Mississippi River Fishing Reports Pools 2 & 3

[jwmiller33]

blake-i'd be down to go out again. it sucked that our last outing was cut short by the storm of the summer

[rugbymn]

I'd like to get out in Hastings and try for some cats (or what ever hits) near the dam. Are there any spots in particular that I can hit from shore that are better than others?

[jwmiller33]

anybody been out walleye fishing pool 2 lately? thinking about getting out there soon... have caught numbers of nice eyes the past 2 falls out there fishing by the ford da m

[fishdale]

Was out today for a couple of hours been a month since my last trip. Tried cranks and jigs/crawlers. Couple of Walleyes but no size a few smallies mixed in as well. The smallmouth buffalo's were out and hitting cranks. Fun to reel in but a little disapointing when you think you have a nice Eye on. Also tailed hook a big carp now thats a fight

I never made it up to the dam so not sure how the bite is up there.

[krinkle]

The bite has been fantastic for both numbers and size but is starting to slow again with the lower water levels. Was out the last few days and caught 15 to 20 walleyes each day. plenty of 18 to 20"ers and a good number of those 24 to 26" walleye. Big fish of the day was a 27.5".

We had our best fishing a couple of weeks ago when the river was just dropping out of flood stage. Had a half dozen the one day in the 8 to 10# range. Sure hope we get some rain again to bring those water levels back up.

[JimBuck]

Nice report krinkle. I'll be heading out this afternoon to see if we can put a few in the boat.

[OLY]

I finally made it out last night for a couple of hours. We fished 2 hrs and ended up with 6 walleyes, a couple bass and sheephead. Walleyes were 26,26,25,22 and 2 smaller ones, all fish caught on jig and various plastics. The bite was really aggressive, in fast moving shallow water. All fish were caught in less than 5ft.

[Loon18]

Fished the confluences last evening. 1-northern pike, 3 sheephead, 9 striped bass, 16 walleyes and 2 saugers. Biting like crazy. all caught between 3-8 foot of water. Northern was a couple lbs, the bass were 12-18 inchers and all the eyes and saugers were keeper size 14-17inchers.

[blakeb]

better not be keeper size

[jwmiller33]

ya blakeb is right, there is no "keeper size" on pool 2, as it is catch and release only.

[Loon18]

i dont know what you consider keeper sized walleye. i prefer to eat the 14-17 inchers. I pretty much don't keep any smaller or bigger for the pan. What do you consider "keeper sized" 18 - 30 inchers? i believe those should all go back in the water. By the way, no fish were kept as pool 2 is all catch and release. keeper size is an adjective to describe the fish as saying "dinks" or "pigs" etc...

[OLY]

Made it out yesterday with my dad from 11 untill 5. We ended up with 45 fish. 23 bass, an even mix of largemouth and smallmouth, 15 crappies mostly white with a couple black mixed in, 5 walleyes, and 2 saugers. Biggest walleye was 27 in 7lbs 12oz caught on a crankbait shallow rocks, heavy current was key for the bass and eyes crappies came from trees in the backwaters.

[jwmiller33]

for you guys that are trolling cranks out there, what speed do you troll (i.e. downriver and upriver)... i typically troll 1.9-2.1 on lakes this time of year when trolling lead.... i usually stick to jigging live bait or plastics on pool 2 but would like to start trolling cranks... how do i take the current into the equation when trolling cranks out there? do you have to go like 4 mph (gps speed) when trolling down river to get the right action on the lure?

[chrisonice]

i think loon 18 was on pool 3

[Loon18]

Nope, Loon 18 was at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. Pool 2, fishing has been awesome. Bigger fish up by the dam, (Ford Dam)

[jwmiller33]

loon-are you using live bait? trolling?

[Loon18]

Vertical Jigging, with fatheads or green ring worms. they have been very aggresive. Minnows seam to work a little better.

[jwmiller33]

thanks for the report Loon. I have had a lot of success vertical jigging with fatheads and mister twisters and other plastics in the fall on Pool 2. The last 2 years I fished pool 2 (up by the ford dam) a bunch in the fall when I was in college. There is a pretty good evening bite out there and the good thing is you usually dont see many other boats. I often times saw more people shore fishing than I did other boats. I am hitting Mille Lacs again this weekend for one last hurray, but will be getting on pool 2 again on Sunday or Monday. I will report back with how i do.

Good luck to all fall fisherman and hunters this weekend! Should be a great weekend to be outside and enjoying the outdoors

[sicheneder]

heres one from pool 2 from a couple weekends ago. 10lbs 7oz.

[krinkle]

Very nice. What was the length on that fish? We got a nice 28.5 there about a week ago with a sick gut on it. Had a couple over 10 that day.

