Heading to Minnehaha falls after work today......anyone have reports?

[nofishfisherman]

Often wondered that myself.

[EBass]

Still good reading.

So are you guys wading out or fishing off of that concrete? When the water level is a couple feet below that concrete slab it's a fun time.

Has anyone used shiners on a set line? Like a sinker, hook and minnow? Come dusk and into the night the eyes will come in. Well they did when we fished it back in the day. (few years) Now it's so popular and I have a boat so I only fly by there going to the dam.

Any who - it can be a great spot. It's better on crappy weather days when not so many are out.

[nofishfisherman]

Even if its just cloudy out the crowds are thinner then on a sunny day.

I have seen people use set lines with minnows down there. Seems like they do pretty well. Its usually split between guys just throwing jigs and guys with set lines most night.

Some bobber fishing as well but to a lesser extent.

Most guys just find a little piece of shore line to set up on but some guys fishing with waders but its really not needed right now.

[PierBridge]

Shiners are the way to go IMO....the guys with minnow traps down there use them very effectively I don't buy them because they die and are expensive.

Waders are nice they give you a few more options.

[Katman]

It was an accident...I swear! I thought I was in the metro forums.

[nofishfisherman]

Looks like we all still found the thread, no worries.

It has slowed down this last week. Last night I caught one smallie, and a sheppie. 2 nice walleye were caught by two other guys but that was about it. Still worth going down though.

Here's the smallie

And a walleye from last week.

[EBass]

It should be a good bite tonight. Way less crowds with the light rain. What the heck am I doing on the computer

Nice smallie - what a glutten bass that is.

[nofishfisherman]

Here's a few more from Saturday afternoon. As soon as the rain stopped these guys came out to play. The bite only last 20 minutes at most but it was fun while it lasted. 3 of these fish came on a total of 4 casts.

Here is my weapon of choice. Today it out fished all the guys fishing minnows of any variety, crawlers, and rapalas.

[Katman]

AWESOME FISHES! I wanted to get out but my smelting up on the northshore and special whitebass spot has been taking most of my time. I think I'll return...but only for some cats. Boy have I seen some nice cats out of there! Its awesome to see you guys keep the trend alive. This is a very popular spot that I'm sure lots of people from this forum fishes from. Great fish and keep the reports coming!

[EBass]

Sweet! The good ol Sassy Shad strikes again!

[nofishfisherman]

I had to glue that shad back together again becuase it was my last one and the fish were tearing it apart. You can't see it in the picture but it was splitting all the way down the back.

I'll be back tonight for another go at it.

[matthewdk]

can anyone tell me how to get to the falls from st paul?

[nofishfisherman]

Go west on Ford Parkway, cross over the Ford Bridge and take the first left after the bridge (its at a stop light)

go to the 4 way stop and take a right. Once you take a right everything you see on the left side is the park. There are several places to park, if you want to go to the main falls there is a big pay lot on the left side of the road(50 cents an hour)you'll see a couple of pavilions and such. The big lot is pretty obvious.

If you want to go down to the river there are a few other closer places to park. I can tell you where those are as well if you need them.

[matthewdk]

hey thank you for the info could you tell me where these steps are located and is it safe to bring kids down there 7 and 10 yr olds

[nofishfisherman]

Are you looking at bringing them down for some fishing where the creek enters the river?

If you are there are a few places to get down there. There are 2 different stair cases.

One is near the main parking lot and it requires the longest walk. From the main parking lot walk towards the overlook at the falls and then start heading to the left, there is a little plaza there with a fountain in the middle, the stairs are in the corner of that paved area.

Second stair case is a shorter walk for the kids. If you go past that main parking lot you will come to a funky little round about intersection, take a left at that intersection, its hard to explain but you'll see how its done. I don't use these stairs so I am not 100% sure where they are down that road but I know you go down pased the bridge that crosses the creek and the stairs are down on your left. There is free street parking here.

The easiest place to park is a little more secluded but you don't need to deal with the 133 stairs. At the 4 way stop I mention before instead of taking a right go straight instead. You'll see a small parking lot at a picnic area, it is your first right I believe. There is a little gravel path that will lead you right down to the creek and then on down to the river. This is a fairly easy walk, I have never had a problem leaving my car there, usually there are several cars there but some people are nervous about having their car in a more secluded spot. If its during daylight hours I wouldn't worry to much though.

As for safety for kids. I wouldn't worry to much. Sometimes at night there are some strange people down there so leaving before sunset might not be a bad idea but during daylight hours its perfectly safe, lots of couples walking around. The water and shore area are plenty safe for kids as well, no real risk of them falling in or anything. A saturday or sunday afternoon down there should be fun for kids.

the thing I would worry most about is hopefully the kids won't get too tired on the hike back up the stairs, but at age 7 and 10 they should be full of energy. Heck they might have to carry you back up.

[Johnny_Da_Der]

Quote:

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can anyone tell me how to get to the falls from st paul?

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yeah its easy, take a left at http://maps.google.com, then a right at http://www.mapquest.com, go two more blocks to http://maps.yahoo.com, and then you are there.

