Wabasha Bait shops

Coming up to Wabasha, Wed thru Sunday to do some duck hunting. Hoping to duck hunt in the am then fish in the afternoon. Where is the best baitshop at? Anbody having any luck fishing in the area? Figured we’d just anchor on some wing dams and try our luck… Anyone have a water temp? Bait of choice, minnows or crawlers or? Not setup for any trolling, we’ll be fishing over the rolled up duck blind so we’re kinda limited…. Any suggestions on finding some crappies in the backwaters so if it’s too windy out in the channel we’d have a backup plan…

Lotta questions but trip just kinda came together in the last week , really appreciate any info.

I can answer the bait shop question. To the right of the boat launch in wabasha is a good bait shop…havent fished that area in a few weeks

Hi there – just stopped in to River Valley Outfitters this weekend and was impressed. The kids did well on plain hooks/crawlers for the bluegill, crappies were harder to find. I’ll be posting a report shortly.

Joel

Thanks for the info, anyone else been out in the area? Seen any ducks flying ? Can’t wait to get up there, looks to be great weather at least for fishing…

Ma and I were along the river between Lake City and Weaver today. The fishing sucked for larger crappies and sunfish, but the smaller [babes as Ma would call them] were easy to be had just using plastics.

If the bait shop in Wabasha doesn’t have what you need , go to Prairie Baits in Kellogg. Shorty will have it.

Ducks…

Our drive took us along many of the areas with water filled potholes both along the hiway and along the secondary blacktop roads as well. On the dike road between Wabasha and Nelson, WI, we saw fair numbers od mallards holding in protected areas. Between Wabasha and Kellogg we didn’t see a whole lot of duck numbers on potholes or in slough areas. At Weaver bottoms we saw the beginning of the swan migration and some rafts of ducks well away from shore. I could not make out what type of ducks we were looking at though. The real large number of ducks were seen inside the sanctuary near Beaver Corners in Whitewater. One of those protected ponds was so full of ducks and geese that seeing water was a challenge.

We haven’t had any real cold yet so most of the ducks you’ll find around this area will be locals. And these birds have probably been shot to no end and spooky.

Joel mentioned that the crappies were sort of sparce of late and I’d agree with that. Those we caught today were small.

Thanks for the info, really appreciate it. Was hoping for some cold weather further north to push some birds down, but it looks like blue skies for the end of the week so thats why I’m setting up a backup plan for fishing. Maybe we can get lucky and find a few fish at least….

Edit: tried looking up prarie baits, no luck. Got a street address?

Take Hiway 61 south from Wabasha to Kellogg. Take the second left [straight across the hiway from the Hiway 47 turn to the right]. Go about two blocks to the first right and its right there on the corner in front of you. The trip to Kellogg is about 6 miles.

Thanks, should get us right there. Another question, how about a place to pick up a prop for an old 30hp mariner/yamaha? My buddy ordered the wrong one and he’s scrambling trying to get one before we leave tomorrow afternoon… He’s running on the spare one now, would be nice to get a good one though.

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Hiway 47

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In case they look at this again…it is State Highway 42 (blue signs) not 47