St. Paul Park boat ramp closed!

Just an FYI for all who go down to St Paul Park to launch their boats or are thinking about walking to the island that the launch and the road down to it is closed due to high water. I was there yesterday when the city worker put out the road closed sign and asked him if the ramp was closed? He said no. Just the island was. So I went today to launch my boat. I didn’t even get the straps off when a STPP cop came down and booted me out of there. I told her that the city guy said it was ok to launch but she said she checked with her supervisor and he said no. I then proceeded to ask her (in a nice manner ) why aren’t the other ramps closed? She said she only works for STPP and can’t make decisions for the other ramps. Ok. So I left. It would have been too far for me to put in at 494 and drive down to where I wanted to fish so I gave up. It looks like it was the only nice day in awhile to get out and that’s why I wanted to take advantage of it. I wanted to get out!!! Oh well…guess I saved some gas in the boat. But I had to drive 15 miles one way to get there!!!

15 miles!? Heck, I drive 35 miles one way just to get a chance to fish down there. Closer to 40 if I drive down to the 494 ramp. I suppose that launch will be closed for a few days now. Hopefully, it will be reopened by next weekend.

I’m ok with them closing the access there. Water keeps coming up. I wouldnt put in there.

494 is flooded out too. Tricky putting in if you don’t know where the cement divider is. Water out over the access near the tree in the turn around. I would not be surprised if it closed.

-J.

I know 15 miles isn’t much but it was just the point that I got myself psyched up and boat ready (yesterday for 5 hours!!) to go fishing only to be let down at the ramp. It could be worse I guess. It could be 70 for the next week and can’t get on! I guess if I can’t get on then we may as well get the weather we are going to get. It’s just that it’s been a long long winter.

The ramp actually looked good and I’ve put in there before when it’s been that high? We had a bass tourney one spring when it was higher than that? I do understand why they did it. And I’m ok with it…now…especially since the weather is going to suck!! It was just that I wanted to go so bad!!

Hidden Falls ramp is closed too. The water is high & really moving! I drove by & saw one boat near Fort Snelling.

Hidden falls is closed and so is Lilly dale. Glad to see there are still some complete idiots getting there boats out for a joy ride. Had some reject about run us over in a back channel this afternoon. Missed us by about 10′ while on plain and threw a nice wake into our boat. Joel can you post the name of idiots boat on hear so we know who to look out for this summer.

If you dont know what you are doing with launching or driving a boat dont put it in the river now.

Watergate marina would not allow any boats to be put in either.

I’m sure besides the issue of maybe something going wrong at the landings there is the wave (boat wakes?) action, too. It’s bad enough that the river is eroding the river we don’t need our boats making it worse.

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Had some reject about run us over in a back channel this afternoon. Missed us by about 10′ while on plain and threw a nice wake into our boat. Joel can you post the name of idiots boat on hear so we know who to look out for this summer.

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The boat name was “Fog Ducking”…I had just move from the seat behind the driver, Joel, to the spot beside the center console. Had I not moved, I would have gotten completely soaked by the idiot’s boat wake splooshing over the side of Joel’s boat.

Some people… .

Sould have stopped over at Willies hidden harbor!! or whatever it is called now. Olny time they have shut that one down was in 97 when the whole river was closed to motorized traffic due to high water. I dont know if they are even in opporation yet but could always launch and pay up at the shop.

All of the St. Paul gates are locked.
You can’t even get into the parks.
Good luck
cheers

you could put in at Willies, or the Hastings Spring Lake Park Access. with the high water it shouldn’t be a problem getting a boat in there now.

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you could put in at Willies, or the Hastings Spring Lake Park Access. with the high water it shouldn’t be a problem getting a boat in there now.

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Are you talking about going over to the Willies harbor access? What do they charge? And how is the parking there?

-J.

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you could put in at Willies, or the Hastings Spring Lake Park Access. with the high water it shouldn’t be a problem getting a boat in there now.

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Willies…never thought of that but is it closed, too? And Spring Park…South of the dam? I’d have to lock back up. A lot of a hassle. Unless you’re talking about the ramp down that long dirt un maintained road? I tried that….too sandy for my rig. I couldn’t float the boat. Water is high but not much of an incline. I didn’t want to get stuck. Looks like a good place but I’d really be up a creek if I got stuck there.!

ramps are closed, water temp is still 36, and it was snowing this morning. I got the pool 2 blues.

