st cloud St Cloud Fishing Reports

[Rick G]

Cool! I tried the crappies in the river but it was around 1pm .Probeley a bit early in the day.Should I bobber it with a small jig and minnow?The part of the river has very little current and its known for crappies.Just looking for ideas for a setup.Il trade you painting advice for fishing advice.lol

If you know for certain the fish are in the area, a slip bobber would be effective. Start near the bottom and raise your bait up in one ft increments untill you get bit. Another way would be to pitch a jig and plactic/minnow combomation out and work it back. Hair jigs or Mr. Twister type baits have always worked well for me.

[JeremyCampbell]

I finallycaught a few walleye today and a dozen smallys.I even caught a cat on a live minnow.Kept an 18" and cleaned it up.The bass were all over a glow jig and minnow and they liked it when I was reeling in the most.Hard to do a lot of casting and reeling in most places in sartell but I seemed to be clear away from rocks and logs.

[Rick G]

Those bass have become a real problem to keep off the line while walleye fishing the last week They seem to be hitting everything, even had one take a chunk of liver while catting.

[Stick in Mud]

I putzed around tonight on a lake I've fished twice in the last fifteen year...and I remember why I never fish it.

If I added up the weight of all the sunnies I caught, they might add up to one of Rick's keepers.

[Rick G]

Just got in from a 11hr day of fishing, bear with me, this might be long.

Started at about noon at the river around Sauk Rapids. It is moving fast, almost to fast to fish most places. Didn't have much luck except for a few bass.

The second location was a small back water slough { LP, you know the one I'm talking about } We had a bunch of 6-9in sucker minnows and decided to set up for the pike that roam this back water. We used just standard northern fishing gear, 60lb braid, 12lb floro leader and 3/0 circle hooks. We didn't get any pike bigger than 31-32in today, but used up all our minnows pretty fast The only thing faster than the fishing at this spot we chose were the wood ticks this place is always bad for the little buggers, but today they were about as thick as I have ever seen, must have had over 100, even found a couple of deer ticks... Did I ever mention I hate ticks them and skeeters are the vampires of the insect world.

Off to the third location once we we ran out of minnows. It was here in town at the dam for prime time. Action was pretty slow due to the high water, I knew it was going to be tough but had to try any way, just incase . Ended up getting a couple small walleyes and some bass for my effort.

Our last location was a current area between two local lakes. We chose this area because it has been good to us in past May full moon phases, and because we have permision to fish it Action was sporatic tonight after dark, we would get a short run of fish followed by long periods of nothing. When they came through I was catching crappies and walleyes using 1/8 oz heads and 3in twister tails worked slow, while my buddie was getting about the same fish on a slip bobber rig and leeches.

All fishing was done from shore today

[JeremyCampbell]

I'm counting the happy faces above .you got a mad one and a few winkers .That tells me you had an ok day fishing.

[Rick G]

The mad one is only because of the woodticks, otherwise it would be all happy Wasn't a bad day thats for sure, just long.

[JeremyCampbell]

My day was 8hrs long ,started out in st cloud,and then sartell.Didn't get any wood ticks Like Carmike said ,they don't like the taste of sartell yuppies.Tried a lot of area and caught only small mouths. Met up with someone and tried a little in Sartell.no cigar there.Talked with some fishermen here and there.One stuck out more than the rest.I don't think I want him baby sitting for me.lol Ended it with a big ole greasy burger meal at wen...

[Rick G]

Made it out to the Chain for a few hours this afternoon. Fishing was SLOW, we found some real nice sunfish and crappies, but couldn't get many to bite. We threw the whole tackle box of plactics and even tried worms and minnows, they wanted nothing! The walleyes weren't much better, tried for them before the rain came in, it was pretty tough, even the cat's didn't want to play .

I think the negative bite has something to do with all the rain we just had. The water temp went down a couple degrees, water went up a bit and for some reason the water quality has improved alot in the last week. I cold see 6-7ft down in some of the backwater areas, I think the water clearing up had something to do with why the panfish wouldn't go today.

[pushbutton]

Huh? Would have thought they would have been going better today. Was jealous when I saw you at the gas station....now not so much I ended up being late to work by the way

[Rick G]

Talked with some fishermen here and there.One stuck out more than the rest.I don't think I want him baby sitting for me.lol

What? we all know everyone that is down by the river is on the level Not too many lunies down there since the vampire killings years back, except for the bum camp on the islands and the people looking to rob you after dark not much happens around the river... and everyone is sooo nice

Have to pick the people you talk to pretty carefull down there

[Rick G]

I ended up being late to work by the way

If I wasn't so dang long winded

[Naturboy]

I went out to the chain and all we caught was snot rockets. the water temp was between 59.5 and 62, and yes the weather was all I can blame it on.

