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694 to the North


Aaron Carrell

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Hey guys,

I need to know if there is any safety concern if putting my boat in at the 694 regional park landing and heading north past the 2 islands right near there. I'm doing some work for my company that involves using my boat, and just want to make sure I'm not going to get myself into trouble if driving that area at a reasonable speed.

Oh, and if I have a break, any fishing tips for smallies or something in that stretch? wink

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It's super shallow right now. I went there a couple weeks ago launching from the 694 ramp and got up to the first island on the left which is supposed to be deeper and started hitting bottom with the prop. I have a 14' jon boat and 25H. That was a 10min fishing trip.

It's so shallow the ramp is all the way out of the water and there's a nice drop.

There's some good smallies and channel cats in that stretch - nothing huge, but fun.

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Does anyone know if its easier to put in at the park about a mile north and head south from there? Are the islands a shallow choke point or something? I've heard that its pretty much idle only to be safe right no matter what. I just need to get there, no matter how long of a drive.

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Does anyone know if its easier to put in at the park about a mile north and head south from there? Are the islands a shallow choke point or something? I've heard that its pretty much idle only to be safe right no matter what. I just need to get there, no matter how long of a drive.

Row down, row up, canoe or a small jon boat with oars if you don't have access to a jet boat. Prop boat as EBass eluded, ya gonna pay the price.

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Canoe it (ifn' you have that option) and float it. I could not get upstream unless I got out and pushed. Or wait until next spring/early summer. Good luck

Here's a link to the flow.

http://waterdata.usgs.gov/mn/nwis/uv?site_no=05288500

Looks like 2460 CFPS and normally I need 8000-10000 to not worry too much about boulders.

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Well, I made it north from 694 to our work spot in my boat (modified V with 70hp) without too much issue. If you're used to reading the river I didn't think it was that bad honestly. I wasn't very far north of the 2nd island The current seams made it pretty obvious where to be, but I did idle the majority of the way up. Had one set or rocks sneak up on me and the skag did its job to pop the motor up, but otherwise if you take it slow its not really an issue if your boat allows you to trim up the motor.

Fished my way back to the landing after we were done and got 4 smallies + 1 pike. Had 2 other smallies and a pike take swipes at my crankbait and miss too. They seemed pretty fired up, and they were sitting right in the obvious spots and a couple just on current seams at a drop off from 1' to 3-4'. Either way, fun stretch to fish, but I wouldn't be taking my boat up there again just to fish it any time soon. Just plain took too long to get upstream with as much current as is ripping through the 1.5'-2' deep areas that you have to take.

Oh, and this was all in about 45 minutes of fishing/floating back downstream. Could've been in about 15 minutes if I had wanted it to be, but I just kept casting in the boring flat areas to keep busy.

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The first island just above 694 bridge. Did you go left or right?

I went right. Its on average only 1.5-2' where things tighten up, and there are some more deeper areas on the outside of the curve until you get to the other tip of the island, but its just consistent gravel anyways. Not many real dangerous obstructions through there that I saw. I don't think you could get through on the other side of the island, cause the north side looked like less than 1' of water. I know the maps all show the "channel" is on the left, but I wouldn't try it.

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