The Mississippi has historically been divided between the Upper Mississippi and the Lower Mississippi. Traditionally that has meant the head of navigation in St. Paul to the confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, Illinois – the Upper Mississippi. The Lower Mississippi has been Cairo to New Orleans or really the Gulf of Mexico.
For fishing purposes, they leave out one of my favorite fishing places, what I call the upper, upper Mississippi. This is generally a wide shallow river with an almost exclusively rock bottom. The water is clear but brown stained much like the St. Croix. When I say shallow, I mean extremely shallow. In the late summer when levels are low, I tell anyone going with me to be prepared to wade if necessary as we may encounter depths down to 6″.
That of course calls for some special equipment. Pictured is my 14′ Alumacraft with 23 horse Beavertail motor. This little outfit is the love of my life. I live in a county with over 30 lakes but being a born river rat, I drive an hour and a half to fish in the Mississippi.
That is all for a good reason. This is a multi-species fishing paradise. The most common game fish are channel cat and smallmouth bass. There are also good populations of northern, walleye, Red Horse sucker and carp. I have heard there are muskies, but have never seen one nor talked to anyone who has caught one in the part of the river I fish (Clear Water to St. Cloud). I do know they are caught above the dam at Sauk Rapids.
There are so many fish in this river you feel like you could walk across on their backs at times. I frequently take four dozen night crawlers for bait and have to leave early because I have run out of bait.
Fish above 10# are not common but do exist. I have caught one channel cat at 36 1/4 inches and one that weighted 13#. There are many channel cat in the 5 – 8# range and in fact are the most common size caught.
Fishing tactic is to hit and run from pool to pool. Rapids are common and fishing the pool below a rapids or at the tail end of an island are most productive.
Best times are mid-May to mid-June for channel or until they fall in love which ever comes first using cut bait. After breeding season is over, the channel cat come back on line and will heat up your life.
Smallmouths begin to get hot about mid-July until late in the fall. When they are really hot, doesn’t seem like it matters what you are throwing.
This beautiful stretch of river has little fishing pressure. Because the rocks are so hard on conventional motors, it usually takes a jet prop on a conventional outboard, a mud motor like mine or a jet boat. There are times when the water is high that conventional boats (small ones) can get along if you know the river. Most of the time it can get expensive if you use regular equipment.
It is not uncommon to spend the day on the river and not see another soul. Weekends will see some traffic in canoes and kayaks most of which are just floating the river and doing a little swimming and sight seeing.
I 94 tracks most of this stretch of river and can be heard plainly at times. Amazingly enough there is very little development along the river and you can go for miles and not see a single house, power line or other development.
The Beaver Islands are just south of St. Cloud. They were named by Pike when he took his expedition up the river at the same time as Louis and Clark went west on the Missouri.
This gem is often overlook and always underfished. Try to find a way to get there.
