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My ankles hurt.

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I blame James for all his crazy antics and ideas…

Hey fellas!
Its been quite awhile since I have been back on here.
Thanks for all the kind words. As James has mentioned, my family keep me quite busy, but still find time to get out quite a bit. Only now, I find myself chasing different bites on different bodies of waters, and having a blast doing it! Hope you all are doing well and boating your fair share of fish.
Sure made a lot of great friends here.

How the heck is everybody?

Here is a dandy Pool 4 eye on a Jimmy D’s weenie jig!

I am a big fan of Jimmy D’s Riverbugs!

Happy Birthday Randy!

Jason,

You mentioned Levee park is launchable if we can shovel it out? Any sizeable ice lip at the waters edge? Is the road plowed down to the ramp area?

Thanks for the update

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HF’s gate is now open, road is plowed and salted……the launch still needs a lot of help at this point tho!

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Thats good news. Thanks for the update Pier!
Did they happen to plow down the ramp at all? Looks like this nice weather is going to cool down a bit come this weekend, so hoping mother nature can help us out today and tomorrow!

I know this spring bite is going to be short (pending level of spring thaws) but hopefully sweet!

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This is how it looked this afternoon. Another 50+ degree day tomorrow will put a serious hurt on this ice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBSUS-l8T9Y

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Jon,
How thick would you say the ice is just out from the ramp? The whitish colored ice…..

Good to see you the other day Dean. Hopefully I will see you again and just not my once a year visit to you! But it sure felt good to be on the water the other day!

I am game on cleaning a ramp out this weekend if anyone is interested and mother nature allows it! I need a P2 fix bad…..

Thats really funny Joel. No idea where that one came from? With a mug like this, hard to believe they could not find someone else to fill that space!

Nice fish fellas!

MNDNR,
Let me know if you need anymore. I got a couple as well.

As Joel mentioned, Lilydale is a little ways away from being ready. I brought equipment along in the boat the other day in case the bite slowed to work on it. There is a massive lip of ice at the waters edge that is not going away anytime soon, so I bailed on my plan…plus the bite never slowed on that particular day!

Right on Rootski. Now were talkin…..
Maybe this weekend I will grab a chainsaw, chisels and have myself a little party down there!

Thanks for the updates everyone. I was able to get in at HF ramp the other day with no problems.

Anyone have a comment on the Lilydale ramp? Is it something where a guy and a chisel and a 12 pack could handle in a few hours or is there a giant ice shelf (over deeper water)that is preventing us from launching?

THanks everyone for the fast response. Looking forward to getting out a few times this week!

Even if I strike out down there….its gonna feel good blowing the dust off. See you guys on the water.

Thanks alot guys!
Smallies rule….

Awesome looking boat buddy! Looking forward to a trip to Erie this spring to break it in!

Ted,

Weights were a little low overall this year.
Winners had 12.72# for 5 smallies.

Good Heavens….Nice fish fellas!

You will truely be missed Dean! God Bless you!

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Steve Dezurik’s dad makes a heck of a jig as well. I lost his business card with his website, but I know he has excellent products.

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Wats,
As I have quit guiding for now and shut down my website as well as my Dad’s. He has opened his own website.

http://www.jimmydsriverbugs.com

I will have an open seat next week after work if anyone is inerested in hopping in for a few hours. Just throw me a PM. Not sure what days I am planning to be out as of yet.

Wow…kudos to you distraction for being there at the right time. The river is certainly nothing to fool around with…especially this time of year.

Glad to hear you guys are doing good. I bet that was a real scary moment that you will never forget!

Any weekend reports? I was out of town for the last 6 days and itching to get back on the water. Hoping someone would have something good to share?

I have got the open water itch so bad I can taste the bite down there! Starting early next week I will be down there as much as I can. Looking forward to another fun March down there! Good luck to all who gets out in the coming days!

trashman,

As Wade mentioned in a earlier post, I am no longer guiding but I would be more than happy to help point you in the right direction. There are alot of great sticks here on the site to help you out as well. Using the powerful search tool here you can dig up alot of discussions. Dig back to this time of year last year and you get an idea on where we were at back then to help you plan your spring in the coming weeks ahead.

Based on many past years, the main bite here on P2 starts to take shape in early March. About the entire month of March, the big walleyes are very cooperative to catch. Here are a couple of my reports from last March;

3-19-08 Pool 2 Report

3-26-08 Pool 2 Report

Jason,

Yep I would stick to what you are currently doing and just slightly alter your presentation as the fish dictate (etc….colors, plastic profile, jig size).
As James mentioned, our recent outing resulted in fish with a very small strike zone. If you go back and look at alot of the Pool 2 reports up to years ago, you will find some days the fish are on like freight trains while other days were more subtle. My advice…take your licks as they come.

Pool 2 boat traffic or lack there of is really nice IMO. It did not used to be that way. In the early 90’s the fall/winter would draw lots of boats chasing mid river saugers. Since 1994 (C&R reg) the fishing traffic has gone dramatically down. Because of little online chat over the years the population of anglers seems to be more of the hardcore types that tend to venture out in the cold water months chasing a shot at a big walleye or two. As John mentioned P2 does not have a large population of walleyes like P4 (courtesy of Lake Pepin), but what it lacks in numbers is rewarded with the a good average size. IMO P4 istough to beat all the way around. That big breeding water caters to large fish and a good year cycle year in and year out. This is what a system needs for growing truely giant fish.

Jason,

I had 39 degrees on the graph yesterday. Ringworms should be coming into their own very soon as a mainstay, but the only fish we got to hit yesterday was on Paddletails…Pro Blue infact…Imagine that!

K-grubs and ringworms should be taking off very soon. IMO we are a little behind schedule here on P2 from what I have seen for many years here. It is what it is and we have to roll with the punches, but ringworms will start to get more and more of an effort as the days roll by here in my book!

Good luck!

Boone,

Glad you made the trip up there…..but tough day on the water it seems. The smallies are on a absolute terror right now where I have been fishing, so do not give up quite yet!

Atta boy Pete! Good to see you getting into some nice fish.
Sorry I had to bail on you this week….Maybe next week!