Sunrise River? Any Fish?

[History_Geek]

Hi Guys, I'm new to this and I think this is going to be a great resource. So, my Great inquiry is about the sunrise river. I ran into a old timer and we stared to talk about the sunrise river. He said when he was a kid their used to be Trout in the River, he says now that the river has become so polluted  that all the fish have died. I'm just wondering if this is true? Are all the fish belly up, are their any pockets of trout left? I'm thinking of checking it out for my self soon, just wondering if any one knows any info. I found this park that runs right by the River in the small town of North Branch, It's called river walk park. Any one herd of it, can you fish their? Best of Luck Fishing Lads.

 

- History Geek 

 

Edited September 15, 2018 by History_Geek

[JBMasterAngler]

Hmmm, that old timer must have a bad memory, or is mistaking the sunrise for a different river. There have never been any trout in the sunrise, the west, north, or south branches. There used to be lots of fish in the sunrise. When I was a kid, I used to fish below the kost, south, and north pool dams. Would catch tons of bullheads and panfish. Was always good for northerns and largemouths, and even a walleye every once in a blue moon. Unfortunately, as urban sprawl headed north, the fishing pressure increased heavily. Also, I think the DNR started managing the ponds differently to kill off more carp and bullheads over the winter months. That tactic of course kills the gamefish as well. I’m sure there’s still a few fish around. Kind’ve funny you brought this up, as I was just talking to my kids about the glory days of bullhead fishing on the sunrise earlier today. 

[History_Geek]

Life works in mysterious ways, Not a lot of people still fish for bullhead.  Bullhead are Great for beginners, I like many fond my love for fishing in those Slimy catfish. Most People I know Think they are disgusting Creatures. For some reason those walleye fisherman think bullhead are Poisonous. Small bullheads make Great bait for flathead catfish on the St. Croix. When I want to catch bullhead I usual Go to lake Peltier. You can fish from a boat or below the dam from the shore. Tons and Tons of bullhead, so many bullhead that DNR introduced Channel catfish to eat the bullhead. I don't know how it's going, I never caught a channel catfish in the lake. I think the bullhead somehow won that battle.  Now what ever you do don't go to peltier after June. In the spring people are everywhere, and it's like combat fishing, but it's a lot batter then what you find after June. To this day I still have Nightmares about what I saw. It was a nice July day, I had gone fishing below the dam a few times that year and I was excited about this fishing trip. I had just garbed my fishing rods and was heading down to the dam when I saw a guy come up the small dirt trail. He was hold some fishing rods and shaking his head. It looked like he had just come out from the jungles of Vietnam. He said " Don't go down their, It's the worst thing I have ever seen."

I was curios and scared at this point, but I still went down to the path. What I saw was hundreds of dead fish on the shores, Some were just bones. The ones that still had flesh on them were being eaten by bugs. The smell was horribly, It looked like dead pike and bass, some of the bodies were so mangled I couldn't Identify them. Some people were still fishing, they looked to be catching bullhead. To this day I don't know what happened, But I think maybe the Oxygen got so depleted that only the bull head could survive. It could have been that the bullhead at all the food below the dam, I just don't know!! 

 

Anyway, I digress, Thanks for the info on the Sunrise river. Maybe I should head north a little and try a River/ Creek their. Most likely the old timer confused the sunrise with some river up their. I think the hay river has trout. To bad about the sunrise, I looked into some other fishing forms from a few years ago and they said the river is dyeing.  

 

-History Geek

 

 

 

[History_Geek]

When do catfish start to become inactive? I think they do hibernate. When September comes I switch rough fish from catfish to carp.  Even Less people fish for carp, but they are fun fish to catch once they get to 30 ponds plus. Any lakes in north of the metro with nice carp, Most of the time I stick to the rivers. 

 

P.S you will learn quickly that I talk a lot, It can get annoying after a while so I'll stop for now.

[Mike89]

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