[sicheneder]

not surethe board in the boat only goes to 22"

[JimBuck]

Got out this morning until about 1 or so. One little 14" to show for it. Missed a few but the bite was pretty tough for me. Many of my traditional fall locations were very challenging to fish with the current rippin' through there. Couple floaters here and there. Hopefully this high water will flush out most of the leaves from slack areas. Temps 40-42 degrees.

[jwmiller33]

Made it out on Pool 2 tonight from about 3pm-6. I couldn't believe how fast and high the water was! I think it was the highest/fastest it's ever been when I have had my boat out there! All my normal spots to fish that were current seams and eddys in normal water levels were non existent today because the water was so much higher. I fished the St Paul side of "the island" up by the Form Dam in 5-10ft of water and that is where we caught out only fish of the night. I was using a 1/2-3/4 oz long shank gold jigs with various mister twisters and other plastics. For any other guys going out to pool 2, bring the big/heavy river jigs that you would use in the early spring melt/run off time if your going to be jigging.

We were only using plastics and didnt have any live bait in the boat. We had several missed bites throughout the night, but we only managed to boat one small walleye. Also fished over by the lock, as well as the big yellow pillar/rock pile on the end of the lock. Was marking some fish on the graph in several different depths, but couldnt get them to bite. The current was so fast, it made it hard to keep contact with the bottom for jigging.

The high water definitely muddy'ed up the water quite a bit, and as a result, I think it is KEY to have some BRIGHT colors on your jigs for these conditions! It would have been nice to have some good minnows in the boat tonight, but I don't regret it at all. I think all a guy needs is plastics this time of year to put nice walleyes in the boat! The walleyes are putting on the pre winter feed bags, and they should be gorging themselves all the until local lakes ice up.

heres a pic of the dam from the east side of the island

[Map Guy]

jwmiller - Thanks for the report.

I was out there the day before on Wed 11/10 from 8am-1pm and found the same conditions. I did manage 3 eyes by the dam, all caught with a jig and fathead. The key was to get vertical, which was difficult with the current. Tried some plastics with no luck. Lost another 4-5 fish half way to the boat. They were just mouthing the tail of the minnow and were not aggressive. Tried a few other spots down river with not much luck either.

The biggest fish of the day was 20" but skinny. Makes me wonder if these fish have yet to begin their fall feeding. Maybe the best bite is yet to come on P2?

[jwmiller33]

that very well could be. certainly would be nice if the water level/current came down a little bit. i agree, getting vertical for jigging is key, and pretty much impossible with that current and boat control. im sure there will be walleyes feeding up the dam for quite a long time, at least another few weeks

[Kyhl]

I just found pool 2 last year. Never really river fished until then. Joined this site and finally found a thread about it. What a great fishery pool 2 is. I will have to start at the beginning of this thread and read all the posts.

Was out Sunday afternoon and saw the same conditions. Water roaring over the dam and currents at high speeds. Backwaters full of leaves.

It was my first trip with a new boat, and the last trip of the year. Gave up on fishing after a couple hours and went for a ride downtown and back to Hidden Valley.

My best luck seems to be in slower water, usually later in the year but this year hasn't happened. Reading the last few of posts I have a lot to learn.

The boat was winterized on Monday so I'm done for the season but look forward to reading everyone's experiences and possibly seeing some on the water next year.

[krinkle]

Wasnt able to make it out over the weekend but the bite last week was pretty good. Caught around 25 walleyes on Wednesday. All on plastics and 1/4 ounce jigs. Just a couple under 20"s and the biggest 2 close to 28"s. Most of the fish we are seeing over 23"s are real fat. The ones we caught between 27 and 28"s where in if not over the 10# mark. The best is yet to come and with this high water we should be able to keep fishing maybe even into January.

[Judge Smails]

Goodbye short pole, time to pick up the big stick.

Choice sections of river now open! I'd tell you where, but I don't want you to take my parking spot.

[jwmiller33]

Yup, that's right. I drive over the river everyday on the 610 bridge and the river had been completely locked up last week. I drove over the bridge today and it was pretty much completely open in the middle of the channel as far as I could see in both directions. With the warm temperatures forecasted in the next week, we are going to see a lot more of the river open up. Hellllllooo open water.

It will be interesting to see the rate of the thaw for this spring, especially considering the massive floods we had on the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers last year. Time to get the boat out of the storage and start getting it ready for gameday, because it won't be long.

Spring... My favorite time of the year.

[Judge Smails]

Not quite as open as I had hoped, but should be good by the end of the week- might even have a launch for the weekend.

Let's hope for a slow melt through the spring (after this week).