Crookston & Thief River Fall fishing reports

[Matt Breuer]

Was in Thief over this past weekend, into Monday. Did some foraging and found the mushrooms to be completely dried up and toast. Was quite bummed...

Did manage to catch some nice creekers and some goldeye just off the slack-side of some strong current with my son and two nieces. Got hit with a sprinkle while we were out, and I was sweating while watching them cast, so we quit in a hurry. Was after anything that bit on a 1/8oz. jig and crawler chunk.

So the rain was your fault? Bemidji got annihilated... We still need rain, but the 80mph winds and twisters can stay away...

[CANOPY SAM]

Went down to the ole' Red Lake River last night with my eldest boy, and a friend of his from work who'd never caught a catfish before. It was balmy, to say the least, and there were pretty good numbers of Mayflies, and other critters buzzing and pestering us till about 11:30 p.m.

Used cut Goldeye, and standard catfish rigs, and absolutely pounded the catfish! The three (3) of us tried to keep two (2) rods in the water, but literally couldn't do it. Over approx. three hours of fishing there were only a handful of times where we had two rods in for a few minutes without a fish on.

Interestingly, and somewhat alarmingly, last night we had many, many fish inhale our baits. I've used Circle hooks for many years, and very rarely had this problem, but last night these fish were just ferocious! I'd wager half of the probably 25-30 cats we caught inhaled the bait deep into their tongue, or even into the stomach! This is something I've just never seen these catfish do, and I can only attribute it to a couple possibilities.

1) The current is moving pretty slowly now, and perhaps the fish are physically "moving up" on the rig more than they normally would with stronger current and/or

2) There are just SO many cats in the river right now they are extremely hungry, and ferociously competing for food.

I know one thing for sure. I wouldn't want to be a frog, minnow, or small bait fish in this stretch of river at night! I threw in a few unusable chunks of Goldeye when we first started fishing and had cats grabbing em' out of only inches of water in front of us!

[CANOPY SAM]

Went down to the river yesterday evening on a little solo run. With the sudden release of water from the dam, apparently due to a draw down up at Agassiz or Mud Lake, the river level south of town has risen up a foot or two.

I brought down an old frozen Goldeye, thawed it just a bit, and cast out a small piece on a Lindy Rig with a circle hook.

It wasn't until 9:00 p.m. that I had my first real bite, and that fish really took it's time fully committing to the bait. Eventually I hooked up and reeled in a nice fat 4-5 lb. catfish. The circle hook worked perfectly, as the fish was hooked in the corner of the mouth allowing easy hook removal and release.

I was half expecting fishing to be slow due to the sudden, rapid rise in water level, and I was correct in my assumption. That was the only fish I hooked and landed in a couple hours of fishing.

Depending on how long the water stays up, and I'm really hoping it does for a while, especially with the heavy rains in the forecast for this evening, fishing should level off once again, and improve over my success rate last night.

I guess we'll have to wait and see.

[CANOPY SAM]

Well...evidently once the big TRF Tourney is done no one fishes in our river anymore?

I can honestly say I haven't put in any time down in the moving pond these last few weeks. The water level is now down to a point I've never seen before.

I've spoken to a few people who have had some good outings for walleyes, but it's been awfully quiet.

I'm truly disappointed to see the river SO low this late in the year. I think it's reasonable now to be concerned about our water table over the winter, and whether we're going to have water in the well when everything freezes up?

We desperately need some rain, and the weatherman is NOT cooperating.

[K2]

Sam, you get some water back into your well? How does river look these days below your place?

Lil bro and I worked the river above the dam this weekend, caught tons of fish-- little jacks til hell wouldn't have it. Eyes far between! Need some ice to cool the water so the pickle barrel can be fired up to thin the herd of these crankbait killers.

Opening weekend of deer hunting we'll try again.

K2

[CANOPY SAM]

Hey Bud,

Just returned from two weeks in Africa. The storm in NYC delayed our trip home by 4 additional days. Our team assisted in building a church/school in a bush village outside of Monrovia, Liberia. Amazing experience.

As soon as we got back, first thing I did was buy my deer licenses, for myself and kids (got home on Friday night about 6:30). We completely missed the youth hunt due to my Missions Trip.

