Going to try some river fishing, will probably put in at the Corp of Engineers access. If I caught some smallies, some cats and some walters I would call that an A+ day. Best bet for all 3 I think would be a jig and a crwler-what weight? What areas of the river? And maybe you could recommend a different live bait.
Thanks.
Which landing is the corp of engineers landing?
Jig and crawlers should work. Everything eats a crawler. Plenty of wood in the river up there so bring lots of jigs. Slip sinker rigs work well to. Just find a spot and soak them on the bottom. I spend a lot of time trolling flicker shads and smaller crank baits. Blue can be a decent color at times. Pitching plastics on Draggin jigs can be good also. Draggin jigs are fantastic in the wood where those fish like to hide.
North side of big sandy in the south campground.
If you are putting in below Big Sandy the channel out to the Mississippi can be shallow enough I have not been able to get my Jon boat through without dragging it. Make sure you pay your $3 in he drop box also. They like to check it frequently.
Any shore fishing areas on the river around Aitkin? I’d like to fish the river up there but I don’t want to wreck my boat 
SR
As Sand said we put in at Big Sandy at the north end and are on the Sandy River for a quarter mile before it meets the Miss.
Nice to know their is wood structure when I looked at it on G. Earth I did not see much for rocks-I have a 15′ Northwood with a 25hp 2 sroke I asked if I would be able to go a mile up and they said yes-wonder if I could go Farther?
Thanks for the imput so far
Rootski. Aitkin park, palisade park, guys walk in at the willow river to shore fish. Get ahold of jon if you are up there on the weekend. Not to hard to talk him into running his jon boat up there.
Anyone ever catch cats up there? Everyone at the campground says they have never seen or heard of any cats coming out of there.
Both up and down river you will run into rock in low water. Upriver you will run into them first but there only a couple of spots before it gets deeper. If the gauge in Aitkin gets down around 4′ it is going to be low. I have had to drag my canoe more then once between bsl and palisade in low water.
We have caught a few channel cats. Not big and very surprised to see them.
Any other area rivers have cats? What about crappies? Any specs in that wood north (or south) of Sandy? Thanks for all the help so far-BTW those Dragin jigs are awesome they are very good for bass especially if you have a kid just learning put a 5” swim or twister tail on have them reel in slow and they will catch fish.
St Louis river has good numbers of small cats. The population of cats on the miss has been multiplying every year but nothing of size so far.
If you really want cats maybe treck up to the st louis river by flood wood. Town water tower says “cats fish capitol” on it. Used to catch a lot of channels up that way.
I heard years ago of guys catching crappies near the train bridge at Palisade on the mississippi. All the years we have fished up there we have never caught one. Think you might be better off heading to one of the local lakes like big sandy or maybe rat lake for crappies.
Lots of great advice Mike thank you. We have a couple of good crappie lakes to go to but we will do one river trip too. Now I think our best bet will be with leeches if our best action is walter and smallmouth.
BTW we have always struck out crappie wise on Sandy not sure why my
maybe paranoid theory is crappies relate to planted structure that locals know about.
I smacked my motor into rocks got an anchor so stuck in wood I had to cut it loose and we caught zero fish. Can’t wait to go back! Not even being sarcastic
just thought my rig was too big for that stretch and I own a Jon Boat so I need to go up with that rig. I thought the river was beautiful, lakes this time of year turn into playgrounds we are blessed with so many small to mid sized rivers that are so peaceful unless you hear me yelling at my anchor!
THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE HELP
Most of the damage on my skeg and several props is from up there. We always have crawlers with for back up. If nothing else is working soaking a crawler on the bottom gets them.
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