root river

i was wondering how you guys fished that strech of the root river between preston and lanesboro. do you drive along until you find a accesable spot or do you use a canoe to float down it? if you use a canoe where do you put in and take out and about how long does it take?

I like to put a canoe in at Preston by the Hwy52 bridge. Its a descent stretch and a good way to get at more remote areas of the Root. You can take out at the old barn resort bridge( 2-3 hrs fishing and canoeing approx), or take out at Lanesboro dam.(4-5 hrs appprox) depending on how you fish etc etc. The last few miles above Lanesboro is slack water and reqiures a lot more paddling. Watch for fallen trees closer to Preston as they can catch you off guard and swamp you. Lanesboro outfitters can shuttle you with or without ther canoes if you dont have transportation. I personnally have had excellent fishing on this stretch EXCEPT on the slow water above the Lanesboro dam, but I would think there would be some hogs in there. Good luck!!

I fished the Root below the dam on tuesday and the water seemed down but was really dirty. A week ago I pulled some nice brownies out of there and with the same lures on tues. I managed one follow and one confirmed strike. down river where the second set of bridges cross, both road and bike, is another good spot with a lot of decent fish in there.

thanks a lot for the tips. i might try that sometime this weekend and tell you how i did.

Jake,
The most efective way to fish this stretch of river is to walk down the bike trail and enter the stream than work your way back upstream to your car. always wade, always work upstream. There is usually a spot to park around most bridges.
John

tryed the strech on the root on friday. we fished down stream from the bridge at preston and worked are way back up. we must have not had the right spot or something. we fished for a good part of 2 hours and caught 4 fish between two of us, all very small. what did we do wrong, we even made a special stop in chatfield and picked up those super bow spinners.

The 4th traffic as well as the heat has made fishing somewhat tough, I was out Sunday further downstream, almost to Lanesboro. Although the fishing was slow, I found a lot of smaller Rainbows in the rapids and at the base of fast running water. Big flashy spinners on a very slow retreive were the key to these, but few were over 11″.

Thanks for buying some Super Bow spinners, you should have good luck with them.

Because of the heavy fishing pressure around Preston and lanesboro, you need to go where others generaly don’t fish. This means that you have to walk farther than most folks would. From Preston, walk down the bike trail until you reach the first picnic table on the side of the trail. (about one hour).

Going farther down to the first Iron bridge where the bike trail crosses the river has been good also. I haven’t fished these areas since 7/1 but they were produceing at that time. You can also walk upstream form The Old Barn Resort, and reach these places from there, it is about the same distance, or strike out on your own going down stream from there. Sunday I was way down stream from The Old Barn. If walking is a problem, you can put a canoe in at Pooler Park in Preston and paddle down to these places and arrange your pick up at the bridge By the Old Barn Resort.

I hope this helps.

John