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Mississippi River Fishing Reports Pools 2 & 3


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Out Sunday 7:30 - 11:00 Zip at confluence and dam. No net action.Water is coming up fast but still only 35 degrees.

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Down on shore by down town St. Paul right now. River came up a little since yesterday, but not much. Action is slow, but the weather is very nice. May be little wind, but warm. Went by Lillydale Launch a little while ago and only a couple trailers. No fish yet, but on the move to find them. Only give a spot about 45 minutes and then move. No live bait, only plastics, spinners and cranks. No one on the river boat wise compaired to yesterday.

Well, got to get back to fishing. Going to give it another hour or so.

Good reports guys smile

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Fished from 9am to 2:30pm. Caught one walleye, sorry Doug! Only saw a couple of people catch fish. The river was moving very fast, and it was real windy.

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Fished from 9am to 2:30pm. Caught one walleye, sorry Doug! Only saw a couple of people catch fish. The river was moving very fast, and it was real windy.

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Water will be up fast by tomorrow, it is over its banks in ELk River as of 4:00 and still rising!

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Fished on Saturday for a couple hours. It was great just to get out and run the boat. I did manage to catch this guy... Sorry for the bad pic, I don't like keeping these things around for too long.

mudpuppy.jpg

Nasty little critters...

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Save that baby for muskies in the summer. If you can find the smaller puppies, About 4-5inches long you have some of the best walleye bait out.

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caught 4 of those mudpuppys last year between me and my friends had no idea what it was first, we had to go ask someone down shore what we had reeled in. Those things are pretty sick looking and they make some weird noises.

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Save that baby for muskies in the summer. If you can find the smaller puppies, About 4-5inches long you have some of the best walleye bait out.

There used to be a bait shop that sold these on Arcade Street while I was growing up. I was young and didn't know how to fish them but had some wicked bites and break offs with them things at Phalen. Does anyone in the east metro stock them?

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The river was moving very fast, and it was real windy.

Yeah it looks like its up a good foot, foot and half from Thurs.

Be Very carefull out there guys!

LIFE JACKETS ON!

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Safety right now is a big concern. We have high-

water warnings everywhere. Just yesterday, while

crossing over the 35W Burville bridge, I saw a

twenty foot log floating paralell across the river!!

There is a lot of stuff getting pulled into the river.

Some you can see and some you can't. If you are planning on doing any fishing in these conditions, please use caution and have some safety considerations such as back up propulsion

(kicker and electric motors) at the ready in case your

main unit is disabled. Same for having your anchors

rigged just in case. And off course, have the life jackets

on. BE SAFE OUT THERE!!!

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Got out last saturday the 21st. The water is up, dirty, and moving. The bite was slow. One 18" walleye made it in the boat and a nice channel cat. Jig weight had to be upped to manage the increase in flow. 1/4oz. to 3/8oz. in bright colors paired with bright curly tail grubs is what took the fish.

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Went out today for a couple of hours, River is Screaming fast right now, if you go out better make sure all of your equipment is up to snuff. I had to tow a 19 skeeter back upstream to hidden falls about a mile, not very easy or safe even with a 150hp motor, he hit a deadhead floating in the river, didn't see it and ended up dead in the water. River is very very fast right now, if you go out be careful. Water temp was at about 43 degrees, once the flow slows down a little fishing should pick up again.

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Does anyone know when the river is going to crest? I Don't think I will be out until the river starts coming back down too high/fast for my boat. I also do not enjoy fighting that much current.

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How is the current right now? Anyone been by the ford dam lately? Went to pool 4 last week end and it was reallllllyyy slow. Thanks good luck fishing

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Where on Pool 4 where you? Everyone else experienced pretty strong currents. They had some of the roller dams open and there where swift currents and debris coming down. Pool 2 currents have been pretty strong lately also.

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Quote:
How is the current right now? Anyone been by the ford dam lately? Went to pool 4 last week end and it was reallllllyyy slow. Thanks good luck fishing

My guess is he was refering to the bite being slow

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got out by Prescott after work for my first trip on the river. There were a few boats out, about 20, that I saw fishing the area right by Prescott. I tried the wing dams but the water is still a bit high to be able to fish them very easily. I caught nothing but some of the other boat had a few. Going back on Sunday with some live bait.

If you do try fishing the wing dams be careful because the 3rd or 4th red bouy South of Prescott is submerged just under the surface. Farther down river one of the green bouys is in the middle of the navigation channel. Not to hard to figure out but it was a little perplexing when I was running up the river.

Good luck and stay safe!

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For pool 3 I usually only go about 2 miles. There is so much river and so many wing dams to explore that I haven't fished beyond 2 miles much at all.

Went out by Prescott on Sunday but the bait shop in Hastings was closed when I stopped by so I went without live bait. Caught 5 saugers on Rapala's, size ranged from 12" to 19". I tried plastics first but didn't get anything. I'm not so good with plastics but I will keep trying and learning.

There were only about 10 boats total fishing the area by Prescott. Most boats were getting a few but is was not fast and furious. It seemed that most fish were being caught on plain jig and minnow or jig/plastic and minnow.

For the fish I caught on raps, the firetiger color caught fish 4 to 1 over the silver/black.

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Good work Funfish...

Easter saugers, that's awesome. Were you running 3-ways or long lining shad raps? I'm thinking about getting out once or twice this week myself.

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I was running the raps on a handline. Usually I run raps on a handline, snapweights, or leadcore.

I would run more 3 way rigs but just cant be bothered with rigging them. Has anybody used a snap weight setup with a dropper line between the clip and the weight. This seems like it would be a simple and adjustable method to get a rap near the bottom.

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Its gonna be 70 out there today! I was wondering if anyone has an extra seat to go fishing today. Im a window washer and I'll clean your windows inside and out if you take me out today. I tried off the dock in Prescott on tuesday but I think being vertical is key. The guys in the boats seemed to be doing much better than we were. Looked like lots of sonars out there. Brad 507-995-7303

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It was really great meeting you. We will have to get out again and try to catch more hog Saugers.

Fishing report: Went out by Prescott on Pool 3 at 4:30 pm on Thursday. Started out working jig/minnow and picked up a few small saugers and 1 Walleye. Really thought we were on the right spot when we started because as soon as my jig hit the bottom I had a Walleye on. There were about 20 boats fishing the area right in front of the docks so we spent most of our time fishing up river near the Mississippi/Croix confluence. Tried a blade bait for a while but only hooked up with 1 sheepie. The bites really seemed to slow down around 7:00 (slowed for everybody that we could see) so we switched over to handlining rapalas to cover more water. Picked up a 21" sauger and then nothing.

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Thanks for the updates FunFish! Sounds like the bite is hit or miss. Way to go on playing with different presentations. Seems like that is what it takes right now.

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Fished Thurs 9:00am -1:00 Saw 2 walleye caught. Both caught in slack water 12 feet and 8 feet.Missed 2 in 16 fow.

Fished Fri 4:00 pm-7:00pm Caught 2 walleye, 1 small, 1 decent. Both caught in current seam 14 fow where it it dropped from 8 foot flat to 16 feet quickly. 1/2 oz jig with chartreuse ringworm and fathead. Did not see any other fish caught. The eddy at the Hidden Falls ramp is challenging.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

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