pool 2 wingdams

Looks like the wingdam bite on 2 is getting a little better. Fished 3 different wingdams on saturday and was able to take fish on each one. Only managed 6 eyes between the 3 dams but the size was nice with all being between 20 and 23″.
Kalins took five of these fish and a white bomber took the last. A firetiger kalin was there colr of choice. Dont think I have ever used this colr before. Everything else I threw was either passed up or just bumped.
Hope saturday action is a sign of things to come.

Also had good luck this weekend on Pool 2. Certainly don’t rule out crankbaits yet — I took a number of fish on Bombers and Grappler Shads. As long as these water temps hold the crank bite may continue. Also starting to see some real nice fish show up.

The white bass also were real active, making for a good time on the water.

Thanks for the update guys!
Glad to see the river back to normal again. Last year we caught fish on cranks all the way into mid November. The bombers faded out for me around the ed of October and then the suspending cranks took over the remainging couple weeks.

I had similar luck on Sunday. Walleyes coming on both cranks and plastics. The water temp was up ~3 degrees from a week earlier.

DeeZee-
What type of suspending crank baits do you recommend?

And that rise in water temps got the fish chomping…

Where abouts on the wingdams are you guys finding fish? Most of what I caught on saturday was atleast 10′ down on the face of the dams. Didnt take any of the top. All the fish have been on the middle section of the dam also. Nothing on tips of the dams. Havent spent much time fishing the shore line.
Fridays fish where taken on ringworms about 5′ down on the face of the dam. Still in the middle section.
There also does not seem to be alot of numbers on anyone dam either. 3 fish on one dam has been the best for me. Had a pair of 23″ fish come off of one in 2 casts. Thatwas fun. Seems like doing alot of jumping around right now is the way to find more fish. Stopping back at productive dams now and again.
Looks like wensday is my next trip out on 2. Cant waite. Those wingdams in lilydale will be getting a look this time. Looked like the perfect flow going over them a week ago.

A couple more thoughts… On my last outing I fished early morning from sun-up till about 10:30. I found most fish from the top of the wingdam down maybe 7 feet. Most hit during or soon after the crankbait made contact with the dam. I had a couple fish hit in “open water” away from the wingdam, one of which literally hit at boatside. The first wingdam gave up 5 fish, while the others only gave up one or two fish. Hard to tell if the change in numbers was due to location, or time of day. Most fish did come from the middle of the wingdam. I had quite a few white bass mixed in, but they tended to come more toward the tip.

Will be back out later this week…. hopefully.

My fishing has been from after lunch to dark. Most of the fish I have boated came from the middle of the dam as well. Except for a few fish, they have hit the plastic or crank 5′-20’in front of the dam. I had a ‘eye suprise me at boat side as well.
Most of the plastic bite has been fairly subtle, while there is no mistaking a crank hit. Unless I hook up with a couple quick, the stick and move philosophy seems to be the way to go.
I’m eargerly awaiting my next outing on 2.

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DeeZee-
What type of suspending crank baits do you recommend?

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Here is one of my favorite cranks in cold water for wingdam fishing.
Deep Suspending Rogue

Cast it out just beyond the wingdam and reel quickly down until bottom contact is made and then pause the lure and keep a taut line for several seconds (sometimes up to 20 seconds or more). Keep reeling until another rock is made and then pause again. When you run out of rocks keep a steady slow roll reeling retrieve back to the boat with periodic pauses. Those fish that hit next to the boat side are drawn out from the wingdam and this is a way to continue to have these fish hit when too aggressive cranks are passed up due to their cold water invoked activity level. The suspending characteristic is deadly on big fish in cold temps. IT takes patience to fish but big fish do like them. Best to fish them from a anchored position and fish them on producing spots.

Another note…..these cranks produce all year but seem to excel during cold water periods. I would continue to fish the bombers and similair action cranks until you start to get negative results from the fish.

I cannot wait to get back down there. Thanks for keeping us informed of the bite down there!

7 more days or so!

