9 -10 weekend fish report?

[Walli1]

Well hit the river early I was on the water by 3:45am picked up one sauger right away on a redtail and I thought I'm in, well a hour later and no second fish. Moved to a different spot graphed fish nothing going, moved to another spot picked up a sheep, (Talked to dieguy) went to another spot picked up two smallies, started bottom bouncing and broke off on a good size northern, bottom bounced and picked up a couple sheeps and headed off the river at 8:30, theres always tomorrow

[Orlip]

That doesent sound good. What part of the river were you on?

[Walli1]

I was fishing the lower below the kinni, thats the same area I'll be at again in the early morning. I'll have more time tomorrow at least. That's way they call it fishing instead of catching, still beats work.

[Orlip]

I am planning on fishing that area myself tomorrow but not till later am. Thinking I'll launch out of St. Croix bluffs?? Is there anything else around there to launch out of? I have a 23' so shallow launchs dont go well with the boat.

[croixeyes]

Orlip..There is windmill marina in Afton,very nice launch but not sure how much they charge.Was out today from 7.30 til 4.00.We started pulling spinners around Catfish bar area,no luck.Guys I had out were having trouble getting the feel of this method so we switched to trolling.Pulled some descent fish on leadcore,depths were scattered fom 15 to 32 feet.While the eyes were not numerous we did manage to keep busy with saugs, cats and of course sheephead .Biggest eye was 21.5 and throw in a nice crappie.On a side note,I did a little trolling on the way back to the dock in bayport,and the sauger were hitting very well.Hudson channel had quite a few fish in it,most of our time was spent between the 94 bridge and Catfish bar.The river temps I read today were between 72 and 70 degrees,glad there was a breeze blowing this morning cause that could have been some ugly fog.Maybe try again tomorrow for a bit good luck to all....

[Walli1]

Maybe I'll have to go a little farther up in the morning, I guess I'll graph the spots I have and see if I should stay or go, got a good feeling about the morning

[Orlip]

Thanks for the info. I have put out of bennies before and it is nice as well. From what I know windmill is $19 for a boat my size and bennies is $15 thats why I thought to try St. Croix bluffs at $5. But if the fish are up river than maybe bennies again.

[Retro Active]

Got 10 real nice crappies about a mile north of the Bluffs launch on the west shore. Jig and minnow, as well as a little Gulp mixed in, seemed to be the ticket, anywhere from 10 to 20 feet.

Also caught about 5 sheepies, 1 channel cat, and a ton of those little rock bass. All in all not a bad day.

[tunrevir]

We got out late about 4 or so and fished untill about 8. The early bite was dominated with sheepies and a couple cats. Trolled leadcore in the 26-32' range and managed a couple sauger, nicest was a healthy 19" er most were in the

16-18" range.

Tunrevir~

[croixeyes]

Gonna try to head out for a bit today.Hopefully the crappies are going in the bayport area.Tunrevir,Did you guys put in down stream or were you up river on saturday?I am a huge fan of cloud cover on the weekends,nice to see more fishing boats than wave making machines.If i get out today Ill post results..........Good luck out there..........

[dieguy]

I was spending the weekend with my brother and family at the Bluffs. I was out friday night for about 2 hours mostly drifted with lindies. Not much to report. My bro and I went out by 5:00 am Saturday and we met up with Walli1 (Thanks for the advice and the snells). I spent most of the morning in the same area and not much to report again running snells, spinners and even some cranks. I talked to several people out Sat. morning and most were not doing well. I went back out in the afternoon and finally ran into a couple Walleyes around 7:00 along with stripers, and plenty of sheepies. It felt good to pull in that first Walleye after a 5+ week blank. I would have stayed out later but I had my nephew and sister-in-law with and they both were getting cold and needed a restroom break. Oh well Good luck all, I should be out a couple nights this week. I will report back later.

Dieguy

[Walli1]

This morning went really good, the eyes were hitting on redtails early, ran out of tails around 830 or so, then I figured, I go bottom bouncing with spinners and see if I could add another to the live well, never had a strike, marked some fish and threw a marker out, worked the area with lindy riggs and crawlers, pulled a couple cats but thats it. Should of picked up more redtails last night but I did bring home a good meal of walleye and cook them up for the morning brunch we were having, left the river around 10 am, felt good

[rosspj59]

Glad to hear they were biting better on sunday Walli1. I fished saturday morning and caught some sheepsters, catfish and smallies. We fished from the kinni down to some wingdams on pool 3. What was happening down at Prescott saturday? There were a ton of boats on the lower end of the st croix and most were gone before noon. When I went past Prescott around 10 am the launch parking lot was mostly full and there were people setting up grills and stuff. Most of the wingdams I wanted to fish had people on them too. I looked at the st croix website last night and the water temp dropped down to 64 degrees.

