8/19 Report north of Sartell

[NELS-BELLS]

I had to post my report after not seen much conversation for this area.

My son (10 yr old) and I put the boat in north of Sartell yesterday evening to try for some Smallies. It started out slowly using twister tails and tube jigs along some of the rocky shorelines. We did manage some fish doing that but once the sun set and those little white mayflys started showing up, the topwater action became phenomenol. I'm not sure how many we caught but my son caught a very nice aerobatic 18 incher. Unfortunately we ran out of daylight and could no longer see our lures so we had to quit.

As we were driving home my son said "that was awesome! When can we go back"? It looks like I've got myself a smallie addict. Like father, like son!

FYI - all fish were released. I wish I had remembered the camera.

Nels

[Rivernut]

Very cool Nels, you've got yourself a fishing buddy for life.

[Gordie]

spent the afternoon on the river out of royalton and MAN is it low. did pretty good though first of all didnt hit any rocks with the prop and the fishing was really good bunch of eyes and 15 smallies and one crappie.

[mudpig]

I fish up around brainerd, i know its a ways north of st cloud, but the smallie fishing has been great for about 2 months, and only seems to be getting better, the summer started off with smallies hitting twister tails on orange jigs, then some tube bait action, but that slowed down as the water level dropped. I found the best fishing to be floating a cork off of shore rocks with a leech and a plain hook. Landed my personal best ever 22 inches this past friday, looking forward to even more action as fall comes closer.

[Royce Aardahl]

were's the pic?? that would be a fish I would like to see. congrats!

[mudpig]

THanks eyeguy, I have a couple on my phone, but not so sure on the quality, I will try to post, but if not I will just have to take a pic of the mount when its done, but dont worry, I would like to catch an even bigger one before it gets dont And when I went in to drop off my fish, my taxidermist had a replica of the world record smallie hanging on his wall, you want to see a monster, look that thing up? Made mine look like a fingerling compared....

[NELS-BELLS]

spent the afternoon on the river out of royalton and MAN is it low. did pretty good though first of all didnt hit any rocks with the prop and the fishing was really good bunch of eyes and 15 smallies and one crappie.

I'm guessing you were targeting walleyes. Where you working the deeper holes? I've got to believe the topwater action is over.

We haven't been back since. My son keeps bugging me for one more trip before we put the boat away for the season. We might go this weekend and if we go, I'm thinking jig and minnows for multispecies. Anybody have any other suggestions?

Nels

[river rat316]

Originally Posted By: elwood

spent the afternoon on the river out of royalton and MAN is it low. did pretty good though first of all didnt hit any rocks with the prop and the fishing was really good bunch of eyes and 15 smallies and one crappie.

I'm guessing you were targeting walleyes. Where you working the deeper holes? I've got to believe the topwater action is over.

We haven't been back since. My son keeps bugging me for one more trip before we put the boat away for the season. We might go this weekend and if we go, I'm thinking jig and minnows for multispecies. Anybody have any other suggestions?

Nels

The topwater bight won't be over for sometime yet!

[Gordie]

nells bells we went for eyes but the smallie action was so hot it didnt seem to matter what was bitting and I accually caught most of my eyes while I was fishing for smallies with a crayfish pattern 3inch tube bait and one eye thought it was a bass they way it jumped out of the water after my tube as I reeled it up to my rod. and my buddy was getting them on a hammered gold blade and crawlers. we got most of the fish on the break lines.

[Big_Dog]

Got out early this morning. Fished from 6:30 am to 9:30 am. Boated 6 eyes but not a one of them over 12". Can't seem to find a nice sized eye on the river this year. Oh well still nice to get out.

[smallie_hawgin]

Got out early this morning. Fished from 6:30 am to 9:30 am. Boated 6 eyes but not a one of them over 12". Can't seem to find a nice sized eye on the river this year. Oh well still nice to get out.

Big dog.... They are there for sure... This much I know. look to some of the tribs this time of year and sometimes shallower than you think....

[herm]

Big Dog and SH...I'm new to fishing this part of the river this year - and I have to agree that finding keeper eyes sure seems difficult. Lots of 6-10-inchers. Seldom any much bigger. SH - what's "shallower than you think." Last time out, we fished from 5 to 25 feet. Small (and only) eyes were about 16-17 FOW.

[Grant]

Big Dog and SH... ...SH - what's "shallower than you think." Last time out, we fished from 5 to 25 feet. Small (and only) eyes were about 16-17 FOW.

that's the beauty of the river- it can go from 30FOW to 1 in a matter of a couple boat lengths... keeps you on your toes!

[EBass]

Up around Aitkin about 2 weeks ago on da sippi we trolled for eyes for a while. My buddy got one fat 15" on a deep bend. I caught the other only walter on a rock push in 3' using jig and gulp. We got sick of trolling and started to cast for bass or eyes. The rock bass were hitting that's for sure. And we out fished my buddy who was using redtail minnows. HA how's that $8 of minnows doing now?

[Big_Dog]

Going to give it another shot tomorrow. I have been finding a few in 13' holes. Also have found a few in the 16-18 foot range. Still working on finding a few larger fish. I haven't really fished anything shallower than abut 6'. I think I might start casting a Jig and Minnow combo tomorrow? Has any one tried to use a aqua view on the river? I have to think it would be hard to see anything?