Best Landing For Night Fishing (Safest Lot)

Hey guys, I know this has been asked before, but I couldn’t find any threads. I’m thinking of going out for some flatties on Monday night, potentially out of the 494 Bridge access. Anyone have any experience/issues leaving a vehicle there? It’s been probably ten years since I regularly night-fished the river, and frankly I’m finding out the unfortunate lesson that owning a nicer truck than I used to means I’m more worried about stuff like this than I used to be! So yeah, if you guys have any opinions on which accesses on the Mississippi (or the Minnesota for that matter) are safer for vehicles than others, please share! Thanks guys.

If I was truly concerned about my truck, which I’m not, I’d pay the $5-10 and launch from Watergate Marina in St. Paul. It’s a gated entry, you pay and get the access code. If you’re going to show up after hours I think you can pay ahead of time and get a code. It’s great for late-night fishing because you can stay as late as you want. It’s about a 20 minute run down to 494 from there in my boat (downtown St. Paul no-wake slows you down) — but it’s only 5 minutes from the confluence so if you’re thinking about the Minnesota you’d be right there.

Used 494 at night many, many times. Never had a problem there. Gets patrolled on a regular basis. Not saying you never see broken glass in the lot. Just have not had problems and don’t know anyone who has.

I’d give it 8 out of 10 on the safe scale.

-J.

I fish out of 494 3-4 nights a week and personally know of only one breakin. It was 6-7 years ago,guy lost his GPS. Police tour the area regularly. There are four missing bouys south of 494, two red and two green. Pay attention to your map

That’s what I was hoping to hear, thanks guys! I’m not expecting it to be a 100% certainty that there won’t be an issue, but I didn’t know if it was known for having problems. Thanks again!

Also be aware that the 494 access is considered to be a South St. Paul city park. You can’t legally leave your car in the lot between midnight and 4 AM. Whoever wrote that law sure isn’t a cat fisherman. I don’t know if that ordinance is still strictly enforced, but people have been ticketed in the past.

SR

Steve Root wrote:

Also be aware that the 494 access is considered to be a South St. Paul city park. You can’t legally leave your car in the lot between midnight and 4 AM. Whoever wrote that law sure isn’t a cat fisherman. I don’t know if that ordinance is still strictly enforced, but people have been ticketed in the past.

SR

I read somewhere (probably here) that you could get permission from the director of the SSP parks dpt to park after midnight, but that sounds like a pain in the rear.

OP, the fact that you want to target flatheads late at night is why I recommended Watergate.

Been parked down there countless times after midnight. No Problems.

After the bridge construction, I don’t recall seeing any signs on the road entrance. I really don’t think this is an issue.

-J.

Jon there’s a big sign in the parking lot that spells this out. I don’t know if the local cops care about this or not, but it is on the books. There have been people ticketed in the past…

And I still can’t get the damned link deal to work

“https://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/catfish_531672/”

SR

I’m bad about reading signs….

-J.

Steve Root wrote:

And I still can’t get the damned link deal to work

“https://www.in-depthoutdoors.com/community/forums/topic/catfish_531672/”

SR

That’s what I’d remembered reading. $117, yeesh.

The way I get links to work is to type the words that I want the link to appear on, select only that portion of text, hit the “link” button above, and paste the complete URL into the pop-up.

That’s what I did here.

Good to know p2f!

TEST TEST

The blackdog ramp and the one under the 77 bridge are good, I’ve never had any trouble at them and have seen police patrolling them frequently.

nhamm wrote:

Good to know p2f!

TEST TEST

Baby got back!