Pool 2

The bite on the upper part of Pool 2 is very good right now. Lots of 19″ eyes w/ some over and some under.

Cats, smallies, drum, white bass all active as well.

I havent been below the no wake zone at Watergate. The inlet at Highway 5 is still dumping out muddy water from the MN river-so it will likely be like chocolate below the confluence.

I put in 4 hours last Wednesday and 3 hours last night. Constant action on cranks.

Thanks for the report Dave. I have to get down there this week for sure!

-J.

Any areas in particular? Not looking for exacts, just some general depths, locations (channel edges, backwaters?). Thanks for the info!

We made it out again last night. Where did all the water go? Levels are down atleast 5′ from 2 weeks ago. Where we caught the fish then is out of the water now. One thing I have noticed in the last 2 weeks is with the water dropping so fast dont expect the fish to be in the same area for very long.
I got started last night trolling the same areas I had been fishing the last couple of weeks up stream from the HWy 5 bridge and only found a few eyes and smallies. It didnt take me long to go looking for new fish. We Then headed down to the confluence and started searching. Started on the rocky shoreline with only a few sheepies coming in. Usually if there are sheepies in the rocks there should be a few eyes in there also. Then we hit the St Paul shoreline and started trolling back up stream. There they where. Must of picked up over a dozen nice saugers and walleyes by the time we hit the bridge. Light colored shad raps and bombers where the ticket. As far as area. It was pretty wide spread.

Hoping to get back down there again today.

Hey Mike,

How was the water clarity down at the confluence? Was the Minnesota still pumping chocolate milk?

Thanks,
J.

There is still a mud line between the 2 rivers but nothing like a week ago. It has got me thinking about heading back down river again looking for some bigger fish on the wingdams.

Thanks for the great advice of fishing the upper part of pool 2. Friday and Monday, I fished the confluence to the Ford dam. Most of our fish came of Bombers and Crapplers, all in firetiger. Last night was our best, with a total of 19 fish. Most were walleyes, between 17 and 19 inches. We did catch several smallmouth, sheepies and one crappie and on a crank.All our fish came on rip rap with the predominant area around the highway 5 bridge.

Lots of fun. Its great to take you 15 year old out and catch good numbers of fish. Thanks to all of you for the information.

Glad to hear you had a good bite. It isnt rocket science, but a lot of people fish out there with little success. A little tweaking goes a long way!

We had a great time on friday night also. Had the 3 kids and wife with. My 3 year old girls had a blast realing in fish and Caught nearly a dozen eyes each. I would just leave the rods locked in the rod holders so all they had to do was work the handles and crank them up to the side of the boat. The power pro on the reels and faster trolling speeds seemed to take care of the hook setting. What a blast.
My son did manage to break my sub 20″ mark on friday night also with a nice 26″ eye. This was the first walleye we have taken over 20″ since we started fishing the area on fathers day. We also caught 1 21″ on friday and a 23″ on monday. Hope there are more to come.

Went out on a very short trip Friday night. Fished north of the Confluence to the bridge. 4 eyes between 16-19″. Trolling #7 Firetiger Wally Diver.

I may go out there tonight. Depends if my wife will go. I don’t feel like going alone and none of my regular fishing buddies will. Anyone out there I know want to go?

Sure, now you tell me. I’m sitting at work, no change of clothes. Don’t blame me for not going!!!

I would appreciate a little advice on the crank fishing. I’ve fished walleyes my whole life, but we’ve generally always used jigs. I’ve gone to pool 2 a couple times by the 494 bridge and trolled Bomber 6A cranks for hours and haven’t had much luck. What type of water depth are you fishing in? How much line do you recommend letting out? What speeds are you trolling? Sorry for all the questions, but it’s frustrating as hell to think you’ve got the set up and come home empty handed. Also, do you guys use the landing by the ford dam with no dock? I’ve had some pretty good success fishing there earlier in the year, but that boat landing is a little tricky. I know, I’ll take off my skirt and throw some drawers on. I just wondered if there is a better landing in the area. Thanks!

Not really. Lillydale may be a little calmer water but nowhere to land boat. At least Hidden Falls has a sand beach to land on. Troll your cranks anywhere around that landing and beyond and you should catch fish.

Wallace,

Here is my experience on Pool 2(it’s strictly from the confluence north). As the water continues to warm and flow continues to decrease, my trolling speeds usually increased to as much as 3.1mph(gps). I usually start slower than that and experiment until we get consistently bit. I almost exclusively troll upstream, due to the high rate of speed and the flow in this area, when snagged it can cause some major issues if you have two or more rods to contend with, along with a pleasure boat or two, there just isn’t much room to manuever up there. The other option is to just break the crank off and re-tie.

Lures of choice for me, firetiger fat-rap, shallow runner(it’s a bass plug, don’t ask how I discovered trolling it), #5 chartruese shad rap, smallest chartruese wally diver. I bang these plugs on the bottom hard, especially when I’m fishing in the channel. When fishing the rip-rap, I’m still banging them pretty hard, but you have to be carefull of snags(hence trolling upstream). I don’t recall the exact amount of line out, but anywhere from 50 – 75 feet I’m sure, each lure is different and water clarity also plays a factor in this.

