Pool 2 – Three Hour Tour

Hit the river with Dave B for a few hours last night. First spot produced a chunky 26er on a hairjig for me. Not long after that fish Dave hooks into a pig tossing a shad rap. That fish surfaced at the boat, rolled over and came un-buttoned before I could scoop her with the net. This was a beast, easy 29-30 inch range. Sorry Dave! We pulled a couple more fish in the 20 inch range off this spot plus a couple sheepies.

Spot number 2 produced one 15 inch smallie. Spot # 3 produced a couple more 20 inchers plus a picture worthy chunky 23er for Dave. Running back we hit a trolling run and one last wing dam near Lions with nothing happening there. Nice night to be out on the water! Gotta love this time of year.

-J.

Nice fish

So that is where you were! Looked for you at Milly!

Thanks again Jon. We will have to keep trying for that big one.

It was a great night to be on the river!

Spent the middle part of the day with my Brother and Nephew, we were above the bridge hitting the usual spots. Although we caught a lot of fish only one was a Walleye. Lots of nice Smallies, White Bass, and a couple of tank sized Sheepies all fell to jigs. The Walleye hit a trolled crankbait. As usual no big Walleyes for me but it sure was nice to be out when the wind wasn’t howling! Best part of it was spending the day with the boys, we don’t get out together often enough.

Rootski

My buddy and I are going out on Monday. We are both pretty rookie at river fishing. What kind of areas do you guys look for and target to find hungry fall eyes and sauger?

nice fish!

Nice eyes Jon and Dave. I spent some time on Pool 2 today. Fishing started off great with 6 eyes in 2 hours, but slowed down after that till just before the wind and rain came. I picked a few more before the change in weather and after. No big ones for me just 17-23 inchers. They liked plastics early on, but crankbaits took all the fish later in the day. I even had one walleye chase a crank to the boat and leave the water partially to chase it. Caught my first tagged channel cat today which was around 7 or 8 lbs. The water temp was 51-52 degrees and is clearing up. I could see my lure down 2 feet in some ares.

I made it down there today for a while too. It’s amazing, I hit all the same spots as yesterday and threw pretty much the same stuff. Yesterday it was all White Bass, Sheephead, and Smallies. Today I caught one Sheephead, 3 Smallies, no White Bass, and seven Walleyes! Again no big ones, they were all between 20 and 24 inches. I was doing really well until the wind switched around to the North and started to blow harder. The bite quit on me like throwing a switch. Most of them hit a chartreuse crankbait, a few fell to a white paddle tail. I didn’t find more than two fish on any one spot so moving around a lot paid off. Oh, and I caught a tire. I was trying to pull in the water spike and I could hardly pick it up. I finally got it to the boat and saw that I had snagged a car tire that was full of mud. It weighed a ton!

Rootski

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! Again no big ones, they were all between 20 and 24 inches. Rootski

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I love it Rootski!!!! I am betting there was a time in your past when a 24 inch walleye would have been a big deal and now look at where you are. Anyone who thinks this website doesn’t make better fishermen is wasting a valuable resource. Great report Sir and it sure sounds like you are getting some quality water time this year

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I love it Rootski!!!! I am betting there was a time in your past when a 24 inch walleye would have been a big deal and now look at where you are. Anyone who thinks this website doesn’t make better fishermen is wasting a valuable resource. Great report Sir and it sure sounds like you are getting some quality water time this year

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Well, a 24 inch Walleye is still a big deal to me! I appreciate every one that comes to the boat. Yesterday was a good example why. When I first got out it was bam-bam-bam and it looked like I knew what I was doing. Then Mother Nature switched the weather around and said “OK smart guy, let’s see if you can figure this out”. Once again I was humbled.

The other reason is because “my part” of the Mississippi was DEAD for so many years. When I was a young man all you could find down there was the occasional rough fish. I never seriously considered fishing it. Now when I catch a beautiful Walleye or Smallmouth right in my home town of South St. Paul it is truly amazing. After all those years the river came back!

Rootski

Nice healthy looking fish. Way to go guys.

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Caught my first tagged channel cat today which was around 7 or 8 lbs.

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Interesting! Did you get the tag number for a history on the fish? I guess I was not aware of any tagging (Walleye, Catfish or other) going on.

-J.

The MN DNR has been tagging fish in the Croix and P2 for a couple years now. They also have Fisherman’s Diary’s that the folks that fish cats can fill out to help them with their research.

For reporting tagged fish, here’s a handy link

Tagging info and link<<

Please remember, these aren’t ducks or geese tags. If you aren’t going to harvest the fish, please leave the tag in, write down the number, take a length/girth measurement if you can, note the location (river mile marker is good, gps numbers better) and email the whole works to the DNR at the above provided link.

Note: By law, the DNR doesn’t publish locations, in case you’re worried about giving out your walleye hot spot.

Back to the regularly scheduled thread…

Thanks, BK !

-J.

I didn’t write down the number, and it didn’t look like the tag was very old. The skin around the puncture sites was not healed yet. The tag was yellow and attached to a coil of metal through the back near the dorsal fin.

Nice fish and update, Jon!

I’ll piggyback your report. I spent the majority of the weekend getting things wrapped up around the house before it gets too cold but managed to sneak out for a few hours with dad on Sunday morning. The bite started a little slow but once we got a pattern together things fell into place nicely. Our fish came on bright colored paddletails, k-grubs, and hairjigs with non standing out more than the other.

Hope to make it out again this week and later in the weekend.

Nice one there!

-J.

Nice Scaly One Pete! Great pic too.

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I didn’t write down the number,

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Did you at least get her first name?? LOL!

Glad you left the tag in her…and I’m betting it looked like this sturgeon tag. Same tag, different fish.

I was diggin thru my wallet this morning looking for a buck…a bunch of red tickets fell out with the word “launch” written on them.

Turns out I still have a bunch of free (get one with a launch fee) beers coming from Willie’s!

With these good reports coming in…I’ll be using those tickets soon.!

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Turns out I still have a bunch of free (get one with a launch fee) beers coming from Willie’s!

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Free beer I have to start launching where you do. No free beer at lillydale but I think a person could score a quickie and/or some drugs in the back of the lot.

Fished Sunday AM. 2 Saugers, Bunch of smallies, a pike and a nice channel with some sort of warts on its mouth. All on Gulp minnows on Jigs. First time this year I have not caught a walleye and I think first time I have not caught a Sheephead .

That happens to every cat I kiss…you up on your shots?