Pool 2

Got a long day of fishing in yesterday on pool 2. The fishing started out kinda slow in the early morning but thats the way the bite has seemed to be so far this year. Once the sun got a little higher and started poking through the clouds the fish got a little more active.

Casting and trolling crank baits was the most productive for us. The fish where hitting many colors but that red/chartreuse storm smash shad was still a favorite. We spent most of our time targeting side channels and shoreline current breaks. Still picked up a few on BfishN white paddle tails. Was a little surprised to not get anything on jigs and crawlers yet.

Water levels are dropping on the river. A inch or two every day but its still up a little right now. Kinda wish the levels would come back up a foot or so. If levels continue to drop would expect more fish to be moving out more to the main channel wingdams.

Big fish for yesterday was a nice fat 27″er we found trolling a smash shad in a side channel. She was hanging out back there with some big saugers. Managed a 22 and 20″ sauger right with here. Numbers where not great yesterday but we kept sticking with it picking up a few fish here and there. Still a very fun day on the water.

Nice fish Mike. Darn right that 27″er is fat! Thanks for keeping us up-to-speed on the bite.

Joel

Nice job guys!

Jason and I managed a few fish yesterday as well. All of our fish came on cranks. We gave crawlers and plastics a valiant effort, but notta. If you throw out the couple of dinks we caught, we probably averaged around 20 inches. Just like you, we found fish along main channel shorelines in 5-10 fow, and in backwater cuts. Casting and trolling seemed to be equally productive. I have been picking up my trolling speed lately (up to 1.8), and yesterday the fish were crushing the cranks. Several times I swore I had a catfish on based on the hit. Clown, Red Craw, and White were the hot colors for us.

-Drew

Great fish and nice report

Gotta love this time of year!!

Nice fish, Mike! Wish my day would have gone better – hard to catch fish when your boat’s filling w/ water!

That is a nice fish Mike!

Great report, Mike!

-J.

Here is a nice 28″ from Tuesday evening. Picked up this gal on a lemon lime fat A bomber off a little rock hump right next to a spot Ive fished a lot over the years. Always fun to pick up a fish off a new spot. Better yet when its a big one. Did also get two other fish in this area. Both those where in the low 20″ range and hit white paddle tails. Still got to love the way those fish thunk a jig and plastic.

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Nice fish, Mike! Wish my day would have gone better – hard to catch fish when your boat’s filling w/ water!

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Got to live on the edge Pete. Been having issues with mine also. That day I seen you guys on the lower end of the pool I had water in my boat dang near up to the floor before realizing it. Theres a crack in the drain pipe to my live well. Been running the bilge pump a lot the last few trips out but Im going to need to take a afternoon to pull up the floor boards and see whats going on with this.

That’s a beauty…can’t wait for the fall already when these big girls pack on some weight. Hopefully going to head out tomorrow morning for a bit and give another go at figuring these eyes out. I focused on 10-12 fow along some seams and cutbacks in the shoreline last time out, but actually picked up our first fish at the very end of the day in about 5 fow…excited to try some new areas…I will be focusing in some shallower water this time..

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Nice fish, Mike! Wish my day would have gone better – hard to catch fish when your boat’s filling w/ water!

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Got to live on the edge Pete. Been having issues with mine also. That day I seen you guys on the lower end of the pool I had water in my boat dang near up to the floor before realizing it. Theres a crack in the drain pipe to my live well. Been running the bilge pump a lot the last few trips out but Im going to need to take a afternoon to pull up the floor boards and see whats going on with this.

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Hey mike can you post what you find out with that pipe/hose. I have had that same problem twice now and the dealer tells me its from water that froze in there from running it over the winter months. I am kinda curious to see how and what you fixed it with.

Sure thing. Chance are the 1st thing Im going to fix it with is a couple of plugs from the hardware store. Dont typically use my live well anyways. Did have them siliconed up for a while but figured with the plug laws now someone was going to give me a ticket for that. Looks like the center floor board should come up pretty easy in the boat. Would bet a repair might just be snipping the line and stubbing in a piece of pex piping. Thats what should be used in the first place. Pex piping will freeze but it will not break. Just expands a little.

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I will be focusing in some shallower water this time..

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That is probably a good plan! As the flow starts to coming down though, the fish will start moving out to deeper water. Flow strength is the greatest determinant of how deep I am fishing.

If I find structure in 8-10 fow with the right flow, I surely won’t be passing it up. During higher water periods, 8-10 fow with the right flow is more difficult to find. The right flow usually ends up being shallower. The water levels are coming down, so I’ll be moving out a little deeper each outing to stay with the seems.

-Drew

Nice, I might see you down there this weekend, what were the wa ter temps.

