Annual Fishing Trip Advice Needed-Mississippi River Wabasha/Nelson area

Hi All-

In the next couple weeks our group will be heading to the Mississippi to fish multi species including bass in the back waters and catfish in the evening. I have launched out of Wilcox landing before so may stick with that. We are staying near Nelson on the WI side. I was wondering about a few things:

– My buddy is flying up from Texas. Should he get an out of state license for MN, WI, Both, or whatever is cheapest? We plan to stay south of Lake Pepin for the most part, but not sure how south we’ll go.

-We want to keep safety a priority and are not the most familiar with the river. We may be fishing in the evening even after dark for the cats. Any safety tips with regards to navigating the river?

-Any updates on current water levels. I fished last spring and recall water around 1.5 feet deep leaving the channel out of Wilcox landing.

-Any advice on bait shops, places to refill the gas tank, or where to grab a cold beer?

Thanks for any and all advice. We’re really looking forward to this years trip!

Talk to the DNR in Lake City they are very helpful-Good Luck

go to J&J bbq in Nelson is my advice.

Best ribs around

Try getting out onto lake Winona fished it recently and had good luck , fish the deep holes and weeds , the lower lake .

Thanks for the tips. In case anyone has this question in the future I thought I’d mention you can use either a WI or MN license as long as you don’t go past the train tracks on either the MN or WI side. Maps make it appear like you would have to go very far back to reach that point.

Why are you launching out of Wilcox? If i was fishing the lower part of pepin that would be the last place I’d launch. Wabasha is much better ramp, more water and way closer to the best fishing.

I guess we were going to launch there just out of familiarity. Also it seems like a quick boat ride to our resort (Cedar Ridge). Thanks for the feedback.

You might want to look at Peterson’s landing if you want to stay that close to the backwaters.
Just down the road from Wilcox about 2 miles and it’s right on the Mississippi. No long, crappy road to get to the landing and no weed choked channel to get out of.
There are also numerous places to launch along the dike road between Wabasha and Nelson.
Just some better choices imo. Good luck.

Awesome, thank you man.

If you have smaller boats I would launch from the dike road between nelson and wab. If larger boat andi would launch from wabasha boat launch. Wilcox is much farther then u need to travel.

Beth’s in Nelson has good breakfast, lunch and dinner. Mexican restaurant in wab is decent. J&j bbq in nelson is good. Burgers at silver star in wab are good and 1/2 off on mondays.
Decent bait at river valley outfitters in wab.

Good luck. Fish should be biting.

People have pretty much touched on the all of the food/drink spots — the only one I’d add is Nelson Cheese Factory, or “The Creamery” as we called it when we were kids.

Lots of memories eating bison burgers at Beth’s Twin Bluffs cafe. The family farm was about 5 miles away. Wish I could give you more fishing advice but unless you want to pull brookies and browns from a tiny stream with cows wading 10 yards away, I can’t help ya.