Pretty quiet around here, I didn’t take you all to be bow hunters….lol. I was on the Croix last night and the water temp was 73, I assume it’s similar here on P2. Is anybody seeing fish moving off summer patterns yet?
Fished Monday and Tuesday last week, still summer patterns but was a little bit slower. Did catch a 27” channel cat which was fun.
I’m on the PUP list for another 3 weeks (everything is good) so I need to live vicariously through reports!
Should be prime time when I’m back on the water.
I was out for a couple hours on Monday, fished the 494 area for the first time this year, struggled to find fish (meaning there werent where i caught them last year!). Ended up with two eyes, three smallies and a couple drum. Most on cranks and a couple on minnows.
As of right now, I am not a threat to win the Hog Haul!
Did ok yesterday on cranks and a little bit of live bait. Summer pattern still seems to be the ticket with the water in the mid 60’s.
A little cooler temps and the bite should switch over to more fall patterns. Some more water in the system sure would be nice, too!
Good look at the Hog Haul next weekend to those that fish it.
Cool seeing the WWII B25 Mitchell bomber flying around Pool 2 lately.
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Or the C130 Hercules
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The U.S. Coast Guard’s Wyaconda buoy tender made it to Pool 2 on September 11, 2022. There was one red buoy that was way too far towards the west bank about a mile or so down stream of Lions Levee in St. Paul Park. It was like that all summer. Some boaters would passed on the west side of it and those that knew it was out-of-place passed on the east side. Luckily passing on the west side didn’t cause any problems.
I really wish these guys wouldn’t place the buoys right on the upstream tips of wing dams.
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The U.S. Coast Guard’s Wyaconda buoy tender made it to Pool 2 on September 11, 2022. There was one red buoy that was way too far towards the west bank about a mile or so down stream of Lions Levee in St. Paul Park. It was like that all summer. Some boaters would passed on the west side of it and those that knew it was out-of-place passed on the east side. Luckily passing on the west side didn’t cause any problems.
I really wish these guys wouldn’t place the buoys right on the upstream tips of wing dams.
We must have been out there at the same time. It was pretty cool watching that rig come up the channel. I was amazed at how big those cans actually are. They must be 10-12ft tall and only the top 4 feet or so stick out of the water. Pretty cool watching the crane pick up a big chunk of concrete and plop it in the water.
Also glad they pulled that stupid red can…
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For a fishing report, I’ll echo what Matt said. Was out Saturday from 7-3. had a fairly slow start, caught fish on all presentations but wasn’t patterning anything until the afternoon. water temps were in the mid 60’s. no flow in the morning, may have picked up a smidge in the early afternoon and that’s when the bite improved. There was a ton of barge traffic all morning. Got some cool new custom blue glitter jigs from our buddy Jeff Trumar at Tru-tied tackle. Fun to see them work and he does great work.
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New to the forum but have been consistently fishing pool 2 for about 3-4 years now with a lot of success. A good friend of mine and I have been fishing pool 2 for walleyes and are in the works of starting a guide service for pool 2. Is there anyone on the forum who either has their own guide business or knows someone who does that would be willing to answer a few questions I have about the process of obtaining the required licenses. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Feel free to email me at [email protected] or text me at 612-875-7411
Out from about 8 til noon today. Bite was good til 10 then died off with the sun. South wind was annoying, too.
Started getting a few on minnows. Water temp was 59-61 so still waiting for a cool down. Bait is really starting to show up, too.
A little more water and flow would be nice but doesn’t seem like that’s in the cards.
Good to be back out on pool 2. Haven’t been out since April. Bite was good for us today. Caught a few just about every place we tried. Trolling cranks, pitching jigs and vertical jigging all worked. Big fish for the day was a nice 27″ Eric caught right away this morning. Sure hope this bite holds for the contest tomorrow.
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Got out this morning from 6:30 AM until noon. It was a lot like last Saturday, no clear winner as far as presentations go and most of the Walleyes were between 19 and 24 inches. I worked hard for two hours without a hit, and then caught four nice ones in 10 minutes in an area about the size of my kitchen table. An hour later I found a few more on a wingdam. If anything, jigs worked better earlier in the morning and crank baits worked better later. My home made hair jigs produced once again, which is a lot of fun.
S.R.
I am planning on heading out on Friday, it will be a cooler day (relative to recent trends) but it’s the only day I have off. I plan to put in at the 494 bridge and hit wing dams and current breaks with jigs and cranks. With the cold do you suspect it could shut down the bite or just move it deeper?
Any help is appreciated, I have not been able to get out since July.
The water temp this morning was 61-62 degrees. Even if we get hit with a whopper of a cold front, the water temp isn’t going to drop that much. My advice (which is of very limited value) would be to concentrate on the tips of the wingdams due to the very low flow, and be prepared to fish slower as they might not be very active. Good luck!
S.R.
I am planning on heading out on Friday, it will be a cooler day (relative to recent trends) but it’s the only day I have off. I plan to put in at the 494 bridge and hit wing dams and current breaks with jigs and cranks. With the cold do you suspect it could shut down the bite or just move it deeper?
Any help is appreciated, I have not been able to get out since July.
The cold front is pretty mild and I don’t experience fronts affecting river fish as much. I’d still be looking for deeper current seams, flow on the dams, etc.
