Interesting proposals to Pool 2 Wingdams Article

http://www.mvp.usace.army.mil/docs/1118/Public_Summary_NESP_PIR_Pool_2_Public_Review.pdf

Interesting. Thanks for the link.

Very cool! Thanks Micah. We have seen them doing alot of work but this helps a ton.

That is some interesting info. Thanks for posting that link Micah. The notching could help make some of those silted over wing dams fish magnets again. It is good to hear that they are trying to improve and maintain a great fishery like pool 2.

They must have some funds avalible for this year because they have started some prep work on the side channel and have already notched one wingdam down south. I have not checked it out good yet but will. It will be nice if they could get some more work done this year so we can see some of the resultes after next springs high water! Very good to see there intrest in improving P2 habitat.

I find it extremely difficult to believe the corp is doing this for the improvement of the wildlife. The trophy fishery is self sustaining and untapped. It doesnt draw crowds, attention or make money. Why would they spend money to improve? Either they had some money to dump or there is an underlying reason.

I think the goal is to keep the side channels (All areas inside the cans to shore) from silting in. They did the environmental impact review and concluded it was good for the wildlife habitat too. At least that’s how I read into it. A lot of what is quoted is from studies done by Pitlo over the last 15 years.

-J.

Accidentally good for the wildlife then. I’ll take it.
The P2 guys are keeping the camera companies in busines.

Mike
is there something you need to get off your chest?

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Mike
is there something you need to get off your chest?

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He’s been hanging around Sand Trap too much. Golfing will do this to a person.

I think the old Corp of Engineers likes our government as it is right now. But that’s another post on another site.

My question is…can the fishing on P2 get better than it is now?

currently, as we speak, right now, can it get better? Yes. There are a select few guys that are landing consistently large fish and I’m not one of them. I had a good couple of weeks about 3 weeks ago, but it’s tapered off a bit for the presentations I have confidence in. There’s a couple of P2 junkies that are killing them right now but I haven’t gotten the inside scoop on what they are doing differently. I think i’ll have to earn it the old fashioned way.
All in all, P2 is a remarkable fishery. Not a lot of places this close to a major city can you pick up fish that big consistently. And quite frankly, I can’t think of a better way to catch them than on plastics with light jigs!!!!!!!!!!

I think there needs to be some work done on pool 2. 2 things that bring this to my attention is the lack of weeds growth. The last couple of years with the longer periods of low water there seems to be more vegetation growing in the back waters. From what I have seen in other pools it is still very little.

Second is the lack of clams. I am sure there are clam beds on pool 2. Off hand I can not tell you where a single one is. Seems to me this may be a indication that there might be a issue.

Im happy to see the pool is getting some attention. Not sure if what they are doing is going to have any effect on the issues stated above. Its just good to see that some one concerned over the pool and not just saying its good enough.

mike
do we know how or why clams bed up in certain areas of the river? I’m guessing it’s flow related but that’s a guess.

Gentlemen:

I can add some additional information. This project is in fact being done strictly for the bennefit of fishery resources. As outlined in the document linked, the plan is to notch 30 wingdams. The hope is that these notches would provide additional flow into areas that have become silted in around wingdams. This would scour sediments, provide some bathymetric (depth) diversity, and also provide additional current seams and complexity that fish like.

Many of the areas targeted have become extremely silted in. The wingdam field below St. Paul Park is a classic example.

To be clear, the overall improvements here may not be substantial – but I do believe they will be meaningful. Some areas may respond better than others. And frankly, it is unknown, probably unlikely, that these notches will directly result in more walleyes (or catfish or other species) within the pool. Factors such as water quality, spawning habitat, and flow and temperature conditions during spawning are likely more important factors in determining population strength. That said, the overall project would be realtively in-expensive (by Corps of Engineers standards) and would provide some habitat improvement within main channel border areas that have limited value much of the year (We did do some very limited fisheries sampling around the proposed wingdams which confirmed this). In my mind, doing something positive in a degraded habitat type at a good price makes sense

The schedule is to hopefully do the action next summer. All depends on funding, but that’s our tentative plan. The activity mentioned around the rock closing structure is a separate effort – we won’t be getting to the wingdams as a part of that effort.

I’ll also add that the sidechannel site mentioned in the article is still under discussion. That part of the project has a few more issues that need to be resolved before we plan on that one moving forward. But everyone (us and the agencies) are all in favor of the wingdam notching.

Hopefull we can get these actions moving forward ASAP.

The public review period for this did officially close, but folks are always welcome to call if they have further questions on the topic. I can also try to address some issues here.

Elliott Stefanik
Biologist/Project Manger
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, St. Paul
651-290-5260

I’ll throw in my two cents, I have a buddy in Iowa that is the best river fisherman I’ve ever met, he told me that if I ever find a dam with a notch in it like this it is a walleye magnet. In- fisherman even noted this in one of there articles several years back. This is great news, its going to take all of those silted in dams and make them productive again.