With the river back to a more normal condition , Jon J. and I decided it was time to hit Pool 2 for some wing dam action. We left the dock at Lion’s Levee Park in St. Paul Park at 5:15 and headed downstream to try our luck. The first stop looked promising and within the first few minutes I had a 15″ sauger next to the boat. A couple of casts later and I had a nice walleye ready for a quick pic.
We continued to work this spot for a bit with no more action.
After moving further downstream we located on another wing dam that has produced in the past. Jon was finishing up setting the anchor and on my first cast I had a nice walleye coming to the boat. This one measured at 23″.
It’s not too often I get Jon down 3 fish to zip and it did not take him long to put one in the boat. This one hit the tape at 20″.
As we moved to another spot I looked up and saw a sky full of May flies. We were right in the middle of a major hatch. Its been quite a long time since I have seen this many hatch on the river.
At our next stop Jon did connect again to close the gap. Another beautiful Pool 2 walleye came to the boat. We ended the evening at 9:30 and cruised back to the dock surrounded by millions of May flies. There were small fish surface feeding everywhere. It was quite a sight.
Thanks for the report Dino! Nice job!
I have been itching to get back down there lately.
How was the water clarity down there?
I was thinking of dropping down there this afternoon, but my truck has been on auto-pilot to Mille Lacs the last 2 months+!
I was on the upper part last night-fantastic!
40 eyes over 15″ and a dozen or so smaller ones. The biggest was a chunky 24 1/2″. Also a 10-15lb flat that I thought was a snag until I realized that I was holding in the swift current but my drag was still running. We also caught a 21″ sauger, dozen+ smallies, big sheepies, smaller cats, white bass.
75% of the fish came on a sinle 100 yard stretch. 7 on the 1st pass, then the action gradually tapered off. We circle back for one last run after give the area an hour rest and nailed 5 more 17″-19 1/2″ eyes.
Dave you’re killing me!
Nice report. Is fire tiger still the hot color?
Firetiger??? What? Is that a color or something?
Steve,
The water clarity is still pretty low. I’d say 4-6 inches with a visible “muddy” look to it. Water levels are at normal pool or maybe even a little on the low side. The current is just a little bit fast, not bad. But enough to make a 20 incher feel like a 26!! Nothing like a solid “Thump” at the end of a log cast!!
Still need to keep a close eye out for junk in the water. We clunked into a couple logs last night. Beautiful evening down there. No pleasure boats whatsoever! Only saw a couple fishing rigs run by. Just amazes me how much wildlife can be seen and so close to the city.
Dave,
Sounds like a fun trip. Good the hear you have a few hogs are in your mix. We were hoping to get one or two bigger fish to the boat, but not this trip. Man I wish 5 hours in the office when by as fast as 5 on the water!
I think its slang for “My arms are killin me!”
Amen Brother!!!
Clarity on the upper part was better that I expected. You could see bottom in about 2′ of water.
Flow felt just slightly above average.
Thanks for the report… were you guys only fishing cranks, or did you do any jigging or live bait fishing?? I was out briefly last week fishing cranks in the middle of Pool 2 and only put a couple fish in the boat (I guess this past May spoiled me on Pool 2). I’ll be back out sometime in the next few days (now, do I fish the upper Pool or south of downtown…. decisions decisions). Thanks again.
95% casting cranks. 3% Trolling cranks. 2% casting plain hairjigs. All of the fish came to the boat on casted cranks.
-Jon J.
Trolling cranks exclusively on the upper part for me. But many, many fish came on a stop or slow.
There must have been another huge May fly hatch on the river again tonight. I was at a gas station off of hiway 52 and upper 55th. in IGH , 2 miles from the channel , and the lights had attracted a few thousand flies.
We hit the upper and middle sections of 2 yesterday with pretty good results. Our trolling bite on the upper section started out good with 4 fish in the boat in about 10 minutes. It slowed after that.
After a few trolling passes on the upper streach of river I pointed the boat down stream and headed for some rip rap and a few wingies I like to hit. Trolling the rip rap started out slow but did eventualy put out a couple of mid sized eyes when we switched over to the crawfish colered crank baits. What a difference a color change can make.
We then hit 2 wingdams on the way back up stream and pulled eyes on both and a few white bass. On the second wingdam I hit back to back 23″ walleyes on a blue ringworm. I was hoping for something bigger on the wingdams also put was very happy with this pair of fish.
The evening bite on the upper end of the pool never did really get going for us. We caught walleyes but just not the numbers like we have been getting. We also only caught 2 saugers trolling the upper streach. In the last few trips saugers made up maybe a third of the catch. We where able to end the night with a nice 22″ eye caught by watergate marina.
It was anouther good day to be on the water.