Pool 2 Report (2024)

Jim wrote:

My reading of the regs is you can not harvest minnows from P2 unless you have a permit for a cast net to take gizzard Shad only.
Page 30 states it’s illegal to harvest minnows from infested waters unless the body of water is infested only with Milfoil. P2 is infested with more than milfoil.
I wanted to get some emerald shiners last year but after reading the regs did not net any.

“Within infested streams and rivers (except for the St. Louis River Estuary), bullhead,sucker, mooneye, goldeye, and freshwater drum may be taken by hook and line for personal use as bait on the same water. Harvested bait may not be transported live from the river or stream. ”

Seems like an arbitrary selection of species there. I wonder if the ones listed are less susceptible to VHS. If you can collect gizzard shad by net (with permit), why not by hook and line?

I net them where I fish, use them where I fish, and dump them back out before I leave. If the law doesn’t allow that, boohoo.

Edit: only do this when I’m shore fishing and only use fresh river water

There’s one thing with harvesting bait thats never made sense to me. You can buy minnows from a bait shop and go to a body of water that is heavily infested with several things milfoil, zebra mussels, etc and camp out and fish for a week, dragging your minnows around in a minnow bucket the whole time. Now transfer the minnows to clean tap or bottled water and go fish a pristine uninfested lake and be totally legal, but you can’t trap or net minnows out of that heavily infested water and transfer them to tap or bottled water to use somewhere else.

sturgeonman wrote:

There’s one thing with harvesting bait thats never made sense to me. You can buy minnows from a bait shop and go to a body of water that is heavily infested with several things milfoil, zebra mussels, etc and camp out and fish for a week, dragging your minnows around in a minnow bucket the whole time. Now transfer the minnows to clean tap or bottled water and go fish a pristine uninfested lake and be totally legal, but you can’t trap or net minnows out of that heavily infested water and transfer them to tap or bottled water to use somewhere else.

If you catch/trap your own bait the state collects zero TAX $$.

No need to get much deeper into discussion when $$ to the state are involved.

We ran into a nursery of eyes and sauger yesterday. No kidding these 6-10″ fish were crushing 4″ ringworms. I’ve never seen anything like it. Really aggressive (and hungry I guess). We did pick a few 15″ers out that group, but most everything was under 10″ We probably caught close to 50 though.

Also in another particular spot you couldn’t drag a jig through without hooking a 6-10″ shad on every single cast. Strange things going on in the river this year.

How is the bite so far? Have the eyes made their way upriver to the dam yet or still hanging out on wing dams and farther south? Will be getting my boat out of storage the next time I can make the drive up north. Pool 2 will be my first stop

Found a few at the confluence tonight. First time out this year, absolutely wonderful to feel the the smack to the plastic.

Deuces wrote:

Found a few at the confluence tonight. First time out this year, absolutely wonderful to feel the the smack to the plastic.

After dark?

3Rivers wrote:

We ran into a nursery of eyes and sauger yesterday. No kidding these 6-10″ fish were crushing 4″ ringworms. I’ve never seen anything like it. Really aggressive (and hungry I guess). We did pick a few 15″ers out that group, but most everything was under 10″ We probably caught close to 50 though.

Got out for a bit yesterday and similar experience all over the southern end of P2. Multiple spots with lots of nibbles/bites from mainly 6-13″ eyes and saugers. One 20″ and a couple 15-17″ers were it for target species. Couple stiped bass, couple smallmouth, drum and a lil catfish. Mainly on jig n a minner. Lots of action though, so still a great day on the water and beautiful weather!

PmB wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Deuces wrote:</div>
Found a few at the confluence tonight. First time out this year, absolutely wonderful to feel the the smack to the plastic.

After dark?

Twilight

All came off a spot no bigger than a dinner table. Couple 19-20 and a 23.5ish.

Deer are stacked down on that island. Riding the bike saw at least 30, pretty cool, gonna get the kiddo down to do some shining off the bikes.

Nice fish. I’ve been getting skunked from shore lately but going to keep trying.