The water temp should be in the mid 50’s so the fall patterns should be setting up.
New to the forum but have been consistently fishing pool 2 for about 3-4 years now with a lot of success. A good friend of mine and I have been fishing pool 2 for walleyes and are in the works of starting a guide service for pool 2. Is there anyone on the forum who either has their own guide business or knows someone who does that would be willing to answer a few questions I have about the process of obtaining the required licenses. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Feel free to email me at [email protected] or text me at 612-875-7411
you will need to meet the federal requirements found here: https://files.dnr.state.mn.us/education_safety/safety/boatwater/guide-licensing.pdf
I am planning on heading out on Friday, it will be a cooler day (relative to recent trends) but it’s the only day I have off. I plan to put in at the 494 bridge and hit wing dams and current breaks with jigs and cranks. With the cold do you suspect it could shut down the bite or just move it deeper?
Any help is appreciated, I have not been able to get out since July.
Make sure to throw some hair jigs.
Spend most of my time on upper p2. Not looking for specific spots but trying to break it into good fall areas. If you were fishing tomorrow would you fish between downtown and 494, between 494 and lions, or between lions and spring lake?
I’ll be fishing south tomorrow…closer to spring lake.
But, there are fish all over. Caught fish last weekend from spring lake to the airport. If you aren’t very familiar with the stretch I’d focus on tips of wing dams and just keep moving til you find fish. Shoreline rock with current would be other areas to look for.
I’ll be fishing south tomorrow…closer to spring lake.
But, there are fish all over. Caught fish last weekend from spring lake to the airport. If you aren’t very familiar with the stretch I’d focus on tips of wing dams and just keep moving til you find fish. Shoreline rock with current would be other areas to look for.
Thanks, good luck tomorrow.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
I’ll be fishing south tomorrow…closer to spring lake.But, there are fish all over. Caught fish last weekend from spring lake to the airport. If you aren’t very familiar with the stretch I’d focus on tips of wing dams and just keep moving til you find fish. Shoreline rock with current would be other areas to look for.
Thanks, good luck tomorrow.
I’d probably stay north of lions. Water was really dirty south of lions…wind had churned it up quite a bit. Did ok tonight but the wind was brutal and the bite was finicky. Jig and minnow and cranks. Water was back up to 64 degrees.
It’s been so warm I forgot what 50 degrees and windy felt like…..
(Amateur Report) I was out today from about 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. In the morning they wanted things slow. I ended up using a drop shot some with minnows and that worked pretty well.
In the afternoon, hair jigs tipped with minnows and crankbaits worked well. Trolling the tips of wing dams and along rocky shores was a lot of fun. Mostly worked the airport area and the rocky shore just north of 494.
Probably the funnest fight was when a big cat slammed a crankbait while trolling. I thought I had a huge walleye but nope, it was a cat.
Had the same thing yesterday…big cat that felt like a monster walleye for a sec.
Bite was finicky for me yesterday. It was non existent in the morning on about 10 spots that are usually pretty productive. The smallies and sheepies were certainly aggressive though.
Finally found about a dozen on a rarely fished spot. Water is still 60 degrees. Cranks and live bait worked. Seems like if you start with cranks on a spot you’ll get a couple active fish. Switch over to bait and pick the more neutral fish off.
Big cool down later this week might charge them up. Would like to see the water get in the low 50’s soon.
Out for a few hours this morning until the wind chased me off the river. Water temp was 59, finally starting to drop. First time in a very long time that crank baits didn’t produce for me, everything I caught was on plastics. Everything was in that same 20 to 24 inch class, there must be a million of those guys in the pool right now.
Hit a log on the way in, stuck a jig into my left hand, had a bracket fail on the trailer. But I caught some fish so it was a good day.
SR
I was out there yesterday 10am-4pm and fishing was good. The were deeper than I like but no wind, sunny and warm water will do that I guess. I really like the mid 50’s water temps but we might cruse right from low 60’s to low 50’s by next week. Would be nice to get some rain!!!!
Have you guys noticed a low presence of shad this year?? I found a few nice schools and could see some slapping the surface but seems like the overall shad numbers are low this year.
Yes, it’s been a rascal trying to find shad with the net so I could go chase cats. Quite the drastic difference from last year.
I was out there yesterday 10am-4pm and fishing was good. The were deeper than I like but no wind, sunny and warm water will do that I guess. I really like the mid 50’s water temps but we might cruse right from low 60’s to low 50’s by next week. Would be nice to get some rain!!!!
Have you guys noticed a low presence of shad this year?? I found a few nice schools and could see some slapping the surface but seems like the overall shad numbers are low this year.
Lotta small minnows in the system but the big shad seem sparse compared to the last couple years. I wonder if it’s cyclical?
They were deep on Saturday, too. Took me too long to figure that out. Sure wish I would’ve fished Sunday. The wind Saturday was brutal.
All those Shad are up in the Croix. Most I’ve seen in 15 years out there. It just blows my mind every trip. Literally everywhere. They are also only 2-3″
All those Shad are up in the Croix. Most I’ve seen in 15 years out there. It just blows my mind every trip. Literally everywhere. They are also only 2-3″
Are the silvers up there with them in any force?
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