The ramp is open and the fish are biting. Plenty of ice moving around on the river right now. We were able to get from the sunkin barge to Baldwin lake at one point over the weekend. Only to Whips airport the next day. No big gals for my boat over the weekend. 27″ was the best. Fishing gets a little more challenging when your spots are under hard water or ice is drifting through them. Still fun to get out.
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Great pic, Mike!
I may be mistaken, but I don’t think the Pool 2 New Year’s day water skiers got out this year.
-J.
Joel has some video of us opening the rest of that up Saturday morning. We had to saw a boat length or 2, then the rest of it busted up pretty good with the boat.
I do like being able to run this boat up on top of the ice with very little effort. Backs off just as easy. We even ran some cracks in the thicker ice with it where both sides of the boat are on the ice and only the motor in the water. Fun stuff.
And people ask why fisherman carry winter weight year round….its to use mass to break that ice!!!
The ramp is open and the fish are biting. Plenty of ice moving around on the river right now. We were able to get from the sunkin barge to Baldwin lake at one point over the weekend. Only to Whips airport the next day.
[quote=2170850]The ramp is open and the fish are biting. Plenty of ice moving around on the river right now. We were able to get from the sunkin barge to Baldwin lake at one point over the weekend. Only to Whips airport the next day. No big gals for my boat over the weekend. 27″ was the best. Fishing gets a little more challenging when your spots are under hard water or ice is drifting through them. Still fun to get out.
Mike, is pool 2 accessible with bigger boats or only fish able with something you can slide across ice?
Where could a guy get on some fish-of any species-from shore potentially this time of year? If the spots in question even exist. I kinda got clued in to where I should be targeting fish a few weeks ago before the river froze over bottom fishing the deep eddies between those riprap points that jut out from shore on the upstream bend of the river in Lilydale. Kind of a Eureka moment for me it was as I’ve had an idea of where fish SHOULD be in a river pre-ice but until then I have always struck out when targeting any species on my very late fall early winter shore river fishing forays. I really never took into consideration how choosing a spot to fish based on depth, flow, and other variables is absolutely essential that time of year to actually find fish. I HAD taken these things into consideration in my past attempts to a much lesser degree though and that’s where I was messing up. At least that’s my thoughts on it.
Any boat right now. Atleast yesterday anyways. Ramp conditions change all the time. Sometimes hour to hour. A good v hull boat would of broke through the ice in my photo. Being a flat bottom mine rides right up on it. We sawed about a boat length or two to get to thinner ice. Took maybe a hour to bust that ice and clear out the ramp a bit. Caught over 20 walleyesfor the effort. Biggest was 27″.
Little chilly to get the boat out today. Maybe tomorrow. Hope it didn’t freeze to bad. Nice temps coming in next week.
Anyone getting out any time soon?
Maybe this weekend if the weather holds out and the river doesn’t freeze up to bad the next couple days.
One trailer in the lot today. That’s some cold weather fishing.
How’s everything looking out there? Is the launch and channel pretty clear?
Ramp is a little slick and a small ice shelf to back over. Channel is open to just up river of the sunkin barge. Might be able to bust through it but going to send a ton of ice down river. The drifting ice stacked up in front of the landing last night. As always need to watch out for ice drifting around this time of year.
Watch out for pinch points with floating ice! Don’t get trapped.
You got that right. I’ve had a few close calls over the years with ice. Have talked with one guy that had to leave his boat out there overnight when the ice flows choked off the main channel by the airport.
Hey Mike, is this where that Sunkin barge is that you mentioned?
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Yes. It’s open a bit past that today. Think that might be the sunkin barge in the photo.
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Thank you for the update!
Checked this afternoon and it is pretty open up to about the wing dams upstream of the sunken barge. We get some above freezing temps Saturday through Tuesday, rain Monday and south/southeast wind over the weekend.
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Any boats out today Jim? Guessing it’s going to skim over with ice tonight. 1st boat in tomorrow will be busting ice.
No boats out.
There was a group of young guys snowboarding down the railing towards the river. They had a couple cameras set up.
