fishing abilities.

It’s been tough every everywhere! I’ve fished pool 2, st croix and the vermillion River a couple times each the last 7-10 days and each is down right tough. Is what it is it’s just interesting. Yes, it will turn around it’s just a matter of time!

I’ve been out a few times in the last week or so. I’ve been able to find fish but not much for size. Handful of fish each time in the lower 20’s and a lot of mid teens fish.

Bites have been light. Plastics and live bait. Water temp has risen 5 degrees in a week.

This is from tonight. Amazing the size of shad they will eat. This is about a 16” sauger.

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Dang, Matt. Maybe I need to start throwing bigger profile baits already…

Out on election night, took a bit of work and assumed it was just slow at first but then we hit some productive dams and the fish weren’t shy at all. Lesson for the day, keep er movin!

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Got out this morning for a couple hours. Almost impossible to do much with the wind.

Picked up a few small saugers on live bait but gave up pretty quickly with the howling wind.

Hopefully the change in weather gets them snapping again.

Out last few nights after dark on upper end P2, from shore. Absolutely dead. It will probably pick up again with a consistent cool-down.

I was out in that wind on Saturday and put some miles on the boat. That wind sucked!! I did catch a handful of fish but was not a pattern to it. I just worked a lot of spots. Caught a couple on wing dams and a couple on rock transitions that run parallel to the current. Swim baits and hard baits both caught fish. They were all very healthy and measured 23-27 inches.

I will say I beat the crap out of one little spot that I knew had fish and ended up snagging one in the side of the head. This is one of the most frustrating things to have happen because I tossed the tackle box at this spot just to find they were there but not eating anything. I did go back to that spot later and pulled a couple more fish off of it but they were picky.