I love this time of year because I don’t deer hunt. With most Minnesotan’s who consider themselves outdoorsmen focusing their attention on the upcoming hunt, cleaning guns, hanging tree stands, and watching trail cameras, guys like me practically have the river to ourselves. While the fishing on Pool 2 of the Ole Miss will turn towards bulky plastics and hair jigs in the coming weeks, today the walleyes were very clear that they were not going to let a fast pace crankbait go by without taking a swipe at it.
I started the morning at about 4am on some wing dams that are great dams all year round. After fishing 3 consecutive spots with plastics and nothing to show for it whatsoever I decided to change my game plan. These dams didn’t have much flow at all so I went in search of ones that did. All of my fish came just after sun up including this healthy 27 incher.
I noticed that the all the fish I caught were really aggressive strikes. Normally it’s a couple of ticks on the dam and then whammo but a few fish chased baits well off the dam and this one was almost boat side and nearly ripped the rod out of my hands as I was already thinking about my next cast.
A few thoughts in closing:
1. It’s never too late to try crankbaits! Even if it’s just to get a lay of the land and “feel” out a wingdam before pitching to it. I know I will continue to “run and gun” with my 6’3 MXF St. Crois TWS rigged with a bomber well into the fall and winter.
2. Be versatile and be willing to part from a “game” plan when it’s not panning out.
3. I don’t think these fish were really on the “chew” and eating heavily, but I think a quick retrieve on a crank bait in front a big fish will more often than not illicit a strike from a predatory fish like a walleye. All the walleyes I caught today were 20 or bigger so if the water is warm enough, don’t be afraid to burn a crank in front of them.
Nice looking fish today Micah. It was another nice day on pool 2. Joel, Marty and me started a few hours after you with our 1st plan being to check on the sun up bite. As you found also not much going here yet. The next few hours we work a few wingdams over with cranks and jigs. Even tried some dragging jigs on the channel rocks. Just couldn’t seem to get the fish going.
Around 11am we stopped and talked to JasonP for a while and he gave us a heads up on some fish he found earlier. A quick stop here and it didnt take long to put a decent pattern together that worked for a good part for the afternoon. We ended the day at 3 with somewhere around 15 walleyes ranging from 6″s to 25″s. Plenty of misc fish mixed in to and one huge cat that got off boat side.
Trolling crankbaits on deep rock and gravel shorelines was the ticket today. Our most common depths where 10′ to 15′ with speeds running about 2mph. A variety of colors produced. Most of them where lighter colors. I would agree with you Micah on it was a crankbait day. We tried dragging and jigging back threw these same area and just could not get them to go. You never know tomorrow they may want something else.
Thanks for the company today Marty and Joel. Marty you left to early.
It was good to see the rest of you guys out there to day to. Looks like we are off to one last swimming day on the upper croix tomorrow.
Great Report Micah!
Kevin and I made it out late evening for a couple hours of fishing and experienced very similar things as Mike and you described.
Beautiful evening to be out, and heck the bite wasnt half bad either! For only being on the water 2 hours we had ‘okay’ numbers with our big fish being a 26.5” eye’ and a big ol’e Sheephead
Thanks for the update guys
Nice fish again Micah
Thanks for the report. I saw you headed downstream just as I was puttin in. Now I wish I would’ve gotten out of bed a little earlier!
Anyway, good to see all the IDO’ers out. I’ll be in Puerto Rico for work for a while … hopefully the bite remains good and the temps start to drop. Still pretty warm yesterday at 75 midday.
J
Great lookin fish Micah!
Good report Micah and some really nice photos!
Did you take them yourself? If so, great job! 
I have to get out to Pool 2 one of these days again to do some cranking. However, as you know, I’m one of those deer hunters that you mentioned in your report.
Brad I would happy to show you around if you’re serious about getting out. PM me if you’re up for it and we’ll try to get a date in between you sighting in your bow and whatever else you guys do. And yes those are self timed pics. I’ve got a little system that works pretty well. The sell little bendable tri pods for cameras and I stick two of the three legs in the hole on top of my seat post up front and voilaaa, smile you’re on “pool 2 with a big mama” camera.
Nice report Micah and good to see you out there! And thanks Mike for the outing!
I got out yesterday with the kids to go swimming one more time. The deal was the kids got to do the swing ropes and sand dunes for a couple of hours and then I got to troll for an hour or so before dark. My daughter Alissa caught a sheeper right away and I caught a 20″ eye trolling bombers on the deeper rocks down by Spring Lake.
I’m pretty convinced that a the cranks are getting reaction bites. The fish are really turning up their noses at bait and plastics right now for me. And that’s ok cuz I like flinging and trolling cranks too.
dd
Micah great report and pics! Way to get after them!