Abbey and I went out together last night, and after she waited 3 years, passing on numerous mature does (she wanted her first to be a buck), she made an absolutely perfect heart shot on a nice young 8-pointer! I couldn't have made a better shot myself, and I couldn't be more proud of her! I'll post pics when time allows.

Haven't even been down to the river in over three weeks! You been up to the Rainy yet?

[K2]

Sam

has your tan faded yet? looks like the geese finally lost out to the cold,iced pretty tight above the dam.

white-tips, dokk, and I are going to give the big lake a try this weekend

give you a shout with a report

K2

[CANOPY SAM]

Never did get much of a tan. Had to protect my fair Minnesota skin from the scorching African sun. I did manage to drop about 20 lbs while working in the sauna like environment of the African jungle though!

Got an extra seat in the boat? I'd love to jump in with you knuckleheads!

Pretty amazing, but we've still got geese and ducks around here. Not many, but a few.

For some strange reason the river has risen about a foot below the dam in the last few days. With Upper and Lower Red Lakes so low, and Thief Lake extremely low, I can't quite figure out where the water is coming from?

I'm hoping to get back to the open water for a couple more days myself. The forecast thru all of next week is amazing, and heaven knows I wouldn't want to do anything overly productive with a nice break in the winter weather!

[TyGuy02]

A little surprised to hook into a 30" northern with 2 lb fluoro and crappie gear well after dark, but it was a good finish to the afternoon. I now have caught crappies from 4 different year classes on island lake between fall and early ice, but weak on the high end. I figured I released 30 8" crappies just yesterday! With only 1 12" and a couple of 13" this fall, a decent to below average population of 10" though

[wookie24]

Nice to see you've been out on a few fish Ty, keep up the good work

[Thunderfoot]

Went out to Maple lake for a few hours Saturday evening. Caught a bunch of sunfish and crappies from shore. Best crappie was 11.5", was a pretty fun day!

[TyGuy02]

Water temp was 55-60 degrees at island lake yesterday. Doesn't take long to warm up when the ice is off.

[CANOPY SAM]

Set up for some fishing on the Red Lake River, just south of TRF last night. The river has now dropped back down about 2-3 feet, and is at a really nice level, and pace, for fishing.

Started out casting a suspending Rapala and in only a few casts was rewarded with a beautiful 2 1/2 pound smallmouth bass. A few casts later a 2 lb. pike rocketed out of the depths and nailed my bait. No walleyes with the Rapala, but a few more smaller bass.

Then switched to live bait bottom rigs. Bite was a little light, but was pleased to catch two nice catfish, and 5-6 chunky suckers for the smoker. Cleaned the cats, and 4 smaller suckers, and have them all soaking in a salt/brown sugar brine, and will cold smoke them later this evening.

I'd hoped the high water would bring some fish up river, and I'm really happy to see that it has! Watching the news this morning (Sat) it looks like we're in for some wet, hot weather for the next week, so this should only help to keep the water in the river up a bit, and allow more fish to move up river. Looking forward to some good river fishing this summer, and especially looking forward to delicious smoked catfish, and fresh grilled walleyes.

[Invader440]

Got out this evening for a little fishing. Originally intended to fish Cross Lake but the fishing pier was so crowded I went to another local lake. Caught quite a few small sunnies and a nice 3lb Largemouth before they ate me out of leeches. Found out the Largemouth was a female and still full of eggs when I cleaned her so she hadn't spawned yet.

[CANOPY SAM]

Just came in from fishing with my 10 yr. old son, and a little buddy of his. My wife sat alongside the campfire and knitted. Albeit a little cool and cloudy, but still a nice evening on the river.

The fish certainly didn't disappoint. We only fished from 8:30-9:30 p.m. and in that short amount of time we caught 8 nice catfish, 4-5 suckers, 1 goldeye, 1 sheepshead, and one chunky 17-inch walleye. Just using a simple bottom rig with a fat juicy crawler.

What a great blessing to have the water back up in our river again!

[lovebigbluegills]

Nice reports.

It is nice to see the river up again, above and below the dam. I didn't take a look at the dam over the weekend to see how much they're letting through, but the Thief River is nice and full up around Agassiz and ditch 200 which I haven't seen for quite a while.

Hopefully they'll be able to keep it closed enough to keep the reservoir above the dam pretty full.

