Mississippi River Report – Pool 2 Nov 17, 2010

Pool 2 Update!

Not sure if everyone knows this but there’s some really big walleyes in this stretch of the river!

I had time for a 4 hour outings this morning. Mike and I met at the 494 landing and hit the water right as the sun was coming up. We headed north of the bridge by about a mile and set up on a dam that has some deep water at the face of the dam on the outside and a shallower flat on the inside. We opted to hook the boat right on that transition where the inside flat met the sharp drop to the channel with the boat coming to rest in about 12′ of water. The current on the inside fished “just right” while the current on the outside of the boat was too strong for even a 3/8 oz. head. In my experience when I need to go to a jig that heavy I find that I can still catch fish but my top end size will be lacking this time of year. I guess it is understandable that these big, fat walleyes would be reluctant to hold in areas of heavy current with water temps pushing the upper 30’s.

Despite the less than ideal spot selection we opted to fish anyway. I guess that’s what cold hands will do for a guy’s motivation on a November morning as the sun’s coming up.

The current is down from last week and the water clarity is up a little. I would call it “about a foot” in most areas which suggests that we’re on the front end of the transition of the bite to low light periods.

But we’re not all the way there yet! While we did catch about a dozen fish at our first location they were all the 18″ – 21″ variety. Nice fish… but not why I get up at 5 AM. Mike fished a motoroil k grub and I hucked a oystershell moxie. The hits where that wonderful “ka-thunk” that all us river guys live for this time of year.

By 7:30 AM we were off to spot #2. We opted for a deep wingdam with lighter current on the outside tip so we could drift our jigs up and in to the front face of dam.

I started fishing a chartreuse pepper moxie while Mike threw paddletails and the occasional cast or three with that same Motoroil K-grub. For the first 15 minutes… nothing.

As soon as I switched back to a oystershell moxie it was game on! My first fish was a humongous fat 24″ fish that zipped around out in the faster current on the channel edge making for one heck of a fight. When this one was landed I noticed a large tail sticking out of its through next to my jighead. My curiosity got the best of me so I reached for the pliers to remove this bait fish and as I started to pull it just kept coming… and coming and coming! All 10″ of the darn thing. The rear 4″ was in perfect shape while the front portion had been digested to little more than a spinal column. Apparently this porker was unable to completely swallow this giant shad in one sitting so it was gradually working on digesting the front half and I would assume it would swallow the remainder when it was able to do so. (Sorry no pics of this walleye’s lunch… it wasn’t very easy on the eyes if ya’ know what I mean?!) Why this fish tried to eat my Moxie is beyond me… it couldn’t possibly have swallowed it with that huge shad obstructing traffic.

After my first porker of the morning was released it only took two more casts to connect with the fish in this photo. Again, oystershell moxie. 5/16 oz. Sour Apple precision head. The water temps are dropping but these fish have some serious fight in them yet and this big girl took me all over the place from out in the current on the channel edge and back to the inside upstream to the inside of the boat before Mike made the big scoop with the landing net.

My apologies for the funny face in this pic. The sun was at that perfect angle where it felt like someone was welding my retinas as I posed for the pic looking directly into the sun.

For anyone interested in hitting pool 2 over the next couple weeks things look to be coming together nicely for that late November feeding binge we typically see around the Thanksgiving weekend. Water temps were 39 – 42 depending on location. For those with nicer boats do know that the dock is now out at the 494 landing as of 10 AM this morning. There is some sand to work with on the downstream side of the launch for those that need to beach a boat while parking the truck so these is really only a small inconvenience that won’t keep anyone willing to fish out of a boat in November off the water.

For anyone that hasn’t yet fished with the Moxies… what’s the wait? I’ve been out on pool 2 about 6 times this month and I’ve fished with 4 different guys. Each trip we take turns fish a variety of different styles and colors and every day, without exception, our biggest fish come on the moxies. They’re outfishing everything by a noticeable margin. I don’t know where a guy can get them in the metro but I do know BFT ships quick.

http://www.bfishntackle.com/4inch_moxi.html

I’m thinking my next trip out will be on friday. Anyone else planning to hit it hard this weekend?