Quick Pool 2 report

Made it out yesterday in all the wind/rain. Glad I ventured out, because the walleyes were definitely cooperating. I was having the same luck as Steve reported earlier this week by doing the “run-n-gun” methos… but yesterday was different. I was able to pull multiple fish from each wingdam I hit…. they were stacked pretty good. Pitching cranks was the ticket on this trip…. and the quality of those that made it to the boat was incredible. I ended up with 11 for the day, with 7 being 26″ or better. The biggest ran a healthy 28 1/2. Only got a couple pics before the rain made me have to bury the digital.

another one

As I was taking the hooks out of another walleye… up comes Mike W in his rig. He was trolling an are just by me. He asks if I had a camera…. and luckily I did. He had a pig in the bottom of his boat….

Travis, the guys are working on the pic upload system…hang on to those pix and post them a bit later…thanks

Nice looking fish, just wondering what type of cranks they were hitting, heading up to Lansing on pool 9 this weekend, hopefully the water level will be alright. Again nice fish!

Grappler Shads!

Nice fish Travis and Mike!

Nice fish Travis!
Any color pattern working better for you than others?

No better feeling than a big walleye drilling a crank in shallow water. And by casting, you get to feel the hit every time! I love that slight pause of the lures vibrations while its being inhaled by a predator!

Awesome fish Travis!!!

It was a pretty good day for me also. Between rain storms, fighting the wind and answering to many phone calls I did manage to pick up 3 nice eyes. 1, 24″. 1, 26″ and one nice 29.5″ eye.
My largest fish came on a 6a bomber trolled on the rip rap. Crank bait lips in the rocks seem to be the ticket here. This fish was a good work out for a new trolling rig I picked up over the winter and was the only eye I found on this strech of rip rap. There where some very hungry sheepies in the area and managed to hooked about a 5# sheepie with the crankbait swallowed down its throught. What a nice sight that is to see coming to the side of the boat.
My other 2 fish came of a short wing dam with deep water near by. Started that area by pitching a number of different cranks with nothing. Switched to a heavy jig and electric blue ringie and with in a few cast landed my other 2 fish. Both these fish came off the bottom of the wing dam in close to 19′ of water.
Thanks for snapping a couple of photos yesterday Travis. Looking forward to seeing them.
Also looking forward to hitting the water again friday morning.

Mike,

Congrats on your fish as well. Sounds like a productive outing!
The riprap you got your big fish off of produced many multi-specie troll passes through that area for me as well. As of my last 4 trips I have pulled through that area at least once and have had a mixed bag of fisho on each pass.

One little tidbit about the current swept riprap shorelines,
I have been hitting them early in the am and doing well pitching hair and plastics to these areas. Once the sun gets higher and the boat traffic increases, the boat waves really spook these fish from the ultra shallow areas and tend to pull deeper very quickly. 1/16th and 1/8th oz has been the norm in the am here.
I have a couple more trips booked and then I will be up to the big pond 100% of my time…..so in advance have a great summer on Pool 2 and I will be back in the fall! Save a couple for me!

Nice fish Travis, I thought maybe I would hear from , but have’nt since you picked up your boat from my house. Still looking forward to that fishing lesson on Pool 2. Hope your truck is working good.

NICE CATCH TRAVIS AND MIKE W

Nice fish Travis! Hey, a couple quick questions for you. I live about 5 miles from the 494 landing and would love to find some fish nearby. I’ve caught quite a few walleyes by the Ford dam, but have had no luck at all near the bridge. Are you further south? Also, I’ve always had the best luck jigging for walleye. Is this method not successful in that area? If not, I guess I’ll have to learn to fish some of those crank bait that have found a home in the bottom of my box.

Any input is appreciated.

Thanks!

Steve-

The new red color was the ticket during the lowlight period that day. I wish I had some of the smaller version in that color, as my first spot I lost 4 fish due to short hits. I even had one take a muskie style whack right at the boat, on the surface. You are right though… that felling of “nothing” as those big walleye inhale those things. I must say, the Grappler Shad is QUICKLY becomming my crank of choice these days.

Wallace-
I run a pretty good range of Pool 2, from the dam to a few miles south of the 494 bridge. I am starting to explore even further south, as theres a ton of water I haven’t covered. The correct person to ask is Steve DeZurik, as he is the one who taught me everything I know about fishing Pool 2. The big key, IMHO, is learning to fish wingdams effectivley, as there are hundreds of them. Once again, Steve is the master at this… he’s been fishing pool 2 for many years. If you have the means, hire him for a guide trip! Sounds like he will be heding up to the Pond here shortly for his summer stint up there… but he will be back in the fall. And fall on Pool 2 is the time of year when you can tie into BIG fish! In the meantime, you can PM me, and I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

TwistedQuisty-
Yes.. the truck is now running fine! Would you beleive it was a simple fuse that wreaked all that havoc??? Thanks again for all the help! I have just recently started back on Pool 2… the spring bite never took off. It was a tough, and I mean TOUGH few weeks of fishing. I then had the RCL tourney out on Erie… and took a week off after that to recover from the beating the wind & waves put on me. I will be in contct soon though… as the crank bite is going good!!

