Fishing the Miss on the ice...

[honda4life]

Is it possible to fish the mississippi anywhere on the ice? around a bend in some slow water or anything? just wondered.

[deadeye]

I have always wanted to try, but every time I try to sneak my way out the ice is pretty sketchy. I fish it a lot (i live 2 blocks from it so almost every day) during the summer and do great and there is little pressure. I am just really leary of the ice in my area because the current is so fast. I guess further south they fish the backwaters and do good but havent made my way down there to try it.

[DarthBaiter]

I've heard of people driving to pool 7 of the Mississippi wherever that is to ice fish. I'm guessing it's south of the metro as has to do with all the locks and dams or whatever.

[jdog]

pool 7 is down by iowa the river is pretty safe around the pepin area and the fishing is good as well

[UncleKes]

I know they fish the East side of the Wing Dam close to the Coon Rapids Dam Visitors Center. I suspect you might find a back water or two where you could fish but if you are thinking of fishing out in the main channel make sure your life insurance names me as your beneficiary before you go out.

Serioulsy, though, with a few exceptions no one fishes the Mississippi River that I know of in winter. The current and the springs make it just too dangerouos. I like fish as well as the next guy but hey, are you going to lose your life for a few fish???

Tight Lines;

Uncle Kes

[IceJunkie]

The wabasha/kellog area is a good spot. There are spots that you can walk out on.

[deadeye]

Ya, I totally forgot about that spot at the coon rapids dam. I have gotten some eyes and nice crappies back there. I havent been up there ice fishing for years. I used to go up there back in high school and fish that backwater after I was getting skunked at the trout pond. I might have to give it a shot. Something different that close to home.

[goblueM]

I know there are many backwaters once you get down toward Red Wing, Wabasha, and Pools 5,6, 7, and 8. They are supposed to be pretty good

[pikedreams]

I grew up just across the river from Red Wing and we ice fished the Mississippi a lot. As a rule of thumb moving water will freeze over if it's running at less than 2 feet per second. The problem is you just don't know how thick it is. So we never actually fished the channels or wide bends.

The key is to concentrate on backwater pools and side fingers. Most are nearly impossible to access by foot unless your willing to drag your gear for miles through swamp, cat tails and brush.

The best way is by boat. We'd load our gear in the boat and zip around looking for frozen off shoots from the main channel.

We would beach the boat or tie off to some wood then grab our buckets and go. It was rarely more than a 50 foot walk and you could run and gun all day and hit a bunch of them.

[pikedreams]

Also, don't write off a spot just because it's small. Just about any current break with enough ice is fair game. You just need enough depth under you to hold a few fish. Some spots we'ed fish were no bigger than a 4 snowmoble trailer.

We would mostly catch Crappies and an occasional gill. But give it a try it's different that's for sure!

[South_Metro_Slayer]

that sounds pretty f'in cool id like to try that someday