Mississippi River Pool 2 Report, 8-19-09

While my time has been very limited, over the past week or so Kevin and I have made a few trips down to Pool-2 in pursuit of some mid-summer walleyes. While the bite for us hasn’t been amazing, we’ve still managed to find a few better sized eye’s to show for our efforts.

Several different factors played into locating fish but the largest contributor that showed the most amount of consistency was finding a combination of structure and high flow, isolating that area, and working it with variety of baits. That being said… Wingdam tip’s and main-channel rock piles were ‘go to’ areas for us.

Fish were caught on a variety of presentations from pitching hairjig’s and live-bait to casting and trolling crankbaits, with not one really out producing the other. I was amazed that I could cast a spot with a crankbait and pitch live bait without getting bit, but then pitch a hairjig in that exact same spot and get smacked on the first cast. That being said, I try not and get in a rut pitching just one bait or fishing just one method. If you have confidence in the spot and believe fish are there but have nothing to show, move on and come back later in the day.

Trolling has played a huge roll in putting fish in the boat as well. If I cannot get anything to go draggin’ live bait, casting cranks, or pitching jig’s, trolling has been a great alternative. With these low summer flows, any main-river riprap shoreline has the potential to produce a trophy. Don’t be afraid to have one person trolling a standard ‘tight wobbling’ Shad-Rap and the other pulling a Bomber or Rapala DT. It’s surprising how often those fish are looking for a bait being pulled at a slower speed with a very aggressive action.

If you’re exploring new water and trolling new shorelines, keep a close eye on the locator to reveal unmarked wingdams and structure as these can turn out to be hidden goldmines! Going back and working these spots with live-bait has worked well too.

Regardless of the method, color hasn’t made a whole lot of difference for us and has really varied from day-to-day. I would say that it’s more important to have confidence in what you’re casting/pitching as we’ve caught fish on about every color. That being said… Black Hairjigs and natural color’ed Bomber 6A’s have done well for pitching and a Blue jig tipped w/ a leech has been a good for draggin’

Lastly I’ve noticed that a large number of our better sized fish are coming right at Sunset or just after dark. However with the recent rain we had over the weekend, the lowlight bite may have slowed some, however should not be overlooked.

Despite this traditionally being a slow time of year, the Mississippi River continues to produce. The weather has been great and the fish are still biting. Get out and enjoy it while it’s here!

This is probably my last Pool-2 update for a while as I’m heading back to WI to finish up my last semester of College. I should however be a pretty steady ‘weekend warrior’

We’ll see ya out there

Pete