Minnesota River Fishing Report

[howellcanufish]

Was at land of memories last night. Definitely doable but bring your 5buckle boots...lots of mud on the landing.

[MinnesnowtaWild]

I can't believe how high the water was intruding on 7 mile...the pavilion near the road was almost completely under water.

How does Land of Memories look at this point on parts other than the landing? Will camping be a possibility in May?

[Gordie]

  MinnesnowtaWild said:

I can't believe how high the water was intruding on 7 mile...the pavilion near the road was almost completely under water.

How does Land of Memories look at this point on parts other than the landing? Will camping be a possibility in May?

Just pitch your tent on tractor tire inner tube just in case

[TruthWalleyes]

  MinnesnowtaWild said:

I can't believe how high the water was intruding on 7 mile...the pavilion near the road was almost completely under water.

How does Land of Memories look at this point on parts other than the landing? Will camping be a possibility in May?

I canoed from mankato (put in on the train tracks at land of memories) to 7 mile creek when both parks were under water. The frisbee course is green, and only a little mud residue left from high waters. Camping area should be just fine. But, as of now there is a sign that says "no camping". There only reason that sign is there is probably because the water is still in "minor flood stage", though both the blue earth and minnesota are within their banks now.

Hoping to back by boat in with my car friday night at land of memories...but would hate to slip down the ramp with all the mud Last weekend i checked 7 mile out, and that was probably do'able, but i wasn't going to do it without a truck. Would be up Sh** creek if i started slipping down the ramp.

[nsnutter]

  pureinsanity said:

got the jordan launch all cleaned up now. that is until it drops again... happy launching!

Hey, you cleaned up the Jordan launch? Great job man ... looked great when I was last out there

[MinnesnowtaWild]

  TruthWalleyes said:

Originally Posted By: MinnesnowtaWild

I can't believe how high the water was intruding on 7 mile...the pavilion near the road was almost completely under water.

How does Land of Memories look at this point on parts other than the landing? Will camping be a possibility in May?

I canoed from mankato (put in on the train tracks at land of memories) to 7 mile creek when both parks were under water. The frisbee course is green, and only a little mud residue left from high waters. Camping area should be just fine. But, as of now there is a sign that says "no camping". There only reason that sign is there is probably because the water is still in "minor flood stage", though both the blue earth and minnesota are within their banks now.

Hoping to back by boat in with my car friday night at land of memories...but would hate to slip down the ramp with all the mud Last weekend i checked 7 mile out, and that was probably do'able, but i wasn't going to do it without a truck. Would be up Sh** creek if i started slipping down the ramp.

Cool man thanks for the report. I don't think I have your number or email anymore. Let me know in advance if you want to get out some weekend. I don't live in Mankato anymore but I can stay at my girlfriends parents place.

[TruthWalleyes]

Land of memories last night was cleaned out a little more. Might give it a try, but it looks like some deep mud at the landing. Probably enough to cover your fenders on the boat trailer. Got a bunch of suckers from Winkler last night so i'll probably hit 7 mile creek landing saturday.

Jeff, I'll send you an email.

[Scott K]

I went fishing last night with loose in his new RP, wow that thing is nice. That RP can get up and haul some butt! The water is mostly back in the banks, but is still very dirty, and the current is still moving rather fast. You are pretty much still limited to fishing the backwaters, or in creeks. The water temps were in the upper 50's in the main channel, and pushing 60 in the backups. It shouldnt be long now, I think once the water clears up a bit, and the current slows I think we will get a good early start to the season this year.

Fishing was still slow, but I would assume that should change this weekend, to bad I have other plans

[DTro]

Found the same thing downstream last night. We did find a sweet backwater area that had a bunch of fish in it. Might have to revist it again this weekend when there is more time to hone in on them.

[wastewaterguru]

Chaska ramp was open as of last night. No issues.

Shakopee looked pretty muddy. 101 opens today.

[Scott M]

I'm jonesing for a trip pretty bad, but I gotta work again this weekend. I must have packaged 4 dozen shiners for use later this spring. Sounds like things need to drop a little to be able to hit the main stem, plus the accesses are kinda iffy with all the silt and mud. Wouldn't want to see someone's truck and trailer slip down the ramp into a powerful spring Minnesota River.

[Scott K]

Well as for the greasy ramps, it is more like quicksand, and peanut butter. I wont be able to make it out again until maybe Sunday, but I kinda doubt that will work either. I am hoping the ramps get cleared out in Henderson soon.

[Loose]

The Le Sueur ramp got cleaned out again today, didn't even have to call!

