Forgetting your favorite fishing hat should be indication that your day should be cut
short and you should simply turn around and head back home! Well today was perfect example on why all superstitions should be put to rest. Joining me today was Shane Novotny of Blaine, Mn for a day of fun on Pool 2. Getting out on the water about 11:00am yesterday morning gave us ample time to put together a solid daytime pattern pitching wingdams south of the 494 bridge by about 12 miles…And OOOH WHAT A BITE!
The plan for the day was to hit some wingdams that were off the beaten path form all the others that most anglers hit from time to time. Our first spot quickly produced 4 fish within the first 10 minutes upon pulling up. One of these beauties hit the tape at 27” and weighing a whopping 9# on the digital scale. 2 of these fish were taken on a 1/4oz JimmyD’s green weenie hair jigs and the other two were taken on YUM 4” ribworms in the Ozark Smoke color. This pace continued the rest of the afternoon as we bounced from spot to spot picking off the aggressive biters within minutes of our arrival each location. Some spots were more of a numbers spots, while others were purely big fish producers. Getting two bites on a wingdam may be all we got on a couple spots but the quality was nothing to complain about!
With current flow steadily declining each day, the main channel current flow is still a bit strong for the fish to be hanging on the first couple wingdams within a stretch of featureless section, so we found the secondary and tertiary wingdams produced much better throughout the day. Water clarity is getting cleaner and cleaner each day as expected. We are currently sitting at about 12 inches and without any noticeable precipitation over the next several days, we will continue to see more and more stabile river conditions that is ever so critical this time of year.
Ending the day with nearly a 35 fish tally, we were blessed with 8 fish over the 25” mark and 2 fish hitting the scales at 9# each. The rest of the fish were spunky 19-23” fish that gave us the thrill of explosive hits and big smiles at the day’s end. This bite is entering its full swing that should last as long as you are willing to bear the elements up to Christmas time and beyond. Pitching plastics and hair should remain the mainstay for the rest of the cold water periods.
Anyone looking to save a few bucks and buy some of the best quality jigheads for plastics fishing should take a peek at B-Fishin-Tackle’s unpainted jigheads. These jigheads are the best jigheads I have ever had the opportunity to fish with. They have the size of the jigheads stamped right into the back of the leadhead for easy fine tuning a plastic pitching bite where size can mean everything in a day’s success!
See you all on the water!
Steve, I am thinking about trying out the pool 2 situation south of 494 today around 11-4pm. Couple of questions, as I am usually a ford dam and hidden falls guy…where exactly is the launch and how do i get to it? Secondly, how far down would you recommend I go before I start fishing and what should I be looking for? From reading your articles and posts on this style of fishing, you anchor upstream of a wingdam and pitch to the top of it, dragging your jig down the front face, varying how far out and how shallow you pitch depending on the time of day and current situation…is that correct?
I may try to make it on that section today too. Is the ramp open Steve?
Mwithham, the exit is directly under the 494 bridge at the Hardman exit. Hardman is still close, but pull up a map and you should be able to get there. The road to the ramp is just east of the bridge.
BTW-any baitshops down there? Didnt someone open on near the ramp?
Nice fish Steve. Looks like fun.
Nice fish Steve
. Have you seen a low light period bite yet? The dusk/dawn bite has not been great for me on the last couple of trips down here on pool 4. Might be to early yet cause the fish are feeding fairly good mid day.
Are most of your fish deeper on the wing dams, or has most of the action been right on top? I am not seeing a lot of fish really shallow on the rocks down here but they are still able to be caught a bit deeper.
I was wonder the same about the evening bite. Looks like alot of day light in those pictures.
Last wensday there was some good shallow water action on 2. The current was stronger last week and wensday was a dark day. Saturday came with high skys and fish deeper on the dams. It also showed some action on our first dam in the morning and as the sun was dipping in the sky. Not the heavy action you would expect but like there might be something starting.
micah,
You are dead on describing the way I approach wingdams. As for the 494 ramp, I believe it is still open but hours from 6:00am-6:00pm? I have not launched there in some time now due to its unpredictability. I have been launching at Willie’s harbor which is south east of the 494 ramp. Also the airport wingdams and south are all worth checking out right now. Not one particular dam has held any super substantial amounts of fish yet. Keep moving after about 20 minutes to stay efficient right now. As we get into Dec, it will be more bang for the buck fishing one spot for a longer period of time.
