This will be most likely my last report from Pool 2 as my schedule shifts gears to the upper Mississippi river from St. Cloud to Brainerd chasing skinny watered sumo smallies starting this weekend! Every year I hate to leave Pool 2 as the bite on Pool 2 is continually getting more and more predictable here in the last week. The water levels are dropping each day and the water clarity is good right now with close to 10” of visibility.
Monday Joe Busch (aka…RatherBFishn) and I shared a boat to have a day to ourselves chasing those extreme backwater walleyes. What a beautiful day it was 73 degrees, light breeze and not a cloud in the sky. Could not ask for a better way to enjoy the day than to be pitching for shallow water walleyes. Joe and I proceeded to fish the day mostly looking for new spots and haunts for these high water fish. A few spots produced fish and a few did not….thats what finding new spots is all about! Joe and I enjoyed our company together and proceeded to share laughs through the day and catch several fish over the 25” range! Hair jigs and Cranks were our arsenal for the afternoon as probed each pronounced current break off the main channel as well as backwater cuts.
Thanks Joe for the fun day!
When I say the bite is getting more and more predictable, I mean to say that you do not need to spend a lot of time in any given spot to catch fish now. Usually within a half a dozen casts, you will either catch a few fish or getting nothing at all. After that you best keep right on moving down the shoreline to the next spot. IF you want to find fish fast right now, armor your rods with a couple style cranks. One rod I would suggest rigging a Bomber Fat A or Model A and another rod with a crankbait that has a little tighter of a wobble like a Cotton Cordell Grappler Shad (CD14). Let the fish dictate which style they want for the day….but keep moving. There are plenty of big fish biting right now and if you are persistent enough you will have more than a good shot at boating a big walleye through the day.
With water levels dropping each day and signs of the wingdam bite taking shape, I would suspect that cranks and jigs on the wingies might be a very good option in the coming week. Do not be afraid of fishing some of the faster flowing dams right now. The water temps are warm enough for these fish to be aggressive and hang out in the current a bit more than you might expect.
For all of you spending the rest of the summer here on Pool 2 or nearby….good luck to you and save a couple for me as I will be back here in October! Have a great summer and keep an eye out for the upper miss smallie reports starting in the next week or so.
Here is a picture of Tom Evenson and his son Andrew. Andrew is already a great fisherman at his young age. With his passion for fishing and already honed skills, he will be quite an angler when he gets a little older. Good fishing with you two and look forward to fishing with you i nthe future.
Here is a shot of Andrew holding one of his nice walleyes for a picture! Nice fish Andrew!
Here is a picture of Joe O’Kane and his boys Conner and Austin. It was great fishing with you guys as well and also look forward to some day fishing again! Thanks again guys!
This last pic is of Austin Evenson holding one of his walleyes that hit on a crankbait in 4 foot of water!
Walleyes are always nice to get into, but I bet your looking forward to this weekend
Yeah, I hate to leave the river right now, but those smallies have been calling my name since last summer. Besides it will give me a chance to put the River Pro jet boat to good use getting to areas that people dream about!!!
Mack, you know what I am talking about!!
Steve, Thanks a ton!!! I had a great time and was able to get out on about as nice of a day as you can ask for
Man would I get into trouble with that thing…. What an awesome ride 
Thanks agian Steve!!! Good luck up north. I will keep a good eye on these sows for you 
Its always nice getting into a few nice fish with great company. And the boat ride
You have to look hard to find a better fishing partner than Joe! Sounds like you guys had a great day.
Rootski
Great report as always Steve. I like many others I am sure are looking forward to your great smallie reports.
Love2Fish.
Those pool #2 eyes will be gratefull that you are leaving the alone for a few months….maybe some of those hook-holes will heal up
Have fun up there and look forward to joining you soon!
Steve:
Thanks for a great spring, your reports provides some very good guidance which really helped make my time on the water more successful. Its been a busy schedule with work and kid duty, so when I do get out that little bit of extra information sure pays off!
My son and I got out last night. Taking reports from Pool 2 and 4 we started off throwing cranks of shore breaks and wingdams. My son got a nice 21 inch walleye, breaking the ice for this year.
After that we put trolled number 5 raps on shallow current edges near deep water looking for the busy fish. I ended up with 4 walleye around 20 inches. The fun part was instead of kicken back and troll when I got over obvious rip-rap, rubble bottom I would sweep the lure forward keeping tension on the line as the lure slid back. This was the ticket triggering so awesome strikes.
Always fun and thanks again to Steve and IDA anglers for helping us out.
DZ- awesome report. It is great to see the picture of the younger guys with the big smiles and big fish!! Keep up the great guiding!!
Great report Steve. If you ever need to fill a seat chasing those smallies, hollar!!
Professor,
My pleasure!
I am glad you find the reports useful and I appreciate the kind words! Thank you!
Luke,
I absolutely agree. Something special about seeing a child holding a fish with that precious smile! Someday my little boy will be old enough to hoist a nice walleye and I cannot wait to be part of it.
Mike,
I will be in touch!
I made it out last night and got off the water literally seconds before the storm hit. I found some fish, but they were saugers! I hardly ever catch saugs on P2, but there they were in 3′ of water off a section of riprap. They were nice fish, though: all 18-22″. The color variation was really something. Some were almost solid gray and others looked like holsteins. Got them on a firetiger #7 shad rap casted up to the back and bounced off the bottom back to the boat.
John