Upper Pool 2 – 07/27

The trolling bite continues to shine on the river. I spent the day with a co-worker and we pulled # 5 and #7 Shad Raps in 7′ to 12′ of water. Plenty of walleyes but nothing over 20″. We also caught smallmouth , channel cats , pike and a couple of sheepers and whiteys.
We also have an interesting observation. The walleye bite was going good till a barge of sand and gravel moved upstream. For the next hour we caught a few cats. Then they quit and the walleyes started again. We fished a 1/2 mile or so stretch of water for most of our fish.
The boat traffic was very low in the morning and part of the afternoon. It did not pick up till after 4 pm.
At around 6 we saw Jon J and his loyal companion Chopper. He was getting some fish and said it was just as good trolling downstream as it was going up.
It was another nice day to not be working.
Dino

My neighbor was out on Sunday (I had taken him out a few times on Pool 2). It was his 1st trip on his own with the wife and 2 kids-9&12. The caught a lot of fish and the 9 year old was thrilled with a 5lb cat.

I guess there was a lot of boat traffic, but the fishing was very good.

When you say upper- how far are you talking about. I normally put in at Lilydale, are you up river from Hidden Falls?? I am thinking of going up on Sunday. I haven’t been on the river since April so I am looking for some advice on locations. Also does it matter if you troll upstream or downstream??

Upper-usually (at this forum anyway) from the confluence to the dam. Upsteam or down doesnt matter much, just run a little deeper downsteam to avoid snags, upriver bang the bottom pretty hard.

The crankbait bite is going good on these 17-19 inchers shown above. The fish were really aggressive last night. I found the fish in the usual shoreline areas, but also found takers right down the middle of the channel. I had fish slam the crank at over 5 mph. That’s not a typo and yes, that is GPS speed. Granted that is cruising downstream along with the current. But those crushing hits are a blast. Especially those jumbo sheepies! Actually, this approach worked better than trolling against the current this time out. So, don’t be shy about banging up the speed and loosening up the drag!

The river below the confluence has really cleared up. So I’ll be focusing on the lower pool for the foreseeable future. Casting wing dams for ‘Eyes and a little Cat fishing look to be in order.

Looking forward to meeting up with ya-all this weekend at the Get Together.

Huh oh Jon, is that Watergate behind you? Did that fish come off that little rockpile current break that is always holding fish off of Pike Island????

Yep, that’s Watergate. That fish came right out of the middle of the channel. The area was pretty good.

I think we left a few for ya. Good luck tonight!

-J.

We hit the 494 area this morning for a little while. I cant say the fish where jumping in the boat but we did get a few. Trolling the rip rap shores and sand flats both produced fish. Nick picked up a nice 24″ fish of the rocks.

Just as it was starting to look like we where getting them dialed in I had to bail for a mis schedualed job and that was the end of my trip.

Looks like it might be next week before I get to try it again.

It’s nice to have a moment in the spotlight. Here is Tong with one of his walleyes.

Here is another.

Nice looking fish. Do you guys think these are the same fish we where hearing about last year. I seem to remember a little complaining last year about small fish in the hidden falls area. These might of been small last year but I consider them nice fish now and am very happy catching them.
I f this is the progression of a year class that was small last year what are we going to be in for next year?

I hope you are right Mike. I don’t get near as much time in there as I use to, but those fish were in the 15-18 range pretty thick. I can’t wait to go down there and boat twenty + 24″ fish.

Dont worry, the shore fisherman w/ their 5 gallon pails will thin out the class before they get too big.

Yep, Dave just hit a grand slam…

Anyone going to be out on upper 2 tonight? If you see a black/grey Pro V, give me a hollar!