Pool 2 Report (2021)

Matt Moen wrote:

Is there any footage of Marianne getting that big boat into hog lake?

I am back there a month or so ago with the Reata. It was sketchy then and it’s close to a foot lower.

dude she made the whole run through pigs eye on plane.
It was pretty fun to watch.

I wouldn’t even do that in my jon at these levels. Last time I made that run there was only 18″ of water plus theres a few stumps in that run.

Regarding the Minnesota, during the rules meeting it was determined that it is open water up to the first dam, were ever that is.

Thanks for clearing that up, WW.

Lab, I got a kick out of your question. I dont know if you knew it but you answered your question in your question.. HAHA.. Hwy 77 bridge.

HA! I didn’t even think about the 77 part, although I knew that’s what it was… I was just saying that it had been driving me nuts trying to figure it out, and mainly was more of a question about the rules! Which leads to another question:

Why is black dog lake still being used to cool and release water from the plant, if the (coal) plant was supposedly shut down a few years back? Does anyone have any knowledge on this?

I didn’t get a chance to watch much of the first two days of competition so I was wondering if the tournament anglers were catching a lot of 1 – 2 pound fish but just not many over 2 pounds. Based on the results of the third day with eight competitors, it looks like they could count fish under two pounds but it appears that only a few fish between 1 -2 pounds were weighed. Seems like a brutally tough bite given the skill of these competitors but so few fish, especially considering on Day 3 when sub-two pound fish could be weighed.

I guess in a tournament it doesn’t matter if a bunch of fish are caught or just a few as someone is going to win, place 2nd, etc. But I’m sure it would feel a lot better finishing in last place having caught 20 lbs instead of zero.

How much difference do you think using live bait would have made?

I think live bait would of been huge. Willow cats, creek chubs. Wonder is these guys are happy to not have to mess with live bait.

I think if Joe sticks it out fishing around those islands he is going to take the win. Lots of spots in that area a guy could put a very fast milk run together. I can’t tell if he is mostly focusing on that one rock pile or not. There should also be a nice mix of dinks, 2# and some hogs in that area.

I’m having so much fun watching these, trying to match background landmarks to map apps and navionics to see what they’re fishing. Learning a lot! Have to admit though with the length of these streams it is tough to watch the whole things and keep up… Crazy how long they will sit on spots and run through different baits, colors, angles, speeds, cadences, etc.. And then all of a sudden pull a fish out after 50 casts to the same spot. All because of a color change. Pretty cool!

A discussion came up elsewhere about the permitting process for this contest. It was permitted for Pool 2. As far as I know, the MN River is not any part of Pool 2 and as most of you know, the regs stop at the Mendota Bridge. I also find it interesting that the permit is not listed anywhere here: http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/recreation/fishing/tournaments/tourneylist.pdf

I wonder how they made the call that the lower MN was in bounds?

Who cares where they draw the line exactly. Or even how they figured out where they were going to draw it.
They catch, weigh and release in literally a minute, maybe two. Did they expose your hotspot on the mighty Minnesota? Guessing they didn’t hold a national tourney without the proper permits. Give Walzy a call today and report back.

For the first time in about 18 months the Twin Cities can be relevant for something other than a three letter acronym or the “protests” that went with them….

There always has to be one………

I’m gonna say Marianne vs. Joe for the crown!
Has been very interesting to follow for sure.

the_hat wrote:

Who cares where they draw the line exactly. Or even how they figured out where they were going to draw it.
They catch, weigh and release in literally a minute, maybe two. Did they expose your hotspot on the mighty Minnesota? Guessing they didn’t hold a national tourney without the proper permits. Give Walzy a call today and report back.

For the first time in about 18 months the Twin Cities can be relevant for something other than a three letter acronym or the “protests” that went with them….

There always has to be one………

holy balls take it easy george and weezy, I was truly curious about the decision making on the boundaries and the permitting process. Where exactly did the line end? Could they have went all the way up the MN? I used the Mendota Bridge as an example because that’s the normal P2 border for regs.

Yeah, I’m really worried about someone fishing or exposing a spot, ya got me LOL

The mighty miss continues to throttle even the best, hottest walleye anglers.

Just makes me want to jump in the boat and see if the results at the end of my line could be a bit better. To stymie Jarrad and Mike is pretty hard to imagine.

Hope the rain helps increase the netting action today and tomorrow.

GAME TIME BOYS!

