Mississippi River Pool 2 weekend to remember

This report will take a little different turn than the “Normal” walleye report that you may see here on IDO. Fishing was important on this trip, but not the biggest reason for going out. Myself and sons Aaron & Ben Tuckner were invited along on an annual camping trip of a number of IDO members and their families and friends. We joined young and old alike who arrived from upriver and down, but all converging on a sand island on Pool 2. Tents, sleeping bags, food & drink..bait, rods, clothes, rods & reels, tackle…all loaded into the warrior for the trip up through lock 2. Prior to our arrival, Sauger, his wife Tara and buddy Red rode out the hail and wind storm of Friday morning. It destroyed a couple tents, but they were undetered. A few more tents were ordered up and it was “Game On!”

Upon leaving port, I hailed lock 2 on the VHF and was told we would have a 2.5 hour wait!!! ARGH!! So what do you do for two hours knowing it is “Happy Hour” on an Island on Pool 2 and you are on Pool 3??? You troll! So out came the trolling rods and we worked a breakline below the dam and lock just killing time with Shad Raps. We were watching the tow come through th lock monitoring it’s progress when “BANG” Ben’s rod starts shaking violently in the rod holder! The fish stayed down like a walleye, but fought way to wild for it to be our target species. Sure enough, when the fish made it to the side of the Warrior, we saw it was a HUGE sheepie! I couldn’t quite make out if those were teeth marks or maybe marks made by the turbines of the lock or dam…but if it was a fish….I would LOVE to see what did it! One of the lock workers saw all the gear and the boat and inquired what was up for the weekend…And we told him that we were going to catch the boys some huge fish. He said “If you don’t, you will not be allowed to lock back through to Pool 3 Sunday!”

Upon arrival to “Budweiser Island” as it is named, we were waved into a spot that would be our parking place for the weekend joining about 8 other boats. We set the tent up and unloaded our gear and headed back down to the boat for some early evening cat fishing. The “Cat Gods” did not smile on us that night, but “Uncle Sauger” put the young nieces and nephews on a few nice channels from shore! The old forked stick and cut bait. The weather was beautiful, and conditions perfect, but I think the boat and barge traffic may have affected it. We kicked back and had an awesome shore fire and burgers on the grill. The beach was so well manicured that we did not wear shoes all weekend!

Now I said that the fishing was not the most important part of the weekend…but the infamous Pool 2 heavy walleye did not disappoint! Early on the fish seemed elusive and uninterested in our trolled cranks. We hit inside turns and silted wing dams looking for some action. Sauger and Burbob recommended an inside turn straight that was pretty cold during the day, but as I suspected turned on in the evening! It put the kids on their “Personal Bests” and they came in consecutive order. (One of my other boys got a 28.5″ personal best on Pepin this day as well!!!)Both hit #5 Shad Raps pulled behind us at about 1.8 MPH. Aaron was the first to hit the board when he screamed out “SNAG!!!” I looked over my left shoulder from the steering wheel and new immediately that was no snag! This fish and Aaron tasked the St. Croix Tidemaster heavily and before too long, this 27.5 white-tip surfaced next to the boat! This kid was pumped! We (I) lost 2 more fish before darkness fell upon us. Back to the campfire we went to tell stories and laugh uncontrollably! Thanks go out to Sauger, Bobby Miller and their family and extended friend network for inviting us along! It sure was fun! The kids will be talking about this for a long time to come!