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Cottonwood river by new ulm


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My parents will be staying at the Flandrau state park by New Ulm over memorial weekend and I thought I could make a trip up the MN and then enter the cottonwood river and go pick my father up at the park for some fishing in both the MN and cottonwood rivers.

Anyone know if there is any obstruction such as a closing or lowhead dam on the cottonwood?

I figure I should ask considering that of all the years that I fished the MN river from kato to New Ulm, that last year, Dark had to inform me of the low head dam at the Blue earth and MN confluence. I never knew.

So figure I better ask about the cottonwood before just making an assumption.

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http://www.angelfire.com/mn/flatheadpride/index.html

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I think there is or was a dam back by shells brewery? I dont know on what side of the park the dam is?
sorry I cant help more!

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There was/is a flow control dam in Flandrau State Park. I am assuming it was the cottonwood river since the river had some size to it. A few years ago went on some hiking trails in Flandrau (a very nice state park) and came across the dam.

Hope this helps out.

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I live here in New Ulm. I'm pretty sure they took the dam out a few years ago because it was to dangerous. Also i highly doubt that you will make it to flandru by boat. the cottonwood river is a very shallow river.

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Korn-Fish I'm not sure if it is still there but there was a dam at or near Flandrau. I remember something about a person tubing that drown there years ago. Don't know anymore than that, a little more research will probably be needed here. The river level there is 6' and there are rapids and snags according to the DNR website on river levels. http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/river_levels/levels.html?id=cottonwood
If you try it good luck. Hope to see you on the river soon, you've always given sound info so I hope this helps some.

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Good Luck & Good Fishing. Lucky

[This message has been edited by LuckyFish (edited 05-25-2004).]

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[This message has been edited by twistertail (edited 05-26-2004).]

[This message has been edited by twistertail (edited 05-26-2004).]

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i live in new ulm and fish on the cottonwood alot and ive never really seen a boat on the river. a few times but thats all. mainly just canoes and whatnot..i know of a few spots that would be imposible to get past on a boat but who knows with all this rain weve been getting..and the dam that was by flandru was taken out a few years ago..but there is half a dam just past schells that goes half way out the river..its under now though from all the rain.

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Hey let us know how your adventure goes?
Have fun!!!

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you can give it a try but i know of 3 spots that huge trees go all the way across the river..im not saying dont give it a try im just letting you know..other than those trees i dont think you should really have a huge problem if the river stays the way it is now..

[This message has been edited by ******* (edited 05-27-2004).]

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let me know what time you plan on trying this so I can watch, the dam has been gone for years but I think you will need more than your old prop you will probably need a whole lower end and mabey a new lower half of your boat. If you try it you got bigger ones than I do. I've lived here for thirty some years and have never heard of anybody power boating on the cottenwood. but good luck

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Hmmmm...snags, rapids, submerged dam.......

Sounds like a job for a river pro grin.gif and a new playground for Dennis smile.gif

That dam sounds pretty interesting. I'm going to give it a shot. Put my old prop on and going to see how far up the cottonwood I can get. Thanks for all the feed back everyone.

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The weekend pretty much sucked with all the rain etc. I was only scouting on friday and went up a ways. Nothing too special, but I didn't try to make it up to the brewery and the old dam. I went up as far as the railroad bridge and then turned around as the storm front was moving in and I needed to get back to the campgrounds to tie some stuff down.

I did manage a few hits just below the mouth of the river, but my entire 'fishing' time for trip was around 30 minutes.

I did some mountain biking within the park and made it down to where the old dam is supposed to be by the breweryt. I didn't see anything. But with the cottonwood at 8 feet, the entire thing is soo dirty and moving pretty fast. Did find some potential areas in the cottonwood, but once it drops to normal levels I am sure it will not be navigable even with a river pro.

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i got two 5 pound flats today and one that i had on and fought for about 30 minutes. then it eventually took all my line out so i set my drag a tad tighter and it snaped. we figured it was about 40 pounds atleast...had on 20 pounds test and have never had problems getting in big fish before.. this was on the cottonwood under the 15 bridge.

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