Pool 2 fish story…

I just got off the water after 3 hours on the upper part of Pool 2 w/ my 3 year old daughter. We were catching the typical mixed bag of nice fish when it happened….the strike…

I was into a fish…no a big fish…maybe a fish bigger than my daughter herself. I fought this beast in rough current under the highway 5 bridge. I would pull and she would tug, when I got her close she would take drag. I knew that it was over 10lbs maybe pushing 20. I also knew that it wasnt fighting like a cat…but I didnt know what else it could be. Then I saw it, 2-3′ under the surface, not close enough to get a great look, but close enough to know it was a walleye. Just then it darted under the boat and stayed down for another 2 minutes. The longest 2 minutes of my life. Was it a 15lb walleye??? Could it be? The fight was incredible, this fish was heavy and strong. Finally she came to the surface. I reached under her belly and eased her softly into the boat.

Then everything made sense. It was a beautiful, thick and fat fish. But the crank snagged her in the back right at the base of the dorsel fin. Just the place you would hook a minnow to not impede its ability to swim. 27″ and 7lbs on a cheap scale. Still a great fish, but not quite the specimen that I thought that I had on for those 2 minutes.

For the night we boated 13 eyes from 15-27″ including another fat 23″er. We also caught a 2+ striped bass, a small cat, northern and sauger. The highlight of the trip for my daughter was a 1 pound SM bass that several times jumped completely out of the water. Either that or the PB&J, M&Ms and gummi bears.

We also spent about 45 minutes fishing “over there daddy, there is fishies over there”.

So there is a great bite going right now. #5 SRRS and #5 SSRs in firetiger, 5-10′ of water. Most areas were producing, just move fast and cover ground. Upstream, downstream, fast and slow water all worked.

Awesome report Dave. Great reading.

Dave, great report ! thank you

Great story Dave!
My brother in law and 2 of his friends fished the same spots on Saturday morning. They hooked a nice double under the highway 5 bridge and while getting lines out of the net and fish released, drifted into the creek mouth just south of the bridge.
One of the guys made a cast into the creek with small husky jerk just as they were getting ready to troll some more. Several cranks of the reel and POW! Big fish on. A couple of minutes later they put it in the boat…..40″ Muskie.
They have some pictures and when they are developed he will scan them and send them to me so I can share with everyone there. Needless to say it was a Saturady morning to remember for the guy that caught it.

Cant wait to see the pic. I know there are musky there, but I have never seen one.

A few weeks ago when the water was real high, Jon and I cruised that creek all the way to the MN and some back waters off that inlet. Has anyone had any luck in these areas??? It looks fishy, but we werent able to snag anything.

I never had the brassies to go through there. It does look to be a great pre-spawn/post spawn area. Out of the main current, yet still some flow. How did the bottom look back in there?? Any hard bottom areas or transition areas??

Mostly sand and muck. 10 feet deep when the water was up, likely 4 or less right now. The backwater/lake area had some 15+’ depths though.

DaveB,

A few years back I had some luck at night in the spring time back in there pulling cranks. Even that spring, we only had a marginal higher water condition but fish were in there.
I would imagine this would be a great spot from shore.
I have not been back in there to the Mn for a few years now though.

Speaking of muskies….last fall I was fishing a wingdam and catching alot of whities and decided to switch over to a spinnerbait. A couple casts later this musky tail comes out of the water behind the spinnerbait and takes a swing at the spinnerbait when it got close to the boat. I’m quite sure it was in the mid 40″ range maybe bigger.

Dave-

The spot where the creek comes out INTO the MN can be good at times. I was on a hot bite not too long ago… the eyes were comming up onto that sand bar that extends out. The were chasing schools of shiners up REAL close to shore. A small chrome rap worked well. I haven’t been back there for a few weeks now. As DeeZee said, it would be a good shore spot to try.