Mississippi River Fishing Reports Pools 2 & 3

[OLY]

The flow is down significantly from last weekend. Last nights rain hasn't had much effect. Last sunday at the hastings dam 31,000 cfs today 18,000.

[Palerider77]

Pulled cranks from the confluence to Hidden Falls today, 8 eyes and and a big ninth inning for the twins on the radio. Nice afternoon all told. #7 firetiger shad rap did the best.

[jwmiller33]

Great report! ive never pulled cranks on that stretch before. how deep were you catching them!

and heck yes about the twins game! i was there and it was awesoooooooome! i am hoping this is going to be the series that turns it around for us!

[Palerider77]

8-14 fow, 1.4 to 1.7 mph depending on current. Port side of the river headed upstream. I had never done that either, saw fish on the graph when we got to the mud line at the confluence, acted accordingly. Nice day for a troll.

[Craigums]

Got out Wednesday 7-21-10 after work and decided to take my boat out on pool 2 of the mighty mississippi. I was definately a little apprehensive as I only have a 14' john boat with a shallow hull and I've never been out on the river before. We launched fine and I made sure it was not windy so that matters would not be complicated. Ive never fished a river before, so trying to figure out what to do was definately a trip. I was like a lost puppy out on that river but I kept throwing what ever was in my tackle bag. I threw DT10's, Spinnerbaits, Jigs, Poppers, Zara Spooks, and chatter baits without much luck. On the way back there was a nice shoreline with lots of laydowns that we decided to work. My Sister got the first fish of the day, it looked like a walleye at first but once I got it in the net it turned out to be a channel catfish (her 1st one ever), It bit on a white chatterbait with a half of a fluke as a trailer.

A couple casts later I get this guy to bite, not big but a smallmouth none the less. This little guy bit on a spinnerbait.

All in all it was a fun day and I'm glad to know that my boat handled the river without a problem.

[mattbass]

i'm heading out after work. first time out in my new boat (1979 lund pike). not sure how much fishing i'll do. lot of time spent figuring out the boat. very excited.

[Tator2k]

I'm usually the back-seater on upper pool two and northwards towards the end of the channel. Going to take my boat out for the first time this weekend. Will be putting in at Hidden Falls. I currently checking my maps to see, if I'm going make at Pool 1 and such. Jigging for smallies.

[DTro]

You might be in for some additional boat traffic on P2 on Sat. The Red Bull Flutag will be taking place near Harriet Island. Heads up.

[mattbass]

yep. was actually thinking of putting my boat in & heading up there!

[Larry FlatCaster]

Anyone know if shes raging today after the storms last night?

Its probably going to fluctuate a little bit over the next day or two, looks to have gone up a little.

This might help you out for future reference.

http://www.mvp-wc.usace.army.mil/projects/Lock1.shtml

[Tator2k]

About 4 hrs in Pool 1 this morning. Myself and one of the ladies from our poker league. I got out fished by a girl. 10(me)- 14(her) for fish landed. I couldn't seem to get a hook to stay and lost about 1/2 at the boat.

It was good time until everyone was heading upstream for Aquatennial or down stream to St. Paul was me guess.

I've never seen 14 boats loaded into Lock #1 at one time before.

[DTro]

P2 has been good to me the past couple of weekends. In total about 20 cats. No real monsters, but it's fun when there is constant action all night!

I wish I lived closer, I'd fish it more often. Lot's of cool structure!

[mattbass]

got out today. fished for a bit (mainly testing out the new boat). got one smaller northern on the N side of the MN/Miss confluence. fished by the dam for a bit, no luck. 2 or 3 other boats up there w/ no action

[TruthWalleyes]

P2 has been good to me the past couple of weekends. In total about 20 cats. No real monsters, but it's fun when there is constant action all night!

I wish I lived closer, I'd fish it more often. Lot's of cool structure!

I'm heading up to Rogers to visit a buddy (KMR85) friday night, we're hitting the 494 access. It will be my first time on the Miss, and pool 2, Can you give me a little advice? I almost never go down stream from the landing, but would i be ok doing that here? I'm hoping kyle has some idea of where the good structure/cat locations are, but would love any advice you've got to share.

Hope this is the first of many trips to the Miss!

[DTro]

Just basically find structure and fish it. Our most productives spots were near a pretty sharp break, off of the main channel in about 8-12FOW. If you spend 30 minutes there without a bite....move

I was mainly after Flats and tried using live bait, but the cut creek chubs outproduced everything so I switched over. Even the flats preffered the cutbait.

Going downstream might be a good thing

[TruthWalleyes]

Thanks Dtro!

[blakeb]

find wing damns

[TruthWalleyes]

We got skunked!

Fished the Sunken barges, and should've hit up the wing damns...next time.

Got 1 nice channel on the minnesota river yesterday tho.

[nickman651]

fished below the ford dam for a couple hours on wed night. river had calmed down a bit. only got a white bass and two channel cats. Got our bait picked by some little ones (prob) all evening. water temp was still 80 deg +

[mrklean]

where you fishing close to the dam or down stream more? I was down stream of the dam about 200 yards last friday and only caught one sheephead

[SneakAttack]

Fished in St. Paul Park Area Yesterday, Tried a spot just to get out of the wind and put 8-10 smallies in the boat, was totally unexpected, my friend caught have of em' on plastic worms and i caught the others on topwater

[CarlWBL]

Went out of Lyons park on Wednesday night looking for some smallmouth action. We caught about 10-12 smallies, largest probably in the 15-16 inch range. We also caught about 7 drum, largest between 3-4 lbs. Gosh, it is disappointing to think you have hooked into a large smallie and then pull up a drum.

I was catching the fish on a square billed 3 foot diving crankbait. I was casting and catching them tight to rip rap and rock ledges. My buddy caught his on a t-rigged beaver. We had a few hits around wood laydowns, but our success came around rocks.

We didn't try any wingdams as we weren't confident in my buddy's gps and graph.

Carl

[nickman651]

we were closer to the dam, we fished it a few nights later and got a few walleyes. 2 small ones (12-13") and a 16 incher. caught them all on minnows with 1 ounce or larger drop sinkers.we didnt have the depth finder out but the water def felt like it had cooled off a little.

[blakeb]

77 degrees today, constant action fished from wacota south to moon island.

smallies ere on fire along with white bass, plenty of walleyes to boot tho none of them broke 24 inches, Funny thing happened i was fishing under the 494 bridge and a mcdonalds ice coffe cup fell into my boat from above.

[jwmiller33]

blake-lets get out again soon! i'd love to go for some eyes out there but i definitely wouldnt mind trying for cats again! give me a call when your going out again sometime

[Tator2k]

Anyone notice tons of bait fish on the surface at night?

[Irish]

Hey Blakeb where are you finding the smallmouth. Rip rap shorelines or deeper water?

[blakeb]

rocks

[DTro]

The P2 cats were on fire last night! We didn't get any monsters, but respectable fish none the less. Total count was 5 flats and 13 channels. Biggest flat was about 20lbs and biggest channel was about 15lbs.

All fish came on cut and live creek chubs in about 15fow between a set of wingdams.

[blakeb]

excellent job dtro sounds like a blast, may just have to give that a try on tuesday night any one wanna get in the boat?