Just wondering if anyone has been out on P2 recently and if post spawn fish have started to drop down yet. Seems like there’s usually a little window after spawning where it can be tough but those fish still have to eat.
Also the ten day forecast shows a lot of moisture. Anybody else love fishing high water on P2 as much as me? Those fish can really get penned in to concentrated areas.
JP
I was on pool 3 yesterday, I had water temps at 43, so I think the spawn is probably going on right now. The water clarity was suprisingly good for this time of year, and yes I love to fish pool 2 with high water, as long as its not to muddy 
49 degrees yesterday on pool 2,Mn River was 52+degrees.Fish seem to be kind of scattered about with a couple spots Ive found that have some ok numbers of smaller fish and a couple bigger ones mixed in.Caught a 23 1/2″ on Thursday that had some spawn left,last weekend caught a couple that were 24″ and had no spawn.Started picking off a few crappies and smallies in the same spots.River has dropped since last weekend but with the rain forecasted Im sure it will be on the rise.
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Just wondering if anyone has been out on P2 recently and if post spawn fish have started to drop down yet.
JP
Hi Jason, I think we are still a week away from seeing any #’s of post spawn females show back up in the lower section of P2 (below 494). I myself believe 90+ percent of P2’s spawning females leave the sip and wonder up the MN river. I do not know how far up the Minnesota they travel to spawn but think they cover more water than we would believe.
I was down there yesterday and the water is LOW!! about 2.5 feet down from a week and half ago. This rain will help but I was shocked to see how much it dropped anyways. This took me off my game plan yesterday. I also love that high water. The higher it gets the more pinned those fish are into a few areas. Like fish in a barrel
good to hear JR….the updated forecast looks awesome! 
In low water fish concentrate in deeper remaining water. In high water they need shelter from heavy current. Sudden changes in water direction create those for them. I can vividly picture 3 on P2 and I’m not even an official P2 Rat. I think their food is also concentrated there for the same basic reason. Heck I could be wrong!! 
Lets wait for confirmation from one of the rats. 
In low water, current is slow and the fish can move thoughout the whole system. In high/fast water, they dont spend a lot of time fighting the current and you can basically avoid 99% of the water.
So sure, in high water there is more water, but less “fishable” and “fish friendly” water.
I was out for several hours on Saturday and didn’t get anything. I was working the area by Ford dam lock, the area around Minnehaha Creek, and the eddies across from Minnehaha as well as the one just past the HWY 5 bridge. Maybe my problem was that I didn’t have live bait because I saw a few people at Minnehaha hook up and they were using minnows. I was just using jigs and moxie tails. Anyone having luck with artificial bait? I sure wish there were a closer bait shop to Hidden Falls than Joes or the Ace Hardware off Penn!
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. I was just using jigs and moxie tails.
Hope you tried more than one presentation in several hours of fishing.
Yea, several weights of jig, several types/colors/lengths of tails. Tried dragging on bottom, bouncing up off bottom. I also threw a few small crankbaits as well. I was just wondering if anyone else is having luck on artificial or if live bait is really the key right now.
Grab some minnows and try them out,I dont go down there without them.
Lipless rattle crankbaits, blade baits or anything that makes some noise/vibration should work good. Good luck!
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Can someone explain to me why high water would help to concentrate fish better than low water? It seems counter intuitive to me, but I don’t have much river fishing experience
A book could be written on this. Suzuki and Dave are correct. Without some obstruction to provide current break or relief they will evacuate the main channel for the most part. I know on P2 that there is a good mix of secondary channels, sloughs, back bays and lakes. In these areas there is relief and current breaks, timber and other obstructions act as ambush points to feed……
What you have to focus on is the feed/bait. This is more important than anything this time of year for those walleyes. They are hungry.
Second you have to think water flow. Walleyes on P2 depend on this current to feed them. They do not want to work hard right now so will find an ambush point to feed on bait that is near current or in it most days. This way the river will bring the food to them. Some days it seems like fish are everywhere and the next day you cannot find many because the river flow, time of day or weather has changed. That is fishing. In any case focus on using current to locate active ambush points to find feeding fish when you know bait is present.
3rd, you have to think about water temps. As of last weekend there were areas 8 degrees warmer than the main channel. Your feed/bait and walleyes depend on this warmer water for there own reasons. Till we hit 60+ degree water temps in the main channel these warm areas play a role with a lot of fry, YOY game species to grow and there are hungry old fish that know these areas because of that IMO.
If you put those three things in your head (food, location and temps)you can eliminate a lot of water when we have a flooding river on P2 in may. There is more to it but time on the water learning the sweet spot in flow is something reading reports cannot teach you. And I am not saying that to be an 
hole. Just expressing how important it is to catching large walleyes.
Baits is a whole new subject. If you find the right fish they will eat many different baits. From there you dial in and find what is working best. Just because it worked last week in that spot on this bait does not mean it will today. Keep that in your head and your results will be better
Sorry for the long post but I kinda fell off the walleye wagon down there the last couple years but plan to stick with it again this year. Combine that with my boat being at the shop since Sunday and I am getting a little excited. Good luck to you guys.
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