Pool 2 Report.

Wet and snowy is the report. At least the weather report anyways. Water conditions went from breaking and trying to fish around a fair amount of ice over the weekend to just about ice free on Tuesday. These conditions are in for a big change very soon.

The fishing report I would say is good. The evening bite does not seem to have changed much from the last month with it being more miss than hit. The daytime bite on the other hand is going pretty good. Vertical jigging the main channel and a few channel edges is putting walleyes and the occasional sauger in the boat. Have seen better bites but think we managed around 25 yesterday afternoon with a few 4 to 5#ers mixed in. Was happy with that.

For baits just about anything you get near the bottom is going to have a good chance of getting hit. Plastics, hair jigs, blade baits have all caught walleyes our last few trips out. Havent tried minnows but most likely they would get hit to. Did get a little run going on the old school purple/chartreuse tail ringworms yesterday.

Been a fair share of other fish getting caught to. Some nice white bass and drum mixed in. The schools of rough fish are well set up in areas now to. Always a fun fight. Managed one carp yesterday that must of hit the 25# mark. She was a beast and by far the biggest fish of the trip.

Here are a few photos from yesterdays trip. Dont usually photo my carp but this beast deserved one. Sad part is the photos still does not do it justice. The train bridge photo was one just to show what a snowy, rainy, miserable day in MN looks like from the boat on the river. Ill take that any day.

Good luck if anyone is braving the snow today or colder temps later this week. Got a feeling after tonight the ramps on 2 are going to freezing in pretty good. Thinking the next water my boat is going to be seeing is pool 4 sometime this winter.

Those eyes’ are more like footballs! Healthy fish right there…

Is there a good shad population in pool 2? I see from fish of pool 4 and how fat some of them can get curious to what they are eating. Filleted up a few from my pool and they all had 2-3″ catfish in them, and none of them look like those pigs there

Great report there, Mike!

-J.

Yep. Good shad population in pool 2 and 4. Dont get to check the pool 2 ones for what they have been eating. My guess would be what ever swims by and can fit in the hole. Have seen them spit up some small cats, panfish, sheephead and some very large shad. Some of those shad can get up to 8″s or more. It the larger fish we catch that seem to have the biggest bellies. 18″ and above. We got our share of 21 to 22″ers yesterday that where both fat and skinny. Not sure what the reason was. Might of been male and female fish. Old as compared to young fish. Local fish as to ones the migrating into the area. Not really sure why the difference in weight of these fish.

Nice job, Mike! Nice Goldfish!