The walleyes continue to cooperate on Pool 2 of the Mississippi River. The wingdams at night have maintained their consistency over the past several weeks to provide plenty of action for an avid river rat that’s willing to bare the weather and the elements. My past 3 trips to the river have all shared one common characteristic for me when looking for after hour’s fish, which has been to start your search at the ends of the primary and secondary wingdams. By primary and secondary, I mean the first and second wingdams of a stretch of featureless section of river. With water levels at a normal late fall/early winter lows, these wingdams contain the most current and therefore concentrate more fish. Jigs and plastics still remain the name of the game here. 4” ringworms in the chartreuse/pepper color has gotten the most attention recently. Jig sizes have been 1/16th to 1/8th oz sizes on calm nights and 3/16th -1/4 oz on windier nights.
Wednesday night I had the chance to share my boat with Mr. Holst. We attempted to head down river to check out some of my down river hot spots. After getting the boat up on plane, my Mecury Optimax decided to give out on me with a cold-water motor seize. This forced us to fish more nearby spots than I anticipated, but after a little seeking we were rewarded with about 20 walleyes from 17”-22” range. Thursday evening I shared my boat with Travis Renville for a half-day evening trip. My brother was nice enough to borrow me his boat for the next several days until my boat is repaired, Thank you Tony! With calm winds, conditions were absolutely perfect for pitching light jigs to the wingdam tips. On this particular evening, the bite started out a bit slow and gradually got better and better as the night rolled on. About 6:00pm, we were greeted with light snow/sleet mix, although this does not sounds like a lot of fun, the fish decided to put the feed bag on and we forgot all about the snow!. We hopped around to a couple wingdams that produced fish on just about every cast for nearly 45 minutes. After this bite fizzled to a halt, we moved quickly to another spot that immediately produced a big walleye that was very close to the 10# mark.
Saturday afternoon Greg Peterka of St. Paul joined me. With southerly winds forecasted to get progressively stronger as the night rolled on, boat control became a little more difficult. After a little adjustment we found that keeping the boat closer to the wingdam gave us the best control over our jigs. Making short flips to the tops of the wingdam and work them straight back to the boat got the best response on several spots that we visited. With current speeds so mild right now, any south wind will blow you away from the wingdams and therefore making anchoring a little trial and error effort until you find the right spot. Although the bite was not hot and heavy on this evening, we were still able to produced about 15 fish with a handful of 22”-26” fish. Even with the wind gust close to 20+mph, the fish we did make contact with were hitting the plastics very hard. Greg is shown here in the 3rd and 4th picture of a couple dandy fish that made its way to the boat. After a couple quick pictures and the fish were back in the water to swim another day. Greg took the top honors on this evening with a nice fat 26-1/2 in fish that completely inhaled his chartreuse/peppered ringworm and a 3/16th oz jig head. Nice fish Greg!
With water temps at 36 degrees, the walleyes continue to cooperate in the evening hours. Like my previous report, I have not had the opportunity to spend much time on the vertical jig bite. Reports of a few nice saugers coming from the deeper holes just north of the 494 bridge on the west side of the river. The best depths here have been 23-28ft. Jig and plastics remain the best thing going here as well. Right now is the best chance to leave the minnows at home and gain some confidence in jigging plain jig and plastics for some of these deeper fish. Drop your jig to the bottom and lift about 4 inches and hold them motionless. The lack of jigging action becomes the triggering quality that the fish fall victim to. Another area that one should consider would be up near the dam near the Hidden falls area. This area traditionally offers some migratory fish that naturally move up river in search of concentrations of baitfish. These areas can be especially good at night as well. I will be visiting this area over the next week and report back on my findings. Very little ice to report as of right now in the backwaters lakes and bays. Look for this to take shape as we get cooler nights in the future. A couple nights in the single digits have been known to actually produce some skim ice over the main channel of the river. Hopefully this will stay away for a bit because I am having just way too much fun right now!
Good luck to all that make it out!
DeeZee,
That top walleye is a “sow”! Nice fish. Have you played with K-grubs on the last few outings up your way? They have been the ticket for me in the firecracker color the last couple times I have stayed on the water until sundown. On sunday afternoon right at dusk, we had our biggest fish going 9 1/2lbs on a firecracker K-Grubb and 1/8oz jig. We had another good one that will be pictured in my next report as well. I saw good action right at sundwon and then it got to dark to see anything
.
Dustin,
These fish have been extremly plump this fall up here!!
