Pool 2, Saturday 3-22-03

Tough day on the water. The fish seem to have gone on vacation. I fished from 7:00 til after 5 pm and boated 2 eyes, a few white bass and real nice Red Horse. I fished most of the sand flats, and bars from the 494 access up to the Ford dam, and didn’t touch a fish. Got the 2 eyes up at the lock side of the dam. I know this water, WHAT’S UP ???? I fished shallow, deep, and everything in between. Used every color of ringworm in the box, and some other plastics, some super doo’s as well. I didn’t take any meat……….I know , I know, slap me later, but I don’t like minnows. Please don’t tell me that everything is a meat bite up here. One good thing, I did meet Boone, great to meet you Boone, also met Zim…..both nice guys.

I heard this from a Pro. and an older gentleman and it seems to be holding true. Barametric pressure. When a High Pressure Area moves in the bite slows and the fish will hold close to cover. Meaning you have to work a little harder to coaxs the fish to bite. A High Pressure area has move into this area. Sunshine, Warmer Weather . I’ve been reading about the bite on the river.and how it has slowed since the area moved through. The statements made by these folks still seems to be holding true. I’ve read the weather forcast for today (3/23/03) and the Barametric pressure is falling and a Low pressure system will be moving in later today. By these folks statements the fishing should turn on later this afternoon. Check it out yourself and see if the fishing reports gets better then. Or get out there and give it a try.

BT-EYE is correct.Pressure changes do affect fish. I LOVE fishing before a front coming through, risht up until the winds switch to the north. A simple formula to note is: falling pressure=fish, rising pressue=no fish. There are always exceptions to the rule, so that statement is by no means set in stone. With that said, it has appeared to me that river fish are not as affected by a major front passing through, as a lake ‘eye would be. Has anyone else noticed this?

TBO- I probably saw you up at the confluence… I was the guy fishing from shore. Like you, I threw every color of ringworm possible, and threw some hair as well. Nothing. Not even a hit! Out of all the boats out there, I only saw 2 small ‘eyes boated. It looked like they were caught on a vertical jig/minnow combo.

TBO,

Times are a little tough right now on Pool 2 compared to a few weeks ago. The minnesota river has let loose a little more over the past week and therefore muddied up the water considerably as you noticed.

Spent all day Sunday up by the confluence area only to boat two nicer eyes (24″ & 26″) Lost a couple more that felt real pretty respectable. Only a handful of nice fish caught yesterday due to all the traffic on the water. Look to the weekdays for the fish to be a little less spooky up here in this area. Now is also the time I like to fish at night due to these conditions.
Due to some vehicle problems here recently for me, it has kept me off the water the last couple days. Hopefully should be back on the water by Tuesday night.

I made it out for a few hours yesterday on Pool 2. I was fortunate enough to have my 3 year old girl along. We lost one brand new rod in the 1st 2 minutes of fishing. We didnt catch a fish and saw only one get caught. Zero bites. Snagged a shore fisherman who had cast 40 yards out into the river.

But…..the weather was warm. The people were nice. I saw Jon J and DeeZee on the water w/ their pups. We had PB&Js, M&Ms and fizzy (my girls word for pop). She surpised me by wanting to hold the rod and was happy to reel in a minnow-look daddy a fish! When I asked if she wanted to go in she said “No daddy, I want to fish more”. So I wouldnt exactly call it fishing, but I had a great date w/ my little girl.

That was nice to seeyou out there Dave. I did spread the word to all the boats in the area that were just above us when your dsughter lost her rod. Then I found out just minutes before you lost your rod that one other boat lost their rod as well and it was their second of the day.

It was good to see you out there with your daughter, from the looks of it she was definately enjoying herself with the grin ear to ear.
I got a chance to visit also with Big Northern out there and his son Dan. It was good to meet a face with the name, a great guy as well.

Sunday on pool 2 was a bust for me too, fish wise, zero fish in the boat. However, I am faily confident my son Dan landed a state record garter snake. We were poking around an eddy down from the confluence. I was trying to convince myself that all the marks on my locater were fish not bark, sticks, garbage etc. when Dan (10 yrs.old) yelled, “Dad there’s a SNAKE!” He loves all reptiles so we quickly brought it aboard in the net. It was so chilled it was barely moving. Into the empty minnow bucket (yes i’m a plastics man now) it went, Dan had a friend all the way back home where Mr. Snake was released in the back yard. As far as Dan was concerned the snake was way better than any fish. I think I need to hook him up with a 10 lb. carp or cat, maybe he’ll change his view after that.

Very crowded on the river Sunday afternoon. There were 15 boats below the lock at the Ford dam, ten or so at the confluence, and many shore fishers around. DeeZee, it was nice to meet you out there!

TBO, it was nice to meet and talk with you as well. It sure is fun to meet new EFN fisherman After talking with you we ended up finding some fish late in the day around the confluence area but it certainly wasn’t hot and heavy. I attached a pic of a 26″ fish caught towards the end of the day.

Dave, I don’t think we actually exchanged names but I wanted to tell you it was great to see you and your cute fishing partner. Man did she have a big smile. What a fun day with dad! I was the guy with the excitable 9mo. old lab pup. I did catch someones yellow jig and pulled in a ton of line but there wasn’t anything attached to the rod end.

I had a green/white/orange fireball-no yellow. Oh well. Was it a black lab pup?

It is frustrating when the bite is off on the upper part of Pool 2. You know the fish are there, because there isnt that much water to explore. But when the bite is off and boats are racing around like crazy it sure is tough to get them to bite.

It was a black lab pup…
It sure can get busy this time of the year. It is frustrating but man was it a great day! I stayed until dark hoping the eyes would move in after all the boats were gone but that didn’t happen. We’ll see next time.