Pool 2 Report

As the river constantly changes so must the fisherman. I was out on pool 2 yesterday and couldn’t believe the change from last weekend, it is now a milky dirty mess with a lot of debris floating along the really fast current. I nearly hit two large logs and was dodging every thing from milk cartons to 3″ dia. sticks (and I wasn’t flying across the water). The wing dam fish has slowed to a crawl but the backwater bite is still active if you search for them. I’ve been covering allot of water trolling and have found certain areas to hold quality fish. Yesterday I was trolling fire line and # 5 Shad Raps, of any color, (like they could see it) in water less than 10 feet and caught a number of fish including a 27 ½” and a 26”. The fire line really helps in clearing the debris (leafs and weeds) from the lures without reeling up the line, just rip the rod forward when the lure action starts to slow down and most of the time the lure is clean. If you wait for the action to stop it’s usually too late. The key yesterday was to find areas with some flow but not the raging current found on the river and to fish it slow. I didn’t have live bait along yesterday but I will next time as three way’s can really be productive in these condition. There are many ways to fish the backwaters so try them all and be patient as the fish are there.
BTW, Drive careful…

I fished pool 2 today, Sat. and found not much junk floating, but fast water. Fished the back waters from the airport down to the big island bouy. Found fish but nothing consistant. Took a 26 incher, and 4 between 18 and 22 inches, several small eyes. I fished the wing dams up near the airport, only one eye, and the usual number of sheephead. Not a white bass all day. I used mostly jig and minnow, but did take a few on ringworms and large twist tail grubs. The water is like choc.milk and fast, lots of leaves. It looked like trolling was a no-no, I spent my time doing other things, but tomorrow the 3 ways come out.

Thanks for the update guys. Yes, the water is moving alright. Hopefully she should start calming down this week and things should gradually get back to normal. Jigged some backwaters over the weekend to produce several 20″+ fish including a nice 22″ sauger!!

Zim, good report on the trolling. Those are nice fish!!
3-ways could be the ticket for coaxing out more fish out of a honey hole!! That is my objective tonight down there!
Water temp was 46 degree surface temp the other morning.

Plan on heading out tuesday afternoon. Working down in Inver grove tommorrow. Anyplace to pick up bait down there? Sure hope the river has settled down a little bit. I didnt make it out last friday. Went back to the upper Criox instead. Glad I did. Think I would have been swamped in south St. Paul. Those waves sure can get nasty down there.
I should maybe stick to the plastics tommorow but I am a die hard for a bucket of minnows. So If anyone knows of a bait store down there it sure would be helpful. Thanks.

Schorns Bait in Newport. Take a left at the Super America on Hwy 61 and it is the small strip mall there. (Just south of 494 on Hwy 61)

J.

Thanks Jon. Sounds like that should do just fine for me.