Something I’ve done my best to keep a secret the past 6 years, is time to share.
From November to End of February you can usually find me being the only boat on the upper (Inland Minnesota) section of Pool 3. Once Minnesota inland walleye closes I’m habitually on Pool 4 doing my best to avoid crowding until spawn when a good chunk of the walleyes migrate south into border waters of pool 3. I can get quite moody when transitioning from the absolute boatless bite on pool 3 to the busier waters of pool 4, but I quickly adapt by finding fish outside of common areas…and then hold them with absolute secrecy. While i’m not about to give up any P4 info i’m ready to spill the beans on Pool3.
When the temps drop in the fall the walleyes migrate to the upper 3 miles of pool 3 and stack up like cordwood. (FISHING DEEPER THAN 25′ IS NEVER NECESSARY!!! NEVER!!! THE WITTLE BITTY ONES CAN BE FOUND IN SCOUR HOLES BUT BIG MAMMAS ARE NOT!) I am generally not within a mile of the dam anyway, i just don’t want people thinking scour hole is where it is at, it sure as poop isn’t.
Most winter the lower 13 miles of P3 are not worth fishing. I mean barren in comparison to the congregations of the P3 stretch above the confluence. Trust me, I’ve looked and looked. It is quite magical how many fish flood into that upper few miles. More magical is the lack of fishing boats. I am one who enjoys my solitude and that is where i spend my cold months picking on walleyes. I’ve said in on here before, but the cold water months the confluence is void of fish.
Pool 3 doesn’t have a warm water discharge like Pool 4 to keep it from freezing.
It is the flow that keeps pool 3 open, when the flow can’t keep it open then it is me busting up the ice to keep on the fish.
Water temps are generally just below freezing late December through Feb., if the flow is low enough it just freezes solid and becomes too thick to bust up. Once ice gets more than 4″ it is too thick and can take some time to thaw to a manageable thickness before busting up again.
With flow high enough to prevent permanent freezing most evenings once the sun dips skim ice forms immediately and renders fishing useless. So, it is a daytime bite (because that is when you can fish), but it is wise to use every night available with temps above freezing to your advantage too, because the later in the winter the clearer the water and the more a night bite is the dominant bite. Just that you can rarely fish after dark.
There’s a sand flat that I’ve made my home the past several years and walleyes come back each winter and stay the whole winter. My closest friends all have access but conditionally with closed lips. More flow tighter to shore and more congregated, lower flow the more they’ll spread out and get closer to the main channel. Quite predictable really. Once the flow dirties in the spring (If it happens in Feb), the fish BOLT from that area as it begins to hold too much current. There’s a tweener period where it is just flat out bananas (Flow dependent, but typically Dec,Jan,Feb,closed)
The past 6 years i’ve kept pool 3 navigable with few exceptions of extreme cold temps.
Well folks, it has been fun, but it is time for me to move closer to what i consider home. I’ll be moving temporarily to a farm near Lanesboro this weekend leaving behind the fabulous Pool 3 fishing.
Found work in Winona and will eventually be buying a house within a 30 minute drive of Winona.
Pool 3 will freeze for the entire length of the winter without me around in 2021 unless someone reads this and wants awesome fishing and solitude, but it will come with the effort of maintaining a navigable river. Trust me when i say it is worth it, but it is work.
Given the solitude of pool 3 in the winter and the absolute phenomenal walleye fishing I’ve done my best to guard that info. I usually broke ice up to the spot I wanted to fish, and not beyond. That allowed me a window after dark to fish the area nearest the ice where skim ice doesn’t have time to form. When others just start breaking ice up out there, it can actually make fishing impossible during the day. There is a strategy involved and being the sole keeper of that water, I learned what did and didn’t work and when someone broke up all the P3 ice it can leave it skimmed for weeks and unfishable if temps are regularly well below freezing. Hard to explain, but someone who spends some time out there will figure it out.
I’m letting it out now for a few reasons.
Maybe there’s someone as adventurous as me who will enjoy that fishery in the untouched season, and if there is, those I’ve let fish that area would continue to enjoy access that they won’t have when I’m gone. Also, heck it would be fun to run up and fish that bite a few times each winter myself too.
This is by far the biggest fishing secret i’ve ever shared on IDO. Sure i may upset a few who know of the area, but they’ll hopefully understand they don’t have access to it unless someone keeps P3 open and i know they aren’t the ones willing to do so. The best spot in that upper stretch, is driven past by nearly all boaters. There’s over a 1/2 miles of fishing that nobody considers even looking at. Should someone have beef with sharing this info, they probably didn’t know that area existed before me so they can shut it.
I remember when i first stumbled upon that spot. Years ago i was fishing up near the dam and the river got cold and the ice clogged the river up from the highway bridge. I was on a decent bite up there, but ice made it impossible to navigate and the ice that tends to build in that area doesn’t like to be broken up. So i went south a bit. It was dark and i dropped a jig and minnow over the side instantly got bit with a 9Lb eye. Whoa…what did i find here! From there i began to discover the best ‘hole’ (It is not a hole) in the area and the rest is history.
So without giving GPS cords, the descriptions above should give you a pretty good idea of at least which mile of river I’m speaking of.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention, that upper stretch also holds all the channel catfish 😉
Leaving Pool 3 and the St Croix behind I’m excited to start fishing lower pool 4, P5,5a,6.etc.
Can’t wait to see if the fishing is as bad as people say (they really don’t say much about that area in general anyway) or if there is fishing just as phenomenal as the Pool 3 bite that EVERYBODY drives past to get to a crowded pool 4.
There ya go.
Best fishing,
Andy
