Summer Walleyes on Pool 2 Mississippi River

With all the talk of bug hatches up on Mille Lacs and other places I was a bit shocked to pull up to the 494 landing to see this picture of hundreds of dead mayflies. I have never seen a bug hatch like this in the river and was a bit concerned about my prospects with all this food in the river for the walleyes to eat. After pulling up to my first wingdam and pulling an 18incher out on my first cast my doubts were put to rest. There has been talk about the bite on Pool 2 and whether or not it has finally slowed down till fall and after today I would argue absolutely not.

I targeted wingdams today and pitched Bomber 6A’s and light jigs tipped with half of a crawler with a lot success. I only fished from 6-10:30 but in that short time I logged what proved to be my best day on the river to date for numbers and size. A dozen walleyes in the boat, and a couple of really nice fish that came unbuttoned before I could get to the net. I think I ended up with a 26, two 25’s a 23, a 21, and bunch between 18-20 with a couple of cats, white bass and sheephead to boot.

Keys to finding fish for me were to find dams with active and substantial flow. This time of the year this means the first dam in a series of dams and the outside bend of the river or the tail end of a bend really helps. Another point to pay attention to when throwing cranks would be keep it in the strike zone as long as possible with pull/pause and twitches. The strike zone today was absolutely the front face of the dam at the base. When I felt rocks I would stop as soon as my bait was threw them and whammo. I suspect these walleyes were laying in the “tube” created at the base and when a bait making a lot of racket and noise is right in front of their nose, they take a swipe at it.

As for the jig/crawler combo the location of fish didn’t change so it was just a matter of getting the right jig weight to match the current so my baits would just hover in the zone and every now and then tick bottom. End of the day, I pulled up on my new favorite spot that Mike W helped me find (unmarked…) and lost a really nice fish on crank. The kind that just stops the bait and sends a shiver up your arm. With one rod rigged with a crawler I said the fateful “last cast” to myself only to be greeted by my largest fish of the day.
What a picture perfect morning! No wind, not a single other boat out, 75 degrees, total solitude, and a bunch of really nice walleyes. These are the days that keep you going through a dry spell when you can’t find em.