Mississippi River Pool 2 fishing report 5-1-07

The walleye bite here on Pool 2 has finally picked up to a level of consistency in the last couple of days. The month of April has been nothing but a on again and off again affair, one good outing here and two slow days followed it seemed. Well, it appears that we are finally far enough along to where we have a pretty solid and consistent bite taking shape as we speak right now. The water levels are about normal for this time of year and water temps are right where we should be and that spells one thing to me…..hungry aggressive spring walleyes.

Last Friday I was joined by Jim Bollback and his buddy Steve for a day on the water to chase some late April river walleyes. With water levels about normal for this time of year, we spent the day pitching a variety of presentations to shallow water shoreline current breaks and backwater areas. We started the morning out pitching one of my favorite areas for post spawn walleyes. This area consisted of several current breaks with some hard sand/gravel bottom and some fairly significant water moving beside it. This gives the walleyes a nice area to sit and feed and when they get hungry they move out to the edge of the current and wait for something to float on by. Shortly upon our arrival I start things off pitching a 5/16th oz chartreuse Jimmy D’s weenie hair jig and hooked up with a nice fish that hit the tape just under the 28" mark! This was the only fish that we saw before I decided to pull the plug and keep on moving to other locations. We spent the day hitting a milk route of spots only to find ourselves returning to our very first spot. As temps starting to climb we found the walleyes getting more and more active. Jim is shown here with a nice 27" fish that fell victim to a firetiger colored Rapala #5 Deep Rap. Jim was fan casting a shallow 3 foot sand/gravel shelf right next to the current seam. This began to develop into a nice active pattern for us as the day went on.

Last week here on IDA, a fellow staffer raised a interesting question and went something like this…."If you had to pick one crankbait to fish with exclusively, what would it be?"

My choice for river walleyes day in and day out would be a No 5 Deep Rap. This has become a real confidence lure for me when targeting shallow aggressive fish. You can pitch this crankbait or troll it. Don’t overlook its small profile for taking BIG fish. This little crankbait for some reason has a knack for coaxing some really nice river walleyes into biting. This time of year I like to target walleyes no deeper than about 5-6 feet of water. This becomes a great option for these shallow water female walleyes. My two presentations that I will opt for this time of year is hands down a Jimmy D’s weenie hair jigs and crankbait for pitching shallow sand/gravel or for wingdam fishing.

Water levels are about normal for this time of year and I think the wingdam crankbait bite could turn on here real soon here on Pool 2. I had hit a handful of dams this past several days and have pulled some fish from them, but it has been a bit hit and miss. I think the best is yet to come from this standpoint. Once water velocity drops to around 10,000 cfs or lower the crankbait/dam bite will come alive throughout the entire river.

I have said this before many times, but this has to be my all time favorite time to be on the river. Warm temps, fast and aggressive fishing, good numbers of big walleyes….and best of all, the bite usually excels during "bankers hours". My best days this time of year usually comes from the sunny high skies. As you can see with all those nice factors here, its hard not to like this time of year!

Good luck to all.