Sauk River

[riversmallmouth35]

I was just wondering if any of you fish the sauk? I want to float down it with my canoe and wondering what I should expect. Is there good fishing and how deep does it get?

Thanks for any help.

[smallie_hawgin]

RS 35.... You might be surprised by the smallies up there.... It is worth your while. The filamentous algae is a bit of a pain but certainly workable. You could do a pretty quick and reasonable float from Millers LAnding (West of Fleet Farm in Waite park) to the mouth. Nice stretch of slow water, rapids and then some fast water. Try buzzers and slow falling plastics on obvious current breaks... Good luck.

Now the only rule with asking for information is you have to give a report when you git er done....

[riversmallmouth35]

Thanks for the advice. I won't be able to do it for a couple weeks because we are going to the boundary waters this week. Hoping on some good smallmouth action up there. I will give you a report of the river when I do it.

[Borch]

That stretch holds lots of smallies and walleyes as well. Toss a small anchor in and when you find a deep hold anchor upsteam and drift your lure into the hole. It's not unusual to catch several in a hole.

Good Luck!

[riverwalker]

Hey I have done alot of fishing on the sauk and you will find the best stretch of it around the back of the VA med center and down past hennens furniture. Past the hwy 15 bridge stay left. I would get out and walk the stretch to the right, or go past and paddle it back up. There are some nasty rocks on the fork to the right past hennens bridge. But yes you will be amazed at the size of the smallies. And you will get lots of hammerhandles and you might get some nice 12-15 inch wallys from there too....have fun...I'm going to try it soon, but i walk it...i can hit more holes that way and its great once you figure the layout of the deep spots.....

[NELS-BELLS]

My 9 year old son and I floated the Sauk on Sat AM. We put in at the bridge on Veterans Drive and floated to the Miss. It took us 5 hours. The river was up higher than I was expecting due to the rains in western Stearns Cty last week. I threw out an anchor whenever we wanted to work a spot better or sometimes when we needed to land a fish in the rapids. Darn near capsized twice. The fishing was fantastic! We landed over 30 smallies, with at least 6 measuring 16" - 17". The largest went 18". Topwaters produced but most were caught on a either a jig and twister tail or a tube jig.

My son said that it was the most fun fishing he has ever had.

Nels

[JBMasterAngler]

How is the fishing on the river between sauk lake and the horseshoe chain? Is it more for pike and walleye in that stretch? The few spots I've seen in that stretch the river was slow moving, just wondering if there are any smallie in that stretch...largemouths instead maybe?

[SwimRunFly]

I haven’t fished that stretch myself but most of the Sauk holds good smallmouth, pike and some walleyes (for game fish) I have never caught a largemouth in the 15 years I have been fishing it. There are good numbers of fish in the Sauk, please remember to return as many as possible (I have only kept maybe 4 fish in those 15 years – hooked to deep). The Sauk River can only sustain so much pressure. It a wonderful little secret close to home, let's try to keep it that way.

Good Fishing

[riverwalker]

Thats great that you two had a blast and there were plenty of fishies around to catch. Didn't get any samllpike or wallys? maybe its to early....I guess now that i think of it I normally don't get in there until the water is down a bit and more walker friendly. Thinking of getting the canoe out there once this years though, hopefully staying dry in the process.....

[NELS-BELLS]

Quote:

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There are good numbers of fish in the Sauk, please remember to return as many as possible

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I don't think anyone would want to keep and eat any fish from the Sauk with all of the runoff from city streets and farm fields.

Nels

[riversmallmouth35]

Going to float down the Sauk this Saturday. Will give a report when I get back.

[j19]

I used to fish all the time northwest of the horseshoe chain on the river. I had some of the best fishing I have ever had for catfish, where it was not uncommon to gtet 15-25 nice catfish half of a day. Nothing huge, but they sure where fun to catch. The river get a little shallow that direction.

[riversmallmouth35]

Went out yesterday and had a pretty good day. We started in coldspring and floated down to the access by Mills Fleet. The smallmouth were biting on topwater the best. I also had a couple of northerns the biggest being 27 inches. Most of the smallmouth were 14-16 inches long but I also got a 18 and 19 incher.

I had a nice time going down the Sauk and will hopefully be doing it again before the summer is over.

[JBMasterAngler]

What are some good access points to wade the river?

[riverwalker]

JB. You can park on the Hwy by Hennens and walk towards VA med center for some great fishing. I have gone from the mouth of the Miss on the Sauk and walked west but the water has to be down a bit. I am going out tonite for some action and will post about the adventure.....Good luck....

