Mississippi River Pool 2 Fishing Report 5/19/2004

The bite continues to excel on Pool 2 for both numbers as well as the overall size of the fish. Tuesday night Rick Kreyer and his Dad Jim joined me on an ½ day adventure in search of some Pool 2 walleyes. With the high skies, calm winds and temps in the high 60’s, it made for a very comfortable evening. When we left the launch I noticed that the water clarity has dirtied up considerably from the day prior. A lot more debris and a little quicker current flow made for a slight different outlook on the types of wingdams that we would try throughout the trip.

After 4 wingdams and only 1 19” fish to show for our efforts early on, it was time to adjust things a bit and look to some different wingdams for some activity. I decided to look at some secondary wingdams. Within our first adjustment we scored quickly with a nice 26”+ fish that clobbered a Bomber 6A crankbait. Within a couple casts later we had another missed fish, but gave me the confidence that I needed to look elsewhere. We continued to probe some additional spots with a couple smaller fish. At about 6:00pm, we ran south and trolled some backwater and immediately made contact with a handful of smaller fish trolled on some shallow sand/silt current swept flats that all ranged from 5-9 foot in depths. We continued trolling this area for a couple more passes and decided at 7:30pm to make a move back to the wingdams for some lower light activity.

After our move back to our wingdams, we made contact with fish almost immediately within 2 casts. Rick stepped into the ball game quickly and scored big with a couple big fish near back to back that hit a Bomber 6A! A couple 26”-27” were the result of Ricks

quick comeback strategy. Nice fish Rick and congrats. We picked up and moved to our next spot that was about 200 yards up river from our previous spot and once again within a couple casts we made contact. On one of the occasions, I felt a nice sized walleye nip the back end up my Bomber just as my lure was about a foot below the surface. Apparently, this fish did not have enough hooks in her mouth to make it stick, within 3 seconds Rick sets the hooks on a nice walleye nearly 2 feet away from where I just lost my fish. Was it the same fish? Hard to say, but either way the fish had the feedbag on! As Rick tangles with this nice 27” walleye with about a foot of line off the end his rod. Needless to say Rick’s heart was pumping. As I dove for the net, Jim sets the hooks on a nice walleye in the back of the boat. After netting Rick’s fish, I had Jim sweep his fish right into the net to join Rick’s nice fish! A lot of commotion in just 10 seconds!! Nice work guys.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Rick and Jim for joining me on our evening half day trip that always seems to go too quickly. I would also like to express a special thanks as well to all of my customers that I had the opportunity to fish with this spring. You have all made me a better guide and angler. Like everything, there are good times and slow times that take place on every body of water through a season basis and being versatile is always the key to staying consistent. Thank you all!

With the water levels climbing a bit and flows increasing from previous rainfalls, look for the walleyes to make a shift even shallower to both wingdams and rip rap areas.

By popular demand, I have a few more guide trips to fulfill before I launch my Mille Lacs 2004 season. Good luck to all!