Beat up Miss River

My son was in town so we took a cruise from Bay Point marina in Red Wing to Lake City. I haven’t been on the river portion since spring. Wow! The floods really took a toll on the shoreline. Trees up rooted and down everywhere. Some islands literally gone. So sad. Water quality was terrible,…brown and dirty. A green buoy can downstream of town laying on its side looked like it was chewed up by a barge prop. Several buoys out of place. The landing was choked with duck weed making for quite a mess on the boat and trailer. I’d encourage the City to put in a hydrant so invasives could be rinsed off. Harbor bar food great but dock space limited due to low water. Apparently it has gone down a few feet recently by the looks of their shoreline. The river takes the water from most of MN. Ag and city runoff and extensive drainage along with record rains is taking its toll. Will it rebound or are we seeing irreparable damage??

The river changes and always will. Trees coming down, islands and bars changing, shorelines moving, etc are all part of it. There are some small bars on the upper end of pool 2 that are gone….I assume the high water did that.

I will agree that run off, and ag chemicals are detrimental and need to be curtailed. However, the other changes are what makes it interesting.

One of the most interesting books I’ve ever read is called “Life on the Mississippi”, by Mark Twain. In the first part of the book he describes what he went through to become a licensed river pilot. In the second part, he books passage up the river all the way to St. Paul. His description of the river and how it behaves is fascinating, especially in the days before wing dams and channelization. He talks about entire islands disappearing, channels moving all the way across the river or even into different states. The river is pretty tame compared to those days.

S.R.

captddh wrote:

My son was in town so we took a cruise from Bay Point marina in Red Wing to Lake City. I haven’t been on the river portion since spring. Wow! The floods really took a toll on the shoreline. Trees up rooted and down everywhere. Some islands literally gone. So sad. Water quality was terrible,…brown and dirty. A green buoy can downstream of town laying on its side looked like it was chewed up by a barge prop. Several buoys out of place. The landing was choked with duck weed making for quite a mess on the boat and trailer. I’d encourage the City to put in a hydrant so invasives could be rinsed off. Harbor bar food great but dock space limited due to low water. Apparently it has gone down a few feet recently by the looks of their shoreline. The river takes the water from most of MN. Ag and city runoff and extensive drainage along with record rains is taking its toll. Will it rebound or are we seeing irreparable damage??

I had my 29th outing of the summer on Pool 4 earlier this week. I’m not seeing this “low water” that you speak of nor have I for multiple years.

Still a beautiful river with riffles, holes, and runs.

Making smiles everyday! This gentleman hadn’t catfish’d in twenty years. A 22# quickly followed by a 36# made his day. Biggest freshwater fish for George.

Enjoy it.
I’m about to head out on the water

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its crazy down here on 16. there are old log jams and trees i’ve fished my entire life just gone. There is a flat that would fill with lilly pads and hold lots of good bass just up from a lock and dam that has had tons and tons of sand deposited on it. So much so that at normal pool most of it is out of water. totally changed it from 60 days in flood stage.

hnd wrote:

its crazy down here on 16. there are old log jams and trees i’ve fished my entire life just gone. There is a flat that would fill with lilly pads and hold lots of good bass just up from a lock and dam that has had tons and tons of sand deposited on it. So much so that at normal pool most of it is out of water. totally changed it from 60 days in flood stage.

That’s what makes river systems fun, right? Forces you try new techniques and different areas

yup. there were huge piles of sand along side the river that the city used for something. those piles of sand are gone and they’ve been dredging it all out of the channel.

makes me assuming I might as well stop using my lakemaster chips for the miss and plop the zero lines card in.

hnd wrote:

makes me assuming I might as well stop using my lakemaster chips for the miss and plop the zero lines card in.

Funny thing is, the built-in maps on my new Lowrance unit are more accurate this year up on pool 2 than Navionics has ever been on my phone, even with sonar charts user info turned on. This year the Lowrance unit is usually within a foot.