Mississippi River Report. Aitkin.

Been a few years since I have made it up to fish this stretch of river. Wasnt sure if I was going to get out on it this weekend or not but managed to scrounge up a old 14′ boat and vintage 60s 5.5hp motor and it was go time.

Dropped the boat in at 169 landing north of Aitkin. The river was dropping fast and the landing was covered in slop mud. Off with the shoes and half way up to our knees in mud we jumped into the boat and away we went.

Trolling cranks was the game plan for the afternoon. Did alot of trolling before finding some active fish. Not the fish I was hoping for either. Started out with two channel cats that hit the cranks. Then we got into a slug of rock bass. Been a while since being on this stretch and started to wonder if these species where taking over. Managed to find one decent small mouth. No pike or walleyes but Im sure they are still there.

Late afternoon after getting rain on a number of times and starting to notice my breath in the air it was time to head in. Wasnt looking forward to hitting that mud caked landing again and then having to jump in my new truck. We ended up running the boat full speed (which was not very fast) into the landing and slid it over that mud. Then hooked the trailer up and drug the boat up to the top of the ramp and then winched it on. That mud was plenty of grease for dragging up the ramp. Ont he way home I was just hoping not to get stopped by the DNR and having to try to explain cleaning the boat of.

Fun trip. Not a ton of fish but have a pretty good idea Ill be back up there in the weeks to come with my jon boat. Will try to get some photos on those trips.

Mike, what are typical depths in that part of the river and what kinds of fish and sizes have you caught before?

That mud up there makes a few of those ramps interesting up that way after the water drops. How was the clarity? I’ve been itching to try a few new stretches ones the water clears up.

For that stretch its usually pretty shallow. Lots of boulders and gravel. Holes 5 to 10 in the deepest ones. Runs might just be a foot or two. Now up river of Palisade and around aitkin the river is a different animal. Lots more mud banks. Holes can be 20+ feet and runs 5′. I find many more fish in the shallow rocky stretches.

We used to catch a lot of walleyes. Not huge but plenty of eater size. Lots of northern of varying sizes. It seemed to me that the small mouth had been taking over the river. Tons of small mouth. Mostly mid sized but a fair number of bigger ones to.

The two channel cats I caught where the 1st I have ever seen in fishing this section for over 10 years.

The water was still dirty but would imagine its going to be in good shape very soon unless there is more rain. Would say its got another 1 to 2′ to drop until it hits it summer low stage. The tops of the biggest boulders where just starting to poke out of the water.

Nice report Mike…We usually do a few SMB float trips downstream of St Cloud and we seem to do best when water reaches Summer time lows. If we don’t get anymore rain I suspect things will shape up nicely in a week or two.

I used to fish the stretch around the grand rapids area pretty regularly. Lots of fun, good smallmouth, muskie, pike, and walleye if u know where to look. I would say pools go 5-8 ft, couple closer to 12′, but ran less than 2′ very rarely at normal flow. I was told there were no cats up that far in the Mississippi, interesting.

I had been told there where cats int he river near Aitkin but after fishing it regularly for many years had never caught one. Kinda figured maybe these people where just catching a few bigger bull heads. Was very surprised to catch the 1st one. More so when hauling in the second. And then to get them both trolling flicker shads. They where not big. Maybe a pound. Not sure if I can say its a good thing or not to see them up that far. Most likely good to see some more diversity in the river. Wouldnt hurt my feeling s at all if they ate a few of them small mouth and help rebound the walleye population.

Have not caught one yet but its been a few years now since the DNR was going to stock muskies in the stretch between Deerwood and Aitkin.