New to minnesota fishing

[mainbutter]

I'm a senior at Carleton College(Northfield MN), and I can't believe it has taken me nearly four years to bring my fishing equipment from back home in Texas up here. After I get my bachelors in computer science(and helping my parents move into their new home in Anchorage AK, not to mention getting some amazing alaska salmon fishing time in) I'll be getting an apartment in the Minneapolis area.

I have a bit of fishing experience, mostly salmon and halibut fishing in alaska, beach fishing in the gulf of mexico(shark, snook, spotted sea trout, ladyfish, whatever is biting), and two fishing trips up to Ontario to my uncle's lake house(northern pike, smallmouth, musky). I'm going to make an educated guess that Minnesota fishing will be kind of like the Ontario fishing that I've done.

Right now I have no boat/canoe/kayak/other watercraft to make use of, so I'm pretty limited to fishing with my feet touching ground.

The Cannon River runs through northfield, and I see people fishing it all the time, so I'm going to give that a try. I've only stuck around to watch someone make a catch once, and it was a fun-sized carp, not big for a carp but big enough to be a fun catch at least!

I have some questions that I couldn't find the exact answers to by searching through other posts, so I'll ask them here, and hopefully this is the right forum for this:

1) Any idea what species can I expect to live in the area of the Cannon just below the Northfield dam? Searching various websites has told me much about areas of the Cannon further away from me, and nothing about what is nearby.

2) Any other fishing spots near Northfield I should check out? After graduating I'll get more of a chance to fish other areas of the state.

3) What are the typical Minnesota fishing lures/bait for the more common targeted fish here? I've got a small-medium collection of rapalas, jigs, spinners, and artificials, so should be set, but am always interested to know if there's something particularly popular in a region.

[Scott M]

Welcome to Fishingminneosta mainbutter. Good questions and background in your post...sounds like you've been around as far as fishing experience.

The Cannon river runs from Tetonka lake to the Mississippi at Red Wing. Minnesota is working on improving what information they make available to the public regarding rivers, but they are at the forefront with lakes. Check out the Byllesby lake survey report . It is the last lake the Cannon runs through before it coasts to the Mississippi so it will have most of the fish that can be caught in the river.

I've done well fishing between Welch and Cannon falls. You can tube and canoe parts of that stretch and fish and do very well on walleyes and largemouth and smallmouth bass. There are also some spots with decent catfish, both channels and flatheads. Heck, a few tributaries of the Cannon are trout streams.

I'm not too familiar with the area around Northfield. I would stick with fishing below the dam and see what you can find. Find public spots to fish and see if you can figure out the river.'

As far as gear, what you have will work just fine. Pretty hard to beat small spins, jig and plastics, inline spinners, etc., especially for river fishing. They catch about everything and make great search lures.

My suggestions are to get out and fish as many new places as you can. Get a pair of waders and see what you can find. Maybe you'll run into a classmate that knows some good spots. You can get a cheap resident license as a Minnesota student. And when the time comes for you to head somewhere else around this state, check out some of the other forums if you ever need help on a particular species or area...there is a lot of information in these forums that can help you catch fish.

[hanso612]

Mainbutter, I graduated from Carleton in 88 and live in town. I talked to a bunch of your classmates yesterday fishing on the bridge downstream of the dam. I fished way to much while at Carleton and remember fishing on the cannon being much better in the eighties than it is now-but its still great.

I caught eight different species with my sons the other day and the football players on the bridge had come up with 11 between them. There are some real exotics right in town, like muddpuppies, mooneyes, silver bass, quilback carpsuckers, buffalo, redhorse, sheepshead, creek chubs, gar,channel cats, carp, and bullheads-not to mention all the usual minnesota game fish.

The walleyes are hitting right now and suggest you excersise some of your senior perogative and dump a class or two and get at it. You can't target them specifically, but everyone on the bank is tossing a grub and a minnow and catching the whole smorgasbord. The current Presedent is a well know trout fisherman and after you have paid Carleton 160,000 or more, the way I figure it, he should come across with a couple honey holes, especially if you promise to continue to give. Fishing holes for endowment-has a certain ring to it doesn't it?

That "last ditch grab a husband mating ritual" that the Ole girls are so famous for ought to be in full swing right about now. Spring term senior year- wow. If you haven't gotten in on that maybe you better forget about fishing and get across town quick.

Hans '88

What's Mainbutter?

[mainbutter]

sounds wonderful hans! Yeah I'd read that the opener for walleye and bass and pike(which are the only fish in minnesota that I've ever really fished for) isn't for another month or something so.

As for the Oles, I've already got myself a girl(another Carl), been together for 2 1/2 years, and she's why I'm staying in Minnesota rather than going back to Texas or braving Alaska way up north.

President Oden is mostly a fly-fisherman and I've never been fly fishing before. I figure maybe one of these days I'll give it a try, and it sure would be tons of fun to get some instruction from the college president.

To answer your last question, "Mainbutter" is a nickname I picked up from a hobo in 9th grade during a band trip to D.C., it's a long story that ends with him calling my friend a "pretty boy" and saying to me "hey kid, you're the Main Butter!"

Rather than get my thread off track any more(anyone else who has something to add to answer my questions, though I am thoroughly satisfied with the above 2 posts! thanks guys!), I'll just shoot you off an email hans!

[bassNspear]

I just wanted to say Welcome to FM. Glad to have you part of the family.

[Sandmannd]

Welcome to FM and welcome to MN mainbutter.

[subjer123]

I'm a St. Olaf alumnus(04) and fished the river there often. The best spot for me was almost opposite Froggy bottoms where the stairs go down to the river.

Other than that, there are a few great shore fishing spots in Faribault. There is a great little bait shop in faribault (on 6th street ?) and they can help you find the fishing platforms. I'm not a big fan of the faribault dam* becuase of the not so friendly crowds.

You can also pick up bait from the gas station by the liquor store on the way to target (straight down the highway from carleton). I've mainly used worms and leaches on the canon. LOTS of bullheads, small northerns, walleye and carp to catch.

[Sandmannd]

Welcome to FM Subjer123. It's addicting.

[UdeLakeTom]

Welcome to FM....Mainbutter explained his nickname, but there is a posting in Open Fishing for explaining your nickname and is interesting to read where the others got theirs...Also in the Women Forum, there is a place to post your bios if you want. It's a good place to see who is all here and where they came from, etc.

Oh ya...also the only thing I remember about the Cannon was the weekend JFK was shot, there were about a dozen guys spearing carp. The banks were overflowing with gold.

[Mr Special]

To be honest,, I don't have any other info to offer, I think the other post has pretty much covered it all. I just wanted to say welcome aboard, good luck fishing and have a blast.

[CrappiesNCats]

question, i think i am blind. where is the [PoorWordUsage]/falls in northfield?

[mainbutter]

On the cannon river, running right through "downtown"(I'm originally from Houston, a 2+ million person city, and have a hard time calling that area a downtown..) Northfield, fairly parallel to Division street, the dam is between Second Street and Third Street I believe.

[hanso612]

It's a horrible portage too. So is Blysby. There is talk of removing the dam and making a cayak park, but part of the hold up is hydrollogy. Water from the river bollsters the watertable under some historic builings and there is fear that if the dam is removed the water table will drop and some foundations might crack. It's a risk woth taking in the long run, but the inevitable lawsuits and wrangling over who is going to foot the bill will slow this project down.

The dam is on the DNR's short list for removal.

I'd love to see a fishing platform close to dam that could also be a put in making the portage shorter.