[Thunderfoot]

I was on the river in Crookston last night as well. Caught 3 cats, 2 sheepshead, something I didn't recognize lol, and a 16" walleye. Caught the walleye and 2 of the cats on a rapala, everything else on a minnow under a bobber. Still trying to figure out what river fishing rigs work the best but overall it was a fairly successful night.

The night before there was a group of 6 guys down there that had a stringer full of cats and a couple walleyes so the bite is definitely on!

One thing that really disappointed me was all of the trash on the river bank below the dam. It was very bad. A pile of beer cans that I'm positive came from the group that was there the night before and random bits of trash scattered all along the bank around the curve in the river there. Truly disappointing. I would have picked it up but didn't have 2-3 hours to spare as I'm sure it would have taken at least that long with how much was there. I wonder if some signs down there telling people to pick up their trash would help. I know some people would still do it but if there's at least a hint of someone watching them they might pick it up. I would hate to see them shut it down to the public if it gets out of hand.

[CANOPY SAM]

You might consider starting a "River Watchers" chapter there in Crookston, TF. It's becoming increasingly popular across the country, and there are numerous chapters around the Twin Cities that volunteer time, and resources to clean up, and protect their local river systems.

It's too bad the way people disrespect our beautiful rivers. It's really amazing how much you see when the water is way down. People seem to think if you just throw your garbage alongside, or into a river, it just magically goes away. It doesn't. It just goes a little further down river.

Sometimes all it takes is just what you say, folks knowing that someone is, or may be watching.

Glad to hear the fish are cooperating TF. You guys have always got a few more walleyes than we do up river. May have to venture down your way for a little fishing one of these days.

[CANOPY SAM]

Update: Friday, May 31st. The river in TRF, below the dam, has climbed back up a foot or so following this recent (1+ inch?) rain. I'm sorry for all the local farms who have yet to seed their crops, but for us truck gardeners, and river fishermen, we couldn't ask for more.

On a side note, our grass is growing with a vengeance. I think after last summer/fall's long drought, the grass is actually angry having been stuck in dormancy for so long. Now it's fighting back.

We mow almost 9 acres on our hobby farm and right now I think we could finish everything up, and basically start right back in at the beginning, and just keep mowing. I'm a little concerned about the fuel bill for this summer trying to keep the grass down. If my wife would let me, I'd buy us a couple beef cows, and a couple sheep, and just let em' do the job for me.

We'll keep hoping and praying the farmer's get a window of opportunity to get everything else seeded. In the meantime it looks like fishing should be good this year!

[CANOPY SAM]

Fished with the kids last night on the river behind the house. Kinda a funky night. Started out very quiet and mild, and ended pretty blustery and cold.

My usual crawler stash was toast so I thawed a small bag of sucker minnows for cut bait. Was into the first fish almost immediately, and was pleased with a 7 1/2 - 8 lb. hefty catfish. A few minutes later a nice 5 lber was floppin' in the net.

Fished for several hours and ended up with 14-15 cats. Each one caught was successively smaller than the last, until the last fish, which was around 5 lbs. All fish were gently returned to the water.

It was interesting to watch the mood of the fish change as the cold front moved in. The first few fish didn't hesitate, and smashed the bait without a second look. Toward the end, each subsequent fish was much more tentative, and many fish just picked and picked at the bait without any serious commitment. By 1:00 a.m. I could see my breath, and the fish stopped biting altogether.

Decided to re-stock the crawler stash, and spent the next hour picking up 5-6 dozen fat, juicy worms, and into the fridge they went. I'm tired this morning, but it was worth it for a pretty good night of fishing.

[Thunderfoot]

I hit the river in Crookston for a couple hours just before sundown last night. Caught and released about 8 cats, none very large, all between 1 and 3 lbs. Caught a bunch of sheepshead, one about 8 lbs, biggest one I've caught, suckers put up a pretty good fight. I did however end up with 2 crappies for the pan, one 9.5" and one 8.5". Leeches seemed to be the ticket.

One of the crappies had 3 or 4 of these little green parasites attached to his fins. The fillets looked clean but just to be sure I thought I'd post a pic and see if anyone recognizes them. Are they anything to worry about?

[toddb]

Those look like rock bass to me. Still edible though. I wouldnt worry bout the critters, especially the external ones, if something like that was in the meat I would watch out.