Wednesday night James and I went half on ringworms and half on K-grubs. Thursday night we had a few fish on K-grubs and Saturday night I did not spend much time with them. They will be getting wet tonight although!! Firecracker you say?
Have you had much luck well after dark down there recently?
I have not spent a lot of time on the river in the dark. I am seeing a huge flurry of fish right at sundown and as soon as is slows I have been heading in, just about the time it gets hard to cast that rip rap and not land in the water
.
Firecracker has been really good for the bigger fish but I have seen fish on pearl-blue S/P, chartreuse pepper and chartreuse pearl as well.
Steve,
Nice to meet you on the river Saturday night. We marked the wingdams like we talked about, and hopped around to find the bite. I think we did what we needed to do, but no luck on fish. The wind started to whoop it up so we left around 8:15 PM, we saw you were still at it, how did you do? Mike W and I will have to spend some more time at the night bite thing, but will have to do it when the wind isn’t so bad. I have only been fishing pool 2 for about 2 years now and am starting to know it a little better each time, Mike W spends a little more time on it than I do, but together we hope to get this night bite thing down better in a short time.
Joe,
Good to see you guys out there as well. Sure would of been alot nicer to fish without the wind, but thats winter fishing for you right? We started out a bit slow until the sun went down and proceeded to get fish in every spot we visited, but no real numbers or concentrations from each spot. So off we went on a milk route to put together a successful pattern on a not so pleasant evening. I found myself re-anchoring a couple different times to try to get that anchor to stick where I wanted it too. After a couple spots of doing this, I gave up and worked the trolling motor to stay comfortably in range of my target areas.
Yes, the darkness adds another element of deception when trying to position the boat properly within the wingdam. When I am uncertain of where I am at to the wingdam, I simply tie on a heavier jig to get the feel of the wingdam and re-position the boat accordingly or switch back lighter once I found where I need to cast. You guys had the right idea by getting to know a couple wingies before the sun goes down. This saves a bit of time when you arrive at a spot. Keeping the boat well in front of the wingie is ideal for covering the tops and fronts of the wingdams with each cast. Some nights I move a bit closer while on calm nights I like to be a bit further away. Further away will give you a better “sweep” with you jig in the current.
Hope this helps a bit.
Steve,
You are an animal. How many weeks in a row will you keep producing these pigs?
I have learned that a good night fisherman will make you only better when it comes daylight. In the dark you really go by sensitivty more than sight. I am going to have to make my way up that way sometime. Keep them photo coming.
Nice fish Steve.
Gator Hunter
Great report Steve. keep those pics coming, can’t see enough of them.
was curious, what is a cold water seize. is it something that Opti’s have a prob with. am thinking possibly about the new mid-range 90 or 115 Opti maybe this year. if it takes too long to explain, shot me a PM with your number.
sure do need to think about getting fishing soon. thanks Jack.
Jack,
Thanks for support on the report!
In real basic terms….its ice cold water on a hot motor is my understanding. Optimaxes have a thermistat that helps regulate the incoming water temps at all speeds. As rpm’s increase, a secondary vavle kicks in to help supply the motor with more water for cooling. This valve is called a POPIT(sp?) valve. Evidently this is where the problem lies to my understanding. Supposively the 225’s are the majority of motor class that have had the problems.
This is a recommendation for COLD water operating. Letting the motor warm up until the thermistat opens is a must (opening thermistat range is 118-125 degrees). After warm up, the motor should be brought up on plane slowly and try to prevent going to full throttle position on initial take off. This is the only time of year when this needs to be watched carefully. (usually when waters are below 40 degrees or so?)
thanks Steve for the reply, sounds like it better happen on warranty and not after. hope it doesn’t keep you off the water much. I’ve got a Mr Pike 17, let me know if you would like to borrow it sometime. sure would not want you to miss any big fish time. Jack..
Thanks for the generous offer Jack. I sure do appreciate it. My brother was kind enough to let me borrow his boat for the time being. I should be back up and running this week.
UPDATE~~~~
Monday night might of been one of my last trips to Pool 2 for the short term ahead. Forecast looks to get a bit chilly which might freeze up the middle part of the pool. I will be heading north up near the dam in coming days.
Anyway, Monday night I was joined by Mark Stanley and his friend Bill. We had a consistant night once the sun went down. Not a huge flurry anywhere but consistent enough to keep us busy. By the end of the half day trip, we boated over 30 walleyes, with Mark’s 25 incher taking the top honors for this particular evening. The rest were a mix of 16-22 inch fish.
Thanks guys for the fun evening, hope you had a great time!