Is that more on, or moron???!!! 
anyway…
After wussing out on Wednesday night due to a perceived threat of rain, lightning and wind Dinosaur and I made it out last night. (For the record I wussed, Dean was ready to go. 
)
We put in at the 494 access. Not many folks using this ramp. I suppose that’s due to the exit ramps off of 494 being closed and the constant traffic jam in the area. I found crossing the river in Downtown St Paul and following Concord to the ramp was the way to go.
Water is still up and running pretty fast but the channel is clear of most debris with only an occasional log floating around. Water temp is 74 degrees. Visibility is approx one foot and clearing. Note that there is a new “No Wake” zone under the 494 bridge. Construction crews are setting the pilings for the new bridge. I missed seeing it the first time trough, so heads up! 
Now, on to the fishing. Our first stop ended up being the best area we fishing all evening. We selected a wing dam that had produced last year around this time. We fished the inside corner right next to shore were the current slacked off a little. Found a couple pockets that held some pretty nice fish, including this one that just tickled the 26 inch mark. This photo looks a little corney with the crank hanging out of Walter’s mouth, but that is the crank that was working. These bass style Pradco cranks DeeZee turned me onto last fall are the ticket for Pool 2 wing dams! The Firetiger and Shad (White pearl) both worked well. The loud rattles were also key to getting bit. Man you have to have respect for these river eyes, some like this one come up looking pretty beat up.
With the current flow running full blast, the fishable areas on the dams are fairly small and limited. We jumped around to a couple other areas and ended up at the airport. One of the dams there had the same inside corner with fishable current. There we anchored up and put several nice 14-17 inch fish in the boat. Pretty fun hooking into these scrappy critters while anchored and fighting them in against the current! Makes these smaller fish feel like 8 pounders. Of course, we did lose a few fish that shook off and won that battle.
Really looking forward to seeing the river settle into a normal flow. The fish are there. Key into the inside corner now and look to see the fish moving out to the tips of the dams as the river comes down during the next 2-3 weeks. I’d expect to find this same pattern shaping up on pool 3 also.
Jon J.
keep it up! The water is starting to come down. It can only get better 
