This past week on Pool 2 has shown some ups and downs as far as numbers and big fish are concerned. But the nice thing is when we hit the big fish, boy were they beauties!! Joining my boat this week on Tuesday and Thursday trips was Travis Renville, he had expressed interest in a couple half day/evening trips this week. On Pool 2 this time of year, I offer customers the ability to create their own half or full day or evening trips to the river. With a strong after dark bite happening right now, the majority of my customers have been favoring the late afternoon and into the evening time frames to take advantage of the big walleyes that prowl the shallow wingdams. What better way to catch these big walleyes than pitching light plastics or hair jigs to waters as shallow as 1 foot of water!!
Tuesday late afternoon we took to the water about 4:00pm from the Hwy 494 ramp. With overcast skies and light winds, I headed south to some wingdams that have been mediocre for me recently but I had a hunch that they were due to deliver some better results. Upon our arrival we got right into the action immediately by pitching both 4” YUM Ribworms and Jimmy D’s Green Weenie hair jigs to the front face of the wingdam. Once I found the “sweet spot” on the wingdam I dropped the anchor to take full advantage of the fish that appeared to be bunched up. After some quick finer adjustments in jig sizes, the walleyes responded aggressively by hitting anything and everything that was within the 1-foot vicinity of front face of the wingdam. As the sun began to hit the treetops the fish put the feedbag on heavy for 45 minutes and nearly every cast produced a fish or a hit. Most of the fish in this particular flurry ranged nicely from 16-24 inches long. After this bite slowly tapered off, I picked up the anchor and began hopping around from wingdam to wingdam with hopes of picking up a few fish here and there. To my surprise each spot visited, delivered anywhere from 5-10 fish per spot with some really big fish thrown into the mix including 3 fat walleyes over the 28” mark!!
Thursday evening showed me quickly that things can change drastically from day to day on the river and you cannot sit around and expect things to turn on like days prior? Thursday afternoon brought high blue bird skies and a slower day bite. Usually when we see high skies, we see a better evening bite, while overcast days generally produces fish throughout the day. With this in mind, I decided to stay put on a proven wingdam with hopes the bite would turn on with sunset approaching us. With only a couple small fish by “prime time”, I decided I was not about to wait it our any longer and decided to go hunt these eyes down. While in transit, I noticed a duck boat full of duck hunters that appeared to have ran out of gas and needed my help. After a quick tow back to their ramp, Travis and I were back in business with our continued quest for some big walleyes.
By now the wind had kicked up to a steady 15mph out of the NW and gusting to 20mph. This kind of wind is a nightmare for anyone that enjoys fishing light jigs in shallow water. After some quick adjustments to jig size, rib worm length, cast distances, and anchor positions, we could now control our offerings much more precisely around the spot on the spot of the wingdam. Bingo…. the fish responded immediately to the finer adjustments made and we were back into some quality fish. These tweaks were the difference between boating 2 fish per spot to producing 5-8 fish per spot. Milk running several more wingdams before the evening was over produced many 16”-22” fish and a couple around the 26” mark.
Even with the increased wind, these fish absolutely walloped the heavier ¼- 3/8 oz H20 Precision jigs and plastic combinations that we threw at them. The bite is in great shape for numbers and big fish right now. Some nights may require a bit of search and seek approach while the next night you may be rewarded with very cooperative fish. Either way the fish are still there to be caught. This pattern is very typical for this time of year on the river and you can expect to see this bite continue for the next few weeks to come.
The day bite for my boat has been a better hair jig bite than the plastics but once darkness sets in, the plastics are tough to beat! Look for more pictures of this week’s trips to follow this report.
Good luck to all.
Here are a couple more fish pictures from this week on Pool 2. Here is a nice 26″ fish caught on a Jimmy D “green weenie” 1/4oz hair jig.
Here is another nice eye that fell victim to a 4″ YUM ribworm rigged with 3/16th oz H20 Precision jig.
Here is Travis that drilled a nice fat walleye using a suspended crank on a wingdam!
Here is another plastic tricked marble “eye”.
And the last pic here shows a hefty walleye that inhaled a ribworm (try to find the jig in this pic?)
Oooh how I love this time of year!
Definetly some beauties Steve.
Thanks again for a great post, we found the same thing with the later bite, it was pretty good Thursday night, hoping Saturday turns out to be as good. Thanks again for the post!!
Steve,
A little bit off the fishing subject, but what kind of glove are you wearing in the first attached photo and where did you get them? They look like they’d kept your wrists warm and I’ve found that to be my biggest problem during cold weather fishing. My wrists seem to get so cold and then I can’t move my fingers very well. Those gloves look like they’d kept your wrists warm but still allow you to use your fingers. Thanks again for another great report.
Boone
Boone,
The item of clothing that looks like gloves is actually some new jacket and pant long underwear from Cablelas. They are extremely warm for those cold November/December nights on the river. So far so good!
I have worn them for about 4 trips now and have been very pleased at the warmth. I think these will make great ice fishing fatigues as well.
Great pics Steve.
Gator Hunter
I have a Cabelas rain jacket (XCR?) with similar neoprene wrist/palm covers- they are very nice when it’s cold out but they’re not detachable. This leads to 2 disadvantages: Once they get wet they stay wet and during mild weather they can be too hot.