This is the most fun I’ve had watching tv in years. The only disappointment so far has been that I really wanted to see the pros flush out some decent spots that I had never tried and that just hasn’t happened.

Has anyone noticed/heard if anybody is using a fluoro leader? I was fishing these negative fish a week ago and that made a difference.

Both of my guys had about a 2’ fluoro leaders. Probably made break off their 20-30 lures off.

I’m enjoying watching this but also extremely frustrated that these guys can’t catch a fish today! I’d really like to put the boat in Saturday to see if it’s actually as slow as it looks.

Heck I want to get caught in the back ground tomorrow hooking into fish. Tempting but won’t do it. I’m guessing these guys would be doing a little better but being the 1st time on the pool sure has its drawbacks. Hope they come back again in future years.

I agree with Mike….live bait would be a game changer. Big fish I’ve caught in the last couple weeks have all been on crawlers.

I’m not sure why they don’t run a crawler or leech mimicking bait.

I asked that question in the members chat this morning and Nate Caldwell said he caught a 29+ on Sunday in pre-fishing on a liquid willow cat, but nothing during the tournament. I can’t believe the fish are in such a big funk now.

I’m surprised that they are finding the fish to be so spooky and they are worried about getting over them on or around the dams. We caught some really nice fish a week and a half ago pulling cranks over shallow water and we ran over top of that spot over and over. I’d think you could spot lock over them and go vertical, I haven’t seen anybody do that yet in 4 days.

Im disappointed. I was really looking forward to seeing some good weights. I know it is a tough bite and the system is full of 15-18″ fish but lots of bigger fish too, I just assumed that after several days on the water, someone would have figured something out.

Last time I was out there I was pulling crankbaits with the old smokey 2 stroke outboard in 4ft.The fish could have cared less,it was one after the other fast as I could reel them in and get my bait back out.

Day 4 of Head-to-Head

8 anglers fishing for 5 hours
Total of 5 fish caught, which includes a 7 ouncer.
Only one angler caught more than one.
Four anglers didn’t catch a fish.

Average Angling Hours per fish: 8.0
Average weight of fish: 1.81 lbs.

I never would have imagined this. About a month ago some people thought 50 pounds might be obtainable by the top angler. Last week when the bite was starting to slow, some thought 20 pounds. I think it’s safe to say that nobody saw this coming. Hopefully the switch gets flipped ON tomorrow but it seems like a bad bite is getting even worse.

Here is a picture of Marianne going into hog lake. I watched her channel once she started talking she was going to make the run. I puckered once she cleared the barges on the north end, pushed it all the way down and let it rip!! When she came off plane the marshal asked if she watched her depth and she said NOPE. He said he did and needed the bucket to pee, so I assume he had the same feeling I did. I have a video of it, but it’s to ba

Attachments:

1. 

   45DDAEFC-4D9F-4E2F-93A5-C1A437C6B6FC-6.png
   

2. 

   5D92BF6E-9786-492A-9E58-78AD0CB057AF-6.png
   

3. 

   45DDAEFC-4D9F-4E2F-93A5-C1A437C6B6FC-5.png
   

4. 

   5D92BF6E-9786-492A-9E58-78AD0CB057AF-5.png
   

5. 

   45DDAEFC-4D9F-4E2F-93A5-C1A437C6B6FC-4.png
   

6. 

   5D92BF6E-9786-492A-9E58-78AD0CB057AF-4.png
   

7. 

   45DDAEFC-4D9F-4E2F-93A5-C1A437C6B6FC-3.png
   

8. 

   45DDAEFC-4D9F-4E2F-93A5-C1A437C6B6FC-2.png
   

9. 

   5D92BF6E-9786-492A-9E58-78AD0CB057AF-3.png
   

10. 

    5D92BF6E-9786-492A-9E58-78AD0CB057AF-2.png
    

11. 

    45DDAEFC-4D9F-4E2F-93A5-C1A437C6B6FC-1.png
    

12. 

    5D92BF6E-9786-492A-9E58-78AD0CB057AF-1.png
    

13. 

    45DDAEFC-4D9F-4E2F-93A5-C1A437C6B6FC.png
    

14. 

    5D92BF6E-9786-492A-9E58-78AD0CB057AF.png
    

15. 

    BD8AE6B2-30B4-4EE5-B04E-9516C8E07559-scaled.jpeg
    

16. 