[Scott K]

  Loose said:

The Le Sueur ramp got cleaned out again today, didn't even have to call!

Good to hear they are on top of things. I think a little coercing is needed in Henderson here to get the landing cleaned. The water is finally off of the parking lot, and is at the top of the ramp. I would think they should be cleaning it out today sometime. If it isnt cleaned out by tomorrow afternoon, I will be lighting a fire under someones but to get it cleaned out.

[broken_line]

hooked a nice bluegill and a fair sized channel catfish last night, had about 10 to 15 bites on a minnow above a 1oz egg weight.

[DTro]

Beautiful day on the water today!

Tried a little bit of everything. Plastics for white bass, crawlers for some rough fish, and cut bait for channels, and even gave live bait a shot for flatheads.

Ended up with a nice buffalo, walleye, sturgeon, and a couple of flattys. Was really surprised to see how aggressively the flats took the live bullheads!

[Loose]

I went back out and tried this evening, caught a couple shovelnose on crawlers, and had something thump a small bullhead.

[Gordie]

guess you boys just made up my mind for fishing Sunday as I'm free Joey got his turkey on Saturday so its fishing now.

Nice pics DTro and WWG and thats some awfully big bait DTro

[rushing]

lol Did you guys switch hats?

[DTro]

yeah, had to get the control item in there,

Just call me peabrain.

[Scott M]

  Loose said:

The Le Sueur ramp got cleaned out again today, didn't even have to call!

Pictures I took at the Le Sueur access yesterday that gives you a small snapshot of the sediment transport capacity of flood waters:

You still can't even see the cement slabs and all that sand and silt is pilled foot by foot onto areas that used to have rock/rip rap or no bank there at all. Millions of cubic feet of sediment moved all over...going to be a completely different river this year. The river changes every year but this could be a little more drastic...sort of like a punctuated equilibrium flooding theory.

[tweedlap]

I was thinking the same thing. I just couldn't remember the theory.

You nailed it..."the punctuated equilibrium flooding theory"

huh?????????????

lol

tweed

tw

[Gordie]

Went otu of Jordan today and Man the only analogy I can thingk of is this year its like the Twin baseball season its more thaqtn just a whole new ball game its going to be a new stadium to play in as well.. I noticed alot of changes and some tings that look great and some maybe not so great wont know that until the water recedes a bit. I did notice that some of the bends in the river have gotten a whole lot wider and places that were long standing land (river) marks are gone and y the depth finder some new holes and there will be some wide but really shallow water to boat thru.

This will be a very intresting year and the ball is in play now as we boated three flatties today.. Man I love being back on the river.

Wonder if I could get Willie Nelson to rewrite that song to ON the River again Just cant wait to be on the riv again

Found the fish on sharp deeper breaks 13-18 fow on bullies and the flatties inhaled the bullies they wernt huge but they were flatties.

[MinnesnowtaWild]

Gordie do you have any pictures?

[TruthWalleyes]

Good work, I spend my whole saturday playing around on the minneosta from basically judson to 7 mile creek. Lots of current. Managed to get the boat in on land of memories. Pulling it out was a different story . Will be out again tonight. Only had cut bait, suckers, on saturday. Pulled a 24" channel was all.

Jeff,

Some deep water all along the banks of the dog park now. 30' in the whole area today. So some nice changes there. It sure was nice to be able to fly down the river with a prop...what took me 30 minutes to get to last year took 5 on saturday!!

Also like gordie said, I can already tell where it will be super shallow and wide this year. Approx 2-3 miles heading west on the minnesota from land of memories it will be very shallow.

[TruthWalleyes]

My buddy told me his "hot tip" this weekend, Wondering if you guys can validate it. He told me that on the mississippi he will use a green worm on a plain hook, and a weight to keep it on the bottom. I assume he is fishing for walleyes, but he says that they always catch a bunch of flatheads less than 15lbs with this method. Anyone else confirm this? Where do you get green NC'ers?

[DTro]

They are just regular crawlers that are fed dye to change their color.

I honestly don't see the color of a crawler making any bit of difference in the MN river. A plain old crawler or angle worm will catch any fish that swims in the river, except maybe paddlefish.

[rushing]

The Mankato Walmart used to sell them green crawlers, but I don't think they sell bait anymore.

[ec30_06]

Anyone know if henderson is cleaned out yet? I would guess LeSueur and Jordan are useable? I'm thinking about trying to get out this evening

[Scott K]

Henderson wasnt cleaned out as of last night, Lesueur was.