My trolling runs start on the Pike Island side of the channel, just above the no wake area. I head uprive past the Hwy 5 bridge, then I switch shores to the rip-rap below Hidden Falls Landing, all the way to the landing, cut across the channel again, follow that rip-rap to Minnehaha creek. If I catch fish anywhere along here, I work that area over pretty good. If the fish aren’t biting here, I head for the middle of the channel, doing S turns all the way up the same trolling run.

Since pool 2 is catch and release only, I’m sure others will chime in also.

Good Luck!!

I can help with a couple of your questions. There is a ramp in Lilydale which is downstream from the confluence. This ramp has no dock but wing dams upstream help deflect the flow away and makes launching/landing easier.
You mentioned 494. Have you launched there or just boated down from Hidden Falls? The ramp at 494 is an easy one to use because of the dock.
Further downstream there is the Lions Levee ramp in St. Paul Park. This is a public access and is right next to Willies Hidden Harbor marina.
I have not fished the river for 3 weeks but that will change today. Jon J and I are launching at St Paul Park and will be fishing the wing dams and cuts downstream toward Spring Lake. I hope to have some info to share tomorrow.
Dino

Waterfowler. What depths are you targeting? I have been sticking to the 8′ to 13′ lately with the 6A bombers.

There is also a ramp under the mendota bridge that you can get to in the state park. It has a dock there.

On pattern I have found the last couple of years is when trolling cranks on pool 2, you need to have them ticking bottom. There seems to be a difference between ticking bottom and dragging bottom. Let out just anough line to hit bottom and bump it as you go along. If you let out more than that the crank seems to drag alot, find more snags, and pick up more garbage.
The 6A bombers seem to hit bottom at 10′ to 12’for me with 50′ of 20# P-Line let out. This is trolling at 2.5 to 3.5mph (depth finder). Hope this helps.

Mike,

I’m running all over down there, 8-13 ft is probably the depths I cover for the most part. I’ve also noticed after a barge comes through the fish have a tendencie to move shallower and slow down/shut off for about 30 minutes.

I’ll let you guys know how it goes tonight. Hopefully this massive July cold front doesn’t shut them completely down. If it does I will consider tonight boating instead of fishing. win/win

Quote:

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Sorry for all the questions, but it’s frustrating as hell to think you’ve got the set up and come home empty handed.

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We all come home empty handed….every trip! It’s pool 2.

-Jon J.

Thanks for all the advise fellas. I’m going to do my best to get out a couple nights within the next couple of weeks. I’ll report how things go.

And good one Jon J, you hit the nail on the head there. However, the High Life man knows that as long as you come home with your hand smelling like fish and your vision slightly blurred, the night has been a success.

Catch and Release is the way to go.

Actually if you stay home and your hand smells like fish and your vision is blurred I would consider that night a success as well. Long live the High Life.

Whoa Big boy! Keep it clean, this is a family site!

What? Lot’s of people have aquariums at home.

I think I saw you last night Suzuki-how did you end up????

Judging by those numbers you posted dave, you barely beat us. I think Suzuki and I had around 30 or so….

Yea we did fine. We were covering lots of water and didn’t turn back to pound all the active schools we passed.

Hey guys a little report, I’m still a pool 2 rookie, and time was short today, we hit the water around 6:30 tonight, trolled the rip rap areas, found a couple bass, and 3 eyes, 2 went close to 19″. We left the water around 9pm, and called it a day. The fish we caught did seem to be in the 12 range. The “hot” crank for me tonight was the #5 jointed crawfish color. Other people out reported a few fish… Didn’t seem like anyone was hammering them out there tonight, but the fish were being caught. I expected a bit better of a bite, but thats probably my fault, that or you guys sore mouthed all the eyes Sadly enough tonight I got out fished by the GF, I caught one eye, she caught everything else . Hopefully I’ll be getting out a couple times next week, if anyone wants to tag along with me, just holler, if anyone wants a tagalong just holler.

Went out last night. Inlet below Hwy 5 is pumping out quite a bit of muddy water. Got 3 eyes, biggest being 24″ in front of that discharge on the Rt. bank above the no-wake zone. Several very large sheepies were around, too. Thought I had a trophy early on, only to find out I snagged a 10.3# carp. What a fight….

Nubbin,

I was out last night on pool 2 as well. Quite a few folks fishing. My wife wanted to go for a ride, so we put in on the Minnesota and made the run down to pool 2. I was in the black Crestliner with the black dog wearing a pink life jacket (the dog, not me!).

I only fished for about 45 minutes or so, but managed to pickup my very first Mississippi River walleye!!

Once again, thanks to everyone on this forum. I have learned alot. Now I just need to go out and get some practice (and hire a guide for a day or two to really help me eliminate the unproductive water).

Anyway, see you on the river.

David