Hate to say I didnt pay much attention to the temps this last trip. Would guess in the low 60s.

Thanks for advice Drew. Last time, my main focus was on the 10-14fow and of course we only had a coupe hits and that was it. The only fish we picked up was in the 5-6fow in more slack water.
I do recall seeing some nice current seams that were in the 6-10 fow in some of the back water/side cut back areas where the current flows around some land areas. I have lots of exploring to do as I am new fishing that far south…thats what keeps it interesting. I was going to head out today, but I had to postpone….going out tomorrow morning instead….time to get out of this office! It was nice meeting you last week…

-Cory

Ill be out around 494 this afternoon. Stop by and say hi if you make it out.

Nice…cheers to us for being self-employed…we can go when we want to….unfortunately, I cannot make it out this afternoon.I am sure liking the overcast skies though…if anything, I would head to Owasso for two hours since it is so close and I can be walleye fishing in 17 minutes with line in the water…..will be out at 7am on P2 tomorrow morning…I am sure you will get’em!

Fished mostly north of 494 this afternoon. Again the bite started pretty good with picking up walleyes on the 1st two casts. Both hot white paddle tails. Bad part was that was the last fish that hit a plastic for me. Manged about a dozen this afternoon. Most of the rest on cranks baits. Couple on jigs and crawlers. Fished mostly wingdams targeting the seams on them near the shoreline. Nothing real big this afternoon. Biggest got off boat side before getting a good look at her. Isn’t that the story of fishing.

Couple of photos from yesterday. Water temps 60.5. Still got to love how those fish hit the BfishN plastics.

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Nice fish, Mike! Wish my day would have gone better – hard to catch fish when your boat’s filling w/ water!

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Got to live on the edge Pete. Been having issues with mine also. That day I seen you guys on the lower end of the pool I had water in my boat dang near up to the floor before realizing it. Theres a crack in the drain pipe to my live well. Been running the bilge pump a lot the last few trips out but Im going to need to take a afternoon to pull up the floor boards and see whats going on with this.

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Hey mike can you post what you find out with that pipe/hose. I have had that same problem twice now and the dealer tells me its from water that froze in there from running it over the winter months. I am kinda curious to see how and what you fixed it with.

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Got that pipe replaced today. On the suck meter that job really sucked. That pipes been laying in slim in the bottom of the boat for almost 10 years now. Im freaking grim from head to toe. About 4 hrs to get it changed out. Found a 5″ crack in the pipe about mid boat. Ended up running some new rubber dish washer hose for replacement. Figured it might take the freezing a little better. There are photos on my face book page or Ill try to get them up on here later.

Finally made it back out again on Friday and although I planned only taking a half a day off work, I ended up taking the whole day off….this fishing finally happened for us.

I had a couple bad trips the river earlier in the season when the flow was greater, river higher, and the water murkier from all the spring runoff. On Friday, we ended up boating 25 walleyes with a 25.5″ being the biggest. Most fish were averaging about 18-19″, but the action was non-stop. We fished from 7:30-2:30 and there really was no slowing up. The only slow part was after we burned up a spot, we had to find another and once we did, it was game on all over again. After we fished that spot, we returned to the original spot to find the fish active once again.

The wing dam bite was coming around for us, but trolling was the ticket. Trolling smash shad in areas of cutback banks, and current seams worked well. For the first part of the day, the fish were active on the inside of weaker current seams in about 5-7fow with fish moving out a bit into the 7-10fow and on or outside a weak current seam. We dis get some casting, but for the life of us, we could not get them to take any plastic moxies…

Thanks to Mike W for sharing his past fishing techniques. It took a few slow and fishless trips, but I am finally getting better and reading some of the water conditions and beginning to locate more fish. I am sure this week it will start all over again as the fish will be in different spots and require different presentations…thats river fishing I guess.

Nice fish, ProCor!

Sounds like a good day of fishing. Glad to hear you got on them. .

Mike, your one picture looks like the inside of my boat….hanging lures on the carpeted sidewalls – when the bite is on, they are easily accessed.

Reminds me of a time I had about 10 Rapalas/cranks and blades hanging on the side of the center console and took a friend and his young son fishing…yep, the boy lost balance and fell right into all 60 hooks and was tangled up for quite some time with his nylon jacket. He didnt get hurt, but I couldnt stop laughing…looked like he fell into a plastic, kiddy wading pool filled with crankbaits and rapalas and rolled around for a while..they were everywhere. I hate to admit it…but I have done it myself. Anyway…at the last sports show, the3 wife bought me one of those magnetic “Gear Grabber” sets …just never installed it. I am hoping it will be useful and not a gimic….