Mississippi River Walleyes

By Mike W 0

Back in the saddle again on pool 2. It has been way to long since I have wet a line in pool 2 and I am going to claim yesterdays trip as the start of my season back on the Mississippi river. If this trip was any sort of preview to what the summer has in store for us it is going to be another great year on the river.

Yesterday was going to be a quick scouting trip for up coming outings. With not being on the river in a while I wasn’t sure of what to expect especially after the high water this spring. It didn’t take long to see water conditions where great on the river. Moderate flow and rising temps looked very promising for locating hungry walleyes.

We started out on a trolling run and it didn’t take long for the 1st nice 27" walleye to inhale a crank bait. Slow speeds where key to getting the fish to respond to the crank baits yesterday. A little pause in the speed help trigger some bites to. Bright colors lures where our best producers for these hungry walleyes. These fish where inhaling our baits.

After working over this trolling run for a while it was time to move on to see if the pitching bite was going. We started out on a smaller wingdam close to shore and picked up a few mid sized fish there and lost one larger one. Moved on down to a shoreline point with some nice flow to find a school of baits fishing holding tight to a current break on the shore. Jerry’s 1st cast sent the minnows flying out of the water and about the time I was mentioning that there should be fish feeding on them he was setting the hook on a nice mid 20" walleye. Jerry had the hot hand on this spot sticking a few more nice sized walleyes on White Paddle tails. Working those jigs real slow and steady seemed to be the trick for him. We left this spot after a few fish and came back later to see what else had moved in. Jerry continued to put on a clinic with a 27" and 30" back to back fish. Even better yet was there was no net in the boat and we got to hand land these fish.

As I said earlier if yesterdays trip was and preview to what the next few months are going to hold we are in for some great fishing on the river.

Good luck to you guys getting out this weekend.

Profile Photo

Mike W

45, self employed at HomeTown Plumbing Inc., 1 wife, 3 kids. Enjoy fishing rivers in MN. N St Croix, N Miss, Pool 2, Pool 4, and always looking for a new river to try. Spend most of my time chasing Full Bio ›

0 Comments

  2. Good report Mike, cant ask for a better way to start the season….. That same net issue happend to me last year and I had a similar day. Dont think I brought the net with once after that. Lots of fun hand landing them and easier on the fish IMO.

  5. the 30 incher i caught with mike w [captin] hammerd it real hard. nice to see the fish are responding well to the early warm water and weather. go get em men, keep it slow..

  6. Welcome to the site Jerry. Good to see you here. Sure hope you where not nervous watching me hand land those fish for you. Bushmen showed me how to do that last year. There is something about leaving the net out of the boat that makes the big fish show up.

  8. Nicely done Mike! I’ve been meaning to get down there myself but some recent boat issues have kept me off the water. Next week

  11. Nice fish, finally a picture of a pool 2 30 incher, I love it I fished yesterday too but did terrible, the dam bite just isn’t going good yet, although I did find some interesting spots. Good to see you back on the water and the finger on the pulse, keep the reports coming, I hope to boat my first 30 this year

  12. thanks for the welcome steve. it was great fishing with mike. he has great knowledge of pool 2. and great at pulling in those hogs without a net..

  13. I fished with Mike last fall and he is a great guide for P-2…Knowledgeable and a pleasant guy to fish with.

  14. Mike! We didn’t have the big girls today except for a 27″ Bob caught. But we definetly had the numbers with over 20 fish coming to the boat. Pitching in the wind today was brutal. Fortunately trolling worked well for us.

    dd

  15. Sounds like a fun windy day Joel. Its good to know my pitching spots will be fresh in the morning. So what was the hot color crank bait today?

  17. Way to go, Mike!

    No enough time in the day lately as my time on Pool-2 has been quite short this spring. Good to see you’re getting’ into em’! Maybe we’ll see ya down there

  21. Quote:

    i have a bunch more picks. but not worth showing them to you fatrap.

    Some people just aren’t worth a reply.

    Nice fish by the way.

  24. Slow so far. I would say 1.5 to 2mph. A lot of the areas I troll are short with varying depths and currents hitting them. Its not to often I pay much attention to the speed while running them. Its more of how the crank bait feels as its hitting the bottom. I seem to spend a fair amount of time pulsing the speed of the motor in these areas to. That sudden increase of action to the lures or as they come to a stop works pretty good for triggering strikes.

  26. Nice work, and nice fish Mike! Looks like you’re really putting clients on some good fish as of late. Thanks for sharing some keys to your success as well.

    Joel

  27. James,
    I am a friend of Calvins and he told to contact you for help.
    Could you help me post a classified to sell leeches again this year. Thanks.

    ron

  29. He’s known as Lucky Jerry in these parts “MPLS” of the Woods. First time out Cattin we or should I say he boated a 40-lber.

    I feel like a proud poppa hooking a good stick like Jerry up with seasoned Walleye guys like Mike, Joel and Bob!

    Works killing me right now but hoping to make it out later in the week!

    WTG Mike and Jerry!

  30. hi Gary.. remember i’m not lucky. i keep telling you guys its not luck, its just that the fish like me !! must be my good looks and charm…

  32. Got that photo of your truck Jason. Looks nice. You can also find me on facebook at “Fishing with Mike” . Still haven’t put a web site together yet.

Leave a Comment