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What's the best section on da Sippi for Skis?


EBass

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Little Falls?

Royalton?

Sartel?

St. Cloud?

Brainerd?

Taking a buddy who hasn't fished for Ski's on da river and well I'm a bass guy so I dunno. Saw a nice Ski in Little Falls eons ago, but was fishing for bass.

Suggestions?

Thanks

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I'm a bit more of a bass guy myself but like to dabble with the big pigs myself. I just talked to a buddy of mine while we were out chasing ski's the other night about this. I went to school at SCSU and fished that stretch quite a bit for smallies and always heard about people catching muskies. I got bit off once and couls swear it was a nice / decent musky. However my buddy who is much wiser than I when it comes to chasin the ski's said the the larger population and larger fish reside closer to Brainerd. Targeting them further south toward St. Cloud he said would be a tough go. The Linders have made several shows filmed up on some small rivers / tributaries to the Sissppi. Good luck.

Fever

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I've fished it for muskies north of St Cloud but it was tough going. Mostly around St Cloud so I can't say for north or south much farther. I'd like to fish around Little Falls, but I'd have to guess you'd need a smaller boat to fish around Brainerd.

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Crow Wing Park area of the river is very good. You will want a jet boat or some small boat with shallow draft in the water. This section is very hairy. THe area below Blanchards dam is good too, but the only reasonable way to get there is by unloading at the Sportsman's Park there. Again, you need a small boat. Later in the Fall they are more predictable and can be found downstream closer to Sartell in the deep pools, but this time of year it is pretty tough.

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Thanks for the replys - I have a 14' Jon boat with 25H short shaft. I'm not worried about my boat or hitting anything. That happens. I just want my buddy to move/catch a ski.

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Be careful in that river, realize James Lindner can wreck a boat and have a new one by tomorrow with little to no skin off his knuckles, I know the thinking less lures = easier to catch but finding them is no easy task, remember in '96 they did that tracking study and I bet Jimmy got plenty of quality intel from the DNR on seasonal migrations and locations and his waypoints hold true year to year. He shortened the curve and I don't blame him, we also don't get to see his fishless days on the river, we see the glory, the highlights but what's being said off camera would be more valuable than the video itself.

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not to stear you some where else but Little Falls may just be the better spot right now as the water will be a little cleaner and if you look hard enough you should be able to locate and maybe even boat one in short amount of time then up here near Brainerd. There is way to much river (brnd) to start prospecting and the water is extremely dirty.

Good luck in your adventure!

mr

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Thanks guys - I'll have a report of some sort and will post on Monday. I'm pretty good at reading a river, but yes I've torn through a few props and a lower unit so I'll be carefull. Dang boulders!

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Bad news/Good news

Bad news first. I snagged someones line and felt it had some weight. I pulled it up and it was just an odd looking rock. Upon further inspection the rock was loaded with Zebra Mussels. I tossed that rock way up on shore. Also smacked a boulder pretty good. Even though the water is up there are places were I saw 1.3feet. And the deer flies are horrid!

Now the good news.

Pull up to a small cove so I can retie some stuff and on the 2nd cast my buddy catches a 33" thick pike. 20 mins later he has a small ski get off at the boat. He got other smaller pike and some smallies too keep him hucking those ski lures.

I focused on the bass and well you guys don't care about that.

So one small ski lost at boat side and a nice pike. Not too shabby

May try it again but more north.

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  EBass said:
Bad news/Good news

Upon further inspection the rock was loaded with Zebra Mussels.

What section were you fishing? There are a lot of dams in this area so this stuff isnt making its way North without human intervention.

These things worry me a lot. Maybe they wont have as much impact on a river as they may on a lake with the constant water flow, but its still scary thinking of the impact these things can have.

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They were found near Brainerd (Rice Lake) so every where south of there. I was reading up on them and an adult female can spawn 30,000 to a million eggs a year. Also read that crayfish do eat them and at some Polish lake there's a fish (Common Roach) that has 95% of their diet from zebra mussels, but they still don't put a dent in the population. Say goodbye to the native clam population - sucks!

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There is a sterile algae that only the zebra mussels eat and it will kill them. The algae doesn't reproduce or have any know ill-effects but it takes time to get these experiments introduced. I hope it happens fast. Mille lacs is covered in them and tonka is spreading like wildfire.

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