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Crow River Access Report (4th of July)


JBMasterAngler

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Me and my dad launched the canoe at this access and headed up to the rapids and worked our way down. WOW what a trip! Total we caught about 20 smallies (and 2 largemouths) and a few northerns. We probably lost at least as many fish as we caught (they are much better at throwing the hooks in this area). These upper 'ssippi bass are by far the hardest fighting bass I've ever encountered! We also viewed lot's of giant carp and a handful of cats cruising the shallows. Nightfishing at the launch only produced 2 big redhorse. All in all it was a great day to be on the river. Seen lot's of blue heron nests, a bald eagle, a golden eagle (wow are they big!), and lot's of cute bikini clad girls floating down the river (in tubes of course). Was good times indeed.

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JB, nice report. I think I saw you out there. Your Dad didn't seem as intent on fishing as you did. I was in the Alumacraft. We did OK, maybe a dozen Bass and 6-8 cats. Not too bad I guess for the middle or the afternoon. Only hit a couple of rocks. Did you get anything up in the Crow? I never catch anything in there.

Matt

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Did you see us while we were ashore below the rapids? My dad was all about being in the shade at that time, we stayed there until the clouds moved in. Were you the boat that all the kids in the blue tubes crashed into?

Nothing in the crow. We only made it up about 100 yards past the bridge before it was too shallow. We each had a fish nip our lures at the canoe, but we couldn't see what they were.

I also encountered one of those "devil eyed bugs" you posted about a couple weeks ago. It was dead and floating in the water, but I grabbed it to check it out. NEVER do I EVER want to encounter one of those things!!!

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Yes, That was me that the tubers crashed into. I figured they would just bounce off so I didn't move the boat. Unforunatly all the tubes were tied togeather and got wrapped around my anchor rope and broke my pully mad.gif. I figured I would at least get a little show from the ladies or a free beer after that one, but no such luck tongue.gif.

I went back out to one of my other spots catfishing later that night and the "Devil Bugs" or Dobson flies were all over the place. We got scared and went home blush.gif.

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Ive fished that section of river for 20 years and have never once caught a Largemouth, and those "golden" eagles were more than likely a pair of Juvenile balds that hang around Elk River, they don't turn white for 3 years or something like that..... you guys must also love company..... was out in Elk River this week and there was 10 boats and 4 canoers from the access to Otsego park, 5 more up north of there..... I go to Mille Lacs if I want to fish on top of people

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I gotta agree with you RR the rivers getting to be a zoo, cept for the Golden Eagle part, I've seen one down here a number of times thats really HUGE, in the winter, way to big to be a young Bald Eagle, the maps and books say no, a birding friend says it a Golden. confused.gif

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I caught a Largemouth near Monti last year. Sorry, I mean somewhere between Brainerd and Coon Rapids tongue.gif.

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We caught both largemouths (each were about 6" long) by an old dock at the mouth of the crow. I don't know anything about the crow, but I could see that river having a fishable population of largemouths. I've done pretty well on a couple different slow/muddy rivers for bucketmouths.

And yeah, this eagle was way too big to be a bald eagle. Both the bald and golden were in the same area when I first seen them, they were hanging by all the heron nests. It didn't sound like the blue herons were too happy with their presence either. I seen the golden eagle again downstream a bit.

I'm guessing the current is pretty brutal during normal or higher water levels, but how is the fishing through the backwaters/islands during that time?

I guess as far as tubers go there were alot of people on the river, but I'm used to fishing the st. croix, so I've definitely seen worse.

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Odds are good you get stuck or have to walk the boat back out, yep did that to a couple times. If you do go back there bring a 12 ga, open choke, BB shot and point it upward when your under the Hurons, I'm sure it'll improve the fishing. smirk.gif

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