Downtown river smallies

We put the boat in at Boom Island Park above St. Anthony Falls on Saturday. Very nice landing w/o a lot of boat traffic. That boat that almost went over the falls is still there, just hanging on the edge. Kind of scary. We fished crankbaits on the rock piles & rip-rap from the landing up to Shingle Creek. Caught lots of smallies but nothing very big. It was our first trip on this stretch. Very interesting spot to catch smallmouth w/ the scrap yards, old buildings & the characters hanging around shore. There are lots of islands & some nice sunken rock piles which kind of surprised us. Look out for those, they weren’t marked. Just a buch of little rock humps in the middle of the river. Anyone else ever fish this area for smallies or walleyes? How about the area between the falls & the Ford Dam? Is there a landing there or do you have to go through the lock. I usually fish Pool 2 or north of the cities. Vern

you have to lock into pool 1…. and there is a tiny pool right below st anthony falls down to just above I-35…….. it sure looks good… but Ive never fished it and never spoke to anyone who has….. one of our members fishes pool one quite a bit and says its pretty good for SMB….. with the cliffs around it must be pretty scenic anyway….. Ive always wanted to try it… and never have…..

I may be he to whom RiverEyes refers. I think Pool 1 has some of the best smallie fishing in the country, at least for numbers. You can catch some 19- 21 most are 10-12, but there are a ton of them. I lock up launching at Hidden Falls. Float the right descending bank. The thing I never seems to get enough of is how that stretch of the river is right smack dab in the heart of the Cities. There are long stretches where you can’t see a building or hear anything. The recreational and barge traffic is minimal too.

That sounds like a blast!!! Where are some good launches? Is there a good walleye bite there as well? What about shore fising for them smallies? I love to hear reports of great smallmouth fishing!! What seems to be the best tactic for ya? Keep it coming in!!

Keep the rods bendin’!!! JIm W

yes… you are indeed the “one” I was referring to… sorry for not recalling your “name”… but then if it didnt fill it in for me I would probably not recall mine either! names aint important…. but fishing is!!

as for walleye… I would guess there are some in that stretch… it looks too good for there to not be…. and they dont get pressured….. but I bet they mostly run small…. something that seems to happen once you get above the ford dam…. at that point anything bigger than 4 pounds is a monster…. and your going to see lots of sub 15 inch fish… usually 13-14.5…… though I dont think the 15 inch size limit is on that stretch….. not that I recomend taking fish that size…. my personal preference is 18-19 inches gimme 2 of those and Im good to go… that provides me and my Honey with a great meal of fresh fish……