Catching Smallies near Monti

[Dylan33]

I didn't realize the guards were that strict. It makes sense, and I have heard a lot of stories, but never had a run in with them myself.

I take the paved walking path out of Montissippi park, then go off path from there down to the river.

[Dylan33]

I forgot to ask you. do you access the river off of one of the park trails or are you truely entering excels land to get there. We should meet up there sometime and you can show me where you walk in. I would be better able to tell more about the area if I knew where you exactly are at out there.

Brad- I'd be up for meeting up and catching some smallies. With a 3 year old and a pregnant wife at home, I don't get out much anymore. Hopefully sometime in the next couple of weeks. I usually go Sunday morning while the family goes to church.

I'll let you know next time I go.

[Brad B]

dylan33,

instead of posting here just email me at the address in my signautre line. I totally know what you mean about having so little time. I have a 5 year old son and a 1 1/2 year old daughter. I have them every weekend and my ex wife has them during the week. so if I want to go fishing I need to see if grandma can watch them for a little bit. what makes it even harder is my son has autism. I have had him out on a dock this summer and he had fun and didn't want to leave. I plan to try him in the boat next summer but in the mean time I may try and take him with me ice fishing this winter. sunday mornings would work if it was after november 1st other wise saturdays are better for me.

[tsande00]

I went out there yesterday and while making my way down to the common fishing spot located passed the pavement and through the woods I noticed a red chain laying on the ground (somebody broke it) with a sign reading "Authorized Personnel Only" Looks like Xcel may be taking away this shore fishing spot.

This chain was placed right around the transition from Montissippi to Xcel property. It looked fairly new, and somewhat surprising that somebody had already ripped it down and tossed the sign a few yards into the woods.

[Dylan33]

I saw that sign and chain a couple of weeks ago when I was up there. That would be a major bummer if it was permanent and they no longer let people fish that stretch.

Does anyone know any more about it?

[dfv87]

You can't even use your trolling motor to slow down by the plant. There are so many cameras around there they're always watching. A truck drove down and a guard popped out and told me to keep drifting.

A buddy took me fishing last year and this was our scenario also. While they didn't tell us we couldn't be there they did wave us to keep moving.

[tsande00]

I saw that sign and chain a couple of weeks ago when I was up there. That would be a major bummer if it was permanent and they no longer let people fish that stretch.

Does anyone know any more about it?

I'm going to see if I can get any information on it from some of the guards.

[MSRiverdog]

Having on 3 occasions been told to keep moving by guys with M-16's I can attest to Ebass's comment.

Further upriver from the nuke plant there are folks with houses that butt up to Exel land, they have permission to use the river front so I would guess the hunters have some sort of rights to be there to.

[crappiegetter]

OK I have been watching this thread for a little while now and had to ask. The law states that basically you can fish anywhere you want as long as you access the water legally no matter who owns the land beneath it and is open to recreation use so long as it can float a canoe. So my question is how can they tell you to move on or be wielding firearms at people? Do they have the right to do this if you are fully right by legally accessing this part of the river, or do they not know the laws we follow? Or am I not fully understanding the law and they can tell whoever they want to vacate the river in this section?

[Brad B]

OK I have been watching this thread for a little while now and had to ask. The law states that basically you can fish anywhere you want as long as you access the water legally no matter who owns the land beneath it and is open to recreation use so long as it can float a canoe. So my question is how can they tell you to move on or be wielding firearms at people? Do they have the right to do this if you are fully right by legally accessing this part of the river, or do they not know the laws we follow? Or am I not fully understanding the law and they can tell whoever they want to vacate the river in this section?

it is because it is concidered a matter of national security. federal laws will trump state laws when it involves national security. And don't even think about taking pictures of the nuke plant as you float by. I was on the treasure island river cruise that goes past praire island nuke plant and they made a annoucement on the boats PA system to not take picture of the nuke plant as you go by it.

[tsande00]

On a topic related note...I finally nabbed my first Mississippi Smallie this weekend! What a blast.

[Dylan33]

Tsande- Good to hear you had some fun, and some success...Where were you fishing?

[tsande00]

Tsande- Good to hear you had some fun, and some success...Where were you fishing?

Right in Monticello.

[Dylan33]

Great....good work. I'll be up around Montissippi park next monday to chase a few smallies.

[Brad B]

JUST A FYI. Excel has now put the red chain and sign back up. I suggest people should stop entering excels land to get to the spot. I have to believe the guards are now aware of people going there and I would bet you will start seeing them patroling that area more. plus if people trespass to get there it makes all of us that fish the river look bad. It's one thing if you trespass on a private piece of property(which I don't think people should do) but It is even more critical when you are dealing with excels land and guards that are armed with AR-15's. do as you want but I just wanted everyone to know the path is now chained off.

[Dylan33]

Brad- Do you know WHY they are now strictly enforcing that? People have fished off of that path for years.

I'm just wondering if they had an incident, or what?

[tsande00]

That is a real bummer. I loved going back there in the winter pulling the kids around on a sled with the dog.

I'm just surprised that they'd go through the hassle of putting up a sign if there haven't been any issues. The chain and sign are only going to keep out the honest people anyways. Too bad.

[Brad B]

Brad- Do you know WHY they are now strictly enforcing that? People have fished off of that path for years.

I'm just wondering if they had an incident, or what?

not sure I just decided to go there and check it out and I seen the chain and sign was up(didn't go past, didn't want to meet a guard or two). There will be some that will disregard it but they may have run ins with the guards. my guess now is if they fixed the chain and sign they will be watching the area closer since they know people are going down thier.

[Brad B]

That is a real bummer. I loved going back there in the winter pulling the kids around on a sled with the dog.

