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St. Croix River Fishing Reports


Joe

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Fished this morning in the shantytown "area". Best action I've had on the river this year. Was at least 100 yards from any other shack. smile

Between 7:00 - 9:00 kept 6 crappies all between 10 & 12+ inches. Threw one back, lost a couple, missed a couple. Also caught a couple silvers and a sheepshead. frown Don't remember ever catching one through the ice before.

Not much ryme or reason to what they bit on. Caught a couple on a plain red hook, couple on a red Diamond jig, and a couple on a pink Genz Worm.

Can't get back this evening because of VD Day, but I'll be hittin' it again in the morning. The ice conditions are better than it's been all year. Do yourself a favor and bring your ice cleats. Don't have any? BUY SOME!

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I went out on Saturday night from 3:30-6:00 and caught 8 most of them on a red and some on a plain red hook. the best bite is from 3:00-5:30 then it shuts off.

I went out again on Sunday and caught and caught 6 from 3:00-5:00.

I have been doing better with small minnows they come up and look at the big ones but don't commit.

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Ash, you da man! I got 4 more Sunday morning somewhere near your spot. Have not been able to get out in the afternoon yet.

Good report, keep 'em coming.

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DonBo schooled me and Sutty yesterday afternoon. It took me ~6 hours to catch 5 keepers between noon and 6pm, Sutty had 5 or 6, and there's Don in his portable not 30 yards from me yelling out the wall "TWO MORE!". I think he said he had 8 keepers total, threw back a bunch more.

grrrrr

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Drove out of Prescott Saturday morning. First time out of that end this year, wanted to check a few spots that produced last March. Crappie bite was good when I got holes punched at 9:00 for an hour or so, then trailed off, then picked up again around 1:00ish. Lots of hole hopping looking for schools of baitfish near the bottom. Didn't catch much while the baitfish were directly below me, but when they moved out of the sonar cone there would be a couple marks remaining (crappies)that would then bite what I had down there. Bite was real light. Only a couple fish actually cruised up and inhaled the bait. I found the larger, more active fish in 20 fow within 4' of the bottom. That bit slowed so I checked out holes I drilled in deeper water. Deeper water (30-40 fow w/ fish 5 to 15' off the bottom) held fish the whole time, but on average were smaller and very light biters. Water was very dirty, couldn't see to the bottom of the hole. My usual dirty water goto large purple and black shrimpo got me a goose egg. Everything was caught on small jigging spoons (silver or gold) tipped with 1 or 2 Gulp! waxies (white). Ended up icing a dozen from 8" to 12" all C&R. A rapid jigging motion would get their attention, but they would only take the bait if it was practically motionless. There are a lot of year classes of crappies present in good numbers it seems this year. This fall and winter I have caught a spread of sizes from 7" to 13", with a unbelievable amount that are a cookie cutter 10-10.5" and as thick as two lake crappies put together grin. Looking forward to the next few years, thats for sure!

big one of the day...

DSC02328.jpg

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tommyk, that's the best report we've heard from the south end yet. Seems the fishing is picking up all over the river.

Thanks for posting.

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I have a question for all of you river guys.Where do you guys get onto the river in bayport and would anyone be willing pointing me in the right direction once i do get out there?

Thanks

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Hey Openwater9 - I will do a separate post with directions to the Bayport ice road with pictures. No need to clutter up this thread. It should be up in a couple of minutes.

Steve

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Openwater, look in the GTG forum. A bunch of us are getting together out there. Be a good time to learn a bit about the river.

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Had one of my better days on the river today.

Fished the bayport area in 29-32fow. The fish were not going gangbusters but could still be coaxed into biting. The fish were near the bottom infact we never marked a fish higher than 5' and the majority were with 2'. We got them by bobbering or deadsticking the smallest minnows we had, some only 1" long the bigger your minnow the less action you saw. Gave waxies a try and caught a few but they seemed to prefer the smaller minnows.