I launched out of Hidden Falls on Saturday. It can be tough to get on the trailer there even under normal current conditions, and on Saturday it was darn near impossible. They must have closed it on Sunday.

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you could put in at Willies, or the Hastings Spring Lake Park Access. with the high water it shouldn’t be a problem getting a boat in there now.

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Willies…never thought of that but is it closed, too? And Spring Park…South of the dam? I’d have to lock back up. A lot of a hassle. Unless you’re talking about the ramp down that long dirt un maintained road? I tried that….too sandy for my rig. I couldn’t float the boat. Water is high but not much of an incline. I didn’t want to get stuck. Looks like a good place but I’d really be up a creek if I got stuck there.!

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yes, the one down the minimum maintenance road. it isn’t that bad, and its all sand bottom there, so it would be damn near impossible to get a truck stuck. last year during duck season, there was a guy launching an 18ft Pro-V there for a few days, and that is during low fall water conditions. it can be done, you may need to bring waders or hip boots to get the boat on/off the trailer though since there is not much of an incline.

not much of a big boat access, but it is an option with the others being closed.

Jon – as far as willies, its like 8 bucks, and there is tons of parking, and nice ramps/docks there. there might not be anybody around there though, if that is the case, i would just launch and not worry about it. we did that plenty of times last summer. you could tape a note on the door of the place if nobody is around, letting them know you’ll pay, what vehicle you have, etc.

plus you could always check with like Twin City Marina on the IGH side of the river, they might have open ramps.

Good info, thanks Perch!!

-J.

I checked with Twin City Marina…..they’ll only let you launch if you enroll in their “land and launch” program.

its 500 bucks unlimited launches for the summer

you can also donate an arm or a leg if you’re willing

OK..So I still don’t get it…Willies is open and safe but the ramp next to it is closed and unsafe?? So the police are only concerned about the public safety of the city ramp but not a private ramp? Shouldn’t they be concerned with all person’s (public or private) safety? Even in the same town (200 yards away?) if that is their concern? That’s why I got booted out of the Lions Levy Ramp? And she said she has no control over the other ramps out of her jurisdiction but isn’t Willies in their jurisdiction?

BTW…I tried to call Willies to see if they were open and I got the number is incorrect. It’s the number off the internet.

Willies Hidden Harbor

I would guess the City’s Attorney is making a decision to minimize liability potential in closing the public ramp. The private ramp legal liability is borne by a private party and not the taxpayers of the city.

When I stopped by Watergate on Sunday the lady workin said that the sherriff was in and told them not to allow boats to launch til further notified. We simply headed down to 494. Looks like the river is on its way down so we should be back into any landing soon enough.

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OK..So I still don’t get it…Willies is open and safe but the ramp next to it is closed and unsafe?? So the police are only concerned about the public safety of the city ramp but not a private ramp? Shouldn’t they be concerned with all person’s (public or private) safety? Even in the same town (200 yards away?) if that is their concern? That’s why I got booted out of the Lions Levy Ramp? And she said she has no control over the other ramps out of her jurisdiction but isn’t Willies in their jurisdiction?

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Ok…so the sheriff doesn’t care about Willies? Aren’t they in the same county? Or is Willies closed now, too?

Willies sold out a few years ago and the new name was Hidden Village I believe. Last I heard its back up for sale but I would have to think someone is around. There is the boat shop at the top of the entrance on the right. I might stop down there today will report back if I hear anything! They used to charge 10 bucks to launch and 5 to park overnight with the trailer. That was a few years ago so I have no idea what the new owners are charging. Beyond that it is a very safe dock to load at. It is in the back of the harbor and there is 0 current. Ramp was getting old and is a little steep but should be able to drop anything you can drag down there without a problem.
Has the river been declared “no watercraft allowed”. I cannot believe the sheriff can tell a private business what to do at this point unless there is safety issues with road access to the area. Lions levee and willies are both a good there but I can see there thoughts about lions park. They are just watching out for peoples poor decisions. It olny takes one of those guys. Really it is no different than launching at Hasting public landing right now. It would be fun to watch!!

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Has the river been declared “no watercraft allowed”.

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Not that I know of. Benn putting in at 494.

I had no problem dropping down at the levee today. Never did stop by over at the old willies. Road closed sign was there but to the side. Launch is in about the same shape that it gets to every year. Still will be a bit before your able to use the dock. No problems launching and river was down a bit from a couple days ago. Seen one other boat down on the river but was olny out about an hour.

Lucky!!

What was the water temp?

38-38.7 in most areas. Today is not going to help there