P2 Report 10/19/13

I am fairly new to river fishing and have been reading that fall can bring in big fish in Pool 2 so I went out yesterday 10/19. I didn’t have live bait so I was using 1/2 oz long shank jigs with 5″ swimbait. I didn’t fair too well. Had a couple of strikes I missed and one hookup with a ~16″ or so Walleye..nothing else. Fished from around 4-7PM. I was mostly concentrating on the area downriver of Ford dam near the island down to the entrance of Minnehaha. Also ran down to the Minnesota River confluence with no luck. Water temp was around 52F. Also tried pulling a crank bait at about 10 ft or so with no luck. Hopefully I have better luck next time.

For Walleye would I be better off fishing the wing-dams? There aren’t many defined wing dams between St Paul and Ford dam, but there are some downriver of St Paul.

That’s a pretty heavy bait, the flow is going good right now but I would assume you still had to work it pretty good which might be problematic if fish want a slower presentation now with the cooler water temps. Most my eyes nowadays have come with the lightest jig you can get away with to hover your bait right off bottom. All that time put in and to think you only used a couple lures I would suggest switching it up every 10 min until you find what they want. I’m pretty ADD when It comes to lure changing but every time you find the bait that is putting off the right vibe and color you will pull 2-3 fish immediately where you thought there was none. Good luck next time!

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For Walleye would I be better off fishing the wing-dams?

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Typically focus on the upper pool earlier in the season. This time of year the main structure I would be targeting are wing dams. So from the St Paul airport area on south to Hastings. Good Luck.

-J.

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I am fairly new to river fishing and have been reading that fall can bring in big fish in Pool 2 so I went out yesterday 10/19. I didn’t have live bait so I was using 1/2 oz long shank jigs with 5″ swimbait. I didn’t fair too well. Had a couple of strikes I missed and one hookup with a ~16″ or so Walleye..nothing else. Fished from around 4-7PM. I was mostly concentrating on the area downriver of Ford dam near the island down to the entrance of Minnehaha. Also ran down to the Minnesota River confluence with no luck. Water temp was around 52F. Also tried pulling a crank bait at about 10 ft or so with no luck. Hopefully I have better luck next time.

For Walleye would I be better off fishing the wing-dams? There aren’t many defined wing dams between St Paul and Ford dam, but there are some downriver of St Paul.

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There are lot more wing dams south of st paul. Lot more guys fishing them to. My guess would be tweaking your presentation a little and you will find walleyes on the upper river to. Vertically jigging hair jigs, blade baits, minnows or ringworms might be a good option. Target the current seams. Hold those baits still with just lowering to the bottom every now and again. Many fish will hit while its still. Move in shallower towards evening. 10′ to right on the shoreline. target shoreline current seams, rip rap, humps or rock piles. My guess you will be fishing 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jig there casting to these spots.

also cant stress how important “hovering” those baits are right now.
Was out a few nights ago and got a bunch of fish on stick baits. Every one of them came well after a small twitch or movement while the bait fluttered in the current. sometimes they hit with the bait directly behind the boat on a tight light just wobbling against whatever current there was right on top of the wing dam.

Micah,

I’m wondering what type of stick baits you find most effective on the wing dams this time of year? Last fall I was having some success with sinking stick baits that had a small lip. I did not try the Rapala original floating stick baits because I thought they would not get down deep enough when hovered in place over the tops of wing dams. Although I did catch some fish on the sinking stick baits, I never had a night were they out produced plastics. Sometimes it was about even between the stick baits and plastics but I never had any times where the stick baits clearly were better than grubs or Moxies. Next time out I’m going to try some deep diving stick-like baits that have a big lip.

Thanks,

Boone

A few years back I plopped a heavy lead / original rap below the boat just to get it out of the way as we were trying different presentations. After a few minutes it got hammered on by a pig sauger. Didn’t take long to piece together a presentation from there. The meat boys were crying

Thanks for the helpful tips. I will try some of these things. One question though…I have tried lighter jigs on the River before and they seem to work ok in the summer with low flow conditions, but does anyone also use smaller jigs when the current is stronger like it is now? It seems that a 1/8oz jig gets swept down the river and I can’t tell if it is on the bottom or what it is doing. In that case would you position just upriver of where the target is and then let her drop and free spool as it sinks? I don’t think I could hover anything ligher than about 1/2 oz off the bottom up by ford dam…too much current.

All about the hovering right now. Many variables come into play, with only experience being the teacher. An 1/8oz jig in 10′ of water with a 2.5″gulp minnow will get you down pretty darn quick, take the same jig with a 2.5″ paddletail or moxie and it slows big time. I will try to determine the depth, cast as far upstream as I think it will take for that lure to get to the bottom hopefully at that 90degree mark that way the rod tip can just hold the spot and let the jig do its thing down river. Jig hit bottom before that you tend to get snagged bc you will need to be reeling in at the same as lure is floating down, and too late the lure doesn’t get to the spot at the right depth and sails overhead.
The river is coming down now from its pretty high fall flow this year and that 1/8oz jig, depending on what you rig it with, should be fine. If you need a bigger jig just beef up your plastic. All my experience with swim baits are they drop like rocks bc of their weight and line connection. Lately I have had better luck with 1/16oz fireball jigs, but mostly in 2-8′ of water.

Try different jig weights until it works the way you want. There is no water level on the river where just one weight will work. The jig weight will depend on the flow where you are fishing and what you want the jig to do. Lately i have been casting 1/8 to 3/8 depending on flow in a area and whats on the jig. Im sure there are places at the dam right now where those sizes will work to.

As for the stick baits really anything with neutral buoyancy. I don’t want something that is going to sink nor do I want it to float up if I stop reeling.
In this category you have any of the Husky Jerks, Suspending Rogues, XRaps, etc. As for jig weight, what Mike said.
Everytime you pull up to a dam it’s an algebra equation with the 3 variables being
1. Depth of water you’re fishing
2. Amount of flow on that dam
3. Weight of jig
This is why you find my boat and other river guys with 3, 4, 5 rods rigged at a given time. It’s annoying to always be switching back and forth and retying. My typical set up this time of year is 4 rods.
1. 1/8 draggin jig w/ moxie or pulse r
2. 1/8 draggin jig w/ same of different color plastic
3. 3/16 w/ grub (more bulky so they don’t sink as fast
4. 1/4 draggin jig w/ grub or pulse r