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I pretty much forgot that I had got out fishing this day. Went on a whim to this area just to see what, if anything, might be around. The water was up a little and that is generally when I like to fish here. It seems to push the fish to the clear water that flows tight to the shore.
For the record, getting here is relatively easy. As long as the water is flowing at 1500 cfs or slower, you can walk right across the river. I've done it at 1700, but that was my absolute limit and unless you're taller than 5 foot 9 and weigh more than 190 pounds, I don't recommend it.
But you must get across in a very specific spot. Too far north or south and you will regret it.
Parking is easy. Between the Marathon station and the railroad tracks is an area where no one has ever complained. Not really sure who even owns it. All I know is that nobody seems to care if you park there.
Walk south on the bike path till you see these boulders.
On the other side of the river you will see this.
You want to head toward where the wall ends on the left. Actually, you want to head about 40 to 50 feet before the wall ends. There are a couple of big pipes sticking out of the wall and you can see the riffles they are creating all the way across the river. You want to head directly to those pipes. 20 feet upstream of the pipes would be even better. You may want to fish the lift in front of them before you go stomping through a potentially good spot.
These are the pipes as seen from above.
During the warmer weather the downstream side can hold a few fish too.
I usually walk up on land till I get about 100 feet before the outflow, then I drop down into the river. The water coming out of the plant is crystal clear, so if you walk right up to it and stand on shore looking down at it, you just blew your chance to catch the fish that were sitting off on the edge. This one was caught about 100 feet before the outflow. Apparently just hanging out sucking down anything that decided to head that way.
You definitely want to fish the outside edges first where it is flowing out and to the left. I've caught some pretty nice smallies sitting in water that is barely a foot deep that way.
This guy was initially spooked into this tree.
But as I caught a few fish it came down to investigate and stuck around to catch a few fish of its own. I've seen herons do this. They get so excited seeing the fish you hook jump around on the surface that they'll practically walk right up to you to check out what you're catching. Kind of creepy really.
I wandered all the way down and a little past the high tension wires. Just kind of liked the way this looked in the sun, I guess.
Wound up only landing 7, but I had 3 at the plant that were heavier than hell. Got away of course. Quite a few missed hits down on the flats too.
In the bend back back beyond the flats and just near the wires, there is a tangle of trees that has been there forever. Just in front of this pile of dead wood I caught about a 2 foot northern. I was trying to figure out how to get to shallower water to get it off the hook, learned years ago not to attempt this with fish with teeth when standing crotch deep in water, and the thing got off.
I was bummed. You don't see many pike down this way. I have a growing collection of various close ups of fish that I've been trying to get and I missed this perfect opportunity. I don't hook these that often. I think the last one came from about this same spot about 5 years ago and was 14 inches. Hopefully I won't have to wait another 5 years to hook another one.