[Tom Sawyer]

What? we all know everyone that is down by the river is on the level Not too many lunies down there since the vampire killings years back, except for the bum camp on the islands and the people looking to rob you after dark not much happens around the river... and everyone is sooo nice

Have to pick the people you talk to pretty carefull down there

I'll always remember Mr LS we meet at the get to gether down there. Pushbutton even moved because of him. Hilarious! Can't wait to meet up with him again soon........ at his "secret spot".

[Rick G]

I'll always remember Mr LS we meet at the get to gether down there. Pushbutton even moved because of him. Hilarious! Can't wait to meet up with him again soon........ at his "secret spot".

Rumor has it there was a photo somewhere here on HSO of his "secret" spot. if he only had a clue how well known that spot realy is

[Tom Sawyer]

Rumor has it there was a photo somewhere here on HSO of his "secret" spot. if he only had a clue how well known that spot realy is

Oh no!, Now the "secret" is out for sure.

Can we somehow get that pic deleted? I hope so.

[Rick G]

Lots of people on the lakes today, but not the busiest Memorial day weekend I have ever seen on the Chain.

Fish did a 180 degree turn around from yesterday. Found the panfish in the same spot, and they were active. Got the sunfish on 1/80oz jigs tiped with Gulp minnow fry, while the crappies fell for small hair or tinsle jigs, sometimes the crappies wanted a minnow with the jig and sometimes they didn't. Best time for the pannies was from 3-5pm, they kind of slowed down around 6, witch was ok because it was time to try for some eyeballs.

The first spot we tried was a small flat just off the river channel. This spot was holding fish, but size was not good at all. Second spot was one of the bridges, got a few better fish here than we did at the first spot but the only thing that wanted our jigs was male walleyes or small females. We decided on heading far enough away from the bridge to stay out of the mess of boats was our best option. From this last spot we anchored and threw Shad Raps down current and work the back to the boat. This didn't get the numbers the jigs were but size was quite a bit better. We quit fishing around 10pm, all in all it was a pretty good day, even kept two 17ish in walleyes for breakfast tomorrow

[JeremyCampbell]

Haven't had fish for breakfast yet. Almost did once.Big Watab gave us some Sun fish but not any trout.We even got our boat lightly inspected when we arrived and there was a bunch of diving gear on the dock musta been looking for invasive species The sun fish were biteing about 3-5pm about ten ft deep

[Rick G]

Haven't had fish for breakfast yet. Almost did once.

I just finished mine, pan fried it with lots of butter, had me some taters with the fish, it was darn good

[Stick in Mud]

Rumor has it there was a photo somewhere here on HSO of his "secret" spot. if he only had a clue how well known that spot realy is

I think there's a rule: If there are steps leading to your spot, it's not a secret.

Or another one: If the shoreline is littered with bait containers, old fishing line, candy wrappers, and rusted fishing lures, it's not a secret.

[CaptainMusky]

Who's this stick in the mud character? Shows carmike as most recent poster on this topic.

[Rick G]

Good question, must be a new staffer here I hope he does a better job than carmike, pb or myself. We are kinda like the three stooges of HSO, pb is Larry, carmike is Moe and I get to be Curly

[JeremyCampbell]

Great evening in sartell,started. About 5pm and stayed till 10.Plastic minnows really did it for the walleye .probeley caught between 20 and 25 of them.they were too small but I kept a couple of eater crappies.maybe for breakfast.

[JeremyCampbell]

Should I step up the size in the jig for bigger walleye? I'm useing small glow jigs and bending the hook a little to the side .Just wondering if the size of the jig changes the size of fish caught.

[Rick G]

Changing the size of the bait on the jig and upsizing the jig to mach the bait might help. I would think change of location will also yeild better results than changing size of jig. Weather it be shallower, deeper or 100ft down the shoreline, there are some better size fish waiting to be caught.

[JeremyCampbell]

I'm going to move on and scout some new areas.I'm likening my 6lb test a lot.Maybe it's just me but the 10lb line didn't pick up on lighter bites as much as the 6lb.I also chilled out on the slip shots.I think I had too many on for this kind of fishing

[JeremyCampbell]

I took the family to the memorial day parade at the veterans place in St.Cloud and I got a little lost in there because they are doing construction in there.I noticed behind the VA that the river runs and there are lots of places to fish and park your car.Any of you guys go back behind there?

[Rick G]

Hit the river here in town today for a few hours.It is moving pretty high and fast right now. We went after cats, only got 6 in 4hrs between the two of us. Size was pretty nice though, got a 24, 2 at 25, a 26, a 29 and a 30.5 x 19.5. Also got one big mad snapping turtle that I figure must have been 18-20 across the shell it wasn't real happy to be in the net while I took the circle hook out with the looong hook remover. Got all the fish on a chunk of crawler and a chunk of liver combined on a 4/0 hook. With the water as fast as it is right now we had to break out the big lead, 3-4oz flat sinkers is what it took to hold in the places we fished. It took the two 30lb anchors and the digger just to hold the boat in one spot.

[pushbutton]

Man...that is a serious biggin' for this far north on the Sipp!!!

[JeremyCampbell]

Nice fish !