Anyone heading out today?

Hopefully work won’t go nuts like yesterday and the wind won’t be hurricane force. If so I’m heading to Pool 3 this afternoon. Anyone else going to be out? I think I’ll launch in Prescott.

Suzuki,

I see the winds are forecasted to be S-SW 10-15mph and temps near 70 degrees and mostly sunny! Sounds like a good recipe for a day on the water.
I will be on Pool 2 this afternoon!

Dunno if I can convince the GF to hit the river, I’m thinking it would be my best bet, but it is a 40 minute drive or so, if we do go out I’ll probably launch out of prescott too, since it’s closer to where I’d like to fish. We’ll see, it might just work.

Does look like there might be some wind out there…

OH YEAH!!!! I’ll be out later.

Steve- you have a guide trip this afternoon… or just solo?

I’m going to miss out…but I hear good things about the wing dams just below Prescott. Crank Baits.

Travis,

Guiding again today! Should be a good bite!
Looks like the water level has come up a foot or so since the weekend, but the flow has increased to 9300 CFS!

I was on P2 last night. Water clarity was about 3-4 inches and muddy. The fish did not seem to mind however.

Woo WOooo see you guys out there don’t be afraid to say hi, I’ll be wearing a khaki colored gander mountain hat in my red lund, it looks like I’m going to try and launch from hastings, then head down to the prescott area.

Hasting’s launch worked pretty good for us tonight. We caught only sauger tonight, and kept 3 for the dinner table, big one going about 17.5 inches. No walleye though, did manage to find a few sheepies. Didn’t see a boat with 2 suzuki’s on it so

The boat with 2 Zukes was definitely out there. I started in Prescott and picked up two decent eyes right away then headed downstream. I hit wings all the way to Diamond Bluff but only got one more good eye. Couple shorts and a saug. I was throwing (losing) B A’s. The up-stream wind was kinda nice in that was easier to hold on a wingy but it made it next to impossible to anchor with one anchor.
Went back in the backwaters but another boat was trolling were I wanted to so I didn’t stay long. That cloud burt JUST missed hitting the river. I mean just a mile north got a down poor! My boat got dirty trailering home on the wet roads!

Mike,

Yeah we got hit hard and quick with the rain on Pool 2 last night. I kept resisting to put my rain gear on as it started out a light drizzle and thought it would pass quickly. Well little did I know it started to really come down for about 15 minutes and I scrambled to get my guidewear on.

We ended up going to backwaters to get our fish with both 3-ways and bait and longlining cranks. The water clarity on Pool 2 has deteriorated to about 2-3 inches of visibility with all the recent rains. We boated a couple near twin 24″-25″ fish for top honors for the night followed by a handful of 17″-19″ fish. They wanted crawlers and nothing else! Tried leeches and both of my customers on either side of me proceeded to get bit on the crawlers each pass through a small cut area. about 30 seconds after I switched over to crawlers, I got bit immediately!!

I figured you were indeed out there, and I would’ve ran into you if I kept to my plan, but once I found a spot they were hitting, I kept the boat probably within a hundred yards or so the rest of the night, instead of hitting the wing dams.

Care to share any details on your nights success? Cranks, bait, trolling, pitching, etc….
We hit 3 wingdams and no fish, so we decided to leave and hit the backwater current breaks!

Most of my fish came on a Chart. jig and (it didn’t seem to matter) a Golden shiner or fathead. I was snap jigging, I had one hit on the drop, they actually seemed to prefer the minnow just dangling between snaps, a stinger hook improved hooking % a couple fish were only hooked on the stinger, I did miss quite a few hits even then. That and we picked up a couple with crawler injected with air, with a snagless lindy weight, 4-6 foot snell. Tried a yellow ringworm, for a couple minutes, with no luck (yellow was the only color I had in my box last night). Majority of the fish I caught were 20+ feet basically a deeper flat not too far from breakline, which may be why I only saw sauger, but it between the current and wind I was catching fish, I was more comfortable in deeper water. I did try a shallower area with quick break, drifted up it once, and back down it without a hit, so I went be to the previous area.

My experince is limited fishing for walleye’s and sauger, so generally if I find something that’s working, I don’t try and change it too much. Jig fishing is totally new to me, never before this year did I jig fish, So since I had some what of a jig bite going I thought I’d concentrate on that to learn a bit more. I need to learn a bit more about trolling, but have had very limited sucess on river.

Thanks for the info Rider!
Sounds like you had a solid pattern going for you. As you know there are so many different jigging techniques and snap jigging is one of those that alot of anglers do not use enough.
Were you on the main channel or in a back water lake or cut?

Trolling on the river right now is probably the most efficient way to find fish and find them fast! Water temps are warm snd fish are on the move and willing to chase down a crankbait presented to them in a somewhat half precision manner!

Suzuki,
How was the water clarity for you last night down on Pool 3?
Up here on 2, we have a very quick response from the Mn river when it rains. We usually see conditions decline within a couple days of a good rain.

What water clarity? Like pea soup. I never watched my sonar so closely as I did last night going into back waters.
My go to lure was a Bomber 6A. Both green crawdad and blue.

Is there a place on the site to get a map of pool 2?

Rickk,
I have been using these Navigational Maps for my fishing on Pool 2 for years. They do not have any depth contours. Why I use these? Its a great starter map to get aquainted with all the wingdams that Pool 2 has to offer as well as all the backwater as well. There is a older fishing map of Pool 2 that is sold at Fleet Farm or some bait shops. Although a little outdated, all the info on the map is good and and will help you eliminate water.

Navigational Charts

Hope this helps and Good luck fishing!