    F256E93F-B20D-4CB7-8B19-8DCBFDA0A5B5-scaled.jpeg
    

Its about a 1-2′ run. By now she has probably dredged it out.

matt wrote:

Last time I was out there I was pulling crankbaits with the old smokey 2 stroke outboard in 4ft.The fish could have cared less,it was one after the other fast as I could reel them in and get my bait back out.

The issue is the size. My bet is almost all the fish you caught were under 2#. We caught a good bunch last weekend, too. But, the size had all but gone away.

You need a 19” fish to break 2#. We weighed a bunch in 17-18” range and none broke 2#.

The big fish aren’t feeding during the morning is my bet.

I would’ve liked to see more fish….a couple weeks ago I thought that would be crushing fish.

So at what time does Marianne make that run. Hope to be there and see it first hand tomorrow.

Mike W wrote:

So at what time does Marianne make that run. Hope to be there and see it first hand tomorrow.

She already said in her day wrap up today that she will be heading in there right away and is going to grind it out back there all day.
South wind again tomorrow I guess so the wingdams are gonna be a struggle.

Should be a good battle till the end as one mistake looks like it costs you for sure.

Mike W wrote:

So at what time does Marianne make that run. Hope to be there and see it first hand tomorrow. [/quote
I would guess she will be there by 6:30-6:45.

Matt Moen wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>matt wrote:</div>
Last time I was out there I was pulling crankbaits with the old smokey 2 stroke outboard in 4ft.The fish could have cared less,it was one after the other fast as I could reel them in and get my bait back out.

The issue is the size. My bet is almost all the fish you caught were under 2#. We caught a good bunch last weekend, too. But, the size had all but gone away.

You need a 19” fish to break 2#. We weighed a bunch in 17-18” range and none broke 2#.

The big fish aren’t feeding during the morning is my bet.

I would’ve liked to see more fish….a couple weeks ago I thought that would be crushing fish.

You are correct,not much for size biggest was probably 19-20 with alot of small fish as well.I just thought it was odd someone was saying some of the guys were worried about spooking fish.Never really found that to be much of an issue this time of year when the water is fairly dirty.Gin clear in early spring,late fall forsure.I know I had been fishing pool 3 alot to learn something new and the bite did slow quite a bit a couple weeks ago for me.Granted I wasnt really doing any looking around like I was earlier this year when I first started fishing down there.Either way the 150 mile round trip coupled with the slow bite has kept me on lakes closer to home which has paid off.Havnt had much time to watch this week,going to try and watch some tonight and tomorrow and see what I have been missing.A friend of mine was in the boats on Monday and Tuesday,will have to give him a call tomorrow and see what he has to say.Suprised to hear that its been so slow even the professionals are having a tough time.

walleyewizard wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Mike W wrote:</div>

So at what time does Marianne make that run. Hope to be there and see it first hand tomorrow. [/quote
I would guess she will be there by 6:30-6:45.

Wow. Would of never guessed that early. Guess I’ll just have to run it myself. Rootski can sit up front watching for logs, carp and shallow spots.

Mike,
Assuming it was you, it only took 3 minutes to get a shoutout on the live feed!

I have been watching and I am convinced now that I could be a pro fisherman too as I can go down to Pool 2 in the summer and not catch a walleye with the best of them . I am disappointed a little though 32 miles of river and everyone is fishing spots we all know about other than Brett King. I thought someone would come up with a new spot or two. I wonder who tipped off Huskey on the “hole” while looks interesting on map really difficult to get to this time of year and most I would think wouldn’t risk their prop and skeg getting in there without some strong encouragement. Interested in your report Mike on how the trip in is, wish I could have gotten off and joined you. I really am surprised especially with Brett where he is fishing that when dinkfest starts he does not immediately start trolling a flicker shad along shorelines as the wingdams have been beaten to death. There has been to me at least a surprising lack of trolling in this event with most casting or pitching. Lakich seems to put odds in his favor by just the sheer number of casts and water he covers. Okada spot didn’t fire and I would not have had the patience to sit there as long as he did. I would have moved on when not catching and probably missed the bite windows the previous two days and really never discovered how good that spot could be. Makes me think to give good looking spots a little more time than a few casts into and move on.
I am going fishing this weekend and was going to go to pool 4 but now maybe go poke around pool 2 as my interest has been piqued. I will set the timer to 5 hours and see if I can catch a fish. Is using leeches cheating?

Yes, that is Mike and Rootski.

-J.