Sunday pool 2

Slow, slow, slow. Started the morning pitching a few wingdams with little action. Nothing on crankbaits. A few bumps on the plastics. So I decided to try my last rubber minnow. 1 sheepie on the first cast. 18″ eye on the second cast. Third cast out and the rubber minnow was gone. I still cant believe these things catch fish.
Spent the rest of the day trolling with one eye and a few smallies coming in.
Was hoping to try to put together some kind of pattern for #’s of eyes. Guess sunday just narrowed down my search for this. My next trip down will have to have some live bait mixed in with it.

I was on pool 2 Thursday afternoon/evening, above the confluence. Two small eyes from the eddy below the HF ramp, two small smalls off the rip rap below the dam, and 1 sheepie (yup, it was small) from I don’t remember where. I did hook a nicer fish, likely an eye, near Ft. Snelling but lost it before I saw it.

I spent a fair amount of time working the outside bend just upriver from the hiway 5 bridge. There is a creek coming in through the sandbar there (cold water . . . ?) but I got nothing, not even on a crawler sitting on the bottom. Has anyone caught fish there? seems like a likely spot.

Just below creek, the rip rap is pretty good. I never caught anything near the creek though. I would switch sides right below the creek on my trolling runs.

It can be a great spot, depending on the time of year. When the water is high, there is a large eddy where that sand bar is and the seem between the eddy and main river is a sharp drop off. Lots of active fish, but tough boat control.

I was out there on Thurs too w/ my daugher and Nubbinbuck, what kind of boat are you running? I was in the 14′ Lund w/ a Honda.

This time of year I have found more fish in the faster water in the river above the confluence. If you find fast water, troll it fast up river or down. The eyes are there-you just need to find the right pattern.

I also was out on sunday and started out slow pitching the wingdams down by lilydale and things picked up when we started trolling. We got 6 walleyes and 4 smallmouth from 1pm-2pm and only 2 eye’s from 9 to 1pm. Granted we spent some time trying some different tactics and spots (Leadlining the main channel,pitchin the wing dams, and covering some territory south of St.Paul) Ol’ faithful came through! Trolling Shad Raps. Which leads me to my question: Where are those wing dams that hold the bigger fish. We put in at lilydale and headed south in hopes of discovering them but got as far as Newport and decided to go back to more familar ground. Any insight?
Sealegs

Quote “Where are those wing dams that hold the bigger fish. We put in at lilydale and headed south in hopes of discovering them but got as far as Newport and decided to go back to more familar ground. Any insight?”

If you ran from Lillydale to the 494 bridge, you went past at least 5 good dams that have produced good fish in the past for me! After the 494 bridge, there are basically dams every 200-300 yards for miles. Nearly all of them will hold fish time to time.

Jon J.

There a few wingdams at the airport. Down river from there are just more and more of them. Any one have the link to the river maps that show all the wingdams on it?
Which ones hold fish depend alot on the day and river current. My old reliable ones did not produce much on sunday. I am sure they where there it was just finding the right item to throw at them.
I am going to take a few pointers from the pool 4 reports next time on the water.
Where you guys trolling in front of the sunbather across the river from lillydale?

I think this might be the map link Mike mentioned. Start with Map 9 (Ford Plan & Hidden Falls) and work your way South.

http://www.mvr.usace.army.mil/NavCharts/UMRNavChartsIdx01.asp

thanks for the maps i have not spent a lot of time looking at them. Are those wing dam south of 494 exposed? the one up by lilydale are totally out of the water and I guess I was expecting the same south. I may have had to rely more on my electronics, i thought I could just see them.
Sealegs

sealegs,

Most all the wingdams south of 494 are under water by a foot or more. THe wingdams are much easier to identify now because of this condition. THe maps that Thumper referenced to are real good starting point for picking out wingdams to get started. They do not cover every single wingdam as wingdams are added and reconditioned over time that may or may not be reflected on the maps here.

Keep in mind that anytime you have a upcurrent (southerly) breeze on the water, the wingdams are that much easier to identify as well. Best thing to do is print out a couple of the maps and take them with you as a point of reference. Once you are able to identify how they appear, you will have a much better understanding of where they are located on the river and why!
As a fishing tip for these structure pieces right now…Stay active and cover water. Find a wingdam and use your bowmount and comb up and down the wingdam with a deep diving Bomber 6A and you will be able to pick off the biters right away and then you can keep moving on to the next one and so on. Make a mental note on where you caught fish and come back later and hit them again!

Good luck

Thanks for the help! I haven’t ever fished south of St.Paul. I have had preety good luck on the upper portion of pool 2. I am looking to expand my knowledge base and possibily locating bigger fish!
Sealegs

Just a quick report from todays trip. Slow. Found 3 eyes in about 5 hours. Crankbait, rubber minnows, and a crawler all took a eye. There is a pattern for you. The eyes came of the face of the wingdams.
Spent a little time dragging some live bait around on some sand this morning with little luck. The current whereI had planned to do this had dropped to almost nothing. Just when you think it could get no slower.

I see the post about the wingdams above St Paul. Do they hold fish? The wingdams I have fished are from the Airport down. some of them have been really productive. I have never had much luck with the dams above on to the confluence. I have always attributed it the fact that that area has the majority of mixing between the Mississippi and Minnesota. I am interested that people even concentrate any of their fishing time there.

slow for us on Sunday as well. Fishing north (trolling cranks) of the confluence to the Hidden Falls area resulted in 3 cats, 2 sheepies, and a small smallie.