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First ice- Report


Turk

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12/12/03
The Lower St. Croix River ice fishing season has begun (Bayport area). The activity is good currently with saugers, walleyes, and crappies being frequent biters. The walleyes are running small, but crappies and saugers are normal to good sized. Deepwater basin fishing is generally the best place to start and those depth ranges are from 35 to 40 feet deep. Standard lures are working- jig with crappie minnow, jigging spoon, or jigging Nils Master swimming lure, color doesn’t seem important. The bite is not constant but is standard St. Croix, with runs every three hours. Near an hour to dusk and a bit after morning are key bites presently. Ice is variable but 4”s is common.

Caution: Late season barge traffic is running so don’t try to cross from the WI to the MN side just yet as the trough they are breaking up will be thin ice.
Keep catchin'
Turk Gierke
Croixsippi Guides
www.croixsippi.com

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Went fishing out from North Hudson today.There was about 5" of ice.Kind of slow.Caught two decent sauger about a minute apart.One on a green teardrop and fathead and the other on a small silver swedish pimple with a minnow head.A few tiny white bass and a cigar size walleye rounded out the day.Just great to get down there again.Good Luck Fishing!!!

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Went fishing out from North Hudson today.There was about 5" of ice.Kind of slow.Caught two decent sauger about a minute apart.One on a green teardrop and fathead and the other on a small silver swedish pimple with a minnow head.A few tiny white bass and a cigar size walleye rounded out the day.Just great to get down there again.Good Luck Fishing!!!

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Yup, the Bayport bite is on. Well, as described by others, it's not on fire, but there seem to be some active fish down there. Fishing up shallow (20 ft) produced a couple dinky walleye & sauger on jigging spoons w/minnow head. Down in a bit deeper water seemed to be a better bite deadsticking fatheads near bottom.

As tradition dictates, 20 minutes or so after sunset most everybody seemed to pack up and head out. However, we stuck it out a bit longer and continued to find some active fish. Hmmmm... We'll try it again later on in the week.

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Went down fishing off of the North Hudson landing today from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm.Pretty slow for me again.There were quite a few people out today though.Ran into TRZ and Chris on my way off the ice.They found it slow also with alot of dink crappies.I had what I thought was a nice walleye and it turned out to be a small sturgeon.Oh well,it should pick up.Good Luck Fishing!!!

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TRZ, wazzup??? Good to see you on the ice yesterday.Are you dudes going down there this week or weekend at all?Unless something comes up,I should be down there on friday.If you go this week let me know how you did.Good Luck Fishing!!!

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I would really like to know where turk is catching these "normal" crappies. I have been on the ice the last 5 days and have iced a couple hundred crappies, by far the fastest action i have ever seen on the river, yet only one of these fish has been over half pound! most have been 9 inches or under. the one 14 incher i have caught seems to be a fluke. could it be possible the large crappies have not migrated to the bayport area yet?

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TRZ,
I'm not sure you asked a question to me but it appeared you did?
I consider a 10" crappie to be normal on the St. Croix. I consider 12 to 13" to be nice big ones and 6 to 7 inchers small.

As you likely know on some waters 10 inches is about as good as it gets!

I was fairly close to a group of anglers that iced 20 keepers Saturday. What are keepers I'd imagine they were 9 to 11 inches, so it's not just me...

If you want crappies the Bayport pool (not just Bayport Beach but the Bayport pool) is your place period. The other areas are not structured to catch crappies with any regularity.

Keep Catchin'
Turk


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Turk, By "Bayport Pool" are you referring to Anderson Bay on the MN side or the deep hole on the WI side?

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Sturgeon46,

I wish the area was that specific...
The Bayport "pool" area geographically speaking is roughly the area from the high lines near NSP plant on south to about 400 yards north of the Mallileau Dam. This area is "safer" (not safe always, but safer) than most on the St. Croix. Please note there is always open water near the NSP plant and the further south you head towards the Swing bridge (the Swing bridge is south of the Mallileau Dam) the more dangerous the ice becomes!

The safty stuff was written for everyone.
Again I wish the area was a little smaller but it's deep basin fishing as you know. But Bayport Pool is it for crappies.

You getting any fish?

Keep catchin'
Turk

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