Pool 2 Report-494

Lots of ice, lots of fish. First-thanks to Dinosaur and Jon for breaking up the ice to the airport. There was LOTS of ice today but it should be almost clear by tomorrow.

Started out slow-4 sauger in the first hour then nothing for 30 minutes. All nice, 18-22″ in 22-25′ of water. After the bite went cold, I moved to 13-17′ in the same area. The walleye were in there THICK. I caught between 30-40 from 15-24″ with no smaller than 15″. The bite seemed to get better as the afternoon went on. Eventually I ran out of minnows. At one point I lost a minnow, seconds later came back w/ just a head, then caught a fish with both fatheads in its mouth!

Beautiful day and great fishing.

Great report Dave. Sounds like you had your way with those eyes up there. Was the plain jig/miinow the ticket up there?
Try any hair jigs or plastics at all?

Thanks for the update. With the nice weather upon us, the river should stay nice and clean as well as the ramp conditions. I came off at about 8:00pm last night with just a small lip of ice at the ramp. The left side of the dock is wide open for launching. For anyone interested, the right side has some ice accumulated but looks as though its starting to break up with the nice weather and also with the help of some boat wakes.

I only used a jig and minnow, in fact, I never even changed color. The old stand by-blue/pink/white fireball. As I have stated before, I am pretty lazy-if something starts working I stick with it. It just requires too much effort to tie something new on.

Jon J and I got on the water at 10:30. The river was virtually ice free till we made the run to the airport. There was a large shelf from the treatment plant out to the buoys. All it took was the boat wake to break it up. Then the ice floes started their journey downstream. Sorry guys , it just happened.
What a beautiful day to be on the water. We made the first pass and Jon was into a fish within a minute. I followed it with a nice 20″ walleye. We found some decent sized fish and the majority were walleyes. Around 3 , we decided to head downstream and try a couple of spots with poor results. Right before dark we set up for some wing dam fishing but did not have anything to show for our efforts. We were off the water by 6.
Dave , it looks like we should have stayed at the airport. I hope to get back on the water tomorrow and will look to fish shallower water at the airport.

Thanks for the reports. I’m planning to head out this afternoon. I hope I don’t hear “come back tomorrow ’cause they were biting yesterday”

After Ron Zimmerman and I got off the ice last night. I decided to make one last stop at a wingdam to make a few casts. Here is a nice eye that took the likings to my ringworm!

Boy am I lucky! You can never have too many friends with boats!! LOL.

After spending a super day of fishing with Dino, I get luck enough to spend a couple hours of “Class Work” with the “Wing-Dam Professor”! That was a fun day of playing hooky. Thanks to both of you guys.
Jon J.

Nice fish DeeZee… I also noticed you’ve got the “beater” out now!

I picked up Jon J at the dock around 6:00pm when my buddy Ron Zimmerman had to leave.Jon just got out of the boat from Dinosaur and I was heading back out for a little while. Jon agreed to hop in and risk his life in the winter beater for some night action. Thanks Jon.
Bumping ice with the Ranger on the last outing was enough for me at 55 mph and hitting small chuncks of ice!! ouch! So, naturally, I dug out mr. little!

Look for Ron Zimmermans report from our outing to the backwaters soon!

Has anyone ventured up to the Dam or Hidden Falls area? Wondering if that area is worth a visit with the warmer temps this week.

DeeZee posted this from a 12/5 trip:

Sorry, for the delay, Vern hit it on the head with his report.
THe lock side was frozen all the way to the tip of the island. We tried using the jon boat to do some cutting to make some new fishing ground, but the ice was pretty thick!
We caught about 5 walleyes and one nice pike about 7-8 lbs.
The walleyes were pretty small. We fished for about an hour after dark!

I have resorted to the ice fishing for the immdeiate future!! I will be icefishing some of the backwaters on Pool 2 this week and should have a report for ya later then!

Steve “DeeZee” DeZurik
EFN Pro-Staff
http://www.fishtheriver.com
[email protected]

I would expect that most of the good areas by the dam will still be iced in pretty good, even with this warmer weather. But I could be wrong.

One questions for the Pool 2 guys…has anyone done any good in the hole immediately down river of the highway 5 bridge? I always mark fish at the upriver side of the 20+’, but I have only tried it for 5-10 minutes at a time but have never caught a fish there. The shorelines adjacent to the hole are real good at times. The water is pretty fast here in the summer, but this time of year it probably isnt too bad.

Nice catch there DeeZee! Complete with dorsal and everything!!! sorry………..just remembering all the recent pics of missing dorsals from the fish on Pool 4.

Spent the afternoon down by the airport. Dont think fishing was as good today as it sounded yesterday. Spent a little time on some wing dams and at the discharge with no fish. Got on the fish in the main channel. Pich up a couple on minnows but where a little slow so switched to plastics and picked up 8 in the first two drifts. Caught a combo of 15 eyes and saugers between 13″ and 18″. all in the 20’+ off water.
Didnt have any super doos with today so picked up some look alikes from tube & tails. 3″ tubes. Fish hit both the white and a firecracker. Didnt try the purple I had. Tryed a purple white ring worm but they just hit the tail. So yes they are hitting the plastics there. I did seem to do a little better than the guys with minnows.
Thanks for the info this morning Dee Zee. I was going to try the night on a wing dam but decided to rap it up instead.

Actually-that sounds about like yesterday. I didnt start getting on a fast bite until I went shallower. Fishing the channel was producing a fish every 10 or 15 minutes.

I got to the dam around noon Wednesday. The ice was pretty much where previously reported, about even with the tip of the island. By the time I left quite a bit had broken off- some bergs disappeared downriver, others swirled around in the eddies. Fishing was fair, I got four eyes between 16″-20″ plus a littly bitty one, all on fatheads or shiners. Didn’t see another boat the whole time I was out except for two guys in a work boat doing something involving empty Tide jugs in the current just downstream from the first bridge down from the confluence. I couldn’t tell if they were somehow involved in the construction on that bridge or maybe they were commercial fishermen? Anyway the dam is fishable and the Hidden Falls ramp is fine. First time I’d ever used it. Current made getting the boat back on the trailer interesting. I checked the Ft. Snelling ramp (on the MN) but there was a bit of an ice lip ten feet out and I didn’t want to take a change getting stuck. Next time I’ll bring an axe, I probably coulda cleared it out if I’d had one.

Big Northen,

Thanks for the update on the dam area and south. Did you fish the confluence area at all?

That Hidden falls ramp can be a bit tricky with all the current there, but once you get the hang of how far the trailer needs to be in the water in that kind of current, it gets a little easier. I generally tend to leave the trailer a little shallower than I normally would to promote or persuade the boat to go on correctly. Like I said, the current throws a curve ball at you, especially when you are alone here. I have noticed the buoy action as well south of the confluence, looked to me that they were part of the construction bridge crew at the time I saw them.

Again, thanks for the update on the lock side of the dam.

DeeZee,
I didn’t stop at the confluence. There was some ice there but it looked very fishable. 39 and sunny today! I should be out there again. Maybe this weekend.