MN river

Got a good view of the river valley this week. Got a guy thinking

Seeing how big this thing is and it’s proximity to the twin cities why don’t we see more reports out of here? I love the fact it seems so cut off from society, getting on my short list of waters to go explore. My sense tells me with the water stained like it is crappies and eyes have to be present in decent #’s. Obviously cats get the main focus from stuff I read.

Always worth exploring but seeing if anyone has any experience on the muddy waters. 14′ boat w long shaft get a guy where he needs to go from ft snelling area?

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Shhh!

There’s no fish in there, and the ones that are, are full of mercury. Plus it’s full of dead heads, and the worst mosquitos and bugs in the state. (That last sentence is 100% true)

My ex and I owned a house in Chanhassen for a short period of time and I would fish between Jordan and Chaska all the time. We always did well. We caught so many accidental walleyes in that area while cat fishing We started to target them. But the cat fishing was top notch. Now we are 2 miles from the Croix and back in my childhood area I have no reason to go to the mn. Worth it , yes, but not when I’m next to the Croix

Deuces wrote:

14′ boat w long shaft get a guy where he needs to go from ft snelling area?

No problem running this boat on the Mn. The furthest I have run was from Ft Snelling over to Valley Fair in Shakopee.

-J.

How’s the cell signal down there if I do something stupid

It does take a lot of trial and error to figure the ol gal out. She’s finicky and at times can be completely frustrating. Water level, flow and clarity are crucial. I do think it’s a bit overrated for cats. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good and when it’s on it’s on, but overall would say the Croix and Sippi are more consistent and dependable and much less of the headache factor of muddy launches, unstable banks, falling trees, and submerged (dangerous) timber.

Think about this, the gauge I use nearby regularly goes from 10ft to 25ft and everywhere in between. The fish have a dramatic response to a river rising or falling 10-15ft in a week vs 2-5ft on the bigger wider rivers.

But if you hit certain bite windows when the stars align and levels are stable, it can be a lot of fun, for many species!

Croixbaby Not sure what point you’re trying to make other then that you don’t like the city. Good to know

Main reason that city dwellers would seem to like the river, it doesn’t seem very industrialized at all and the recreational traffic seems to be minimal, short distance to find some tranquility w moving water.

MN river is like 320 miles long. Not many of them are near the cities.

It’s good to have spots to escape the city life which is close to the city life Croixbaby. Feel free to Google map the MN in the “city”, you’ll find it relatively close to your croix in regards to “city”.

When I lived near Chaska there was a creek I would shorefish in high water (flood stage). The spot was a quarter mile from the MN river. The walleyes would swim all the way up the creek to that spot to feed at dusk. Big ones too.

JasonP wrote:

When I lived near Chaska there was a creek I would shorefish in high water (flood stage). The spot was a quarter mile from the MN river. The <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleyes would swim all the way up the creek to that spot to feed at dusk. Big ones too.

I fished a spot like this in that same area. The carp would also use it to spawn in. We could catch 50 huge carp in a afternoon. It only had water in the spring when the water would rise. It was a riot. And come to think of it we would catch plenty of walleye at dusk where it met the river

I rented a duplex in Shakopee over the summer while attending college one year. I tried the Mn river about 15 times over that summer and didn’t ever do great. You didn’t have to walk far before it felt like you were away from the city.

I lived in mankato for 10 years, fished the mn 6 of them. Awesome river. However, I discovered border waters where two or three lines can be used and seasons don’t close… ain’t been back since.

Need more lines in the water to go back on any regular basis. I do have an itch to fish it again to see how much it has changed. At one point knew 20mi of river quite well.

Is that river any good for casting? Like to cast spinners and jigs for cats/eyes not a big fan of trolling.

Better have a full tackle box. Lots of snags everywhere.

When i take the family out on pool 2 on the weekends and the recreational traffic gets out of hand, this is where we escape to. Fun to run up the MN to 169 or so and then lazily drift back down.

i have caught a few walleye in that stretch but nothing crazy. i do find that presentations and tactics between upper p2 and that stretch of the MN are not really compatible. But if you know how to fish in muddy moving water you can do well. In the spring there are some fish that go all the way up to Minneahaha area, and others that hang a left at the confluence.

I have spent hundreds of hours on the stretches surrounding the Mankato area. Comments above about the rapid change that river goes through is real. Very similar to some backwater panfishing on the ole miss. When it’s hot, it’s hot and when it’s not, you better have brought beer…Conditions will change almost daily but for sure weekly. YMMV on the stretch closer to the cities.

Son caught his first flathead! He was scared to hold it so I put it on a stringer

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