Slow out there this weekend. We fished all around the upper end Saturday morning. Caught a couple decent fish. It seemed like where we caught walleyes, they were all mixed in with rough fish. I was surprised because we were looking for and fishing current, but there were carp and cats piled in the same spots.

Anybody else been seeing this?

This dude either ate, or was unlucky and got snagged in the lip.

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I’ve had both Carp and Buffalo suck up a jig. I wish it would happen more often since they’re big and fight hard. Nice fish!

I’ve caught quite a few big buffalo down there on lipless cranks as well as jigs and flukes/grubs. Almost all in the mouth. Had them swipe at fast moving baits right at my feet from shore. Things are SURPRISINGLY predatory and aggressive. Not to mention strong… the couple biggest I caught were on a medium light power rod with 6-8lb braid. Longest two fights lasted about 35 and 40 minutes. That was in heavier current and from shore, though. I believe they’ve all been smallmouth buffalo, IIRC.

Cody Meyers wrote:

It seemed like where we caught walleyes, they were all mixed in with rough fish. I was surprised because we were looking for and fishing current, but there were carp and cats piled in the same spots.
Anybody else been seeing this?

Yeah, had that same experience on a different pool recently, never seen the electronics that lit up!

Night jig pitching it seems if there’s buff in the area I’ll catch one almost immediately, strong bite, gets a guy excited w the weight and walleyeish headshakes but always a letdown when it’s not the 30″ eye, still fun tho, love buffs. But I find it odd I’ll never get another one to bite after that, will feel em w the jig, and snag a couple even but no more biters. Almost like they send out a signal to the others or something. Had this dozens of times. Picture here last fall exact scenario.

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The rough fish and walleyes hang out together. We’ve dropped cameras down on the big schools and there are little pods of walleyes in there. I believe when you find the big pods this time of year they are wintering and not aggressively looking for food. The walleyes mixed in are the same. They are chilling in the deeper and warmer water.

I’ve noticed the same. We find the rough fish and then the walleye seemed to be on the outside edge of those fish. It’s a hit or miss if they will be hungry though. Depending on the Saturday weather, but my son and I might be out boating and trying just for the hell of it.

We went down and tried it last night and it was slow again. I think we got 7, only two decent ones. I’d have thought with the front blowing in that we would have found a few willing buyers, but that wasn’t really the case.

I sure could go for a good steady bite for a few days. Last fall seemed to carry right into this spring with a sporadic bite. Maybe this shot of water in the forecast will perk things up…

I’ve had a few good nights on shore recently. Haven’t been since thursday now tho. Last time only got 2 with 23” being biggest, trip before got 8 with most fish 16”-19”. All very shallow on current seams. All jig and plastic. 98% of action after dark

Need the water to dirty up a bit. Day bite is going to be tough til then.

We were out a couple weekends ago and got a handful of nice fish but all came right at dark. Dragging plastics way behind the boat was what worked.

The sauger bite on 4 is good right now.

Does anyone know how the launches are looking? thinking of launching out of the 494 launch tomorrow

All the launches should be good!

Slow today. Slow

Any recent reports?

Bearcat89 wrote:

Any recent reports?

Fishing has been good to great out there for quite some time now. Text me if u want more details.

Seems like the only time to show up is sundown.

Got a few at the hidden falls launch area Friday night, all firm.

“The DNR Boat Launch off Verderosa Avenue and Highway 494 is now open for the season! Amenities include a floating dock, dual ramps, parking for 35 vehicles, and an ADA-accessible fishing platform. ”

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I’ve been out a handful of times since easter Sunday and its been tough for me. Other than the dam, I havn’t found much for numbers or concentrations. Anyone have some decent reports lately for the 494 area?

P.S Thank you to the gentleman who gave me a tow back to the launch Easter morning. I don’t think my bow mount was going to make it much longer upstream.

LabDaddy1 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Bearcat89 wrote:</div>
Any recent reports?

Fishing has been good to great out there for quite some time now. Text me if u want more details.

I just seen this jake. I’ll be giving you a call this evening