Due to the unpredictable weather, its been a little while since my last report. At I sit here on March 1st, I look at the forecasted week in advance and see some continued cool weather expect for a glimmer of hope with 50 degree weather about a week away. That’s the weather I am looking forward to. This warmer weather will turn things around for us anglers looking for a good start to the 2005 early spring river season.
Right now on Pool 2, the bite has been still a bit inconsistent for me looking for those above average sized fish. Lowlight periods of the day continue to take top honors for boating some hefty walleyes. Pitching YUM Ribworms in the Cotton Candy and Ozark Smoke color patterns rigged on BFT’s precision jigs still prove to be my best go to setup.
The YUM 3-1/2” Croaker Tails will soon get the nod as the river begins to slightly warm up and the females start putting the feed bag on, but for now the smaller profile of the ribworm still seems to be the favorite for boating fish.
With water flows down quite a bit from a couple weeks ago, I have again had to jump back to the lighter jig head approach of 1/8-3/16th oz sizes. I have had a couple questions in the past couple weeks regarding what color jig head do I prefer for pitching plastics to the wingdams? My answer tends to differ slightly from most, I pitch a lot of wingdams here on Pool 2 and have found that when presenting a offering to shallow fish, it is more often than not an aggressive response! Meaning these shallow females that lurk the shallows are there for one reason and one reason only…TO EAT! So, for me color of the jig head has never presented a strong factor when fine tuning a bite! Plastics on the other hand, I believe make a big difference. Both color as well as profile needs to be considered when getting a pattern established.
I am excited to see some warming trends find there way here to the upper Midwest. I think some warm sun heating up the water temps a bit will start mother nature in the right direction. I also have a hopeful speculation that this spring higher water bite will be better this year than in years past. For one, the overall lack of snow we have had as well as the Minnesota river has had a chance to clean some of the ice out of its main channel a few weeks back. All that ice coming out in a short period of time usually spells trouble for everything south of that point….so staying optimistic is my thoughts and I am hopefully sticking to them!!
Hey Steve!
Is it worthwhile to hit the wingdams midday? I unfortunately can’t get out much during lowlight. Got to go when the kiddies are at school. Thanks!
dd
dd,
I think in a couple weeks the midday bite should become a little more consistent. For now, I would target depths a little deeper during midday. The sandflats between the wingdams have shown a few fish for me this past week, but nothing big. Here I was targeting the 13-20 foot depths with the ribworms. If its calm, trying pitching these areas, otherwise if you have some wind vertical jig these areas midday.
Let me know when the Smallies are biting down there on P2
On a more serious note: Steve, have you ever tried to dropshot walleyes off of your wingies?
Steve, you looked like you were having fun maneuvering through the ice flow early Saturday morning up stream from the 494 bridge.
We managed 6 short fish before we gave up fighting the wind.
Mike,
Being an avid bass stick years ago, I have borrowed several techniques such as drop shotting, carolina rigs, miller rigs, etc… for pulling these fish off of wingdams. Although at times, it seemed we could pull a few fish with these techniques, we always seem to have a better response from the simply pitched plastics approach. Like everything, I am sure it has a time and a place and even plenty of confidence thrown in as well. I have not exhausted these techniques by any means, just played with them from time to time. Now that you have my curiousity back up, you have just added another 6 rods to my boat….Thanks!
Now I’m curious, Steve… Do you ever catch any smallies on Pool 2? I like the walleyes just fine, but I’d like to get Mike an answer so he stops talking about trying to catch them.
John
I bet you are not buying that are ya?
Starting in late March, I start picking up a few here and there. I know a few guys that target them on 2 do pretty well. April seems to draw plenty of smallie fishing on the upper end of the pool. Come August and September, I am heading north bound in hunt for those beautiful bronzebacks!
I run into a lot of smallies on cranks all summer, mostly in the area from the confluence to the dam. Real generally, they are near the faster water, rip rap shore and if the eyes are in 6-10′ the smallies will be in 4-6′. 90% of them are very small, but a few 3lb+ ones come into the boat each month.
One spot where I nail a smallie over 3/4 of the time, casting right inside the lock on the dam side right where the wall stops and the very large rocks start. I dont even know if you are suppose to fish there, but no one has said anything yet.
If you see minnows busting on the shores, you can be sure smallies are there too.
Amen Brother! Except hopefully you will be seeing me blazing by you in 4 inches of water with a new Dick Stallman jet pump out of San Leandro, CA
Great report Steve