Backwater river fishing by kayak -where to go?

We got a couple of fishing kayaks last fall and have found some lakes we like but I’m interested in fishing some river backwaters in the general southern Twin Cities area. Maybe from Red Wing to the Cities to Belle Plain
and down to Faribault. Anywhere in that area and guessing my main options are the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers.

I have never done any river fishing and would ideally like to a find a put in/launch area close to some backwaters. I’m looking at a place where currents would be minimal so that we can launch and load in the same place without too much paddling upstream. I’m not looking for paddling trips with different launch and exit points right now but that is in the future. Mainly fish bass and panfish but open to whatever and would be fine with scenic areas as well even if the fishing isn’t great.

Thanks for any insight!

I don’t kayak but the wabasha to Nelson road has several drop in points into calm backwaters.

Here are some options for pool 2 (in order of my preference), all with great fishing nearby:

1. you can launch at hazen p. mooers and explore the lakes around there as well as grey cloud slough. great fishing in the mooers lake area in spring. you can also launch above the culvert there if you want and go all the way into baldwin.
2. there is a launch at the bottom of spring lake that would make a great kayak launch and allow you to cruise around spring lake
3. you can launch at river grove for a small fee and explore river lake and the cut from the main channel. like land of the lost that place (think banjo scene from Deliverance)… beware of the pet racoon.
4. you could also launch from lion’s levee and explore downstream but it would be a tough paddle back in higher water levels

jp

I’ve wanted to do that since moving near the MN River. Looks like there is Casperson’s Boat launch right off 77 in Eagan on the MN River with backwaters right there. The Chaska one would probably work as well, there’s some backwaters right there or if the current is slow you could probably make it up Louisville Swamp.