3 Locks Close on River Due to High Water, MPLS.

3 Locks Close on Mississippi River Due to High Water Flows

3 Locks Close on Mississippi River Due to High Water Flows

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has closed three locks on the Mississippi River in the Twin Cities to recreational boats due to high water flows.

The closures affect the Upper and Lower St. Anthony Falls locks in downtown Minneapolis, and Lock and Dam 1 near Minnehaha Park between Minneapolis and St. Paul.

For safety, the Corps closes these locks to recreational boaters when river flows exceed 30,000 cubic feet per second, and it closes them to commercial traffic at 40,000 cubic feet per second.

The Corps says it expects to closures could last around 6-days.

Hmm, I bet I know where the channels are taking cover.

Must be April 1st.

This is probably going to sound like a dumb question to many of you, but being new this year to fishing Pool 2, is the river dangerous to fish when it is this high? We were hoping to get back out on Pool 2 from the Lillydale ramp this weekend, but this made us a bit nervous. Thanks for any insight you veterans to fishing the river might have!

Awesome! Its going to keep all the dirty south siders from accessing my waters.

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This is probably going to sound like a dumb question to many of you, but being new this year to fishing Pool 2, is the river dangerous to fish when it is this high? We were hoping to get back out on Pool 2 from the Lillydale ramp this weekend, but this made us a bit nervous.

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It’s not a dumb question. What would be dumb is NOT to recognize your inexperience and to blunder into a very bad potential situation. There is a big difference between what you can do and what you SHOULD do.

The river is never completely safe, but it is especially dangerous now. IMO, it would be very dangerous to be out on the river in these weather and water conditions.

There is a lot of debris in the water right now, making running at speed very dangerous. The water is also very cold, probably around 45 degrees, so if you were to end up in the water, you would have about 10-15 minutes before you become incapacitated and from there death would be almost certain.

My advice would be to gain experience by going down and looking at the river, so therefore recognizing what is out of your league. As they say in aviation, the most important flying decision is understanding when NOT to fly.

Grouse

Grouse has some good points. Since I don’t know your experience, maybe some very good points.

I would recommend going out with someone that’s been on the river during higher water.

At these levels it’s certainly fishable.

Couple quick tips for higher water that should be used at anytime.

1) If anchoring, always have your motor running before pulling anchor.

2) If the main motor stops, toss out your anchor to keep the boat from drifting into trouble.

3) Always wear a pfd.

4) When anchoring watch for debris. If a tree bumps your boat even using spot lock and it’s not seen coming it could send you into the drink.

It’s big fish time on the river. No one here can tell you to go or not because we don’t know enough. Heck you could be running a 3 hp motor for all we know.

Just go and do it. Yes its high, yes its cold, yes it is more dangerous than walking the shoreline but its not that horrible. My first time out was in high water such as this and I am still alive and all I run is a 14′ with 15hp. If you have small boat throw your weight plus 10# of weight into front of boat. Going dolphin in the current was the scariest for me but having an even load into boat cures that. Just be ready to curse the whole time and forget fishing you will be too busy trying to learn the ropes of the river. Go slow and watch for the hundreds of thousands of logs floating down and you will have a new experience notched in your belt.

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3) Always wear a pfd.

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I’d make that #1.

Just sayin’

have a knife to cut that anchor rope
some of that debris might try take the boat under
using the anchor rope

DANGEROUS for sure all of these are very true…. pfd, knife to cut ancor rope sounds crazy but be prepared, and travel SLOW. These would be the tops on my list.

I’ll add to Brian’s list here that you NEVER anchor from the rear of the boat when in fast water or around anything the anchor can hang up on. Over the years I have seen two boats go under in fast water because an anchor got tossed out the back of the boat. Both of these occurances were at Alma but can happen anywhere.

And fast water or in any current if you use two anchors always pull the rear anchor first so the boats bow turns twards the current, then pull the front anchor. In faster current never throw out a rear anchor incase the front anchor slips, you’ll end up with the stern pointing twards the current in a few seconds and thats when they swamp. Its always good to have a working bilge pump thats not plugged, in my opionion you can’t buy one big enough if you have water in the boat and you need to drain it fast.