Several Pool 2 reports have surfaced here on IDA recently and for good reason, the bite has shown what Pool 2 is capable of producing! Many anglers have been out lately and everyone that I have spoken with has experienced some successful outings with some big fish thrown into the mix. Several presentations have put fish in the boat lately but I have spent the majority of the time pitching BFT’s paddletails and ringworms to key current break areas. This presentation has accounted for nearly all of my bigger fish the last 10 days.
John Bradley and Jason Caron joined me last Friday for a short trip during a recent snow shower and strong easterly winds. John had addressed that he wanted to learn more about Pool 2 and techniques that I like to use to target these pre-spawn bigger walleyes, and above all a shot at a big fish. With this is mind, we concentrated on a area that has been good for bigger walleyes as of late and work this area over thoroughly pitching paddletails and ringworms. Although our trip was not a large numbers trip, there were enough big bites to keep us interested in staying on this small sand/gravel flat. Jason scored big with a big brute and tops his personal best! Congrats Jason on a great fish! On this same outing I had a big fish comparable to Jason’s fish up to the surface and instead of grabbing the net, I tried to hand grab it and she shook loose. Mixed in with these two bigger walleyes were a mix of 20″ walleye and saugers that all came from this very same flat. Thanks again guys for a fun outing!
Current speeds looked to have picked up in the recent days, but still fairly mild compared to typical spring flows we will see in the coming weeks. With this, walleyes still remain scattered out in the main channel and around channel edges. As water levels rise, these fish will quickly shift to more favorable currents that are tighter to shorelines or structure related current breaks. This movement tends to pull more fish into small areas and finding these areas can be a little easier than right now. For now several presentations have been putting fish in the boat regularly. For my boat pitching, dragging and vertical jigging in that order have been the most productive. Best depths overall have been pitching to 6-10 foot of water in the lowlight periods and slightly deeper (10-14 ft) during midday.
Dean Taylor and his buddy Rick hopped with me yesterday morning for a short outing on the upper stretches of Pool 2. As we got on the water around sunup, we had a small flurry of bites that produced a couple fish in the 22″-24″ range with a handful of missed light bites. As the morning rolled on we got moving and hopped around quite a bit in search of better bite. We tallied 10 fish for the couple hours we were out with biggest fish that Dean (shown here holding) got into.
BFT’s Paddletails have been far my best producers as of the last two trips now. These plastics have become my number one go to plastic when times get tough pitching. These subtle morsels tend to coax these sometimes reluctant fish into taking a swing at your offering.
Good luck to all!
Nice report and pics Steve.
Hey, you know what would be great? If BFT made a Pro Blue Paddletail.
Just to catch everyone on this bad inside joke… Steve and I are out for a couple hours earlier in the week and we’re finding the fish to be unwilling to hit a full ringworm. So we shorten up and start catching a few fish on pro blue ringworms. Most of those fish were small’ish and all of our better fish had come on oystershell paddletails. At that point Steve looks at me all serious like and says “We should get Koonce to make a Pro Blue paddletail. I think they’d kick some butt.”
BFT has been making that color for a couple years now.
Steve, you are killing me
Nice report and great fish buddy
Great report Steve. Nice fish. Ill have to give those paddle tails a try on the next trip. We have had plenty of short bites on ringworms in the last week and have been looking at different plastics to use. Wonder if Bob Moore has any of those ProBlue paddle tails in stock?
I here ya Bob! Don’t you feel like a loser because we’re not down there fishing it too???
Steve – Nice job buddy and great report!
It still amazes me that this awesome fishery is minutes away from downtown St. Paul!
P.S. We got to get together for a
! Maybe we can do that if our trips overlap at the Rainy River! 
Awesome fish and report Steve
The fish you guys produce on pool 2 is a true testament to what happens with catch and release
Smarty pants…. Who put the quarter in James this morning?
Count on it Brad!
I found a decent sized stash of those paddletails in my garage. We’ll get together next week and have at it for a couple of hours.
He must have been grunk.
Nice report as always Steve. Maybe we’ll catch you at Everts next week.
Nice fish guys and congrats on your personal best!
Another great report Steve.
Boog
Nice Going!!
Thanks for the tip on the paddle tails Steve. I was out yesterday afternoon and missed a few bites toward dark pitching ringies. Next time I’ll remeber to get out the paddletails. Other than getting some good sized sauger it was pretty slow for me on the walleyes.
man that looks like fun
Nice Fish Steve.
Great Report Steve
Nice Fish Guys
Steve do you think they make FireCracker in a ringworm yet?
Only soo much time left to drop da
on dem fat girls! 
Steve, the reason the paddletails are working so well is because they’ve all been caught by your ringies at least 3 times each!