St. Croix or Mille Lacs tomorrow?

[GotOne]

I'm taking my son and his buddy fishing tomorrow, which fishery would you pick??? Thinking of Prescott area. Thanks in advance for you thoughts.

[Walli1]

First off, how well do you know the river? I personally will choose the river any day over Mille Lacs or any lake for that matter, but the river is tough going at it blindly, if you know the river somewhat, I'd say after this rainfall go there, on the other hand if the river is not your stomping grounds, mille lacs lake would be a safe bet to put eyes in the boat, its by far a easier body of water to catch fish at then the river because the river is always changing and the fish move around alot more, just my .02

[GotOne]

Only been on the river 2 or 3 times in the last few years. Been reading a lot of posts on how to fish it. A friend was there last week and did pretty good on multiply species. I'm a walleye guy, got any tips and/or general areas and presentations. Mille Lacs sounds pretty dead and I want to learn some water closer to home. BTW, how much rain did you get? I live by Buck Hill and we didn't get any. I fish pool 2 a fair amount...want something different and better scenery.

[Walli1]

Don't be afraid to fish in the rocks, many nice eyes are found there, mn side just up from prescott has been good, you may get sick of getting caught all the time but once you get the hang of fishing the rocks you'll rarely break off and the pay off is nice, I use a 1/4oz bullet weight lindying in the rocks with about a 3' leader and I use a worm blower to get the crawler up! Good luck!

[elusivecrappiecatcher]

Quote:

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Don't be afraid to fish in the rocks, many nice eyes are found there, mn side just up from prescott has been good, you may get sick of getting caught all the time but once you get the hang of fishing the rocks you'll rarely break off and the pay off is nice, I use a 1/4oz bullet weight lindying in the rocks with about a 3' leader and I use a worm blower to get the crawler up! Good luck!

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Would a bottom bouncer work better? I used them on a lake in the BWCA that I had problems getting snagged all the time so I switched to a bottom bouncer and didn't have a problem after that.

[use2bwalleyefanatic]

I feel the bottom bouncer effects the presentation of the bait and depending what the fish want the bottom bouncer could work as well and sometimes better than the bullet weight. I like using the bullet weight as well probably because of fishing weed walleyes in the lakes. You should use what you're comfortable with but don't be affraid to experiment. What's the worst that'll happen, you won't catch fish. And chances are if you're to the point of experimenting you probably haven't been putting a lot of fish in the boat anyways.

[Stratosman]

It would work for pulling spinners, if they are on a Lindy bite then no. A short snell and a good feel of the bottom will help you avoid some snags, staying pretty vertical helps a ton as well, they key is not to let the weight crawl up and down the rocks too much, kinda let it skip across the tops...

[GotOne]

A fine day was spent on the river. One 16" walleye and about 15-20 sheepies and a rockie....oh...1 tree and several snags. Little windy but what a scenic place. Tried both sides from Prescott to almost the Kinni(sp). Riggin, casting and pulling cranks and jiggin.