This past week on Pool 2 my boat had experienced a slightly slower bite overall compared the weeks prior. Still some nice fish making their way to the boat, but working harder for less right now has been my routine for taking the water as of late. Midday has been probably the most consistent bite that I have experienced thus far.
With the low water levels that we have right now, I am still seeing the fish widely spread out upon locations. A couple fish per spot has been pretty much the norm for me over the last week and earlier. Wingdams and mid river channel edges has taken most of my fish the past 4 days. Depths have been ranging all over the board from 3’-16’ and everything in between. With the fish spread so much and getting such a wide range of characteristics, one thing should remain to be a common factor when looking for these fish. Find the current and fish areas that are getting the most amounts of current in order to put the odds in your favor. The outside turns of the deeper sections can be perfect locations for walleyes to be right now while they are on the move. Pitch the breakline areas around these deeper holes. Wingdams have still been my mainstay for looking for a high percentage spot for these walleyes to sit. In my recent reports I had mentioned that finding dams with more current on them has been best, well that is still the case, but I have been finding a few fish on spots that do not seem like they should be productive right now. I guess that’s the result of the walleyes being so spread out right now?
What’s been working?
Plastics have been still the way to go. Ribworms, paddletails, blades have all been taking a few fish the past couple trips. BFT’s Precision jig heads are my go to jigs for this style of fishing. Threading a plastic on a jig and not have to worry about it slipping down is luxury that I have been spoiled with the last several years. IMO, there is no better jighead option for pitching plastics! If you do not have some…GET SOME! 
3/16th oz Precision jigs have been the best size for me on most days, if it’s a bit breezy I will step up to the ¼ oz for better feel. Colors of plastics have been kind of all over the board as well. Chartreuse pepper, oyster and purple have all taken fish the last couple days with not a strong liking to much of either at this point. With a slower bite right now, identifying a strong color pattern has been a bit of a struggle. Those 3 colors that I have listed are day in and day out my go to colors for this time of year and usually on a given day I can find one of the three colors to be a favorite for each trip.
The road to the 494 boat ramp remains to be open. No signs as of yet as to when and if they will be closing the road down for any bridge construction. This remains to be a day to day or week to week watch. Look to the Mississippi River Walleye forum for the latest news about the boat ramps closures.
Until my report next week, my advice would be to stay on the move. The walleyes have been aggressive if they are in the area. Usually 20 minutes to a spot has been about the amount of time I have been spending before moving on to the next spot.
Here is a shot of a fish that took top honors for the week. 29″ and tipping the scales at just under the 10# mark!
fish don’t have a chance with you 2 in the boat. great pics and info! THANKS
Some beautiful looking walleyes there Steve and James!
(I assume that was James, looked like him anyway)
I’m jealous as usual but still love to look at all those pictures of big walleyes.
JWB
Yeah that was James, I tried to disguise him as the best I could, but he insisted he remove the Santa Claus hat!
JK. We rarely get time to chase those underwater critters together these days with conflicting schedules, but hopefully that will change in the coming months with a little arm twisting!
Nice work guys!!!!
I think those walleyes get fatter each week in your report Steve!!!
Nice fish guys. That explains why James was off in a hurry the other morning
Gotta watch that Steve, next thing you know James will get lured into one of those fancy speckled fiberglass boats and ya never know…it could change him forever
By the way, AWESOME fish !
Shouldn’t take much twisting. I timed my drive home… 18 minutes. How can I say no?!
Good report Steve! Your success is encouraging to the rest of us. BTW, the Sheep head are still biting
Last week I weas driving downt he access road when they were removing those big blue steel beams from the old bridge. Just as I ws passing by they let loose with the Oxygen and man did I get a shower of sparks right in front of me! It was a little scary but prettty cool to see.
Rootski
Nice fish guys!!!!!! I’ve got to get up there and check pool #2 out someday.
Thanks for the report Steve!! Nice fish too!! I have noticed it to be slower in the last week here also but quality always seems to beat quantity here on 2
Steve,
I don’t think I’ve hardly seen a picture of you this fall when it’s been dark. It seems like in past years most of your nice walleyes were caught after dark, or at least a lot of them. Is it more of a day bite this fall or are you just not fishing much after dark?
Also, I was wondering if you can see most of the fish you’re catching on your graph? I upgraded to a Lowrance 334C and when I was fishing P3 last week, I saw a lot of archs on some wingdam tips but none on others. I didn’t catch enough fish to make any strong correlations but was wondering if the wingdams that you catch fish on are the ones were you see the archs. The archs could be sheepshead or carp for all I know but now that I have a nicer graph, I sure can see a lot more fish than I could with my 10 year old Eagle Magna. A lot of the archs are pretty high off the bottom.
Thanks,
Boone
Was wondering the same thing. I know its only been a year since fishing the fall down there but about when does the bite shift over from a day time bite to evenings and then dark. I would of thought it might of switched all ready with the low flow.
Looks like my nights on mille lacs are numbered so I might have to make a appearance down there again. Im sure that with the first walleye that smacks my jig my thoughts of trolling mille lacs will be history. Atleast for a short time.
Awesome!!!!!
Way to go Steve.
I was down there as well on Saturday. With the recent cold front the fish sure seemed to put the brakes on. I had to work pretty hard and jump around to a lot of spots to scrounge together a few fish. I think it will pick back up after a few days of stable weather. Nice to see you and James still managed to get into a few nice ones. I’ll be back down there later this week, see you around.
