Pool 2 Report (2021)

494 is locked up this morning. About 50-60 yards out to the main channel.

-J.

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Can we fish from bridges?

494 was locked up this morning.

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Hidden Falls access should be open in a few days. You can see the open water patches in the ice shelf.

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Shovel and a saw would open that up pretty quick.

Been a decent bite so far this year on pool 2. Thought at Christmas time it was going to lock up for a bit. Was sure wrong about that. I haven’t been getting into the numbers of fish like last winter but still finding some quality ones showing up. He is a few from the last month.

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Definitely a bit slower for me than some of the past years down on P2 but still nice to be out in the boat.

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Those are some tanker walleyes.

Nice fish Mike/CBMN.

Lately I can’t stop dreamin’ about the river.

Every year I try to persuade myself to try a few new things. This year I’m gonna target P2 crappies more often. I’d also like to spend some quality time down in grey cloud slough now that its open and there’s been some flow in there for a couple years.

What are other people most looking forward to on P2 this year?

“What are other people most looking forward to on P2 this year?”

One of my all time favorite things to do is catching big Bluegills and Crappies on a light fly rod. Now that I’m retired, I think I’ll spend more time down there and see if I can find some of those fish.

SR

I’ve never even seen a P2 sunfish that I can remember. They must be around though.

JasonP wrote:

I’ve never even seen a P2 sunfish that I can remember. They must be around though.

Like largemouth, they don’t seem to be around in big numbers but there are some in the low/no-current back channel areas.

Ive caught a few sunnies/gills on the upper end of 2. Even right off the strong current below the dam. Never a good sized one there, though.

JasonP wrote:

I’ve never even seen a P2 sunfish that I can remember. They must be around though.

In high school we would get them off the 494 pier fishing for carp.
DT

Years ago used to catch big bluegills in Mooers Lake. I haven’t been back to try again though but back then they had some big gills in there. One year when I was still duck hunting the channel going from Mooers lake into Baldwin I had to tilt the motor to get through and little bluegills came bubbling up in the prop wash. If you cracked open the motor being tilted it sent bluegills flying up into the air. There must have been thousands in the channel that day.

Schools of them up shallow on the sand this summer in the island by the dam. They’d come up and bite your feet.

I’ve only caught small ones but there have got to be some decent ones somewhere.

Feel like I caught a decent one while standing on the foot bridge at the minnehaha creek mouth one summer years ago on a jig and 3” twister or gulp minnow… Can’t remember for sure. But yeah, Matt, there’s gotta be some good ones in there somewhere…

From Saturday, February 13th.

Jon and Mike… you’ve got some chopping to do. Honestly I was surprised to see open water under the bridge and a couple of spots upstream and downstream of the bridge. I thought with this cold stretch it would be completely frozen over.

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Thank Dan. Was wondering what it looked like. We will be back out there before the end of the month.

Steve Root wrote:

“What are other people most looking forward to on P2 this year?”

One of my all time favorite things to do is catching big Bluegills and <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>Crappies on a light fly rod. Now that I’m retired, I think I’ll spend more time down there and see if I can find some of those fish.

SR

Steve, some of the biggest panfish I have seen came from pool 2. Not great numbers but there are some big one! We were talking about chasing carp this year with a fly rod when the time is right. That would be a blast!! Have to wait for the may fly hatch I think but is on my list of things to do.

Sounds like a plan, Joe.

Any access updates on Pool 2 Hidden Falls launch? Pool 3 access in Hastings?

Thanks!

Doesn’t look good 02/23/2021

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Thanks Mark. I was hoping the warm water draining in would have done a little more damage to the ice. But, it’s a start!

Anyone have updates on pool 2?

Its still there. Frozen across up river. Not so much down river.

Mike W wrote:

Its still there. Frozen across up river. Not so much down river.

Any updates on 494 or Lions?

494 ramp was packed Saturday. Empty parking lot when we got there. By the time we had the boat in there was 6 boats behind us. It only got busier from there.

We stayed away from the community holes looking for fish. Found a few but had to work for them. Mostly nice saugers. Sounds like skunked was the report from a lot of boats.

Pool 2 is the new Pool 4! Don’t forget that it’s 100% catch and release on P2 year-round.