I plan on being out there by 10am tomorrow. Hopefully there isn’t too much ice to break through by then…
Forgot to mention the asphalt at the top of the ramp was icey so some sand or grit might be needed.
That was me stranded on Christmas eve. Launched out of Lions and worked my way up to the airport. Only boat out and lots of floating ice making slow going. When I got to the swing bridge at the airport, the sides were jammed but the middle channel was open. I am wary of jams as I have seen this bridge jammed before. I snuck up to fish and was doing well, the whole time watching the bridge. At one point the amount of ice coming down worried me so I moved back down below the bridge and fished for while but the fishing sucked and I left good fish. Of course I moved back up and started catching fish but then the ice shelf on the west side broke off and swung like a switch blade right across the channel. I quickly motored down to try to break it up to no avail. Floating ice started stacking up and I knew I was in trouble. I started motoring in circles to make waves to break it loose and seemed to make progress but no luck. I thought maybe I could get up to Lilydale or Hidden Falls so I went upstream but found a huge ice jam as far as I could see at St Paul. Not good if this broke loose sending all this ice my way. I went back down and tried one last time to bust it up to no avail. Then I knew I was stranded on Christmas eve, by myself. Figuring the upstream jam could spell trouble so I parked the boat behind a barge on the east shore and hiked out to the highway through the gravel company. Ubered back to the truck and went home. Went back on Christmas morning and the bridge was still jammed. I started doing circles again and made some progress but still no go. Decided to fish a little and popped a few but then I noticed a mass of floating ice coming down telling me the St Paul jam let loose. I went back to the jam with renewed vigor knowing all that ice coming would make it impossible. I got an opening started and blasted the boat into it and powered through. Angels sang! Of course I had to motor down to Lions and Uber back up to my truck. Once back to Lions I decided to fish and called in “sick” to my family Christmas. Being single has advantages. The lesson is to watch your pinch points with floating ice.
Fun times on the river. Glad you and the boat made it out alright. Thought I was going to loose my boat downtown st paul when it got caught in a ice flow. I was in the flow when the ice down river of me jammed up on the train bridge. Heavy chunks of thick ice kept piling in from up river with my boat stuck in the middle of it not able to move at all. The ice was slowly moving but it was pushing my boat towards the cement wall. Got lucky and the ice just up river of me locked up and made some space for me to get the boat moving again. At one point was thinking I was going to climb the wood train bridge out of there and just let the boat go. Wasn’t my first go round getting stuck in the ice but I sure pay better attention to it now. Downtown is a bad pinch point.
For guys that are new to boating the river this time of year and busting ice keep this in mind. When you bust ice going up river what you bust loose tends to float away down river. When bust ice going down river what you go through piles in behind you and is a better chance of trapping you in.
I wanna try bottom fishing with crawlers or jigging/cranking for eyes around Raspberry Island where there is open water. What are my odds of getting bit? Would there even be fish around there or do they all pretty much winter elsewhere? If there even is fish in that area what spots would hold fish right now? Assuming the fish in that area do have a preference for certain spots over others.
Think you are going to be limited to what ever is open. Might find some eyes on those rocks on the channel side.
You’re talking about the main channel side of Raspberry Island? The side channel on the other side of the island was open enough to fish from shore yesterday too when I went down there scouting for spots but I just wasn’t sure if it would have enough depth to hold fish in it. And what would you personally use if you were me?
I would of guessed the side channel was frozen over. Don’t think it’s very deep on that side. Maybe just a foot or two. Down river point of the island might be good. Those fish do like to be out of the current a little. Spots that the sun can warm up. Throw whatever walleye bait you want to use.
You’re talking about the main channel side of Raspberry Island? The side channel on the other side of the island was open enough to fish from shore yesterday too when I went down there scouting for spots but I just wasn’t sure if it would have enough depth to hold fish in it. And what would you personally use if you were me?
If the water is open under the Hwy 5 bridge that can be a good winter spot. Easy walk in there from fort snelling park. There is some deeper water at the creek mouth that will hold fish. Fish the top and bottom of the mouth. Soaking a minnow in there, plastics, slow rolled cranks all work.
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