upper mississippi depth??

[cdemeyes]

Hey fellas,

was wondering what stretsh of river I could fish with my boat? I run the 619 ranger deep v! Would like to fish the upper mississippi for smallies this season. Where is the best boat launch, Kinda wanted to fish aroun st.cloud, sartell, brainerd area. What kinda depths are up that way and how is the smallie fishing in these streches?? Thanks in advance.

corey (cdemeyes)

[Stick in Mud]

One of the problems you will encounter up here is that the river will be quite deep for a few hundred yards and then it'll shallow up to a few inches, so even if you find a place to launch the boat, you'll have a hard time going very far. The first place that comes to mind is north of the Sartell Dam (there are numerous accesses up there), and the fishing can be pretty good, but it doesn't match the fishing in the faster and shallower stretches where your boat won't be able to go.

There are still fish to be had--don't get me wrong--you can try fishing the miles of shoreline cover, full of downed trees, rip-rap banks, rocky points and drop-offs, stumps, etc., but I've never had the success up there in the slow water that I've had in the fast water elsewhere.

Carl

[river rat316]

 Originally Posted By: cdemeyes

Hey fellas,

was wondering what stretsh of river I could fish with my boat? I run the 619 ranger deep v! Would like to fish the upper mississippi for smallies this season. Where is the best boat launch, Kinda wanted to fish aroun st.cloud, sartell, brainerd area. What kinda depths are up that way and how is the smallie fishing in these streches?? Thanks in advance.

corey (cdemeyes)

I would not put that boat anywhere near the Mississippi from Dayton all the way to St CLoud dam, the Anoka Pool, St Cloud Pool, Sartell Pool, Pikes Resorvoir, and Little Falls pool all have sufficient depth around the dam areas to run that style of boat. Finding the fish in those areas (with size anyway) is a totally different matter, for most of the season they really don't hold good numbers of big fish

[ANYFISH]

The two streches around Little falls will accomadate your boat. First the river between LF and Blanchard dam is about 8+ miles long and only the first 1.5 mi or so is would be to shallow. The rest of the river is 13+ ft deep in the channel (which is almost the entire width), there is a sunken island just after the swan river to avoid, easily done by riding the east shore form the swan for a half mile. Other hazards will just be sporatic deadheads, which show up in different locations every year, just have a good spotter.

The river in little falls is navigatable in your boat for 2 or 3 miles north of the landings. There is very large shallow flat just north of the tressle in town. this can be avoided by riding the east shore until about a half mile from the hwy 10 bridge, then it gets difficult for me to expain how to cross the flat to go further north (in words), basically you cross at a fourty five to get to the west side, the water is shallow (>5ft) but usually with no hazards. from there you can get up another mile or so. I would just take it easy going from the crossing point up river until you are comfortable with your route.

As far as numbers of large fish in these sections, fish them and you will be more than glad that you did!

[D_BOONE]

It would be tough to even get your boat off the trailer in the Fort Ripley, Brainerd area for most of the season.

[blackdog1101]

I fish the area near Monticello and I wade. I'd be leery of using much more than a john boat or canoe there.

[Dean Schellinger]

The stretch of river north of the Sartell [PoorWordUsage] to the Rice Bridge is plenty deep enough for that type of rig. However, I would take it really slow if you don't know the river, several hazards including sandbars in the middle of the river, rocks, and stumps are all over the place. But fish to be had in that area forsure.

[jipper]

You are pretty safe from the 169 bridge down to the coon rapids dam.... And it is pretty good fishing in that stretch... I would not go north past 169