With all the trips that I have had recently to Mille Lacs, it has left me little to no time to concentrate on Pool 2. The few times I have been on the pool over the past week has proven to me that the fish have started to become pretty aggressive on the wingdams. I expected the fish to be a little more grouped up than I did the last couple of trips. The mild weather we are having may be prolonging this bite a bit, but it will come around before we know it.
Pitching cranks to the wingdams have been the best presentation that I have been able to put together for better than average fish. The only problem is that the fish appear to be a little sporadic and you may need to put some miles on to put a good catch of fish to the boat. If you are new to Pool 2, it would be a good idea to get yourself a good set of Mississippi river navigational maps before you hit the water. The reason I say this is that these maps provide moderate to good detail of the locations of most wingdams. This is a great tool to have aboard while scouting new spots. Not all wingdams are marked with channel markers and some of my better areas have been subtle secondary dams that are behind some of the larger more pronounced wingies. If you cannot find any, PM me and I get you a location to get yourself some of the best maps I have seen for the river. I still look at these even with as much time that I fish down here.
On a real positive note, I am having better and better success in the lowlight periods lately, which is a real good sign that the fish will be stacking up on wingdams for the weeks to come. This is the time of the year that hair jigs really come into play when fishing the wingdams. I like to fish Bomber 6A crankbaits to find the active fish right away. Once I have hit a couple fish, I will slow down and fish the front deeper edges with hairjigs. Sizes of the hair jigs will change with the appropriate depth and current you are faced with. The ¼ oz hair jig saize has been the most utilized by my boat the last couple of outings. 3/8oz seems to be too heavy and the 1/8 oz size appears to wash up on the wingdam and get hung up.
Over the past year, I have been using Jimmy D’s hair jigs for my pool 2 trips. A lot of changes have been incorporated into the design of these jigs over the past year and I feel we have really good handle on what the fish prefer in a hair jig. Not only has the design proportions of hair but different quality of hair as well as color combinations have proven to be real fish catchers and I see these being absolutely dynamite in the next week or two. After this weekend on Mille Lacs, Pool 2 will be my sole destination for trips this fall.
See you on the water in the weeks to come.
Good luck.