water for boating

[fish_eat_sleep]

Where could a guy travel to for open water fishing within 4 hours of the metro?

What sections of the rivers are open? what can be legally caught? What about northern iowa or southwestern mn?

Does anyone know of a place for a single day trip for late february? I assume there are not many good options until april or early may but i thought id ask.

[Flaco651]

I've seen a few boats on pool 2 in the Saint Paul area this week. It's catch and release with no closed season for walleye, sauger, largemouth and smallmouth bass in that pool of the 'sippi. If you were looking to keep a few, pool 4 near Red Wing is an option. People fish that area by boat all year round.

[fish_eat_sleep]

catch and release is fine. Thanks for the info!

[Flaco651]

Check out the reports by Denver McKinnon here. for pools 3 & 4.

[RiverFish]

Wisconsin Dells. John Gillespie had a show on it this past Saturday. Great vacation trip if you have a family. Legal to keep walleyes and saugers.

[TSchultz]

Go to red wing pool 4. Open water relatively close to lakeville, and you can keep walleyes.

[fish_eat_sleep]

Drove through st paul today, at the ford dam there was 95% open water for a good distance but there was a good amount of ice along shore in front of the public access. probably only 25 feet but enough not to launch a boat.

At red wing is there ever the problem of ice forming in front of the access preventing one from launching? I wouldn't want to head down there and have a dangerous time on an icy ramp or have to deal with a little ice blocking the ramp.

thanks

[Brad B]

Where could a guy travel to for open water fishing within 4 hours of the metro?

What sections of the rivers are open? what can be legally caught? What about northern iowa or southwestern mn?

Does anyone know of a place for a single day trip for late february? I assume there are not many good options until april or early may but i thought id ask.

are you looking for places to fish from shore or a boat. if shore spots then come north to monticello and try the mississippi river. legal fish would include small mouth bass(catch & release only, season ends the 26th), channel cats are possible, suckers, carp, & maybe northern(season end the 26th for them also). the river in monticello is open year round because of the nuke plant.

my bad I see you were looking for boating spots. the river by monticello is shallow but if you have a flat bottom boat you would be fine.

[Flaco651]

Everything I saw of pool 2 was mostly open today, but I did notice some ice reformed from these last couple colder days and nights like you said. Hidden Falls and Lilydale were open just days ago and by the looks of the forecast will be again in a day or two.

So pool 4 will probably be your safer bet. Keep an eye on the Mississippi River pools forums for updated conditions.

[TSchultz]

Everts resort just on the wisconson salts and maintains their ramps well worth the few bucks to launch there, and you can grab your bait. Oh, I've never seen ice block the shore either, the power plant takes care of that.

Evertsfishingresort.com

[fish_eat_sleep]

Thanks everyone! Sounds like the river is my best best.

[Fish Head]

Brady?

[JohnMickish]

Pool 4, Baypoint park in Red Wing has an open ramp into a nice current free bay.

[fish_eat_sleep]

That would be me Fish Head. Sounds like pool 4 is the place to go.

[Fish Head]

Ya, Eric told me you guys got rid of your Tracker for a smaller Alumacraft. You'll have to come up to our cabin again some weekend.

[fish_eat_sleep]

yeah, I think the alumacraft will be a better fit. less weight and less expensive to run and all. That would be fun to get few more of those nice fish up there! last week I found a picture of a smallmouth I caught when eric and I were out that one afternoon. On that one bucktail the rock stole from me. That was alot of fun.