Pool 2, Saturday, March 1st

Dinosaur and I fished the Pool 2 airport area from about 9:00 – 1:00 today. We ended up with about 4 walleyes and 4 saugers. One of the walleyes was 23″ but the rest were in the 14″ range. A couple of the saugers were in the 16-18″ range and the other couple were in the 14″ range. I had the big fish for the day…. a sheepie we’d guess at about 8 lbs. We vertical jigged all the typical stuff but didn’t find any strong preferences. We caught most of the fish in a quick 45 minute period. We also tried trolling some stick baits on three-ways for a while but that didn’t produce any fish. We also stopped and fished just upstream from the 494 bridge on the way back but didn’t catch anything there during the brief period we fished it.

I think it was tough going for most boats. We’d see boats leave the airport area only to return a little while later. I suppose they found other areas fishless areas too. Talked to a few other FTR regulars on the water today.

For those that stayed out later in the day…. did the bite get any better?

Boone

We did about the same thing. Big fish for us was a sauger just over 20″. We did find a few fish down by the 494 bridge.
Lots of fish showing up on the camara. The schools we saw where a mixture of everything. Cats, Sheepies, Carp, And walleyes. Nice day to be on the water. We packed up around 4:30. They had not started bitting by then.

Boone,

Good to talk to you and Dino on Saturday. We hit the airport for a little while right away on Saturday with a couple fish. Ron poked a very nice 24.5″ Sauger!! Wow…..She wallowed by the boat side for a bit and shook off. I forgot my net on Saturday otherwise I would have a picture to share with everyone here. We jusy had a couple fish up by the airport on one pass with plain plastics and then we took off back south for some sand and wingdam action. The bite was very slow for after we left the aiport area. We boated one more small fish fot the day. As the bite looked like it was ready to heat up at dusk, the wind decided to blow relentlessly out of the north at 15-25mph. We stuck it out for a while without any more hits and called it a day. ITs been awhile since my last FTR report, so hopefully this week I should have a better report for everyone if the weather turns nice again where I can get back down there and spend some real time on the water. Saturday was a short quick afternoon for me went by way too quick.

Look for a report soon as things should heat up very soon.

pool 2 still sounds tough….. traditionally for me March 1 is when I stopped fishing there and switched to pool 4…… I dont know why it gets that way….. maybe if you move to the Mn confluence or the dam you might have better luck, perhaps the fish are starting to move….. but then they dont usually arrive in those areas in numbers for a little while yet…..
but then who knows… Im also having a tough time on pool 4… while some others are killing them…. so maybe its just a matter of dialing in a very precise bite…..

I have found that the Ford Dam bite can be great or worthless. It is rare that I have a fair bite. Either I take numbers of nice fat eyes or I get completely shut out. Most of my good days at the dam have come under low light conditions.

yep… Dave… thats pretty much what happens to me there too…. boom or bust….. but I thought maybe others had other experience there…. Ive probably only fished the dam around a dozen times or so….. usually after the 494 area has stopped

Honestly, I do not spend that much time at the dam. I have fished it over the years. But overall not that impressed with it. I have caught a handful of big fish out the area but it has been very sporadic as well. People that are not aware of the dam area on Pool 2….Overall fishable area is about a 1/4-1/3 of what the Red Wing lock side has to offer. However, down river a tad from this area are some nice little nooks that can kick out a nice eye or two when the time is right in the spring. Otherwise most of my time is spent at the confluence and below this time of year for the most consistant action. The confluence through airport area do kick out some nice fish every early spring on a ritual pre-spawn run. Again here I have seen the right timing play a key role to hit these fish, but boy can they be dandies. Hope for nice weather soon. The evening bite becomes a real staple in the spring time here on Pool 2, I plan to be out this week afterhours once again the probe further for some bigger fish.

Hey DeeZee…have you had any luck at the confluence? People say that it can be good, but I have never taken a fish from there. I have done very well on the Pike Island shoreline just above the confluence where it is slower water and also the deeper hole on the St Paul shoreline, but the confluence itself has never produced a fish for me in my limited attempts. But I always see people fishing it-so I usually give it a try if things are slow.

Dave,

I normally fish the east/north shoreline of the Miss/Minn and the west/south shoreline just up from the confluence area on the Miss. This entire area has been a timing thing that I have seen over the years. I was there last spring and there was a stretch of about 5-7 days where there were nothing but big walleyes caught. Several fish over 28″ and a whopper at 33″ caught by another angler. For some reason this area shines when the time is right. My advice would be keep it on the radar when in the area and give it a shot. When they are there..its worth it. This peak of big fish movement seems to happen a little earlier than when the rest of the bite takes off.

The airport was slow for me too- five walleyes (19, 19, 14, 14, 13) and a sauger (18) all on fatheads, orange worked good in the a/m., switched to blue and yellow in the p.m. Water temp. was 33.5, the channel was wide open, dodged a few ice floes but no real problems with ice. Saw two immature bald eagles sitting on the edge of the ice, awesome birds, even as teenagers those things are big. Successful new approach this trip was wearing my neoprene waders from start to finish, with no dock at the landing and just me on hand getting thigh deep in the water to get the ProSport on the trailer was no problemo with 4.5 mm of neoprene between me and the river water. Wearing them all day meant I was toasty warm, in fact I even felt a trickle of sweat down by back despite the 10 mph wind and 37 degree air temp. Next time I will be going with a hi vis line, Berkeley Solar or the like, with a fluorocarbon leader.

Thought I would post a fish photo just to show ever one reading this post that there are fish in pool 2.
I also wanted to try to post my first picture.

nice saug mike.. thanx for the pic…….

Yes. I did it. Caught a fish and posted a picture. I dont know which one is more exciting.

Nice pic and fish Mike!
How deep was she?

Found this one in about 25′ of water just north of the second green can by the 494 bridge. We took 3 fish in that area that day. This one came in on a new color ring worm I was trying. A Rootbeer color with specs in it and a chartruse tail. Most of the other fish came in on white or glow plastics.
Looking forward to giving it anouther try at the end of the week.