Ended up C&Ring a bunch of crappies the average being around 10-11 and one was pushing 13" also kept a few for dinner tonight. Also, I thought I had a slab of a crappie at dark only to be let down when a big ol sheephead came up my hole. First sheephead Ive heard of iced is it common?

stc09.jpg

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Nice Catch! was out yesterday in shanty town and ended up with two crappie 12 and 12-1/2 marking fish all day anywhere from a foot two 6 feet up got these two about 5 feet up a lot of chasers and would only bite on just jigging a smaller minnow it was very nice day on the riv glad i got to be out!

Good luck all

Travis

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I can deal with the mudpups during the winter but this sheepshead thing bothers me.Never used to catch them on cranks,now you cant keepem off.Only one solution boys!were gonna have to start eatin them.Turk how did you say you liked them cooked?

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A friend of mine did an experiment with sheepshead, white bass, and even some crappie. He prepped them the same, soaking them in lemon juice for a little while and fried them up. None of us could tell which was which. The only give away was that some of the crappie fillets were smaller.

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My buddy said he got 25 crops last night, CPR. Largest was 2 lbs, according to him, but we all know how fisherman talk... =P

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Donbo,

I will be out tomorrow afternoon for the evening bite. Any particular area I should try? If you like you can e-mail me at dougr1969aty a h o odotcom.

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Fished tonight from 4-6pm. One nice 12.5" crappie. Also, caught what I think was a moon eye. About 15" long, silvery color with large eyes, kind of thin. Wished I had my camara to post a picture. Any thoughts?

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We did a similar blind taste test a couple of summers ago with fish we caught from the St. Croix. We fried them up all the same, with only the cook knowing which was which, and the consensus ranking was as follows:

1. Northern

2. Walleye

3. Crappie

4. Sheepshead

5. White Bass

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Ye

Fished tonight from 4-6pm. One nice 12.5" crappie. Also, caught what I think was a moon eye. About 15" long, silvery color with large eyes, kind of thin. Wished I had my camara to post a picture. Any thoughts?
Yep you got yourself a mooneye.
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Ye, I looked it up on Wikepedia and there was a picture which showed the color and the forked tail. They described it as a freshwater Tarpin because it goes after the bait with such gusto. It was true for me, I missed it the first time and my jig was about 6 feet over it on the Marcum after I tried to set the hook. Then the fish shot up like a rocket and hammered it. Pretty cool.

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Man, is it just me, or has the bite been really tough these last few days?

Was out Fri. afternoon and again this morning with very little to show for my time.

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Don, Friday morning was smoking. Caught a limit of Crappies in about 2 1/2 hours. Most were between 10" and 11" with two 12"'s.

Today and yesterday was a different story. Caught five in the morning between (9 1/2" and 10 1/2") then went out again at 4:00 pm and caught and released a 12" and a 13".

Today down right sucked. Ended up catching a bunch of small crappies and gave away a 9 3/4", 9 1/2", and two 11"ers.

Hopefully tomorrow will be like Friday morning. Sausage

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Friday morning? Tomorrow? Man, get a job would ya??? grin

I did a bit better tonight so guess I'm not as depressed as I was this morning. Hopefully things will be rockin' again for the GTG next Saturday.

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Well, I got out today and I didnt do so bad. I got to the Croix kinda late around 9 am and fished until about 1230. I got 5 slabs, biggest one was 12.5 inches and smallest was 10". I lost a few more at the hole. I think if I got there earlier I would have caught more. Right when I finally got set up, the crappies were pretty aggressive but then they shut down. All fish caught on plain hook and minnows. I tried different jigs and combinations but the plain hook and very small crappie minnow worked the best. Good luck yalls.

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I was out with a buddy and I picked up a fat 10 incher 20 mins after we set up...then it was wave after wave of lookers. My buddy said he couldn't take having his heart broken anymore and we left at 6:30.

Tried everything. Plain hook...jig...waxies...plastics...small minnows...large minnows...minnow heads...

We were in about 35 ft of water...

were we doing something wrong?

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I have not done as well as some of the other posters here. Sun. 22nd caught a 21 striped bass to my amazement. It doesn't help matters when we have people that feel the need to drive 60-70 mph through the fish houses without a care in the world. I'm shocked at the lack of respect these days.... what's the hurry? Heading out Tues. am... high lines

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