Mississippi River Pool 2 Fishing report 12-13-04

By DeeZee 0

The wingdam walleye bite on Pool 2 continues to produce some very big fish to those anglers that are persistent in there quest for some nice winter walleyes!

The daytime bite has shown a little improvement this past week with the help of some overcast skies and lighter winds. Staying light on your offerings has shown to be crucial to pulling consistent numbers from spots. Staying mobile again seem to be the best advice I can give right now for those that wish to up their overall numbers of walleyes.

The same program that has been producing for me the last several weeks has still proved to be my best approach for hunting for those big, big winter walleyes. I have shifted my jig sizes from my traditional 3/16th oz-5/16th oz BFT’s unpainted precision jig heads down to 3/32oz-3/16th oz sizes. Even on the deeper wingdams that have been productive for me with the heavier jigs, the lighter approach has definitely seen better results, but fishing it slow is obviously a must. Light winds are also a crucial ally for this approach to work to its potential. Battling a nasty cross wind can wreak havoc on your stealth presentation. A little trick that I have been using for the last couple of years during the heavier winds conditions have been bulking up on the jig size a bit and moving the boat closer to the wingdam than you normally would. This gives you the flexibility to have good control of a heavy jig and be able to work it slow because it is closer to the boat. Reducing the pendulum swing distance slows the jig drop speed down dramatically.

Jimmy D’s weenie hair jigs gets my full nod this past week accounting for most of the big fish coming to the boat. 1/8th-1/4 oz hair jigs have been the best for my boat this week. I have been working on several color patterns this fall on Jimmy D’s weenie style jigs and found a new fire tiger color pattern that proved well for me. This jig features all chartreuse, orange, green and a little black mixed in. This color pattern looks very gawdy in the water, but walleyes were all over it like a fat kid on a cupcake! YUM 3-1/2” Croaker tails and 4” Ribworms have been my go to this fall and still prove to be a steady producer. The natural colors such as Cotton Candy and Ozark Smoke have been good to me with water clarity improving weekly. Rigging these plastics on a light BFT unpainted precision jig head is a deadly combination from here on out!

As I mentioned previously, overcast skies have produced a good day bite for me on most all the wingdams, but when the sun comes out I have been having better luck shifting my attention to the deeper wingdams. These deeper spots seem to hold the fish deep on the front edge of the wingdams and become a little more cooperative in the sunny conditions.

Lowlight periods of the day remain the best time for me to score on the numbers of active fish. If sunset comes and you are not getting bit, keep moving until you find a spot that is giving up some active fish. My numbers of fish have ranged from 15-25 fish for the last couple of trips with the bulk of the fish seeing the tape at 19”-22” including at least 2 fish over the 26” mark each trip. This biggest fish this week was a 28” beauty that tipped the scales at 9-1/2#! I have been fortunate to carry a streak of big fish this fall on Pool 2! Call me lucky, but I will take it any way I can get it!

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  2. Great fish! Do you have a web address or a store location that carries a good selection of the Jimmy D’s hair jigs. Thanks

  6. Steve,

    Great fishing, not sure I envy the conditions you were out in though yesterday. Man it was cold out and you couldnt have paid me enough to be out there. You are the man for not only catching some nice fish, but braving the conditions and staying warm.

    -Mike

  9. Thanks guys!

    Did I mention to anyone that I love this river?

    Thanks John for posting the info on Jimmy D’s link. Glad you like the jigs, he takes special care in providing quality in his jigs….including paint free jig eyes!

    I have been meaning to update the site to show the weenie hair jigs that I have been using on Pool 2. I am close to having that completed. For now, be sure to ask Jimmy D for all the updates in colors and styles that are availible not shown on the site. Also, be sure to ask about the new firetiger color pattern that I have been having success with as of late. Here is a look of the new firetiger color pattern.

    Anyone have any info on the ramp condition at the St. Paul Park? I am debating in either putting in here tomorrow or Lilydale.

  10. This is the 1st day that I can see ice 1/3 of the way across the Miss in downtown from my office window. More of this cold weather, and you will be breaking ice to get downriver of Lilydale.

  11. I havent heard anything new about the ramp. It was suposed to be closed on the 10. Not sure of what they did with it after that.

  13. Steve,

    Is there any improvement on the daytime bite on Pool 2?? I was thinking of doing an all day thing on Sat. 12-18-04 but Mike W. and I found fish on the St. Croix last weekend. Would like to get into some of the bigger eyes on p-2.

  14. TBO,

    We had a respectable mid day bite last weekend with the overcast skies. Still was not a fantastic bite, but more consistent than trips past. I would guess if you have high skies on 12-18, you may want to consider other options for maximizing a bite. When we did make contact with the walleyes over the weekend during mid day, the fish were very shallow….2-3 foot of water.

    I am heading out this afternoon to see how much ice is floating around P-2. Saw quite a bit of ice on my way home last night, hopefully some of that is cleared out by now…I will report back tomorrow.

  15. I couldnt see from 35E this AM, still too dark. Yesterday, there was large flow of ice blocking the river just below the confluence, but it was floating, not shore to shore.

    This AM from my window I see about the same amt of ice on shore (only going out 10-20′ from shore). That is just on the east/downriver side of downtown-where Sibley/Jackson hit the river. Channel is clear w/ no floating flows.

    I think you should be fine today!

  16. Just thought I would drop an update here…

    I dropped my winter beater in at the 494 ramp yesterday afternoon. Evidently, they got rid of the lockable gates for the time being and the road is wide open currently. No telling what each day will bring, but for now its open.

    As for the river conditions, the river last night was 75% clear of floating ice. A main stream of floating 1/2″ thick ice coming down the center of the river. They have dropped the flow way down as they normally do this time of year, so seeing temporary ice up will be very common in the coming days. The forecast for the weekend looks mighty grim for those of us trying to get in on the middle part of Pool 2. Might be an opportunity to take off to Red Wing instead.

    I might slip down there again tonight to check it out once more and report back here.

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