Pool 2 Question

I have noticed everyone has been having success trolling crankbaits. I usually fish lakes w/live bait, jig or rig. Is anyone catching fish using live bait or should I just stick to trying cranks. I am thinking of fishing upper pool 2 Sunday morning til afternoon. Also is it too late for minnows, it looks like crawlers and leeches down on pool 4.
Thanks for the info.

You will catch plenty of fish on bait. You will just have more of a mixed bag including cats, sheepies, carp, suckers, redhorse, mooneye and so on. If you want to catch more Eyes and Smallies, cranks have been the ticket.

J.

My problem w/ live bait on Pool 2 is to present it effectively in area w/ tons of snags. Not just rocks, but wood and lots of line left by casting shore fisherman.

W/ cranks I can go much heavier w/ line and run over the top of most of the snags.

I have just been catching to many eyes on crank baits. Havent felt the need to change from what has been working for me so far.
I like trolling cranks. No bait to mess with. Trolling cranks seems to be cheaper also.

Don’t forget to use the trusty plastics if you would like to fish a particular area that is holding fish. Quite often after finding some active eye’s, I’ll anchor up and toss some ringies or grubs at them to coax a few more active biters. But, for putting fish in the boat and relaxing, it is tough to beat pulling cranks.

Thanks to everyone for the advice. I had the opportunity to fish upper Pool 2 on Sunday. We pulled cranks and caught a ton of fish. Walleyes, Saugers, Smallies, Sheephead, Cats and I even snagged about a 8 pound carp in the back. We did try jigging with live bait but no takers the crankbait was the ticket. Started at the confluence and trolled up to the dam, caught a few on the way up. After jigging the left side for a while we started to troll along the right side along the rocks all the way up along the wall, caught at least one fish every pass. Then we would let the current take us back and cast up to the wall this worked well also. I am already looking forward to my next trip up there. One question does upper Pool 2 have much PLEASURE BOAT traffic during the week or is that limited to weekends??

I was out there for just over 2 hours w/ my 4 year old on Sunday late afternoon as well. We found a good bite too, I think that I am spoiling her early!

Weekends are pretty bad, unless you get some overcast or rain. Weeknights, you may only see 5 boats all evening. I try to avoid weekend, but I had been itching to go out so I took what I could get.