Mississippi River Fishing Reports Pools 2 & 3

[jcpelly]

I am new to fishing the river and wondering how you guys know where the wing dams are. Is there something that gives away where they are? My first day out on the river this spring I hit something and bent a prop over by the bank. When the water went down a few weeks later saw that it was an old steel hull or something. Now i'm gunshy to get anywhere near the banks for fear of hitting wingdams.

[blakeb]

how to tell where wing damns are is kinda easy the ones that are closer to the surface have disturbed water on the surface behind them. they go from shore and end near the main channel usually.

[jcpelly]

That's what I thought I would see over the wingdams. I guess I haven't been out on the river yet when the water was low enough to see that disturbance on the surface and since I hit that chunk of steel haven't gotten close enough to see them either. If the water ever goes down will have to go have a gander and do some fishing around them.

[krinkle]

You could also try running the boat in the main channel. The red and green cones are not just river decorations. They are channel markers. Now you want to stay between the red and green cones when traveling up and down the river. Not between the cones and shoreline.

From what I have seen there are not a lot of wingdams on pool 2 that you need to worry about hitting. Most are under water even at low water levels. Now you get down south on the river and many of those stick above water in low water.

Running the shoreline is not a good way to get up and down river. You will find far more logs and other items there to hit. I know its a great way to find the way back to the landing but not a good idea to follow it to close.

If you want to know where the wingdams are get a GPS chip like lake master. The army corp of engineers also has maps in their web site that you can down load and print to show the dams. If you want to fish wing dams the gps is a great tool to help with that.

If you plan to fish the river a lot also get familiar with a good prop repair shop. I have close to 15 years on pool 2 and still get one to two repairs done a year. Guess if Im not dinging a prop every now and again Im not fishing hard enough.

[OLY]

some fish from the last couple weeks

[OLY]

[sicheneder]

oly,

awesome catches.i am a bass fisherman, but go down to the deuce for fall walleyes. do you get more smallies north of the 52 bridge? we mostly fish from the airport south.

we were out 2 sundays ago and zero walleyes, but ran into a school of largies.

[sicheneder]

25" from last saturday.

[Chode2235]

Been out a couple times in the last week or so. Fishing has been pretty slow. The water has come up quite a bit.

Fish seem pretty scattered, and we did our best trolling plugs and covering water. Mostly Walleyes, with a couple saugers mixed in and an occasional bass.

[bassfshin24]

Had a great morning on pool 2. Ended up with around 40 largemouth. A lot of 2.5lbers. Biggest fish of the morning was 3.25lb smallie.

Is this a saugeye? Had really dark spots on it! Hit a crankbait

[Craigums]

Nice Sauger!

[bassfshin24]

Ok so its a sauger. I was thinking that first but then i saw the dark splotches on it and thought maybe a saugeye after seeing a picture of one. The spots were definitely more noticable when it was in the water.

[esoxrocks01]

Went fishing at Pool 2 yesterday. I caught a nice 4 pound common carp. The other two people there caught a river and golden redhorse. I'm gonna go back there again sometime this week to see if I can get fish that aren't bottom-feeders.

[rough_rider]

Went fishing at Pool 2 yesterday. I caught a nice 4 pound common carp. The other two people there caught a river and golden redhorse. I'm gonna go back there again sometime this week to see if I can get fish that aren't bottom-feeders.

I often see carp feeding on the surface and have caught them on poppers and other topwater techniques before *gasp* Also, I once caught a legendary walleye while, you wouldn't believe it, fishing on the bottom. *gasp*

[OLY]

Made it out today for the first time in a couple months, fishing was pretty good. We were out from 8-2 and ended up with 38 fish. 10 largemouth, 10 smallmouth, 8 white bass, 4 crappie, 2 pike, 2 walleye, 1 channel cat, and 1 sheepshead. Nothing huge but a bunch of nice fish. Most fish were on crankbaits, or dropshot. All fish were caught in areas that had current and rock either on the main channel or very close to it. Water temp was 74. Also I would like to say to the guy that flipped us off for driving by him when he was anchored in the main channel hope you had a great day jack hole!

[Craigums]

Still trying to learn P2. I went out with my dad on sunday for 4 hours in the AM. We caught two fish, I caught a walleye and he caught a largie. Both our fish came off wingdams near the main channel. The walleye was from a submerged wingdam and the largie was next to an exposed one. I was lobbing a DT10 and the walleye hit after bumping a rock. We found a "cove" off the main channel that was loaded with shad/shiners jumping, thought for sure I was going to hit the mother load. I threw a shad colored X-rap, a bone colored popper, and a white grub worm and didn't get bit....unbelievable. All in all a fun day even though we didn't slay em, learning the river little by little each time out though

[old timer]

Hidden falls ramp is open! No fish caught at confluence. Little saugers caught in hole upriver from Lilydale ramp.

[nsnutter]

What kind of boat were you in? Saw someone out Friday when I was shore fishing near lily dale. Wondered where they put in. Brown and white back troller.

[EBass]

Thanks for the report old timer. May try from shore in a week or so.

[bassfshin24]

What's the river looking like right now? Is the Hidden Falls ramp open? How far is the river open to?

[eyesonly]

I saw somone fishing up by the airport tonight on my way home from work. so jelouse.

[shamus]

Anyone having or heard of guys having luck out on pool 2 yet? This is my first year fishing the Miss. and I've been out probably a dozen times with not even a bite. Been fishing from shore from the dam down to the hwy 5 bridge.

Is it better to go farther south at this time?

[RuKiddingMe]

Weird bite for sure on Pool 2 - poor bite last spring, last fall, and now this spring. Hopefully it picks up soon.

[bassfshin24]

Where can you put a boat in at right now?

[RuKiddingMe]

As far as I know you can get a boat in at all three major launches

Wacouta (494 / S. St Paul) - for sure

Lilydale - likely

Hidden falls - likley

But with a lack of bite, a trip to pool 4 makes more sense.

[bobbymalone]

Be careful out there. There has to be a ton of icebergs floating downstream.

The Minnesota river was pretty much locked up at the Y not too long ago and I saw big ice shelves at the shore going over the cedar ave bridge this morning. I saw some ice shelves on the sippi going over the 94 bridge up from the dam and it looked like a lot of ice still at the minnehaha confluence a few days ago.

Those big flat ice sheets are tough to spot until it's too late.

[bassfshin24]

I think I'll wait a few weeks then. Man I need to hit the open water soon!

[old timer]

I think I'll wait a few weeks then. Man I need to hit the open water soon!

Scratch the itch. Go out of Everts up to the dam at Red Wing. Catch all the little saugers,(with a few keepers), you want. The water temp on the Miss at the confluence with the Minnesota dropped from 36 to 33 in a week. It will take a bit of melt to get some current and warmer water.

[mohr06]

are you sure you about that temp. or are you scaring people away from st paul for a reason. there has been a lot of melt lately.

[old timer]

are you sure you about that temp. or are you scaring people away from st paul for a reason. there has been a lot of melt lately.

That was the temp last Sunday. It probably has gone up some. Here is the link to the Corp of Engineers website. http://www.mvp-wc.usace.army.mil/projects/Lock1.shtml. I just checked and the water temp tab doesn't seem to be working correctly.You are most welcome to scout it out and let us all know.Hidden falls is probably closed today because of freezing rain. Good luck.