Dustin,
The bite has been a pretty solid day bite as of late. I had a couple good lowlight bites early last week, but things have changed up here to more of a day bite…actually 8:00am-4:00pm Bankers hours!
The depths have been mostly on the deeper front face of the dam. A few right on top but mostly down 6-11 feet.
Steve or Dustin,
I have a couple of questions. The first one is when you run a three way how heavy do you use as a weight on the pool 4 and 2? Do you use a plan hook and how long is the leter? I hope some one can help me out. I want to try it over turkey day weekend.
Great report as usual Steve, the only thing I can say is those YUM Croaker Tails are like nowhere to be found. So I finally gave up and ordered some online
The ones I had where found in a discount been at sportsmens warehouse about 1.5 years ago. No luck today a Vados or Capras. Think TBO told me there werent any at Gander either.
I found one of your jig heads up by the airport on saturday Steve. 1/8 ounce with a junebug ribworm and about 30′ of line. If you want it back it is sitting in some rocks about 3 dams south of there. I kept the rib worm for later use.
Steve great post, thanks for the insight. One question, are the wingdams easy to spot from the airport and south from there? I’m assuming you are referring to the St. Paul Downtown Airport? On pool 4 my GPS mapping shows the wingdams but I’m not sure if I’ve got pool 2 on my map.
Thanks for the report Steve. Nice fish!!
Navionics now has a River chip that should have pool 2 on it I believe. Been too busy playing with my jon boat so haven’t gotton the bigger boat out that has gps on it to see if its on there or not. Wade at Jolly Marine, on this site, carries the river chip. Thanks, Bill
Steve, one more for you, if you were approximately 12 miles south of the 494 bridge, wouldn’t that put in Spring Lake or further south into Hastings?
If you put in at the 494 landing the first wingdam starts about 100′ south of the landing. Pool 2 has maybe 50 wingdams on it or more. From the airport in st paul down to the dam in hastings is where most of them are at. Channel markers mark alot of them but there are also others.
Big Beaver,
I have not pulled 3-ways in quite awhile, but the standard set up is running about a 8″-12″ 1-3oz dropper weight. On the business end of the 3-way, the possibilities are endless, but phelps floaters with a crawler or minnow, stickbaits, plain hook/minnow, etc… a good starter leader length is usually around 2-3 foot lead length.
Hope this helps…Good luck!
Alvinmack,
Thanks for the nice words.
As for finding the YUM Croaker Tails in retail stores, we are working to get them into many stores in the area, such as Joe’s sporting goods, Gander, Fleet Farm, etc… I will keep you updated as I find out when they will be there. Odering them online right now is the best way to get exactly what you want and the quanities that you want….www.lurenet.com!
Mike,
That must of been from last year possibly? I have only been to the airport area one time this fall so far and I was pitching Croaker Tails there….must of been some other angler that fell victim to those sticky rocks!
tmack,
Take a look at this map…. Navigational Charts This is a map that marks about 80% of the wingdams for barge traffic. There are some that are not on there as well as some that either have been modified or removed. But this map is a great tool for scoping out the layout of the wingdams. 12 miles south of 494 bridge puts me south of Spring lake and obviously north of Hastings dam….Lots of water down there as well. I have been mainly just scoping out new water down there, that I have not fished for awhile for upcoming guide trips.
Good luck to you!
Thanks again guys for all the support here at IDA! This is a great place to be and I am glad you find the reports helpful and educational.
If you guys are online at http://www.lurenet.com Take a look at some of the other plastics that YUM has to offer. The 4″ & 6″ Ribworms, Wooly Curltails, Samurai Sahds, Wooly Hawgtails, etc….Do not be afraid to go BIG this time of year for that one fish of a lifetime. The Croaker tails that I have been fishing are made specifically for salt water applications….but big walleyes are suckers for BIG Plastics!
YUM…..Start a Feeding Frenzy!
Thanks for the report. I’ll be out tomorrow and will post results.
Great report Steve! I believe you can also purchase the Upper Mississippi river navigational charts from the corps. I have the navigation charts from minnesota to Kentucky in a big booklet. Mine is from 1989 and was sold for $7.00. Not sure if they still make these for sale anually or not, but they are very useful as you can take it with you and is the next best thing to gps mapping. Despite it’s age it is still very accurate and I just updated the couple things it was missing on pool 2 at the link steve dropped us, thanks. Try the corps website or call there st. Paul office at (612)725-7505? that # is from 1989.
Lindy