The bite on Pool 2 overall has been getting better and better each outing. Water levels looked to have crested a couple days ago and now it’s starting to drop back down barring no heavy rains in the immediate forecast. I have seen fish spread out the last several outing, backwater cuts as well as in the main channel has been producing fish.
I am hearing reports of fish being caught on multiple techniques in the last week with some consistency. Trolling cranks, pulling 3-ways and crawlers, pitching cranks, hair jigs, and blades have all accounted for walleyes for many anglers. Obviously this means the fish are biting and aggressive at times, so stay on the move if you are not getting bit. Many spots that I have been frequenting as of late seem to be showing fish within the first handful of casts.
Tom Wallrich of St. Paul, Mn and I hooked up on Tuesday afternoon for a afternoon/evening trip on Pool 2. Tom and I started out pitching cranks to a couple small shallow current breaks seams near the main channel. Within 2 casts Tom gets it started boating 3 fish in the 20-24” range that completely inhaled his Cotton Cordell Grappler Shad (CD14) in the perch pattern. We gave this spot about 10 more casts each and decided to keep moving. Our next stop was a spot very similar to the first spots. Again Tom steps up and boats a couple fish right away again with in three casts. A handful more additional casts and they were done so we moved on once again. This was the theme for the first couple hours. After that I decided to hunker down on a large current break that I knew was holding a good number of fish. Within minutes of our arrival we boated a couple more 20”-22” right off the bat. After a short lull here I decided to hang tight for a little while longer and then the bite took off pitching 5/16th oz chartreuse Jimmy D’s Weenie hair jigs. Tom and I proceeded to pull over 20 fish from this spot alone in the next 60 minutes or so and then as the sun was starting the set the bite turned cold as fast as it turned on so I decided to pull the plug and go revisit some of the spots we had earlier pulled a couple of fish. Again with in a couple casts Tom pulls 2 of the biggest fish of the night, a nice healthy 27” and a beautiful 28-1/4” fish. Nice fish Tom!
Tom and I ended the evening a little of 30 walleyes that mostly consisted of cookie cutter 20”- 24” walleyes!
Yesterday’s outing the bite was off pace with the frontal conditions that moved through Tuesday evening. We played the run and gun game for a bit only to get a sneaky suspicion that the fish were a little reluctant to hit the aggressive nature of the crankbaits so we opted for the hair jigs for the remainder of the evening. We still caught fish, but things were really slow compared to the previous 4-5 trips.
If you are looking for fish right now on the river, my best advice would be to put the crankbaits down and cover some water first to get a consensus of the mood of the fish and then adjust accordingly. With waters temps starting to crack that 60 degree mark, I would say start aggressive first and then pull back the reins once the fish tell you what they want.
For all of you that do not want to hit the busy highway systems this weekend, I would highly suggest a trip down to the river for a shot at catching some of the best average sized walleyes that Mn can produce! See you on the water and have a fun and safe weekend for the Mn fishing opener!
Here is a shot of walleye that when the camera went off the flash on the camera was low…..”Spooky Red Eye”.
Here is a picture of a fish that actually had a hole in its back that you could see cleanly through.
Here is another shot of that hole from the backside.
Here is one last picture of Tom Wallrich with a “cookie cutter” nice walleye for the evening. We were kidding to each other that these fish were cut right off out the same mold as nearly 10 fish in a row were within a 1/4″ of each other.
That’s what happens when you hang out in downtown St. Paul.
Are you saying that somebody busted a cap in that fish’s
?
Nice fish and great report Steve!
Awesome report Steve!
I know you catch big Fish, but your using that wallye as bait? It looks like the same place you would hook a minnow.
Keep up the good work.
I made it to P2 yesterday Weds afternoon for some crankin! I also targeted current breaks as well as back water area’s away from the whipping current! Not fishing P2 very often in these conditions, so all the spots I did know were different! The rivers current is moving super fast right now!!!
But like Steve mentioned once we pulled into a spot it didn’t take long to have the walleyes tell us what they wanted!!! Yesterday it was cranks, cranks, and more cranks! We did boat one fish on a ringworm that was all! We ended up with 10 fish for the afternoon with nothing under 17″. So it was a good day in my opionion! I think the P2 gods were shinining down on my boat yesterday. Its been many trips to this pool and finally I was able to catch some walleyes! So if I can do this anyone who reads this post should have no problem catching walleyes on P2 right now!!!
Have a safe weekend everyone!!!!!
That is one big cookie!
It’s just amazing to me that this stretch of the river produces such large fish so consitantly….at least for Steve!
Did you notice that the hole in the back of that eye is about the same size as a Gamakatsu 10/0 cat hook???
I think your on to something there…Ripper!
Nice looking walleyes Steve.
Those cookies look even better than the ones we got from the girl scouts this year.
That date on your report got me thinking. I was beginning to wonder if I missed a day this week or what the heck was going on!
JWB
I see the future!
Just goes to show how much I am loking forward to the weekend!
When you guys are casting your cranks…are you bouncing off bottom? If so, how much of your retrieve are you near the bottom?
Thanks for any info!
edlem,
For my boat right now I am targeting the 4-6 foot areas. I am over casting the actual area that I want to target so when I retrieve the lure through the “sweet spot”, I am banging bottom a couple times. Alot of times this bottom contact will get their attention and you can draw these fish away from their area. Quite often we have fish pull off the shallow water spot and hit right at the boat side in 15 foot of water. Back to your question….I would say only about half of my cast is actually making contact with the bottom. If I am casting a deeper shoreline, I will pull the boat in close and cast parallel down the shore to keep that lure in the strike zone as long as possible. We have been casting flooded timber with the same results as of late. A little bottom contact goes a long way!
Hey Steve,
I just wanted to thank you for the trip last night. It was a great night to be out on the river! Once again the weather people missed the mark. – The bite was certainly tough and it would have been fun to catch a few more fish, but I walked away with a lot of new info that I’m looking forward to putting to good use. Thanks for being willing to share your wealth of knowledge.
Talk to you soon-
Steve Hultgren
I did things a bit different…we worked points that created a current break and had the boat in the shallow and casted out to the current and worked the crank throught the current break and into the shallower water…most fish were holding on the break while others were shallow adjacent to the break!!!! Looking for a easy meal out of the current!!!!
So a couple different ways to catch lots of fish right now!
Good luck!!!
I just came up with an idea! If you were to tie a 20-25′ line with a small red/white bobber to the hole on the back of that walleye, you would have a very effective way of tracking the day-to-day movements of walleyes in pool 2
I think it would work 
The only other way that I know might be easier is to hire Steve for a guided fishing trip….works for me! 
Great pictures Steve…I love the picture of you holding the walleye horizontal! I have always wanted a picture (of myself) holding a walleye like that..but I always forget!
Great report!
Steve, how far up pool 2 have you fished? Do you fish up near the minnesota river area?
Jim,
I did spend some time near the Mn river this spring from late March through the end of April up there. But as of late
I have been fishing from the Folmen Field airport south to about Baldwin Lake.
How has the bite been up that way?
Thanks for the report Steve! I have have seen the same thing. I get to a spot and pick up a couple fish on the first few cast then nothing. I am going to take up your advise this weekend and start throwing some hair. I have tried plastics with little success. Good luck to everyone this weekend!