First/Last time out for the season.

[Crawlerman]

Hey all. Thinking of trying the St. Croix Thursday before I put the boat away as I have a buddy who wants to go with (and thus.. someone to operate the Anchor... Yay!) Somewheres around Afton/Hudson and the 494 bridge. A fella at work said to try the outlet of the Kinneknick. Any other suggestions for the first time out on this stretch of the river? Not really picky on what I catch; just wanting to give my buddy a good time, but it'd be nice to see a few walleyes or smallies as they are normally a rare catch for me.

[Crawlerman]

I live right next to the 494 bridge, actually.. but that stretch of the river scares me.. to wide and too fast current. I kinda know the St croix a little since I have been on it with others on a boat before. I'm more comfortable navagating it. Plus the fact I wouldn't like fighting barges. I do however fish the acess under the 494 bridge in SSP from shore a lot. Plus if I do get lucky enough to catch some cats or eyes I want to be able to keep em and eat em! heh

[Guest]

I hear ya on the eat'n one once in a while part! Pool 2 sure has been amazing this year though, and it should only get better for walleyes. It's worth a try before you put the boat away. If you're uncomfortable with traffic and river conditions, just launch a little upstream. The lower part of pool 2 is well dotted with channel markers, so you can easily find the edges. Just thought I'd put my two cents in. It's a good place at a chance to catch a REALLY big walleye and close to home!

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[Tonka Boy]

I was out last week and did really well next to the bouy on the end of Catfish bar. The current was real strong, but I could still hold and move around slowly with the bow mount. Jigs and fatheads drug slowwwley within 10-15' of bouy was best. Otherwise shoreline breaks with blue cranks work O.k.

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Tonka Boy

[Guest]

The Croix may be OK but Pool 2 is hot right now. Either north or south of the SSP ramp off of 494 is good. Finding the wing dams is fairly easy and by anchoring and casting cranks or jigs has produced walleyes , smallies and white bass. We even drifted the rip rap shore casting to the rocks and found smallies and whities eager to bite. #5 Shads and Rebel Crawfish were goos for us.
Dino

[Guest]

If you and your buddy want some good action. Try leadline with about 6 feet mono on a barrel swivel. Now you will need a heavy rod and a good size bait caster for a reel. And for your mono use about 30lb test. Because you may get into a 30 plus cat and there will be snag,s. Now for lures it can very. But fire tigers or shad and Blue&silver will put fish in the boat. GOOD LUCK

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[Crawlerman]

Well.. I caught the most expensive lil walleye of my entire life The bait was around $6 (I got a good deal of bait for the price... umm.. like 4 doz+ fatheads and a dozen suckers...) and the launch was $8.50. I grumbled at the Hudson "park" launch fee but paid it.. as it was better than the $12 launch up the street; and I didn't have time to waste time looking for another or I wouldn't have enough time to fish. I like that part of the river however; I was suprised as there was practially no current. It was almost like fishing on a resivor. I was all worried about current anchoring (which I would had to on the Mississippi pool 2 that someone suggested) I could have easily fished there alone (thought for next year ) All of this for one small 9" walleye caught near the bridge. I didn't have a map with me.. so the area I ended up fishing was fairly small. I saw some guy pull in what I later learned was a 50" sturgeon near where I was fishing by the bridge. For future referance: does anyone know of a free public launch on the Lower st. croix? I'm half tempted to launch at Hastings and throw an extra tank in the boat and drive up there myself... It'd cost less money Plus the fact that the launch wasn't the greatest either. It was a bit shallow. The thing that makes me happiest is the launch fees: $3 hudson- reasonable $5 WI resident-still reasonable. $8.50 Non residen- WTF?! Now I know where WI makes most of it's income.. desperate suckers like me who got to the launch too late to look for another one. The only way I would ever excuse such an outragous fee is if I was able to fish for 8.5 hours and they gave me bait!

[This message has been edited by Crawlerman (edited 10-11-2002).]