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Do not judge a whole website by the opinion on one or even a few members.
Yup, makes sense. For the most part it seems like people on this site are very welcoming and helpful. It’s a good place to be. I was just trying to make a point.
I’m kind of sad that I clicked on this thread.
I guess I’m one of the newbs on this site that’s seen some of these big walleye pictures and had the audacity to think “gee, I might want to catch one of those for myself.” I’m the evil entity that this site and its gratuitous bragging pics have brought to the water. And that makes me sad. Because I don’t like being the bad guy. And I don’t like wondering if I talk to a guy on the landing if he’s going to resent me because I’m the new IDO-manufactured evil.
I like fishing. And, generally speaking, I like fishermen. Part of the fun of fishing is the community, and being out there sharing ups and downs. I have always thought that IDO was a great community that I want to be a part of. I don’t want to feel unwelcome because I like catching fish, too.
And you want to know what the really funny thing is? I’m not even catching fish. The reality is that for all the amazing locations, tactics, tips, and knowledge I have gleaned from this site, there is still one little thing that people forget: fishing is hard. It takes practice, and time, and hands-on experience. It’s not like I see one of these pics with 494 in the background, run out to the launch, and then quickly pull a 28″ in to the boat. It doesn’t work like that (at least it hasn’t for me).
Someday I will figure it out, though. And I can only hope that when you see that pic of me holding a 28″, new people are on the site and say “hey, that looks like fun.”
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I was driving down along the river the other day. I checked out the launch at Lillydale – never been down there before. It looks really “fishy” down there. It is on my list to explore next year. Anybody have general impressions of that area?
That’s interesting because I just did that exact same thing. I’ve always launched at either 494 or Lions Levee, but I’d never really spent any time upstream. I went down to Lilydale the other day and it definitely felt a lot different than further downstream. I guess that’s the beauty of Pool 2 – there’s so much to explore. I posted a couple of pics of the exposed wing dams at Lilydale in the Walleye forums, too.
I’d also like to explore some of the backwater areas like Greycloud Slough, but I think I need to first concentrate on catching fish in my usual areas instead of burning gas driving to the backwaters.
I’m guessing by now you’ve got a pretty good idea of what wing dams are, but I went down to the Lilydale landing and took these pics because I was curious (I had never been down there and I’d never seen exposed wing dams). The second one is kind of hard to see, but it should be visible if you enlarge it.
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If you want to see wing dams on pool 2 got to lilydale landing. Look up river and down and you should see rock structures sticking out into the river. These are about the only wingdams on pool 2 that stick above the water in low water levels.
This is interesting because I never even realized there were wing dams on Pool 2 upstream of the St. Paul airport. I usually rely on the COE maps prior to going out and they don’t show any wing dams at the Lilydale landing; however, the DNR maps do. So I guess it’s good to consult both. I’m going to try heading up there some time and see if they are registered on my GPS chip. How’s the fishing up that way? Have I been missing out? Also, I’ve provided links to both the COE and DNR maps below:
http://www2.mvr.usace.army.mil/NIC2/mrcharts.cfm?index=1
http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/education_safety/safety/boatwater/metro_river_guide.pdf
Do you mean metro Twin Cities?
I buy my live bait at the ACE Hardware on 54th and Nicollet in Minneapolis and I’ve noticed they have very large (around 18″) “decoy minnows.” I’m not sure what the “decoy” means, but I’m guessing they’re probably what you’re looking for.
They were hitting on my newly purchased BFishN tackle. They didn’t seem too picky — I was using a ringworm in Vikings colors, and my brother was using a Pulse-R in white. Both seemed to produce about the same.
Thanks for all the advice on the BFishN stuff. I went down to Joe’s today and bought a whole assortment of BFishN plastics and jigs. Now at least I can look like I know what I’m doing 
I’ve never fished with any of the BfishN stuff, but if you’re consistently catching 20″+ fish on them it sounds like I need to give it a go. I’m going to head up to Joe’s tomorrow and get myself going on some of those baits. Any recommendations for a BfishN starter kit? Based on the website, it looks like Pulse-R + Precision Jigs might be a good combo?
Yeah, I was out last Wed and Sun and the wind was pretty tough both days. On Wednesday fish were biting on jigs w/crawlers. I caught the pictured smallie on a wingdam and it was a blast! It’s not a huge fish, but it fought like a crazed maniac.
We couldn’t get anything to bite a crawler for the life of us on Sunday, but we did pick up a few Walleyes on crank baits. The guy I have pictured here is fairly unremarkable except for the fact that he nailed a crank right at the boat, Musky-style! It was pretty wild.
My brother and I were out earlier in the day between about 8:30am and 11:30am and it was absolutely beautiful out on the river. I think we beat most of the recreational boaters, too, because almost every boat out there was fishermen.
We’re still relative novices, but we did okay. We caught a smaller Sauger, channel cat, and sheepshead on jigs with 1/2 crawlers on a wingdam south of 494. When we moved up to the wingdams near the airport we caught two quick Walleyes — 17″ and 18″ — on crankbaits pitched right to the tips. We didn’t have enough time to keep working the crankbait plan, but it was exciting to see it work. I’ve never really had much luck with crankbaits, so it was good to get some faith in them (we were using Bomber 6A in the Citruese color).
Thanks for the tips guys! I’ll give trolling a go and hopefully I’ll catch something other than a marker buoy and bridge piling. And if you see a guy trolling around in a Sylvan looking clueless, feel free to stop by and say hi.
Nice post. I’ve been fishing Pool 2 a bit lately but I have yet to try trolling. Is there a reason that Saugers were caught more on the troll than Walleye? If I want to giving trolling a go, what’s the most basic setup? I was going to just tie on a Bomber 6A and start heading upstream down the main channel, but I have no idea how much line I should be letting out, speed, direction etc.
Gianpetro, indeed.
Thanks for the tips everyone. This forum is really a great resource, and I’ll do my best to contribute when I finally figure out what the I’m doing out there.
I’m the guy with the beat up 16′ Jon boat with a 20HP Johnson, so feel free to say hi if you see us out there on the river.
