Bayport this weekend!

Anyone been down there the last few days??? Just wondering how the ice is holding up. I am going to make it down one morning this weekend. If you see me stop and say hi. I will be pulling my gear out on the trailer behind a red wheeler if ice permits Or I might just pull the boat out and make sure she is ready for the sippi

I drove down yesterday to check the ice and it didn’t look that good. I thought it looked like it was already starting to honeycomb. I drove up to the DNR public access north of Stillwater and upstream looked like it is already trying to open. Like Ferny said – we could have the boats in the water upstream around St Patrick’s Day.

I did give the NSP Outlet a try for some channel cats on March 1st. Fished some cut sucker for about an hour without any luck. The outlet is just full of shad and mooneyes – all that forage has to have some channel cats following it. The problem may be too much shad!!

I’m not going to give up on the NSP outlet, it may just be a matter of timing the channel cat bite. I know the guys who fish the edge of the open water at the NSP plant catch channels so they have to be in there. With that much forage they just have to be there.

Thanks Steve, I ended up down on P2 with the boat. They were saying rain on saturday so I figured I would stay close to home and see what happens. No eyes we found the white bass and they kept us busy for a bit and it was nice to back in the boat.
I have never fished the discharge but there has to be some monsters swiming near with all the forage. Good luck next time down

I tried the Allen S. King Excel Energy Plant outlet again on Saturday for a couple of hours without any luck. The plant was shutdown and was not generating any warm water, there was no water even being discharged into the outlet. The shad were gone and there were a few mooneye floating and flopping on their bellies – looked like they were shocked by the cold water when the plant shutdown.

I saw three ATVs out on the river doing some ice fishing. The ice did not look to good from where I was. It looks like it is starting to honeycomb. There was one portable up by High Line Point.

Water is at normal pool elevation right now, about 675.5′. I am hoping for a good warmup after this blast today. We could be on the water in about 3 weeks if we get a good warm spell. I’d like to get out on the river before we get our usual spring rain and the high water. I’m trying to photo catalog my cat spots while the water is low. If I could get out at this water elevation it would be perfect.