[Walli1]

Prescott days were going on that weekend, I thought there wasn't very many people on the river this past weekend but I leave when most people are coming out. Yeah the water temp has been dropping but according to my graph 70.4 the lower the temp the better the bite and also they'll bunch up and put on the feed bag , its going to be another great fall on the river, I'm just amazed how many quality fish a person can catch , fall fishing on the river is simply the best!!

[Sandmannd]

Hey Walli, can I pick your head a little? I lauch at the bluffs reginal park. I have been fishing the east shore just north of the launch off the point. Catch a few small walleye and cats on spinners. Is that the area you usually talk about or is there another area I should try to hit?

[Walli1]

You launch out of the bluffs park and fish that point to the north on the east side, instead of going north go straight accross there's a sandy beach area, I've had good luck on the south end of that area, also if you go down a little ways on the east side from there the cove area is a good spot also, a month or so a little ways farther down theres a big sign on the shore got some nice releasers in that area, seem to get quality fish off that bank area, keep your line short lots of snags, try to vertical jig that area. good luck!

[Sandmannd]

Thanks Walli, I've learned a lot about fishing the river from reading your posts. It's great you share your information.

[notanibble]

Hi Walli where is the bluffs launch site?

[Walli1]

St Croix Bluffs Park gates open at 6:00am, it's off 21,between county road 76 (90th street south)and county road 78 (110th street) three miles south of afton state park.

[notanibble]

Many thanks Walli1

[Walli1]

Called around to a few bait shops, looks like no red tails will be in till thursday, I'm trying to reserve 25 dozen for my trip up to the whitefish chain on the 20th, there not all for me I have 4 brothers but there bringing some also, I plan on picking up 5 dozen for this coming weekend though, I already have plenty of crawlers. Were only three days away to two more great days of early morning river fishing, looks like it going to be a good saturday morning, sunday could be alittle wet but hey thats alright long as there's no lighting. The pressure system should be stable on the eyes should be bitting, that the best thing about the river, the eyes are always bitting some place, you just gotta find it!

[Juan Grande]

Walli,

I hate to ask how much 25 dozen red tails would cost? I was up in Alex last month and I think they were selling them for like $7 a dozen up there. Do they really work that much better than fatheads or shiners?

[Walli1]

Yeah I believe redtails are the best, when you have them on your line you can feel them chuggen and if theres a fish around close you know it. There not cheap but I believe they help on putting fish in the boat. Every year on our up north trip we spend well over 200, 25 dozen run about 175 thats what we bring, last year we ended up going and picking up more bait, only because we fished Gull, so many little ones.

[croixeyes]

Juan Grande...Redtails are the best minnows ive used.But if you dont want to pay the price,medium suckers work pretty well as do regular creek chubs.Creek chubs can be a little hard to come by in bait shops.Suckers work but,they tend to go belly up alot faster than redtails or crk chubs,I dont even bother with suckers until the water temp drops into the mid to low sixties.

[Walli1]

The reason suckers don't work as well as they tend to hug the bottom,(there bottom feeders) if you add a float you can increase the effectiveness of the sucker but they don't struggle like a redtail or blue chub, a sucker will just go straight for the most part,a shinner will at least move around a little but over all redtails are worth the price

[StCroixNewB]

I launch in Hudson... where's the nearest place to pick up some redtails? I'd love to give them a try...

[Walli1]

I don't know where there's a close place, I've been picking them up at Vados bait, they just got in five gallons in this afternoon, I'm going tomorrow and pick up 5 or 6 dozen for the weekend!

[Cbreeze]

Glad to hear the fishin' is picking up on the Croix! I'm planning to hit the water next week (after getting some work stuff out of the way) and was wonder about the launch at the Bluffs? It has been about a month since I launched there and that time I REALLY "slammed" my bunk trailer on the cement ramp! Back wheels dropped off and...BAM! I've done it many times before but prefer, obviously, to not do it if I can help it! Water level high enough to not worry about it? Also, Walli1 thanks for all the great info! I have been trying to learn the Croix from 94 south and have found your posts so helpful and informative! Thanks for expanding my learning curve!!!

Good fishin'

Tuna

[Walli1]

I don't know much about the bluff launch, because I always launch from Hubbs in Hastings. I plan to be on the river early saturday morning around 4ish, thats my usual time I get out.

[FWA]

At the bluffs, you should launch on the right side (when looking down towards the water). The drop is not as bad on the right side compared to the left. Just back up slowly and watch when the wheels go down the steep drop. I too learned the hard way with my Shorelander trailor for my 18 ft Lund.