The walleye bite on Pool 2 this last week has been about as varied as the weather. Bright and shinny one day. Cold, windy and snowing the next. The fish have been about the same. On fire one day to about completely shut down the next. The good thing is that even with the slower fishing we saw over the weekend there are still willing fish to be caught. Here is a nice one Calvin caught last Wednesday before the weather and slower fishing moved in.
Wednesday Calvin and Rob where able to join me for a day of fishing on Pool 2. We got a early start that day trying to get a little fishing in before the wind started. Think we where able to pitch one wing dam before it started blowing. Plan B for that day was long line trolling crank baits. It didn’t take long for us to find this was working to and as the day went on the trolling bite just kept improving. Blue flicker shads where our hot color for the day but not the only bait they would bite on. We found fish in many typical areas including rock piles, current breaks and back water cuts. Good fishing with you guys and looking forward to getting back out there.
Saturday morning TBO and I had planned on spending a nice day on the water catching up on old times. Old mother nature decided to great us with some wonderful weather that day to to keep us guessing on what was coming next. Varied winds, rain, sleet snow mixed in with a nice break of sunshine every now and again. I think we got to experience all 4 season of MN weather in one day.
Well with this drastic of change in the weather it was not to surprising to see our bite turn off to. 1st wing dam we fished I picked up one casting a crank bait. This fish followed to the boat and hit rite next to the motor. Next cast out and I got hit twice on the way to the boat but no fish. This ended up being the norm for the rest of the day with many short strikes or fish following the lures nearly up to the boat before hitting. Joe and I still managed a fair number of fish for Saturday. Nothing big but I did get one nice colorful sauger pitching a White Paddle tails to some back water rocks.
Sunday came around and it was Mothers day. Was able to get those duties done early enough in the day to allow for another quick trip back to the river late in the day. I was kinda looking forward to this as this was my 1st chance this year to fish with out strong winds. Pitching was on my mind but I was still a little concerned on how the bite was going to be after the weekends cold front.
Started out pitching plastics and hair on the 1st wing dam with a few snags and then hooked up with a rope. Ended up hauling in a water spike anchor. Not a bad start I thought. This thing all ready had a dozen hooks in the rope.
Next stop I picked a nice mid sized walleye up on a white paddle tail rite away. Then nothing. Was starting to think I should of grabbed some crawlers to pitch to these neutral fish. Looking around I found the next best thing. A blade bait. Fished slowly I new these can work well on neutral fish. The next 10 minutes produced 4 more walleyes off this spot with that red tiger blade bait. The biggest being a nice 26"er. Soon after that I retired my one and only blade bait in the boat to a snag on the bottom of the river. It was fun while it lasted.
As you can see the bite has been good to not so good in the last week. There has also been a pretty good variety in what the walleyes are willing to bite on. I would bet with another day or 2 of this cold snap passing we will start to see the walleyes turn back on and again be on a pretty good bite on pool 2.
Good to see many of you guys out there this last week.
Thanks for the report nice fish
Here is a few more fish from the last week. Nothing real big but we did get a few 26″ and 27″ fish this week.
Great report Mike! Those are some nice fish
Thanks for letting me tag along on Wednesday Mike… Hey Rob where are your pictures???
Nothing wrong with those fish guys! Very nice.
Robs fish where so small they didnt show up.
Mike was that you I saw fishing solo last night around 6PM? I was cruising the strip down from Lions.
JP
Yep. That was me. Did you find anything down south?
No. Theres a few spots before the lake that I’m watching but nothing yet. Flow looks to be holding steady right where its at for now.
Jason
Good report Michael!
My experiences as of late have been slow. My excuse is that i have had Drew with on a lot of those trips. So I have been spending more time playing pirate and trespassing on private property than fishing. 
dd
I’ll piggyback off Mikes report. Last weekday trips had me trolling cranks in the jon boat. Mostly #5 shad raps on leadcore. 6-10 foot of water. These fish are in that 17-20 inch range. Nothing fast and furious, but few here and there on main channel shorelines. Sunday we tossed everything at ’em. Got a 23 off a wingdam on a hair/leech combo. Caught a few casting cranks. Picked up a few trolling too. Again nothing real big, but fun keeping the rod bent.
Water levels are really down! But the current is still clipping along. If you are using Lions Levee, stick to the upstream side of the dock. Seem to be able to get the trailer further back without dropping the tires off the end.
-J.
Awsome report guys! I have been wondering how many guys pull lead shallow, I never have and am wondering, what the benifits are of useing lead in 6to10 fow?Besides less line out?
Less line out = more control. For instance, I’ll set out 2 colors in 10 fow. I can slow the speed of the boat until the crank ticks bottom. Then bump the speed a little and I know that crank is in the zone. Now, with that same 2 colors out lets say I hit an area that comes up to 6 for a short distance. I can speed it up (making the lead rise up) and cruise over that 6 fow without touching the rod. Then when it drops back off to 10, I’ll just resume the speed I was running.
Having that crank 20 or so yards back means I can hug contours better. Tick the end of a wing dam, then turn hard and run the face without getting hung up as much as long lining.
I know much has been written about how guys set up their LC rods. For the river, I use only a 6 foot leader of 80lb power pro. Quality barrel swivel to attach the line to the LC and a quality snap swivel to the crank.
Good luck.
-J.