Mississippi River Pool 2 Walleye Report

The one word I can think of to describe this spring would be WINDY! Although I’m typically a calm and easy going person, Mother Nature knows my exact weakness and how to push my buttons. Non-the-less, over the past week I’ve been getting out on Pool 2 in pursuit of those beautiful wing-dam walleyes. The numbers of fish being brought to the boat seem to be fairly high having an almost 30 fish day today; at one point we had 3 fish for 5 casts! However, overall size for my boat has been slightly lacking.

Despite the lower water level, there still seems to be fairly strong current coming down the main channel. Primarily targeting ‘lower flow’ wing-dams, I’ve had great success casting both Bomber 4A/6A and Rapala DT series baits. These fish have been incredibly aggressive and absolutely inhaling the cranks; I even had 2 eye’s hit boat side just inches from the surface and a foot or two from the boat On the lower flow dam’s I’ve mainly been working from the tip of the dam down about half way. On higher flow dam’s it’s been just the opposite, working the middle towards the shoreline has produced the most.

As far as trolling is concerned I really haven’t been giving it much of a chance, mainly because I’ve been hitting better sized fish castings the dams. The fish we hit trolling have all been low 20” fish with the occasional catfish tossed in… From my experience though, it’s been a very effective way to put fish in the boat if the casting/pitching bite seems to die out some.

Another interesting thing I’ve noticed is the amount of saugers that I’ve caught this year in comparison to last. I’m not sure what or why that is, but I will say I don’t mind reeling in some of those sumo’s

Right now’s a great time to get out and enjoy some great river walleye fishing, We’ll see ya out there

-Pete