Flooded back waters

Have often heard of excellent fishing during times of high water – new habitat for bass. I had planned to go out fishing this Thursday but with the heavy rains I’m re-considering location. I have a 16 foot tiller/60 hp, any suggestions on flooded areas I can access and maybe find some good fishing? Am thinking within about an hour of the metro area. PM’s are fine too..

Not much of a bass fisherman but when dealing with high water just head into the backwaters looking for current seams. Fast rising water can send the fish scrambling looking for new spots to set up. Once set up in can be some pretty decent fishing. Back water rocks are good. Places with feeder streams coming in can be good.

High water is just a great time to get out and explore many areas you cant get to any other time of the year. Do be careful though. High water is not a great time to get out for someone not used to their boat or test out new equipment.

Thanks Mike. New batteries for the trolling motor and a 4 stroke w/EFI help from a reliability standpoint … just need to figure out a location to try out.

Don’t know of any specific locations up there. But in my neck of the woods (Pool 9) this is what we look for. When the river is rising… As Mike said, all fish are on the move transitioning to new areas. Fishing can be tough, especially if the river is rising fast. The theme is to find cleaner water. When the river gets really high… you have lots of realestate that the fish can now inhabit. Bass will push quickly as far back as they can into new areas to take advantage of the new food sources. We like to use inflowing creeks to access these newly flooded areas. My favorite time is when the river starts falling. As the river falls, the gin clear water starts coming back out and meeting the dirtier water of the main sloughs and channel creating color lines. Those are great ambush places for predators. Any of the outlets where the water is coming out clear usually holds a lot of fish… both at the color line and up into the outlet. Bass and many other fish follow the same patterns. When the water is really high, fish can be scattered… then its time to cover some water. Use an active search bait and get moving! We catch a lot of walleyes doing this too . The best fishing though is if you can find funnels where the fish will be concentrated transitioning back and forth. Good luck!

Thank you fellow “fry.” Wish I were in your area, sounds like you have some good potential targets..

Wabasha is more then an hour, but that is where I often fish. Good back waters through the cut on the WI side, using the cut by the bridge. Also just as you go down river, when the houses end, keep making right turns into the backwaters area’s until you get to main land. Watch out for wings dams and trees.stumps, with this high water you still need to be careful. Bitsy bug jigs with small craws, tubes and finesse worms.

Thanks, I have gone in at Wabasha before…at the Isaac Walton boat ramp I believe. I think that “cut” you are talking about is a little downstream from the launch, under the bridge and to the WI side. There is a big neckdown with faster current there but DEEP. Have only fished back in that area once but not this time of year. That is a good possibility – thanks again. -Fry

If you’re looking for somewhere about an hour away from the metro, the mississippi river in the st.cloud area has a lot of flooded back waters that I have pulled big small mouth out of. Ive noticed that the small mouth have been in thick sticks in super shallow water. Casting tubes or x-raps really slow have been key right now.