Public access between Fort Ripley & Little Falls

[BobDeerwood]

Are there any public accesses on the Mississippi River between Fort Ripley and Little Falls? What is the condition of the access, and how low is the water level right now?

[shamalex72]

There is one about a mile south of the bridge by camp ripley on the west side of the river. It's a good access. The water is up a couple feet from last fall.

You can go north and south a fair amount before it gets really shallow.

There is another access at Belle Prairee park, 3-4 miles south of Camp Ripley on the east side of river. This is a good access also. The river is shallower in that stretch, especially to the north of the access.

[BobDeerwood]

Thanks for the info. I'm looking for an area for smallmouths, and I understand that the stretch between Fort Ripley and Little Falls can be pretty good. Looking forward to getting out there in a few weeks to give it a try. Any info you or anyone else can supply would be greatly appreciated.

[fuzzyray]

Fished from the Nokasissippi access (6-7 miles north of the Camp Ripley Access - East side of the river) south to the access just south of Camp Ripley opener weekend. The water is pretty low but a smaller boat can get around pretty good. We were tareting walleyes and did well and couldn't avoid the northerns and smallies. The walleyes had their feed bags on. The ones we cleaned had their stomaches full of minnows and crawfish. I've caught a lot of smallies on the river from the Royalton Sportsmans Club access all the up to Blanchard Dam. Man, just thinking about tieing into some river smallies is getting me excited!!

[BobDeerwood]

I know what you mean about getting excited. I'll be out looking for smallies right after Memorial Day.

What size are the smallies in that part of the river? I've never had a chance to fish that portion of the Mississippi, but I'm looking forward to it this year. I enjoy any smallmouth from about a pound up, but those occasional 3-5 pounders are what I'm really after. When you release one of them back into the river, it makes the day complete.

Good luck this season.

[fuzzyray]

Never caught any real monsters in that stretch but I'm sure they are in there. Lot of fish in the 2-3.5 range though. There are a lot of shallow parts though. Plan on fishing in a boat that can take some gravel and rocks. Had to get out and drag the boat about 300 yards this past weekend, but it was worth it. When the water finally got a little deeper we sure found the fish!! it just makes the fishing more of an adventure. You'll run into a lot less people out there too which is a nice bonus.

[traveler]

Going back a few years, but fishing the river both in the LF area and up by camp ripley, we saw plenty of 4 lb class smallies, with a couple fish an honest 5. It was near zero pressure back then, not sure about nowadays.