North Lake Pool 3 access?

Does anyone fishing Pool 3 know if you can use the North Lake access by the RR tracks to get to the main river on the MN side? Thanks for any suggestions!

Yes. You have to stay along the shoreline on the southside around Cow Pie Island. Stay heading east, and you will end up in Buffalo Slough. There are two cuts on the North side of Buffalo that will get you into Brewers Cut. Brewers cut will get you into the main channel. I suggest taking this route in the daytime first, and getting it saved to your GPS as a route before running it at night. The reason I say this is that the Eastern end of North Lake is full of stumps, or speed bumps if you hit them fast enough.
If you have any questions, give me a holler.
Tuck

Tuck…I was told that going the route you described was illegal because you were crossing some sort of refuge or something? Do you know anything about that?

You might be better off using the sturgeon Lake access. Go past the entrance to the casino at Treasure Island and take the next left.(Before you get to the curve.)Dirt road to it,but the launch is all brand new. It does get patrolled to.Any questions you can PM ME TOO.

Leaving a rig sit at that ramp at night is dangerous…I had two tires slashed one night. The sheriff told me that unfortuneately this is not uncommon.

Jason.

Jetcat, do you have any suggestions as to where you could safely park a rig overnight? I was unaware of that problem. I’ve left my rig at the Pool 2 access in South Saint Paul overnight quite a few times and never had any problems yet. I guess you don’t really think about that stuff until it either happens to you or someone gives you a heads up first.

Dirk, do you know how I can find out the regulations for traveling that lake, if there really is a restriction?

If I fish P3 I launch at Prescott, pay the money…burn the gas, but it’s lighted and not rural.

Jason.

Mile, although I would agree with Jet Cat about the $35 annual fee at Prescott, there is one other solution. Everetts Resort. Steve will personally watch your rig over night…well, at least until donout and coffee time at 5 am. You will have to lock up and down…but as long as you don’t have a barg coming through it’s not a big deal. Besides, the lock master give some pretty good fishing tips…OPPS! I wasn’t to say that!

Just an option.

I second Chappy’s advice. They built a new landing right behind the casino. Also, I don’t know if you guys have seen this yet, but they paved the Sturgeon Lake access. It is patrolled quite heavily now as well. North Lake? I don’t know about the travel part of it. I drive across the Res all the time going to the casino. Maybe a call to the DNR is in order. Prarie Island has their own police force now. A lot of the damage to property problems have subsided.
Tuck

I like your idea Jetcat, Prescott is not too far upstream anyway, I think Evert’s is a great landing, but best for pool 4. With my luck, the Delta Queen will be coming through every time I want to go through the lock.

How do you purchase the yearly pass for the Prescott landing?
P.S.,I can just see Brian going through the lock asking the guy in a bad Rick Moranis impersonation, “I am the Keymaster, are you the gatekeeper?”

It is 10 miles from the cut to Prescott. From Treasure Island it is two swings of a dead cat.
I hit a log, I mean a BIG log during a guide trip a couple of years ago heading back to Hastings from Mileys. I put two guys into the left console pretty hard! I am sticking with the TI launch.

Eye Guide, is the landing at Sturgeon lake on the reservation? Have you had any problems using that access before? I’m just not as familiar with that area as I am Prescott I guess. You are right though, Sturgeon lake is much closer.

I have not had an issue since the Island cops have been patrolling. But at TI, you get their security, and the cops! Either one has been good as of late last year. There were issues in the past however. But it gets watched a lot closer now.

Here you go Mile…

Send your $35. to:

Boat Permit
800 Borner St N
Prescott, WI 54021

Along with your return address.

The bass will be hitting down there…soon!

Thanks Brian!
When are you going fishing with Rick Gebhardt? Is that this week?

Yet another question. I was reading the Between the Tracks thread from a few days back and one of the guys said you need a fishing license from the state you are launching from. Does this mean I will need a Wisconsin license to launch my boat in Prescott? I guess I was unaware of this if it’s in fact true.

Went out with Rick yesterday…post will be up soon.

Untrue – you need one from one of the sides, doesn’t matter where you launch at all. About the whole population of La Crosse (or so it seems) launches from below the dam at Dresbach, MN right now, including the wardens, who would be having a field day if we needed MN licenses.

I’ve never heard of that before either…
Although you COULD get cited for transporting bait from WI to MN…Kind of a lame ticket though.