Pool 2 A great opener

I decided to hit Pool 2 Saturday afternoon just to keep my finger on the pulse and then go to the St.Croix on Sunday. It took me awhile to find fish but once I did I got into some nice ones. Saturday was 24,25,26,27,27.5 and a 20 inch sauger. So much for the St.Croix Sunday I got 9 with the two biggest a 26 and a 28. Someone had posted they had got some fish on crawlers and I thought I’m mister crawler for christ sake I better get down there, Thanks to who ever posted that. I got all my fish on crawlers. This is the best opener I have had in a while, I had to get alittle creative with the picture taking by myself and of course my battery was running dead on the last fish which happened to be the 28 incher It was a great weekend on the water!

Nice fish

Great job Sippi! I might have to take some crawlers down there Beautiful fish.

Nice to see you down there tonight. Hope you warmed up by now

Rootski

nice fish

Sounds like you had a great weekend John. It was a great opener on pool 2. We pulled into 494 around 7 saturday morning and there was not another vehicle in the parking lot. Its hard to ruin a day like that. Rootski, Joel and I managed close to 10 walleyes on Saturday. Almost all came on crankbaits. Steve caught the biggest that was over 26″s. It had been awhile since I have seen pool 2 so that and getting to spend a good part of the day BSing in the boat with Joel and Steve made for a great opener.

See you guys next Thursday night for the 1st Moores contest of the year.

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See you guys next Thursday night for the 1st Moores contest of the year.

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I think Tuesday the 19th.

It was good to see you guys down there this weekend. Congrats to ya Steve on the big fish of the day! We seen alot of the same. Most of our eyes hit cranks. I had the old man in the boat yesterday and he stuck a 26″ while pullin leaches around but our 3 biggest fish bit crank bait as well! The fish seem to be moving around a bit now and using that faster water on the main channel a bit more. Good luck to you guys next week!

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Someone had posted they had got some fish on crawlers and I thought I’m mister crawler for christ sake I better get down there, Thanks to who ever posted that. I got all my fish on crawlers.

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Good to hear it helped you out!! Thats what the site is for and I owe a few of those. To be honest we had better luck on leaches yesterday than crawlers but sounds like you faired just fine! Thanks for the report!!

Nice job Sippi! Man it sure is nice to hear good reports again. I had a great time with Steve and Mike. And I finally broke out of my horrible walleye skunk. It took crankbaits to do it; but I also managed to pop a nice 23″ on a ringworm too just to prove to myself I can still catch ’em on plastics. Thanks Mike!

Joel

I have only fished pool 2 once before. I didn’t have much luck. It was early in the year and the water was high. I was planning on giving it a try this Friday. I want to spend more time on it this year. I cross it every day going to work. Were you fishing north or south of 494? I have been fishing the Croix but catching mostly 15-19 inchers. Time to move on to bigger fish.

Welcome to IDO!
There are plenty of good spots that are fairly close to the 494 launch. See ya down there!

Like Jake said there are good spots all around 494. Heck, there are good spots from one end of pool 2 to the other. The best place to get started this time of the year is to just start working wingdams; but if you know how to read the river you’ll find plenty of places to try. Good luck!

dd

Want to cut your learning curve down in a hurry? Get the Lakemaster chip and focus on the wingdams.

If you missed this post, take a look!

Lakemaster Mississippi River.

The chip in conjunction with on the water visuals of current and flow will quickly help put the puzzle together.

-J.

I spend most of my time below St.Paul but there are good reports for above also. I’ve invested alot of time into getting to know the pool, If I could only get hooks into that 30 incher

Thanks everyone for the tips. I do have the chip but it’s an older one. I don’t believe it shows the wingdams on P2. I did catch that last posting on the new chip. It looks like I needed an exceuse to buy something else anyway. See everyone down there sometime. Thanks again for the pointers.

Got three walleyes this morning in the 18-20 inch range. Two came throwing cranks up on wing dams. The other trolling rip rap shoreline. Fish were pretty aggressive and wanted the bigger baits.

TBO and I managed 5 this evening. Nice fish running from 22 to 24″s. Caught our on hair jigs and purple ring worms on the wingdams. Caught fish on 3 different wingdams. Sure was a nice evening to be out.