I sure am glad you said things have slowed down for you, if you would have said that you spanked them on saturday I would have jumped off of that new bridge.Two weeks ago I got some nice fish, a 26 inch football, the fattest walleye I’ve caught, but saturday was very slow for me, one sauger for the afternoon. Keep posting the big fish pics, they keep me motivated
Nice fish as always, Steve!
James, only 18 minutes to pool 2? Where were you…..King of Diamonds???
Once again.. Nice fish Steve!
Steve, I see that cap works for those fish too! What are they called again? j.k. Those fish look like they could be fun too but take too much skill to catch for me. By the way aren’t you worried about freezing that jet up in this colder weather? Nice reports lately and some of those walleyes look like monsters in your pics!
Good question Dan,
Right now the water clarity is pretty poor for this time of year. The barge traffic is still pretty high right now as well as there is some significant digging up by the airport that is contributing to the dirtier water. Once all this slows down, I think we will see a lowlight bite pick up quickly. I would rather fish during the day 10 times over, IMO!
Steve,
I agree…. I’ve found night fishing to be very much more difficulty than day fishing. I’m getting better but I’ve still got a long ways to go before I even become half way decent at it. I’m learning to use my GPS which should help a lot. Now I consider it a success if I can navigate about and anchor up on the wingdams in the correct spots.
Just one more question for you or anybody… how much do you depend on your graph for locating fish on the wingdams? My old graph was basically just a depth finder but now that I have the 334C, I can see much more detail that I ever knew was there. Do you use your graph much on the wingdams or do you stay away from them in fear of spooking the fish?
Thanks Again,
Dan
Dan,
Honestly, lately I have not been using my graph all that much when fishing these areas. Thankfully the fish have been cooperative enough to let me know pretty quickly if the fish are there and willing to bite as of late. So setting up a milk route of spots and hitting them on a consistent basis has been working fairly well.
Do I use my graph to scope out new areas….absolutely. I will use it to look at the structure as well as keep my eyes peeled on any signs of predators and prey around these areas. I do find that the graph tends to help me out on the deeper dams where I can look at the deep portions around the structure. I am not worried at all if I do not see any fish up on top. These fish on top do tend to spook a bit easier and often times will not register on the graph. USually the leading front deeper edge of structure is a good tell tale sign that there is some activity in the area. And at the right time, these deeper (somewhat nuetral mood) fish will often pull up shallower to feed eventually.
By running over top of a dam with your motor may spook some fish, but these fish will rebound quite quickly and pull back to their respective haunts within minutes. I have had scenarios where a recreational boater had unintentionally ran right over the top of a dam right beside me not knowing where the dam was and as that boat was traveling over top of the dam, I got bit. I do feel overall, walleyes in rivers are adaptive to their surroundings and I honestly think walleyes are more opportunistic than anglers give them credit for.
Steve,
Thanks for the great information.
It’s a good thing most of the Pool 2 wingdams are deep enough to run over. I’m amazed at how many recreational boaters I see running over the wingdams on Pool 2. It seems to me that the tops most Pool 2 wingdams are deeper than the tops of the Pool 3 wingdams.
Thanks Again,
Dan
Yeah, there are only a handful that I know of that could bite ya if you navigate too close to shore over the dam.
Funny, I have been on Pool 3 once in my lifetime. Never enough time! Let me know if you ever got an open seat down that way Dan!
I agree about the opportunistic part. My still limited experience fishing wing dams walleye with plastics, hair and cranks indicates that the walleye is a very aggressive predator. No mistaking when they want to eat. Catching these fish in less then 10 feet of water just tells you that when they want to eat you can catch them shallower then you think.
Beauties. And the fish are nice too.
I see a blade-bait on one of the nice ones, how many were caught on the blade? Is it fished farther in front of the wing dam or in the same way as a ring-worm? On seams? I ask because I would assume it would snag like no other.
Mark,
That particular day we had only a couple fish to show for the blade efforts, but then again the bite was off the mark. In recent days I have pulled a handful of fish from the blades though in experimentation. I have not been fishing them all that long, but I have been fishing them just like I fish other plastics to structure. Snag-prone?Yes, from my experience they can snag up on wingies (what doesn’t) so I think being selective at where you fish them might be worth a consideration.
I would suggest anyone wanting to know the “ins and outs” of blade fishing, to bug Dean Marshal from Everet’s resort. He is a good blade fisherman. I on the other hand would be considered a rookie compared to Dean. He is the one that got me going a bit on these!
There is certainly a learning curve….no doubt you will lose a few learning…..the 1/4 oz pitching will stairstep the tips and faces of the wingdamns very effectively.Dont expect to cast over it though and expect anything but weightless line!It is just one more tool that might put a piggie in the boat for ya.Good Luck!
I caught that fish in the photo right on top of the dam after the first couple slow pulls working the blade back to the boat.
Steve’s my witness here… I fished that same blade on every dam we fished over the course of 8+ hours and at the end of the day I left it for Steve to fish the next time he hit pool 2.
Once you get the feel for it they’re not that hard to fish on wingies. Knowing the position of the dam BEFORE you cast is the most important part of the presentation. Once you cast over the dam, as Dean mentioned, that blade is a goner.
Good tips – thanks all! I did figure one would have to get the distances down, say with a jig first, before sending a blade near the snags. A blade puts out quite the vibration, so could cranks also still be a good option, is it a year round option on wing dams?