The wingdams where still going today. Afterspending the morning searching the lilydale area for new fish. Found 1 eye before noon. It was back to the middle section of 2 for me. Nothing at the airport. I still cant figure out those wingdams for nothing. Took nine eyes of the wingdams south of there. Had one dam spit out three eyes in a row after a barge went by.
Plastics took all the fish but one. Most of my time is still spent with plastics. on the last dam of the day I had a lot of action. My first k-grub color pitched was bumped a few times. It was time to see what they wanted after that. Ended up taking 4 eyes off of this wingdam on three different colors of k grubs. The last eye that came in went 28.5″. This made my day as anouther trophy pool 2 eye was what I was really looking for today. The other fish I took today where right around the 20″ mark.
Looks like 2 nights on Mille Lacs this weekend and then back to pool 2 next week. This is the best time of year to fish.

Congrats Mike on the nice fish! Sounds like things are heating up down there. After this weekends guide trips, I will be back on Pool 2!!!

Spent Thursday morning fishing Wing dams below 494. Before the rain chased me off, I ended up with 3 walleyes. Two around 19 inches. The third came in on my scale at 5 pounds 4 ounces. I caught the big fish and one of the smaller on a crayfish bombers off the top of the wingdams.Both fish came from the middle section of the stucture. The third fish as well as a couple of hits came on a 5 inch smoke grub. Watter temperature is at 50 degrees.

All in all a good day, the big walleye was my largest pool 2 fish thus far and was especially rewarding. Nice, fat fish and what a blast to have to release it for another day!

I do have a question, even without a lot of wind the current does make boat control a little more difficult. When I anchor it is easier to more effectively fish a give wingdam. But, if you anchor up you may not be fishing the most active fish. I must confess I still have a bit of a tendencies to move and fish multiple spots.

Do I size up my jig weight in order to make contact more easily with the bottom. Or do I anchor up and size down.

Any ideas?

I think DeeZee would be able to answer this question better than me, but I have a hard time keeping my yap shut. I find it easier to anchor up and fancast a portion of the wingdam and then use my bow mount to move up or down the dam and then anchor again. It also helps to have a cleat in the center of your bow.

My prefrence is to anchor up but if you look around on this sight you will notice a few guys that like to stay on the move. If you are on the move it seems that larger jigs or three way rigs seem to be the way to go.
Anouther train of thought is to keep moving until you find a fish or 2 on a spot. Might even just be a bump. Then anchor up and work that area over.
You must cover alot of wingdams by staying on the move. On wensday I was able to hit 6 dams in 4 hours. You must be hitting alot more than that.
Glad to see you made it out for a little while today Fred. Looks like wensday will be my next trip on 2. What day are you thinking about hitting it next week?

I couldn’t even buy a fish on upper pool 2 today. I’m sure the sudden drop in temp didn’t help things out. Anyone else have any luck?

The weather seemd to slow the bite down a bit today. A buddy and I fished mid pool 2 this morning. We were able to scratch out two ‘eyes all morning. A slow morning for sure, but one of the fish was this 28″ fat girl.

Why does the other guy catch all the big fish?

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Why does the other guy catch all the big fish?

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I was just thinking the same thing.

Nice eye Beno. What did she hit on?

What are the water conditions doing on 2 right now. Any up dates would be great. I would think it is not looking good after the weather over the weekend but one can always hope.

I was out sunday morning. By the way, the 494 ramp was closed-sign said it would be open 6am-6pm, apparently only during the week. They have a new gate installed down by the bridge. It’s been a while since I was on the river, water temp was 51, flow was up, and water clariety was down.I tried anchoring up in front of several different wing dams, fished plastics. It was a nice cloudy day seemed like it should of been good but I couldn’t get much action, am new to this plastics business for eyes-enjoy it for lake bass but …….. After trying several different colors of ringworms and Kalins, I finally got a 19″r, another fish on, and a couple of bumps on a shortened up purple/white tailed ringworm. Also tried 3 way rigging a stick bait along the rip rap with no results. Anybody else out sunday morning?

What do you guys consider mid pool 2? I assume that you are talking south of downtown St. Paul.

Hey Mike, Still having a bit more action on the cranks than plastics. Steve’s tip earlier on this thread is worth reading again.
On Saturday the water temp was ~54 degrees and a bit muddy from all the rain.