I grew up in Blaine, and down the street was a drainage crick.

When I was about 13, a buddy of mine decided we should wade up the crick one spring.

He decided to bring his dad's old seign with. The deepest water we found was probably 4 feet deep. When he retrieved his net to see what he had, there were 5" sunnies, 10" northerns, and some mud puppie looking things.

The guy across the street from me told me of one high water spring when he and a buddy caught large Crappies out of an irrigation ditch on a sod farm near Cambridge.

Huh?

Anyone else run into fish in unexpected places?

It's amazing what kind of fish you will find if you explore the little cricks around your home. The 3-foot wide creek behind my house has bullheads, white suckers, bluegills, baby carp, various shiners, dace, sticklebacks and a good population of crayfish in it. This is also in Blaine. We seined a tiny creek north of Bethel to gather some shiners last summer. It was pretty cool to see lots of 10-12 inch largemouths, suckers and chubs, plus one 20" pike swam by with a 6" sucker crosswise in it's mouth. I would guess that no one has probably ever fished this water, and it's right in the suburbs! Just more proof that good fishing is wherever you find it.........~hogsucker

I agree! I think that is so cool that you guys sein those cricks! I grew up in Andover and we used to net fatheads (at least they looked like them) out of a crick to fish with, and then one day we threw little dare-devils and caught 3 little (12") northern... This inspired us to fish the crick more and now we got a nice little place to catch footlong suckers if we want with nightcrawlers.. Its a great fight when its such a tiny crick you're fishin!

I fish nine mile creek in Bloomington just a mile from where I grew up. It's amazing what those little creeks hold. Not too long ago, I saw a picture of a 46 pound carp come out of my favorite hole! I've caught just about every species in the book, but my personal best was around a 20 lbs carp and a few 4 lb northerns. You can catch just about anything on an oatmeal or cornmeal boil.

I haven't done a lot of river fishing so I'm a little ignorant about techniques, but what is an oatmeal or cornmeal boil?

Check out this website if your interested They're a little doctored up more than I like, but you'll get the picture.
I use cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and strawberry jello with cornmeal. I've found cornmeal holds up much better. One time I was bored and tried eating some of my bait, threw up for the rest of the day but the carp love it!!!

http://www.lake-online.com/fishinhole/carp-bait-recipes.html

LOL EidesRX - that was funny.

Thanks EidesRX, Great story too!

There is a creek by my house, which is a good sized creek. Downstream a ways it connects to the Minnesota River. I have caught perch, sunfish, crappies, bullheads, sheephead, carp, walleyes, suckers, shiners, shad (i think), catfish, gar, and seen the biggest northern of my life in there! My favorite way to fish these small streams is with my fly rod. Nothing fights better than a big carp on Fly Rod!

What kind of bait do you use for flyfishing carp?
I have always used worms and doughballs and used my catfish rod but, I have never even thought of flyfishing carp?
Great idea though

I always use wet flies, size 8-14. My most productive flies are large pheasant tails, clinger nymphs, baetis nymphs and also some flies that i have made up. Carp will bit almost any fly that you can get on or near the bottom. The color orange seems to work really well. If you are fishing current you are going to want to use beadhead/weighted flies that are going to get to the bottom. Using a light leader doesn't seem to make much of a difference (you just lose more fish )I normally use 12lb regular fishing line. Hope this information helps.

I used to live in Rochester and I fished the Zumbro right there in down town. I used to catch smallies by the dozen with my personal best being at if not over 4 lbs (I didn't have a scale with me because I didn't think they got that big there). I caught largemouth, white and black crappie, pearch, gills of every species, I've caught some pike in the uper 20"s as well as one very nice walleye that I bet was over 3 lbs. You would be amazed what you can catch out of these rivers if you actually fish them, especially when the majority of the population have no clue what is in there.

I grew up in the projects and there's this crick drainage right beside the road. At that time it was Amusement City there across from McCarrons. After a nice big rain and water be flowing through the drainage hole, there'll be a school of carp swimming in there. You can catch all sorts of fish in it. Carp, perch, pikes, sunnies, large mouth bass. It's practically ridiculous. If you use a dip net you can catch a lot of baby fishes. Baby bass, baby crappies, baby pikes, baby sunnies, baby carps, baby bullheads.

I wonder if it's still there?

I remember that SliperryBob! I'm sad to say its no longer there. I use to walk rice street down to the amusement park that was years ago! I saw that big ole school of carp!!! They were huge! I've always wondered how I could catch those things at the age of 12.

I have seen bullheads carp sunfish perch crappies and even 2 walleyes. In a Creek that goes through town. Also Lots of shiners and leechs to get bait out of to.