Conditions on the river

Anybody been out lately? Kind find any updates anywhere. Last I heard the water level was supposed to peak earlier this week.

12.2 This morning in Red Wing.

I watched a fella launch his boat at the Back Channel without getting his toes wet even though the water was into the parking lot.

Bay Point is still open of course.

There are plenty of fish being caught >by some<, like always.

I haven’t talked to anyone up by the dam or the Y, but there are fish being put into the boat very near Red Wing mostly vertical jigging.

Watch for flooded canary grass and willows. <Hot Tip of the Day

Thanks for the reply BK, my 9 year old son has been wanting to get out fishing so I might take the wife and kids out tomorrow. I owe you a beer sometime for all the info you give out on this site.

Joe. Please be safe with your family on the river. As BK always preaches on this site wear your pfd and lanyard and have fun

I was wondering the same thing about river conditions. Got a different boat this year, so itching to “test” it out and as long as I’m out, drop a line. Debating Red Wing or Lake City. Sounds like either has relatively ok launch access at the moment.

Bass-n-Eyes wrote:

Thanks for the reply BK, my 9 year old son has been wanting to get out fishing so I might take the wife and kids out tomorrow. I owe you a beer sometime for all the info you give out on this site.

I should of added…

The river is at 12.2 and dropping slowly. That’s about 90k cfs.

Joe, I know you’ve been on the river before but for others that have not, I would hold up for a week yet. More so if you’re taking kids along. The current will drift a boat at about 4-5 mph.

Most of the debris is gone, but it is the river and there’s alway the chance of that one underwater log.

River Rats will scoff at this. Newbies will wonder why they weren’t warned. Catch my drift? <-see what I did there?

Let us know how you guys do if you do go.

I’m guiding a fella looking for eagles around their nests tomorrow for photos. If you see a green lund with a big white gps puck on the front make sure you wave…preferably not with your one finger.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Joe Clem wrote:</div>
Thanks for the reply BK, my 9 year old son has been wanting to get out fishing so I might take the wife and kids out tomorrow. I owe you a beer sometime for all the info you give out on this site.

I should of added…

The river is at 12.2 and dropping slowly. That’s about 90k cfs.

Joe, I know you’ve been on the river before but for others that have not, I would hold up for a week yet. More so if you’re taking kids along. The current will drift a boat at about 4-5 mph.

Most of the debris is gone, but it is the river and there’s alway the chance of that one underwater log.

River Rats will scoff at this. Newbies will wonder why they weren’t warned. Catch my drift? <-see what I did there?

Let us know how you guys do if you do go.

I’m guiding a fella looking for eagles around their nests tomorrow for photos. If you see a green lund with a big white gps puck on the front make sure you wave…preferably not with your one finger.

Thanks, I know what you mean I found that “one” submerged log up on the Rainy River a couple of weeks ago. If you see a Grey Ranger with red stripes, Yamaha motors and a red Talon be sure to say Hi. That goes for any other IDO members out there too.

I’ll be out in the duck boat, like always. I’ll be further downstream of the dam or in the backchannel, feel free to wave the middle if you see us!

After I’m out of the no wake of Red Wing we’ll be in the back channel as well. Might take a trip up to the lock/dam for the nests up there thought.

Mister Eagle, if you see a guy in a yellow Float-Tech waving at you…just imagine it’s the middle.

I know this is the walleye forum BUT does anyone have any info on the white bass bite?

tom kunz wrote:

I know this is the walleye forum BUT does anyone have any info on the white bass bite?

Pulled 3 in this morning on slow death spinners on a 3-way. Not much for size, though.

Fishing was slow for Walleye this morning on P4. Fished 4 hours and boated 2 walleye, both just over 20”. Many drum, a rock bass and a few whites.

I guess I can’t complain seeing as how we only saw 1 other boat around us all morning. The water is still really high with lots of flow, but we managed to find a few slower current seams that produced.

Is everts open….where did you guys launch from?

tom kunz wrote:

I know this is the walleye forum BUT does anyone have any info on the white bass bite?

this is a suspicious post……hmmmmmmm
Seth said it best when he said “you ate them all”.

tom kunz wrote:

I know this is the walleye forum BUT does anyone have any info on the white bass bite?

I don’t even know how too respond too this?? Good luck.

From what you will find is there are too many bait fish and the stripers are full.

Same goes for saugers and walleye. Too much bait fish out there the way it seems. The fish are full and wont bite.

Bar stool observation.

Matt Moen wrote:

Is everts open….where did you guys launch from?

Launched from Baypoint…

As of yesterday afternoon, Pool 2 is still basically shut down. 494, Lions, Lillydale, Hidden falls all closed.

-J.

Saturday:
Levels are dropping steadily. 11.8 Sat and 11.2 this morning.
We were up in the lock channel, the Vermilion, down the back channel and up the main channel taking photos of eagles. Very little debris observed. Water temp was 60 degrees although I did find 57 in a back water.
I didn’t get a chance to talk to anyone about fishing success and like mentioned above, there were very few on the water Saturday.

The Bay Point launch was awesome. City worker were there directing traffic with some tuna boats being splashed.

It was the first time I’ve encountered a DNR inspection and wash station. Apparently many lakes on the West Metro are still froze so 5 DNR crews were many most if not all launches along the river.

It was a breeze, nice guy and willing to chat about the program.

I’ve always wondered why they did the inspections when launching in the river. After all, what could we introduce into this infested water way?
It was explained that it’s against the law to transport zeeb along with other AIS. If the inspector spots zeebs on the way in, “generally” a ticket will be mailed to you.

They check my boat on the way out as well.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

It was the first time I’ve encountered a DNR inspection and wash station.

I asked for a washdown of my boat and he wouldn’t do it… I was hoping for a free wash…

Was out sunday river is fine changed alot in the last 7 days, the bait shop in town told me the bite was real good, so I asked where at, then they told me some people go up stream some people go down stream, big help thanks alot. They were right sheephead were on fire. Also found a few walleyes and sauger.

Colville Park opened up to launching today.

Launched at Everts this morning and had a very slow half day of fishing before calling it quits. Caught one 17″ sauger right out in front of the launch and a handful of sheephead. Tried a few of the first turns/points on the Wisconsin channel. Some areas still have a ton of current. I had a dubuque rig with a 3/4 oz jig with a moxi on the bottom and a floating jig with a fathead on top… still wasn’t on the bottom a lot of the time.

Pool 2 conditions were very good. Still high water, but no a lot of sticks or debris in the water.

Fishing was decent, not great, lots of males

River Rat Randy was out yesterday on May 14th with his “adopted” 10 year old son. He didn’t launch out of a resort and wasn’t fishing by the dam…that’s all I could get out of him for a report. More info later.

Somedays I wish RRR would adopt me.

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