Where are my channels?

So I went out to do some shore fishing yesterday early evening around Boom Island park. Was using frozen shad courtesy of Mr. Bob Moore in South Minneapolis. Man is that stuff hard to keep on the hook!

Anyway. We were catching TINY channels right and left by fishing the ‘inflow’ from the main channel that goes around Nicollet Island as well as the main channel itself. Every cast we immediately had bites and were dragging in the litt’lins. Kind of like attacking an anthill with an atom bomb with my heavier gear.

Anybody have any hints as to where the bigger guys are hiding now? I’d think they’d be feeding like crazy.

Anybody have a time of day preference or structure preference or current preference or bait preference?

Thanks boys.

I got out last night to see if i could still catch fish seeing as my talent with the sturgeon sucks and to my surprise i was actually able to land a few. Missed a ton as well but the biggest two of the night ended up being a healthy 7 & 9 lber. I was using the same bait as you (thanks bob) I fished areas with some current. Fished from 6:15pm to 9:30pm with the bite picking up from 7:30 to 8:30. Good luck, they are still out there and still feeding.

Do you know how deep the water was? Was there any structure around?

DFresh.. that back channel is full of kitty cats. If you want the shad to stay on better, just hook it once through the head with about a 3/0 hook(gill plate to gill plate. If you let it thaw 1st it stays on way better. Dont defrost it on your vehicles defroster or it will get soggy.

The channel cats should be starting to school back up now, or at least frequenting the same areas. Once you find these schools, the bite should be great throughout the peak bite hours. I have heard good things about sunset to 9:00 lately. If you can find a hole with some current(even very little), try to be on the upstream side come feeding time when they move out of the hole to the feeding area.

Thanks Dave. We were thinking of trying that channel again or possibly hitting Mill Ruin Park.

Anybody been down there lately?

Do you know of any easliy findable holes in the Nicollet channel?

The 1st 100 yards(upstream) all seems to have water around 10′ deep give or take… nothing really to be called a hole. There is a hole on the river where that channel starts at more than 20′ deep… never had much luck there, but havent spent much time there either.

There are lots of *eater* size channels in that stretch above the st anthony falls dam. But there are some true monsters also.. not much in between, and very limited shore access upstream of boom island park. I really dont know whichway to point up that way without a boat. Below the st anthony dams, there are lots of holes and deep water just about everywhere. With some careful scouting you will find some of the most obvious spots. Mill ruins from shore is hit and miss this ime of year. The deep holes there is just above the lower dam and they have issues if you drive down there late at night.. you can walk from the parking lot. There is minimal flow right now so the fish may be under the upper dam itself, or could be near the jetti if they are retreating to the slack water. You will not get a bait close to the jetti without a boat.

Nothing but tiny ones again last night. All the bites seemed to come on shad, the cut sucker was just not doing it. We moved all over that channel – well as much as you can on foot. Fishing was hampered by the same barge passing twice on the way up to Marshall Concrete.

Did I mention that Dean rents boats at Everts??

Sigh, yes you have. Are there special fall rates?

I’ll ask him around 2 as we’re leaving for Mille Lacs today…I hear there is some really big bait biting up there!

IDA’s Stuart will be in charge while Dean’s away…

He’s an outstanding catfisher…just that he doesn’t tell anyone.