[matthewdk]

thanks alot nofish

[kaz2611]

hey you gonna be heading down there tomorrow by chance i wa thinking maybe going down there and have a look then decide if i want to fish or not

[Johnny_Da_Der]

I'm thinking about heading down there tonight after work. I'll throw another post up tonight and let you guys know how it goes.

matthewdk - I agree with nofish on his posts - its a good place to take kids, at least before dark, and not to hard to catch some nice fish. Kids would probably get a lot more excited hooking into a nice smallie or something compared to lil' sunnies off a dock at some lake.

[nofishfisherman]

I'll probably be down there again on Thursday, I'll be at the Twins game on Wednesday.

Smallies have been active lately so its would be fun for kids right now. All but one of the smallies i have caught have been over 13 inches mainly in the 13-15 inch range so they are a fun fight. Hook one out in the main current of the river and you are in for a fun fight for sure.

Sassy Shad on a 1/4 oz jig has worked for me, others are using shiners fished right on the bottom. Shiners out fished me last night but the sassy shad would catch bigger fish in general.

For the kids I would just throw a shiner out on the bottom and wait, easy method, get the bait out into the current seam and you'll get something.

[Johnny_Da_Der]

I might be back down there Thurs or Fri too... The old lady is goin' out of town. WOO-HOO!!! I mean.... I'll miss her and have a hard time figuring out what do with myself.

I know we have butted heads a lil' nofish, but I'll look for ya and say hi.

[nofishfisherman]

I don't remember butting heads, but thanks to all the TV I use to watch as a kid I can barely remember what I had for breakfast. Even if i did remember I don't hold a grudge. Come over and say hi, I'll be the one wearing an old faded Twins hat, and carrying a small blue landing net on my back pack (you never know when you'll need it)

[Johnny_Da_Der]

i think it was waaaaaay back in the poacher thread and it was very slight. no grudges and no hard feelings. i'll look for ya. I'll be the one in faded blue STL card's hat --- Hey, it's a whole 'nother league, I don't want to hear it.

[nofishfisherman]

I won't hold the Card's hat against you. After all there was once a day that I willing wore a New York Yankees hat. So there is still hope for us all.

[Johnny_Da_Der]

Quite a few people down there tonight and quite a few fish caught.... although not many by me.

Looked like a handful of smallies, but mostly walleye, and mostly small. Most of the fish were caught on minnows fished off the bottom. I started off with a in-line spinner and caught a couple sunnies, before I switched to a white plastic grub. I caught one walleye with the grub, hooked into a couple more but they got off, and completely missed several hits. First time fishing with a grub, and definitely could have gotten more if I really knew what I was doing. Any advice on how to work the thing would be much appreciated.

I did have something big hit my line. It was on for about five seconds before my grub popped out, flew through the air, and lodged firmly in my forearm. Not cool.

[Fishing_High]

hey was down at hidden falls the last couple night with great success using the white grub as u stated. I was using a 1/4 oz yellow jig head witha a 3" power grub white. I like to throw it a bit up stream and make a slow bottom bouncing retrieve back to the shore. Have caught many eyes and really good smallies doing this. But i found all the fishing holding on one particular downed tree. The grub can be hit or miss tho good luck.

[kaz2611]

any one heading down there this afternoon or evening

[nofishfisherman]

I have thrown a white twister tail down there recently but had alot more luck on the shad. A slow bottom bouncing retrieve is the way to go.

If you cast out as far as you can into the current let it sink for just a second and then raise your rod tip to jump your bait forward. Just bringing your rod tip down 6 inches or so and reel up the slack and then raise it back up 6 inches to bounce your jig again. Just do this all the way in. Walleye will hit at the edge of the current and smallies tend to be in a little shallower at times.

Other then that theres not much to it. Plastics have been a little slower then live bait the last few days so you'll have a hard time keeping up with the numbers the live bait guys catch but I have noticed I usually get alittle more size to my fish when fishing plastics. So far my smallest smallie is about 12-13 inches most are around 15 inches or so, and smallest eye is about 15-16 inches. Live bait guys have gotten alot smaller fish.

Hoping to be down tomorrow but it might not happen, we'll see.

[Johnny_Da_Der]

High & nofish, the bouncing off the bottom, slow retrieve is pretty much how I did it. I haven't fished much with plastics, except texas/carolina rigged worms for bass, and wasn't really sure how to go about it.

I have a hard time telling what is a strike and what is a log or rock on the bottom. Some times it is pretty obvious, but I set the hook into a bunch of logs and rocks too. I guess it's just gonna take some experience.

I agree with you on the size thing - the minnows off the bottom people were catching fish every 10 minutes but the biggest wally I saw was prolly 12". The one that I got was maybe 15, but the couple that I missed where obviously larger.

[nofishfisherman]

It can be hard to tell right away if its a snag or a fish on the end of the line. I'll set my hook 5 times for every one real bite I get. Better safe then sorry I guess.

You'll feel the difference after a split second between a fish and a snag. Smallies are easy to tell what they are right away becuase they will be shaking their head at first.

If you get a fish and you feel a few good pumps of your rod right away its probably a smallie, if its more of one big pump its probably a walleye trying to run deep on you.

The other thing about plastics is you'll end up with less rough fish as well, so far I have only caught 1 all spring on plastic, it was a nice little Mooneye.

This is the first year I really fished plastics like this as well but I have spent 3 days a week fishing them down there so I have gotten much better each time out, practice does make perfect.