I'm just surprised that they'd go through the hassle of putting up a sign if there haven't been any issues. The chain and sign are only going to keep out the honest people anyways. Too bad.

I know what you mean about the chain only keeping the honest people honest. the day I check the area out and found the chain put back up I didn't go past it. as I was walking back to the parking area a guy was walking down the path to that trail with a fishing pole. I stopped and talked to him and told him they put the chain and sign back up but his comment to me was "I'll just go around it, they have bothered me yet". I didn't say no more and just left thinking if he wanted to trespass then I hope he gets a visit from the guards. I guess he wasn't a honest person and didn't care if he was trespassing on excels land. I just don't want people to get the idea that all people that fish the river are willing to trespass to get access to it. yea this spot might be a popular spot but are people willing to trespass just to catch fish when there is other areas along the river to catch fish. sorry for the long vent but this is just how I feel about the whole people trespaasing issue.

as for pulling your kids why not just do it with in the boundaries of montissippi park there is alot of space and trails in the park it self.

[tsande00]

as for pulling your kids why not just do it with in the boundaries of montissippi park there is alot of space and trails in the park it self.

I just liked getting off the main trail. We ride bikes through the main park regularly through the summer so it was fun for us to go back down off the beaten path.

There are other places to go do that though anyways so it's not the end of the world, I'm just a bit bummed because we always had fun back there.

I tried talking to an in law who worked as a guard at the plant until very recently about the red chain. His response was, "we'll just go back there anyways, if anybody stops us we'll be fine because I'm friends with all of them.". While I understand his opinion and he's probably correct in that they wouldn't harass us, it still doesn't sit well with me. As long as that chain is up I won't be venturing back there. They clearly don't want people there or they wouldn't go through the trouble of putting up the chain and sign.

Could one legally access that spot by wading along the shore of the river?

[Dylan33]

Could one legally access that spot by wading along the shore of the river?

I thought about that as well. technically, I guess that would be fine, but if you were stopped by a guard, you would have to lie to them and say you didn't know.

They obviously don't want you back there, so i wouldn't go. just my opinion.

[tsande00]

So Saturday we're talking about bringing my brother-in-law's little aluminum boat out on the river near Monticello. Is the water deep enough right now to navigate around with a little 5 horse outboard motor? Anything a guy needs to be aware of?

From standing at shore the water looks pretty shallow, not sure how deep it is towards the middle.

[EBass]

It's SHALLOW! Sure you could try it, but middle isn't always were the channel is. Sometimes there isn't a channel and it's just a boulder field especially upstream of Montsippi. IF you can get above that there is a deeper section, then it gets shallow like walk across shallow above the nuke plant islands. I doubt you'd make it that far, but you won't know unless you try.

Ifn' you really want to fish da river I'd launch at Anoka, but I don't know when they are lowering the water so when that happens the Anoka(Champlin) ramp is useless unless you like bottoming out on the trailer frame.

Should've done this in early July when the water was higher and warmer. Good luck and be safe.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mn/nwis/rt

[tsande00]

It's SHALLOW! Sure you could try it, but middle isn't always were the channel is. Sometimes there isn't a channel and it's just a boulder field especially upstream of Montsippi. IF you can get above that there is a deeper section, then it gets shallow like walk across shallow above the nuke plant islands. I doubt you'd make it that far, but you won't know unless you try.

Ifn' you really want to fish da river I'd launch at Anoka, but I don't know when they are lowering the water so when that happens the Anoka(Champlin) ramp is useless unless you like bottoming out on the trailer frame.

Should've done this in early July when the water was higher and warmer. Good luck and be safe.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mn/nwis/rt

You're post echos my gut feeling. Hmmmmm. My thought was that if we were to try this we would drop in at Ellison and tool around the water in the vicinity of the park. I'm reasonably familiar with the area from Becker to Ellison having floated that at least a half dozen times with the kayak but I've only been down stream of Ellison one time and that was early summer.

Another thing I'm not familiar with is his boat and how deep it sits in the water. I'd hate to smash the prop up and be at the river's mercy when the water is 50 some degrees.

[Brad B]

when I was there I walked the path along the river from the boat launch back up river to the chain. you can see alot of rocks sticking out of the water so it is probably to shallow to get a boat tight to shore. up at snuffies if looks like a rock minefield the only floatable section there is on the wright county side and then once you get to the one large rock you would want to go left of it and then work back to the wright county side. from montissippi to ellison the deeper part should be from mid river to the sherburne county side. I also checked out otsego county park and where the water was with in a foot of the top of the bank during the summer is now dropped by atleast 7 feet from the highest point this summer. were I was standing the water would have been 2 feet over my head. you could probably walk out to the island in the middle of the river where it turns back north and goes up around the point were it goes into elk river.

[EBass]

Quote:

My thought was that if we were to try this we would drop in at Ellison and tool around the water in the vicinity of the park.

That should be doable as it's some what deeper. I just like to go upstream just in case something happens.

[RickyBobby]

So I need it explained to me again.......as you're walking up stream from the boat ramp you end up on the paved walking path that's in the park and parallels the river. The paved path makes a sharp left and I usually leave the paved path at that point and start walking on the worn trail that takes you down to the river bottom and eventually to the powerlines area. Is the chain located right after you leave the paved path or is it further upstream and closer to the powerlines??

Thanks

[Dylan33]

the chain is about 20 feet off the opaved path...right accross the worn trail...exactly where you described.

[tsande00]

I didn't think it was 20' close to the paved path but maybe. Either way, it's in the clearing while you're still on high elevation and before you get into the trees and start going downhill.

[tsande00]

I got out again this weekend and all I can say is I'm hooked (no pun intended). What a fun species to target. We landed a few more, the largest being 17.5" but I was really surprised with how many Pike we caught. Pike were 3:1 vs smallies.