[JBMasterAngler]

There's no better way to fish on a hot sticky day than to wade through a river in your sandles. Hopefully I'll get a couple chances to do this before summer ends. Thanks for the info. I'll be sure to post my results when I finally get my chance.

[badfish]

Isn't there a dam between the millers landing and the hiems mill access? Well at least this map shows there is... Sauk River I might be taking my kayak out there in a couple weeks to find some smallie action. Is there any rapids or dams I might actually have to be worried about in between those two access points? And if I unloaded at the millers landing and paddled downstream a mile or 2 would I be able to paddle back up or is the current too fast in some areas? well thanks for any help i'll let everyone know how I did when I get out there

["another IT GUY"]

Launched the jon on hwy23 on the 23rd. The girl caught a few cats, nothing too big. I hooked into a 24" eye which surprised me. Caught a few other eyes, I couldn't find the smallies though, wish I did. Marked lots and lots of fish. It was a nice day to be out on the water til the dam speed boat decided to be a donkey about almost hitting me! I can't stand donkeys like that. Hopefully will make it up there again soon. Good Luck!!

[NELS-BELLS]

There is a small dam that spans about 2/3 of the way across somewhere between the Hwy 15 bridge and Heims mill. The water flows over the whole thing and its only a foot high so you could probably go right over it with a kayak. Otherwise you can go around either side as it is completely open on each side. I do recomend the left side, as you are going down, because there are more rocks on the other side. As far as paddling upstream from Heims Mill, I wouldn't recomend it unless you really want a work out. Most of the rapids are in the last 1/2 mile stretch.

Nels

[badfish]

Thanks Nels that helps out a lot, i'll have to have someone drop me off and pick me up down the river, unless its possible to walk alongside the river, but i suppose most of thats private property.

[JBMasterAngler]

If you keep your feet in the water you won't be trespassing. Although I'm sure there'll be a number of downed trees that could be tough to get around.

[Kickin Bass]

I have never waded, but I would love to try it. I don't know the area that well, nor the river. Would anyone with wading knowledge of the river wish to get together somewhere and each take a bank? I just don't want to get caught going too far or something and end up in a bad situation.

[riverwalker]

anywhere between the Miss and Hwy 15 is really no problem to walk. There are very few deep spots that would give ya lots of trouble. Behind the whitney soccer fields there is a bridge by the dog walking park....You can get a good mid-point walk either towards the mill, or towards hwy 15. The smallie bite has been good, and have heard of a few eyes being caught too. So good luck out there. Try poppers or spook walkers...they work for me......If there person talking about taking a kayak down the Sauk is reading this...when you get to the bridge i spoke about, stay to the left and you can go through if the water isn't to low...it slows down there so you could get out and walk past it by bridge steps....

[nater]

I walked a good portion of it on Sun morn and got 4 nice smallies. One was 17.5" Also got a 15 inch walleye out of a deep hole, which surprised me! It really is a lot of fun going after river smallies.

Nate

[YummiYammis]

Water is going down..the holes that hold are becoming obvious....and I too caught a walleye in da Sauk

Shallow running and a nasty jerk have been pissing them off into striking...even middle of the day!

[Sartell Angler]

Riverwalker- can you give me the locations of a few rocks that you know have fish behind them? I'm extremely lazy and don't want to expend any effort when I could just have you tell me.

thanks

SA

[Dean Schellinger]

Yeah no kidding, I wish I had a few secret spots to tell the world in hopes of finding a friend too...

Remember for every 1 registered poster, there are prolly another 20 people on this site pal. wow

[YummiYammis]

Riverwalker knows the spots...I've seen him pull huge smallies out from behind the rocks. I suggest getting him to walk with you....however, he's fast paced, not for the lazy! BTW...he hasn't told you guys that he has been known to score the toothy Northerns in the Sauk also

[Tippman]

Hey YY, I noticed that he's quick when I saw you two out there tonight. I went towards the Miss after that and did well.

[riverwalker]

Yup I'm the quick one out there with the top water popper getting the bigones. So you wanna know the rock...There's a few, but this should help out...Its the really big one about a football field up the Sauk....lol Hope this helps out...Just kidding...If you can find a rock near current and a deep spot...there be fish waiting. But ya need to look inside my tackle box for the secret which I keep locked in a safe...All seriousness..if you walk the sauk you will catch fish...have fun and move fast...