Line recommendation:

What type and pound test line are you using? I’ve experiemented with different types of lines to throw and troll cranks and havent settled on one kinds. Any thoughts.

fredbart,

As for line reccomendations goes, there are a ton of options out there that will all do the job as you know. One thing for sure about this style of fishing is that you can get away with murder when it comes to line weights or color of line for that matter escpecially on the river. The biggest thing to look out for is to get a good abrasion resistant line, because these wingdam rocks can create havoc on your line and put all kinds of knicks and cuts into the line. I run a couple different setups right now. On my baitcasters, I have beefed up to a 20# superbraid for pulling the cranks through the rocks. This seems to hold up well and also have the leverage to pull alot of your snagged cranks out of the rocks and in turn save you a few $$$$. One reminder when pitchin gthis heavier braid is to be sure to use a medium action rod with a fast to very fast tip, this will prevent tearing the hooks out when a fish sneeks up and gums the crank. My reccomendation for a good rod would be the an Avid Series rod in the 6-1/2 to 7 foot length The other setup that I have been playing more and more with for my spinning rods for pitching hair and plastics is Silver Thread Excaliber 8# & 10# . This has shown that it can take some of the abuse of rubbing on the rocks.

Hope this helps!
The bite does not get any easier than it is right now on Pool 2 for above average sized walleyes!

Todays trip was about the same as wensdays. Only managed 2 fish this morning but both where nice. 1, 25.5 and 1, 26.6.
I think I might of spent a little to much time on the trolling bit this morning with out much luck. Need to keep on the move right now.
The bottom front edge of the wingdams produced my larger fish today. Hopping a heavy jig and ringworm right out to the boat.
I cant complain about the fishing on pool 2 right now. The quality of fish is great. The only reason for me to head up north this weekend is to find some freezer fish. (At least I will still be on the Ole Miss up there.) 5 eyes in 2 trips and a 24.5 being the smallest. I call that quality fishing.

I agree 100% Mike. Our trip last night produced 11 nice fish. My customer lost a really big walleyes last night on a heavy jig/plastic combo right at the base of the wingie.
We saw the fish for a brief moment rigt after the hook was set and then she hugged the bottom for a good heart breaking 20 seconds without another look. Then the hook popped out as she rolled her head just the wrong way… I think that was the biggest fish I have seen in the last month or so on Pool 2. I would have loved to taken a picture of that one!
I have trips most of next week on Pool 2 yet and looking forward to it!

Do you guys know if the 494 ramp is open?

Thanks,
Mike T.

Well… I decided to avoid the masses and stick to the river. Saturday was spent doing a little exploring… with a few fish to show. Sunday was nothing short of awesome…. including a beast that tipped the scales at just a hair over 10.

another pig

yup… another

who needs Mille Lacs…. eh?

Damm. Nice fish Travis. Has the pattern changed at all?

Fished pool 2 for the first time yesterday. After reading the report, I thought it was time to give it a try. Spent some time on Wing dams with no success. Ran down river and found a rock,rip-rap shoreline with current. Just like the forums suggested, I trolled Bombers and Grapplers. Ended up with on 17 inch walleye, one sheepy, and the frosting on the cake a very nice 24 inch walleye. All fish were caught trolling cranks.

Pool two can be intimidating. But, the forum advice helped add some supporting ideas which the result of one of teh nicest walleyes I have ever caught! Thanks all.

Way to go Fred. All the good advice in the world does no good unless you act on it.
It was just a few years ago that I was making my first trip out on pool 2 also. It was this web site that peaked my interist in it.
Trolling the rip rap is a favorite of mine. It has never been much of a numbers spot compaired to some other areas but is good for a quality fish or 2. One of these days I need to slow it up a little and do some pitching on these shore lines.
I’m hoping with this last rain that ater levels will come up somemore and get the sand trolling bite going. The sand was a good numbers area last summer with just a few quality fish mixed in. At least in the area I was fishing.
Have fun learning pool 2 and keep posting the reports.

Excellent Fred! I remeber my first days on Pool 2… I had no clue what a wingdam was. Now, going on my 3rd year of fishing it… I can say its one of the best little secrets metro fishing has to offer.

Mike-
Things have changed just a tad. Patience has been the key the last couple of trips… and just pounding the spots that I feel are holding fish. It pays off… as 15 casts to the exact smae spot with nothing to show… then WHAM a pig hits. I’ve been getting more and more fish pitching jigs to the bases of wingies. I also picked up a fish running some sand on Sunday… so it shouldn’t be long now before that bite swings into gear. With all the rain, the river is coming back up… which it needed to do! I’m hoping this will start to group the fish more, rather than being scattered like they have been. I’ve got some spots to hit once the water gets there….

Looks like Pool 2 finally is producing some fish this spring. The bite was tough during the early spring months. After picking up some eaters over opener, it looks like a guy should get back down to the river. Nice fish Travis!

Ben,

The bite right now is as good as it gets for the warmer water summer months. We had an excellent trip again last night with plenty of big fish coming to the boat. Pitching cranks to the wingdams is the name of the game right now still. Trolling rip rap and current swept sand areas in 5-10 foot of water will get you bit as well! This consistent bite will last well into June and July!