How much water is there?

As fall comes near, my mind turns to hunting the quackers. I know this is a “fishing” site, but your knowledge is the best to tap into. What kind of water conditions are we looking at for navigating a flatbottom in the nelson bottoms or tiffany bottoms between nelson and pepin. Has anyone ventured out there lately? Any info would be great.
Thanks in advance,
mustbefishing

I haven’t gone in the boat through the bottoms but drove the Nelson dike road last weekend. Looks like the water is down 1-2 feet at the landings. Lots of places that normally have some water are dry.

There should be enough water to get into a lot of places with a duck boat But you might want to check out your spots before the season starts. A lot of my best spots on pool 4 look a little challenging to say the least.

Gator Hunter

Gator Hunter,
Do you typically hunt the Tiffany bottoms or the Nelson bottoms? I try to stay away from the crowds, but this year it may be tough. Little supply, high demand. Exact opposite from last year. We had people hunting our spots from boats that normally you could only walk to. That obviously won’t be the case this year. The other concern is if you do find water, will there be vegetation close enough to the water to build a efficient blind. I can’t stand trying to hunt duck in the open. ANyway, its just fun to be talking about it again. Can’t wait for the opener.

mustbefishing

I haven’t hunted ducks in the last 4 years. I am planning on it though this season. Looking forward to hunting on the river. Lots of questions though. Like, can I launch from Wisconsin, hunt in MN with a MN license and then bring my ducks back to the WI landing?
Anyway, like you said, this is a fishing site but it would sure be kind of James and the gang to give us a hunting section.

Don’t know the answer , but the WI DNR might be able to answer your question 608-785-9000.

As far as I know, the area between the railroad tracks on either side of the river is considered interstate waters. You can hunt there with either a WI or MN license. The area where it becomes fuzzy for me is the matter of the launch site. I THINK that if you launch from MN you need a MN license and the same for WI. This is just a guess. Have never tested the theory. Maybe someone here knows the absolute truth. Let’s hope so. It would be nice if those kind of things were written in the Hunting Regs for both states.

On the Miss. where ia. ill. and wisc. border it, you can launch on whatever side you like but you can only hunt the state you are licensed for. The channel is the normal boundary. I’m assuming it’s the same for wisc. and minn., but then again nothing would suprise me.

You can only hunt the side of the river you are licensed for, and futhermore the center of the main channel is not always the dividing boundary. For instance, south of Brownsville on Pool 8, the old Minnesota channel is the boundary.

Besides the main navigation channel, the only other channel I know of south of Brownsville is ‘Raft Channel’. According to my Minnesota Atlas and Gazetteer and my Upper Mississippi River Navigation Charts the state boundary is the main navigation channel.
That makes no difference anyway because about a mile and a quarter south of Brownsville starts a waterfowl sanctuary that runs below the spillway at L&D 8 and is bordered by the west side of the main channel.

Dear mustbefishing
“As far as I know, the area between the railroad tracks on either side of the river is considered interstate waters. You can hunt there with either a WI or MN license.”

This is NOT SO for hunting. If you are hunting the MN side of the main channel you need a MN license, and same for the WI side of the channel. I know for fishing you can stay between the tracks and you’re fine, but not for hunting.

as for water conditions on the tiffani and dike road it is very low, everybody has said it has been the lowest they have ever seen it, so it brings many challenges to the table, but a good boat operator can be stopped by nothing, except for maybe a long sandbar. Watch out for them suckers they get ya bad.

There is no boundary watwers as far as hunting is concerned. Each side of the navigation channel belongs to that state. the boundaries were set many years ago so in some places they are not where the main channel is now. If there is any doubt the safe thing to do is ask a conservation officer. The legality of boating between Wisconsin and Minnesota with a limit of ducks is an interesting question. Good luck this season guys.

Gator Hunter

Thanks for the info guys!