[Thunderfoot]

Right on. The fish were a lot lighter in color when I caught them, they got really dark after sitting in the bucket for about an hour. Probably are rock bass, I'm still learning! Thanks for the reply

[Thunderfoot]

Indeed after a google image search they definitely are rock bass. I guess I will see what they taste like as they are in the freezer now!

[CANOPY SAM]

If I'm seeing the pics okay I think those little green parasites are just little blood suckers. Once in a while you'll also catch a catfish that's been laying in the mud and has a ton of those little buggers all over it's fins.

Boy, I started reading crappies in Crookston and started to scratch my head for a second there. Then I saw the pic. No big deal TF. Lots of folks mix up those two fish.

The bite on the river is smokin' hot!!!

[Thunderfoot]

No doubt Sam the bite is hot right now! They ate me out of leeches within 2 hours the other night! Sadly I gave more leeches away than I reeled in... Lots and lots of bites, had one hit that had to be a huge fish, it felt like someone just grabbed my line and yanked it, instantly curled my rod over, tried to set the hook but just as fast as it hit, it was gone. Still reeled in about 16 fish though, not bad for a 2 hour adventure.

[Invader440]

Nice size Bluegills were biting at the public landing at Island Lake yesterday afternoon on both leech and crappie nibbles. Unfortunately, they had some kind of parasite that looked like small black dots on them so I didn't keep any. Caught and released 20 of them along with 4 tiny Perch and a small Northern one right after another before the bite finally turned off.

[Invader440]

Half day at work so it was off to Cross Lake for some fishing. Lots of small Bluegills along with some Bullheads. Ended up with one keeper, a nice 3/4 lb Crappie. Would of had a nice size Largemouth to go with it but it spit the hook as I got it up by the fishing pier.

[CANOPY SAM]

IV440...For future reference my friend, those little black dots on pannies, pike, and sometimes bass, they are parasites, but they are harmless as long as you thoroughly cook the fillets. Won't hurt you a bit.

You threw back a nice pile of big sunnies, and that's perfectly okay, but just know that next time you can make a nice meal out of those 9-10 inchers, even if they have a few black spots on em'.

I'd have sooner thrown back the bass then the sunfish. LGM Bass taste pretty "green" and fishy this time of year...living in the deep weeds and warm water most of the time. Sunfish, pumpkinseeds, and crappies, on the other hand, are most delightful carefully filleted, cleaned, and lightly deep fried with a touch of lemon and tartar sauce!

I finally made my own way back to the Red Lake River this evening with high hopes of multiple big catfish. Surprisingly, it was very slow, even though I haven't touched our backyard fishing hole for at least 5-6 weeks!

I initially fished with cut sucker minnow, but after catching a feisty Goldeye, I made quick work of the little sucker and switched to fresh goldeye cut bait. Seemed like my rod was awfully docile, while fish were splashing and rolling all around the area, so I reeled in and grabbed a casting rod. Quickly caught a small smallmouth bass, and a strangely skinny pike that was upward of 20 inches long, but shaped like a pool cue. Funny a top predator would be so skinny with such abundant prey fish, but perhaps he was not well???

After changing baits a few times I went back to fishing for cats with cut bait. Ended up with the one small smallmouth, the skinny pike, one goldeye, two porky cats, and of all the things....a pathetically ugly bullhead. I've fished this spot for 5 years and never caught a bullhead! The fact that I saw so few catfish, and this mangy little bullhead, really makes me wonder what this extended low water has done to our fishery????

On any given late July evening over the last several years I'd have almost banked on catching catfish after catfish, but tonight they just weren't there. Our stretch of river had gotten very low, for a pretty long time, and I suppose this has something to do with it. The last week has brought higher water with the abundant rainfall to the north of us, and our average river level has stayed up nicely, but perhaps the fish just haven't moved back up yet with the higher water? I suppose it's a bit presumptuous on my part to make any theories what-so-ever based on just one evening of fishing over the last several weeks.

Either way, it was a pleasant evening on the river. It was nice to sit outside and enjoy the evening after a sumptuous New York Strip on the grill, and piles of fresh garden veggies on the side. Fairly cool evening, mosquitoes were tolerable, and the campfire felt great!

Will report back with the next nice evening on the river.

[Invader440]

IV440...For future reference my friend, those little black dots on pannies, pike, and sometimes bass, they are parasites, but they are harmless as long as you thoroughly cook the fillets. Won't hurt you a bit.

Thanks, that's good to know.