landing on the mississippi

I want to come down from Grand Rapids to fish the river for smallmouth north of Aitken. Never fished the river down there and was wondering where the best place to put in would be. I am was thinking of putting in Right at 169 and fishing up. Is there a better one or one closer to good smallmouth fishing?

Eric

I was just at that landing on 169 over the weekend. There is a report from there in the missippi walleye forum. If you plan on running the river there bring a small boat and a motor you dont mind banging off the rocks. You will hit rocks. That streach of river has alot of boulders in it. This is what most likely holds the smallies in that area. We caught maybe a dozen smallies while fishing for walleyes. If a guy targeted them you should have a pretty good day of fishing. There are also plenty of hefty northerns and some walleyes in there also.
If you are looking for deeper water to fish maybe try the landing in Aitkin. The one time I tryed there it looked to be a deeper streach of river with not alot of rocks or gravel.

I have a cabin on the Mississippi near Palisade. The streach from palisade north varies in depth. MikeW was correct about the rocks. be very carefull. after the Labor Day weekend rain the river is up almost 1.5-2ft so it is not as treacherous as a week or two ago. The smallies are lurking everywhere up there, but seem to love the shallow water where the water runs a bit fast.

The river is back up. Cool. Time to hit it again.
Has the river been up at all this summer?

Thanks guys,

I fish the mississippi just south of Grand Rapids and there are a few really shallow areas there. Up there the key is finding rock shelves or shorelines. I have an older ranger fishermen. So it sounds like I need to be careful. The water being higher should help.

Eric Ahlstrom

Just a heads up, After all the rain last week the river is up and flowing bigtime. The fishing was a tad slow. The water level is almost as high as it was on opener. Mike W to answer your question..No, all summer the water level has been dropping until two or three weeks ago.

We hit the missippi near palisade last saturday for a few hours. Started trolling cranks with little action. Changed up to jigs and minnows and managed a couple of eyes. Last cast of the day produced a nice 23.5″ eye for my buddys girlfriend. All in all it was slow but a very nice afternoon on the river. It was nice being able to run the river wide open for a change.