Minnesota River accesses near Savage

[OnAFly]

I'm gonna be down south this weekend and I'm thinking of bringing the canoe with and getting a little catfishing in on Friday night. Anyone know good places to get onto the river near Savage? Anything I should know about that area before going there?

Any tips are appreciated!

[Alagnak]

Not too many issues. The flow is a little more 'normal' right now so no worries there- should be able to paddle fine up a ways if you aren't going to shuttle. There are barges up in that area. Sometimes you might not see one for days and then they'll be working an area moving around all night so just paddle clear, pull up on shore/ grab ahold of something if you needed too. Unless you had a radio cranked they don't exactly sneak up on you so there is plenty of time to move. If you are out after dark have plenty of light on and a safety vest/shirt if you can so others can steer clear of you. Last year I dam near ran over a canoe in Carver with no lights/reflectors and was blended in tied to a log jam quite a ways out from the bank. If I didn't already have plans friday I'd say hop in my boat if you wanted. Good luck if you get out.

[OnAFly]

Yeah, I didn't think about the barges. I looked around google maps a bit and I think I'll go out of the Shakopee landing off 101. From the looks of it, the barges are downstream of that a bit. If I stay out late, I'll probably have to improvise a light system with a couple headlamps. Thanks for the tips!

[OnAFly]

I ended up going out of the access at 41. I didn't know there were so many accesses in that area.

Only 1 cat in the canoe last night, but since it was only my 3rd time ever catfishing and first with a real cat rod, I was pretty happy with result. I just might have to go out again tonight

I'll add a photo later. For some reason the "add photo" feature isn't working on my phone.

[Alagnak]

Yeah pretty much every town has got an access- whether or not it's useable or not is always in question as the water is on the drop.

What's a 'real cat rod'? Cheap fiberglass with braided line and enough sand in the reel to hear it when you crank? :-)

At least you didn't get skunked. There were guys out for BP Cat League last night that didn't fair any better than that.

[clayton08]

I a canoe pass me last night while I was landing a 35 inch flathead.

[OnAFly]

Real cat rod meaning not just one of my walleye rods with 10lb braid on it. I picked up a cabelas kingcat and threw an old symetre on it with 30lb braid and a 25lb leader. Worked prety good, better than my other setups did.

I went out again last night and soaked cut mooneye and drum for 3 hours with nothing to show for it, so I took a tip from some of the threads on here and caught a few frogs and tried those. Got 2 in about 90min after that. Nothing real big, but it was nice to feel like I was figuring something out.

I don't think I paddled by anyone all night. Had a few people pass me fishing, but that was about it.