Major snowmelt causing high waters, delaying boat launch

MINNEAPOLIS -- Even though the temperatures have warmed up, remnants of winter persist.

The Mississippi River is still flowing fast after a major snowmelt. Even though fishing season is open, parts of the river are closed.

"Well, the river's up because of more snow than normal and a faster runoff and its really kind of hurt a lot of the boating right now in the St. Croix and On the Mississippi the waters up," said Alan Tucker, who owns Supreme Marine - right off the river.

Tucker has been selling and storing boats for 35 years and says this year is tricky to navigate.

"As soon as it hits flood stage, they make it where it's no wake only.  So you can only idle around, you can't really boat which makes it kind of tough.  And some of the places, the marinas are under water so there's no parking lots, there's no way to get to your boat," he said.

Tucker actually has a backup in his lot of boats he is storing that need to go in the river.

The high river is also causing a boat launch shut down at Coon Rapids Regional Park. And up river, in Anoka, docks are stuck on shore, but there is an upside to the high river.  

Dominique Hodgkins spent the long weekend fishing in the Coon Rapids Regional Park.

"Me and my friend been out here and we have been catching a couple catfish, a couple bass. It's pretty decent actually cause there is an island here that's usually closed and now with waterflow it's been pretty good in that spot," Hodgkins said.

The DNR says the water is simply more dangerous right now.