Ford Dam walleyes didnt like me.

Due to my job, Ive transplanted myself into the South Minneapolis area. Initially I thought I would have to relegate myself to fishing lakes of the Southwest suburbs, until I found out about what Pool 2 has to offer. The trouble is, Ive been a largemouth fisherman my whole life. Ive conceded that Ill have to break down and start fishing for the occasional Walter during the week.

Anyways, I took my maiden voyage tonight and cruised up to the Ford dam for a bit. I saw people fishing their prior in the week, so I thought I might give it a try. I zeroed. I stumbled on this forum a few weeks back and now decided it would be in my better interest to speak up.

My question isnt directly where should I fish on pool two, but more along the lines of how should I approach fishing a river for walleyes in general? Im curious how walleyes stage and what style patterns typically produce more throughout the year. Even more applicable to this weeks fishing, how should I react to dirty and high water? Like I said, Im new to this bit.

Oh and if you see a black Lund Pro Angler with a Yamaha tiller, feel free to say hi.

-Craig

Craig- welcome to IDA!
I am sure some of the pool two guys will chime in with some help. I live in Iowa, but fish the Miss, down here often.
First thing I can recommend is to get yourself some BFT jigs and ringworms-
Second- go here and read Fluekiger’s article, and the DNR telemetry article.

Welcome to IDA Craig You definitely came to the right place to ask questions about fishing the river. I am going to leave the advice giving to the guys who know that pool as they have a greater feel for that area. I just wanted to welcome you to the Site

Have I got a deal for you!

A couple years back I took the time to type up and format the Pool 2 Telemetry study done by the MN DNR. Want to know where the walleyes roam at a given time of year? This will get you started.

Pool 2 Telemetry Study – MN DNR

We’ll I’ve been out 5 times now, and haven’t boated a fish Normally I don’t fish up by the dam much, bit pitching and dragging jigs would probably be the best options. Get just enough weight on the jig to feel the bottom, when pitching, and the same goes with dragging, but you want to keep feeling the bottom every so often when dragging so you know your maintaining around 6 inches off the bottom. Seems the best bite from people I’ve chatted with has been on minnows, though that may just be because most of those people were just fishing minnows and didn’t have the confindence to fish the plastics. BFT ringworms work good for me, chart pepper, firecracker and purple with a whitetail have seemed to be fairly consistent colors. Personally I have quite a bit of ring worms, but I wouldn’t rule out other brands like yum croakers.

Pool 2 —>
Me —>

I started to really fish Pool Two in the past three years. If I was to start again I would do the following.
Read the previous years achieves. The anglers who post are very knowledgable and willing to share information. I would look for patterns and presentation suggestions. Most of the techniques are pretty simple, but on Two it really seems to come down to location. To get a better idea of the river go to the core of Engineers website and run copies of the navigation chart- laminate these, then study up of river. Look at focusing on wing dam locations, cut areas, etc. From achieves and river maps take your boat out for a day, dont fish much, but run the river. Use the locator to get familiar with how a wing dam sets up, note rip-rap areas as well as other likly spots.

The next is to just get started. For me I am still a bit intimated by the size of the river, what I am doing is to pick a smaller part of the river each time and learn to fish it carefully. Each trip I look at two or three new spots and gradually you get familiar with spots in spots, etc.

Two of the most helpful pieces for success is to hire Steve D for a guide trip. The one day I spent with him gave me such a broad sweep of how to fish Two that my success rate has gone up with confidence.

Last dont hesitate to PM any of the posts. Last year I spent an afternoon with Mike.
Great guy, super fisherman. We exchanged ideas and spots, Mike won helping me land one beutiful fish! One more,,, just have fun, I really like the river, for an urban fishery you can get an nice sense of quiet. The wildlife is tremendous and varied, just like the all the different beer cans you can see! Good luck

Welcome to the site. Dont get to discourged by pool 2 yet. Fishing can be a little tough out there right now. Look for that to change in the next few weeks as the month of may can be one of the best months on pool 2.
As far as fishing goes right now slow dragging jigs and minnows at the dam is not a bad idea. Useing a couple of inches of crawler on the jigs might work also. Other than that try hitting some of the other slack water areas on the river.

roottwo.. welcome to the site

There are many here that can give much better information than I can chasing eyes on pool 2, but I have countless hours from the past fishing the spring down there.

I can tell you right now, the worst thing you can do is just motor up and fish below the lock and the point of the island for hours. Yes, you can sometimes pulla couple fish from there, more as the season progresses, but theres far more productive places to be, and far less busy.

I have my best luck on the highest water years. The spring flooding tends to concentrate the fish into tighter areas.. harder to find, but once you do its easy, or at least decent fishing.

The best advise I can give is look for the current seams. The fish will continue their spring run, but they tend to move in areas with considerably less current than the main channel when possible. Any bay or creek inlet often gets backed up and the baitfish pile in and the walleyes follow to eat or rest, and are much easier to fish. Some bays/coves/inlets are better than others, the wingdams for me seem to be less productive in the high water, and harder to fish.

Keep your eyes on the shoreline everywhere. Anywhere you get a back-current you will have an eddy and a current seam and the potential to hold fish anywhere.

These guys can fill you in on the plastics, they do quite well with them. I focus most of my attention on other species(cats) these days and my river walleye fishing is a little *old school*, but still effective. Pink jighead with a white grub, or orange jighead with a fathead is still hard to beat.