I fished (from shore)the Hidden Falls side of the river to the dam for a couple hours yesterday and was skunked. I was there mid morning until noon and only tried jig and plastics. A different time of day and different presentation might make all the difference.
You can walk out to the confluence from the Ft. Snelling area but it’s a pretty good hike. I only tried it once last year without success, but that doesn’t mean it’s not good to try! Please report back. 
Last spring in the boat I did good at the confluence within 20 feet of shore.Thought about shorefishing there another day but Im lazy and didnt want to make the hike so I never did try it from shore.There was alot more current and high water then also.Good luck.
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it’s a pretty good hike.
Indeed. I’ve walked half the way before. It wouldn’t be bad if you had a bike rigged up, although that doesn’t help if there is snow out there.
With colder temps last 2-days, Minnesota had skim ice under I-494 this morning, was open earlier this week.
Looks like it should open right back up with warmer temps
Hey Everybody- I have been reading here for quite some time but finally figured I would join. I am trying to find some more recent reports from Pool 2. Has anybody been out recently? Is it more of a plastics or meat bite right now? I was out on Pool 4 a few weekends ago and it was slow, but meat was the ticket for the ones that did make it in the boat it seemed.
Thanks.
Welcome to Ido. Sounds like it’s been fairly slow on p2. Hopefully with the weather this should change. 
Was out last week and it was rather slow. We ended up with a couple…guess it’s better than nothing. They were small too…17″ers..males I assume. Was out all afternoon and did t get a strike until sunset or later. Very slow. To be clear…we only had to takes an absolutely nothing else. Humbling to say the least.
Thanks. Not sure what the plan is yet. From what I can gather it doesn’t sound like it has been super at either spot lately. Planning on giving one of the pools a shot tomorrow so will post some updates if any successes.
Ran south looking to scope out some early crappie spots but those areas were still froze in. Heads up if you don’t know the area. Many cans are not sitting where they should be. Red on the wrong side and visa-versa. Coast guard should get that fixed here soon as the barges will be running soon.
-J.
Was out the other day…got served another big ‘ol piece of humble pie. Nothing but a cricketfest…zippo, nothing. From the previous pie that was served the week prior..the water this time was much dirtier with only about 11″ of clarity with quite a bit of debris floating. I could have sworn that the flow changed while we were fishing..which will change any type of any bite we hoped for…the good news is that after trying and searching many areas…we did find scattered (suspected) walleyes holding in areas where they should be….had only a few hits which were light…but still ended up with nothing but a fun day on the river. We even stayed well after sunset and into the night a couple hours hoping that maybe, just maybe we would find a some up in shallower water like we did the week before…nope, nada. The hits we did have came dragging downstsream..no fish 
Went out 3/30 and 4/1 and i caught three. Friend’s did similar.. slow drag with paddle tail. Caught two smaller ones next too shore and one alright in the middle of the eddie
Not to bad this afternoon. Nothing big but managed about 10. All on jig/minnows. Off to red wing tomorrow.
Well, hopefully I will be up and running on Wed. Looks like you’ll have much better weather this time Mike!
Caught 9 walleyes today, three of them were over 23″ by an inch or two maybe more.My ruler only goes to 23″…
Nice fish.
Thanks.Not the biggest walleyes Ive ever caught but biggest from pool 2 so far so Im pretty happy about that.Made my day thats forsure.
Planning on getting out the sometime this week, your guys photos sure are making me wanna go now (nice fish)
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Planning on getting out the sometime this week, your guys photos sure are making me wanna go now (nice fish)
Might even be looking for a co-pilot message me if your intrested thinking wednesday or Thursday
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Caught 9 walleyes today, three of them were over 23″ by an inch or two maybe more.My ruler only goes to 23″…
Nice fish! Someone needs a new ruler.
I have heard lot of action about P2, but does anyone go up river and go into P1?
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I have heard lot of action about P2, but does anyone go up river and go into P1?
North of the Ford Dam isn’t open for walleye, pike, and bass right now, but I do believe there’s good fishing up there too when the season is open. I know there are others that can speak far more intelligently than I on the fishing up there.
Good to know, any other info would be helpful. Saw a lot of boats by the dam today hopefully the reports are good
Looks like the first open water trip might be pool 2 Friday evening. Looking forward to it. I need to sneak some suckers aboard in case the walleye aren’t cooperating. 
Current is ripping at the hidden falls ramp right now. Flowing down the main channel pretty good to. Might not be the best ramp for learning how to load a boat in these conditions. Thought the guy next to me tonight on the ramp was going to put his boat on my trailer. To me a few attempts to get mine on straight.
The river went up at least a foot if not more from Tue. to Wed, it even went up a bit from yesterday when I put the boat in around noon to when I got the boat back on the trailer last nite.
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The river went up at least a foot if not more from Tue. to Wed, it even went up a bit from yesterday when I put the boat in around noon to when I got the boat back on the trailer last nite.
X2
Lot’s of leaves/debris in the water as well which made pitching difficult in many areas. Sure felt nice to be in a Tee-Shirt tho
Will be coming up another foot or so in the next few days:
http://water.weather.gov/ahps2/hydrograph.php?wfo=mpx&gage=stpm5
-J.
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Lot’s of leaves/debris in the water as well which made pitching difficult in many areas.
Maybe the only annoying thing about early fishing on the river.
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