Ford Dam

We did some jigging up by the dam yesterday and boated 15 walleyes not much for size 19 inches was our biggest. Anyone else having luck on the upper portion of pool 2?
Sealegs

sealegs,

I have not been on the upper portion of the river for a little while now. The bite down on the wingdams is starting to heat up very good in the past week. This is the time of year where pitcing light plastics to the shorelines and current breaks up near the dam will produce some hefty fish. I will be making a couple trips to the upper portion of the river in the next couple of outings. For now, go light on the jigs 1/16th-1/8oz and go big on the plastics to give the jig an ultra slow fall rate.

How deep did your fish come jigging up by the dam?

I tried taking your advice from a while ago and pitched hair jigs at the wing dams only we started out from the Lilydale Access and worked thos wingies right out in front and caught a few sheepheads then we worked our way north. we were fishing in 8ft and things really picked up at about 5:00 once the sun went down then we ran out of minnows. Again not much size. We did try crankin’ on our way up with only oak leaves to show for it. Is it time to put the crankbaits away ? the last few times I always give it a whirl but only been catching rough fish. Any insight always appreciated!
Sealegs

As far as pulling cranks this time of year, I like to shy away from the fat bodied baits like the Bomber 6A that I use on the wingdams when the water is a bit warmer. This time of year when I do pull out the cranks baits its usually the stickbaits style lures that have a much more subtle action. Lures such as the Smithwick Super Rogue, Bomber Pro15Ap, Rebel minnows, etc… and slow your troll speed down considerably. This is also an excellent approach for night fish on the river as well. I like to slowly troll these cranks along rip rap shorelines or current break edges.

My mainstay this time of year is either light hair jigs or light plastics pitched to the same rip rap shorelines as I described above. Look for outside bends in the river and look for areas that have quick access to deeper water. Put these two together and you will get bit eventually. The wingdams and rip rap shorelines have been my best thing going right now on the river for both during the day as well as after dark. During the day they may be slightly deeper like 8-11 foot and much shallower (2-7 foot) after darkness sets in.

Hope this helps and good luck!

I agree with what Steve has to say (heck- he’s the guy who showed me all this stuff!). The past couple of nights (last week) I have been out, slow trolling the rogues put a few fish in the boat. My best areas were sand/rip-rap transition areas. And by “slow”… I was running one night with just the wind pushing me, only using the electric to keep me on course occasionaly.

We stopped down for a couple hours this afternoon/evening and hit the st paul side from shore. managed 3 decent 17-20″ eyes in an hour or so. We got one on a smoke kgrub and the other 2 came casting yo zuri suspending minnows. All the fish came from the current seam area we had access to and the bite coincided with the passing of a big barge. Seemed to increase the current flow with the displaced water and stirred them up a bit. nice not to have to launch to catch eyes!