first time on the river

I am planning on puting my boat in the mississippi for the first time this weekend. Does anyone have any suggestions for where to go and anything that i need to know before launching?
I live in St Louis Park and was planning on fishing pools 1 or 2. So where is the closest good ramp? I only have a two wheel drive truck so i need a concrete ramp to be able to get my boat back out of the water.

thanks for any info.

Things to know-the current is still very strong. Unless you go down to the 494 ramp in St Paul Park, you will have a tough time launching/loading if you have a larger boat and are by yourself. The Lillydale ramp at Highway 13 & 35E is OK, but there is no dock. Hidden Falls is closed. I dont know much about Pool 1-but I think that it is more of a smallmouth bite.

As far as catching…keep moving and trying things. It sounds like the wing dams by the 494 ramp are holding fish. With the current being strong-still focus on current breaks. To be honest…I havent had much luck of late by the Ford Dam. Lots of smaller fish, but nothing to brag about. Things should start picking up real soon though.

Watergate Maria off of Shephard Rd is an easy place to launch. It’s just a mile or two down stream from Hidden Falls. They charge a $8 or $10 fee though.

My first time on the River I did not know what I was doing and racked my prop on a wing dam. Red marks WI side of the channel and Green the MN side. sounds basic but just in case you didn’t know.

Thanks for the help. I have no problem paying $10 for a good place to launch. which direction from that launch would you sugest we go? I’m not picky about what i catch i just want to catch some fish. i would perfer to find some walleye or smallmouth.

Right out of the marina, I’ve done pretty good at trolling the Ft Snelling side upstream to the bridge. Trolling cranks (#5 firetiger was hot a couple of weeks ago) in 6-10′ of water got me bit consistantly. Another good spot is below and next to the lock.

There is also a large eddy right in front of the Hidden Falls ramp that usually holds some fish. It is only 1/2 mile up river from Watergate.

Generally you’ll get a 7+ lb. walleye, or 4+ Lb. Smally… It’s the Devil’s way of getting you hooked on the river. It’ll mean lot’s of overtime for all the toys your just gonna have to buy later on I think the devil gets a kick out of it! Now that I have got your adrenalin going, don’t forget to put your drain plug in before leaving the house. and watch for surface ripples & boils indicatiing hidden obstructions below. Have fun! {John}

Thanks for all the help. My friend and I went out of South St. Paul sunday morning. the first spot we tried we got 6.5 and 4.5 pound walleyes and a bunch of nice stripers. after that we moved up stream and were only able to find a few more stripes. it was just enough to make sure that I will be returning to the river.

I have two more questions…

how far up stream is the Watergate Marina from the South St. Paul ramp.

Do all of the red and green buoys mark wing dams? I was not able to see any current breaks around them and did not see anything on the graph when i went inside of them.

thanks again for all of the info.

The red and green buoys mark the river channel stay between them and you wont have to worry about wing dams and shallows. Not every buoy is on a wing dam .
Good luck fishing.

I would guess that it is about 10 miles from the St Paul Park ramp to Watergate Marina. If you pull out a map, the St Paul Park ramp is where 494 crosses the river and Watergate is about 1/2 mile above the Miss and MN river confluence. One more thought for you and Waterfowler can help on this if he checks in-you can also launch on the MN River around Cedar (77) and the MN river and travel to the Miss. If you are on the western end of town and want to avoid going through the city this may be an option for fishing the upper part of the river. I think that this will save you some time. But I dont know what the ramp is like.

There is a ramp right underneath the Hwy 77 (Cedar Ave) bridge. There is also a ramp in Ft Snelling State park which is closer to the confluence. Both are part of the state park so would require either a daily fee or yearly pass. Both are pretty good launches.

Where is/how do I get to the landing at Ft Snelling St Park?

It’s within FT Snelling State Park which is basically across Hwy 5 from the Airport. From Hwy 5 take the Post Rd. exit – there will be large signs to direct you when to exit the Hwy. Once at the park there are signs to point the way to the launch or you can ask at the main gate where you pay to get in. You could drive by there every day and not know the park is there (other than the roadsigns) but it’s a neat park. Nice place to take the kids for a picnic

Drove into the park today. Looks like a great launch area, a dock and lots of parking! No major current to cause havoc when launching alone either.

Thanks for the heads up!