Pool 2

Fished Hidden Falls for 2 hours or so on Saturday morning. Caught 3 nice sauger no walleye, no other species. Hidden Falls was open, very little boat traffic. The water was very high, fast and lots of debris. With all of the foam from the dam, it is EXTREMELY hard to see debris. I hit a couple of large sticks, no trees-but the were there. Places that had produced fish the last two weekends were not very good.

But like I said, we weren’t out too long. Anyone have any good or bad luck at the Hidden Falls ramp? A couple of times it has been closed since the river opened back up. The closures seem pretty random. If anyone has more info as to what is going on there it would be appreciated.

There was a post a while back regarding the Hidden Falls access and someone stated that they had learned of the spot being slated for reconstruction. The fluctuating water levels might be affecting those time lines, thus changing from open to close periodically.

The closings after Memorial Day were due to mix-ups with the Parks and Rec and the security. The park should be open everyday now until it either floods again. (A real possibility.) Or the DNR starts to repair the ramp area. I am not sure exactly what they are going to do there besides work on the parking lot. I have fished that section off and on for the last couple of weeks, but not since the water started back up. I found it really hard to stay on anything, but a couple of time found walleye/sauger down below the highway 5 bridge. I found a school of channels one time just below the lock right where the lock wall meets the rip rap, but there too the eddy current was so fast I kept getting washed back up toward the lock. Had some luck with walleye/ sauger right at the bottom of the island one day but that was when the flow had dropped to 19000cfs not at the current 30000. Shore fisherman have said they have been catching just about everything on the edge of the Hidden Falls eddy. I think you need to use pretty heavy stuff to get it down in the current current.

How recently did you catch eyes at the end of the island at the dam? I marked a ton of fish there last week, but I saw tons of carp jumping out of the water right next to the island-so I assumed that is what I was seeing. I didnt fish it too long since the current and waves from the fast water made holding the break at the island very difficult. Before the flood, we were getting 20-25″ eyes right at the end of the island it would be nice to get back on some better fish again.

Also-did you find cats on the dam side of the yellow/rip rap border or the lock side? I got one real nice one 20-20lb and some others 5-10 on the lock side only a rod length from the yellow stuff.

It was on the 8th. I caught a 8 pound carp there too, really shallow on the island, but I was quartering the current, parked right up on the tail of the island, the walleye were out about 40 ft directly below the island, in what I think was about 8 to 10 feet. It looks like the sand finger runs even further down the tail of the island then it did last year. I think what was happening was the the current was running my jig into the sand bar and then I was pulling it up just right to have it in the right zone for a good stretch of water. The catfish were caught on the 6th on the lock side, probably the same place you caught yours, I caught a half a dozen between 4 and 7 pounds. Since the 11th the water flow has been higher then 21000, so I have been locking up into pool 1 and fishing smallies. I don’t have much patience not being able to stay on a spot easily and find the float in pool 1 to be better right now.