Got 5 last night as well. Nothing picture worthy but all in the 18-22 inch range on cranks. Both trolling and casting.

Didn’t see you guys. You must have been north?

-J.

Yep. Are you the one that hit my trailer in the parking lot last night? Some one did a nice job on my trailer light. Good thing they put two lights on a trailer.

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Some one did a nice job on my trailer light.

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Yea, had the exact same thing happen to me down there. I almost sprung for those new-fangled LED lights….but then I figured the idiot who hit my trailer would smash LED light assemblies as easily as the much less expensive old fashioned ones.

May the person that hit you develop a painfull itchy rash in a place he can’t reach

Rootski

What ramp? Lions only had 3 other rigs in the lot.

-J.

So you drove your rig up to 494 and hit my trailer?

So who is fishing tomorrow? Looks like my partner wont be able to make it. Front seat is open if someone wants to jump in.

I was the only guy out on the river tonight, conditions were tuff with that 30 mph wind, I got 3, one nice 28 incher, I set the hook and she didn’t budge, then the drag started singing. It started to thunder so I got off the water. I will be down sometime tomorrow and Sunday. As you can see my lab loves walleyes too.

Got out this afternoon for a few hours. Only two Walleyes but a nice 21 and a heavy 26 inch made it to the boat. Think about this…Rootksi is catching Walleyes down there. It’s gotta be hot!

Rootski

Hot is rite Steve. For the afternoon we caught close to 30 with just a hand full under 20″s. They where hitting everything.

I got my step son Ryan out on Saturday, he bagged his personnal best a 28 and I got a 27 built like a tank. Sunday was slow for me, I just couldn’t get the crawler thing going, caught a 23 and a 25 a few small cat’s and a white bass

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For the afternoon we caught close to 30 with just a hand full under 20″s. They where hitting everything.

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You lie….I haven’t caught 30 Walleyes TOTAL down there and you do that in one afternoon???????? They sure weren’t everywhere hitting everything anywhere near my boat

Rootski

You must of scared them down river Steve.

We started out trolling crankbaits over some submerged rip rap and wingdams. Picked up about a dozen nice fish there. Slow was the ticket to triggering these fish to bite. Slipping the motor out of gear when the lures where in key areas. If you did not pause the lures they did not bite.

Next we decided to try something new and went back threw this area vertical jigging the rocks in the 8 to 12′ range. The walleyes had no problems smacking the hair jigs and ringworms we offered them this way either. I be playing around with this presentation more this summer.

We spent a little time pitching paddle tails and hair jigs to the wingdams yesterday with good results. Also found a good mix of walleyes and long saugers trolling the up stream side of a island and a near by back water area.

As soon as I can find the cord for my camera Ill try to get some photos up. 27″s was the biggest for the day. My neighbor Mike caught 4 in the 26″ range. Most of the rest went from 20 to 24″s. I did catch one sumo sheep head on a black hair jig pitching to a back water point. This fish had me guessing for a while as the cast before I hauled in a nice walleye. The sheepie must of went 15#s. Those big sheep head sure hit like a big walleye.

Well Mike you sure did well yesterday! I popped one fish right off the bat trolling a crankbait along some riprap and that was it for a long time…several more passes through that area all came up empty. Then I hit a bunch of different wing dams as well as several long trolling runs along rip rap with out any action at all, not even the usually-reliable White Bass. Finally I went back to the fisrt spot and started pitching that crankbait towards shore. One hit, but it was a solid 26 inch fish so no compliants. Next I worked through that same area with a ringworm whinking that there might be other fish in there that were unwilling to chase down the faster moving crankbait presentation. All that resulted in was a couple of Sheepies, little ones at that.

I don’t feel as comfortable trolling because I always feel like I’m in the wrong place or the lure is at the wrong depth. And I can’t get much below 2 MPH with my outboard. When I’m casting or pitching I feel like I’m covering the water closer or more precisely. Speed is a big deal too. Maybe I should have been using the bowmount instead of the outboard. My Merc gets me up and down the river but it isn’t the best bet for trolling. I have an old 5 horse Sea King I could hang on the transom as a kicker, maybe I should get that motor running and try that. I’m guessing the big difference between your results yesterday and mine would come down to trolling speed, along with location. I know you weren’t North of the bridge

Again great job yesterday and yes I’m green with envy