What if…………………………………..

EDIT: Apperently my friend is not the tax wiz he thought he was. as of 3pm. he was only 80% done with his taxes, according to his software. So we will be heading out tomorrow. He has 8 hours to finish the last 20%. I think he can hadle that.

You were going to fish pool 2 Tomorrow. Ive only been out on 2 a few times. I have fished the river for a few years now. Up until now I have been a jig/minnow fisherman. This year I have been using 90% plastics. I have caught some fish with them, I do have confidence in using them. My confidence in knowing what water to look for is not good. I have learned alot from the info. shared on here. I am not really looking for spots to fish, from reading posts here I have a good idea where to start. We are launching at lillydale and working up from there. The temp. is 48, the water is down just about 3′ in the last week. If you were to go out would you start looking? current breaks just off the main channel? Shallow calm areas away from the current? I was thinking that the shallow to 15′ depths with breaks to a slower current may hold some of the fish sliding back to the river after spawning. Thanks for any help..

Dan

Edit: Is it to early to troll cranks along the longer/bigger current breaks??

No, ts not too early to troll cranks, but its difficult without a 3 way rig when the water is deep on pool 2… usually we are pulling in 5′-10′.. now we are pulling in 10′-15′. If you troll.. try to keep the crank bumping the bottom, and troll very slowly upstream along the seams and breaks into the main channel(preferrably reduced current breaks).

As for backwaters.. yes, the fish will get into some of them. The current seam at the entrance of the backwaters can also be key locations to fish. The seam may be 150′ long, and 90% of the fish could be stacked in a 20′ area.
White bass should also be giving some action now.

Thanks Dave. Since the tax man to priority over the fishing. It will give me a chance to pick up a few crank baits, I’m familiar with 3 ways with live bait. Would I need to use a longer line for the crankbait? I usually use 2-3′ for a floater/minnow combo. and 18″ or so for the dropper weight. I’ll do a search and see what I can find.

I think your idea for where to look is pretty good. Now if the fish will be there is another story. We managed 3 up by the dam this morning working plastics on current breaks and slack water areas. Working minnows threw some of these areas may not be a bad idea. Make sure and pause your retrieves on th plastics. I think most of our white bass and walleyes hit when there was a pause in the retrieve. Firecracker took a few fish today.

Stick baits on three ways may be good also. Minnow on three ways may be good. You just never know.

Good luck.