st cloud St Cloud Fishing Reports

[Horseshoe_Don]

Cats were crazy again today. Caught one every cast. Largest over 5 pounds. Average size 2.5 pounds.

[Rick G]

Andrea and I made it out this afternoon. Did pretty well on crappies and a few nicer gills.

[Coach1310]

What kind of water temps on the lakes in the area?

[jigginjim]

Are the cats worth putting on a table or just catch and release? Taht could be find for a friend to practice rigging on.

[Horseshoe_Don]

they are the best tasting this time of the year. Gets worse as the temps go up. Some people love them. I am currently smoking another dozen of them.

Don

[eyeguy 54]

thought I smelled something

[searching4slabs]

How do you fish for them this time of the year? I've got very limited experience targeting cats. I wanna grab a few for the fryer before the temps get too warm.

[Horseshoe_Don]

My best method is a white tube jig, crappie minnow, and bobber. They will bite on anything. Yes anything in the summer.

Don

[Tullies]

I would like to take my son fishing for some catfish but not familiar with the St. Cloud area. Feel free to PM me if you don't mind sharing some info. Thanks.

[73h h4x]

For cats, I generally use an egg sinker held up by a split shot about 14 inches above a plain worm hook. Then, thread a nightcrawler on the hook and use a Lindy worm blower to put a puff of air into it so it floats.

Hook: http://www.eagleclaw.com/sites/all/themes/eagleclaw/images/products/162EL.jpg

Blower: http://cdn3.volusion.com/cmqk9.qo7cd/v/vspfiles/photos/LAC370-2.jpg

[sartellangler05]

Was sight fishing Clearwater last night for a couple hours. Finally got into some sunfish. Got a few big girls pushing 9 1/2 inches with great colors...didn't get a pick, released all. Still scratchin my head where the crappies are out there.

[clayton08]

I knew there was a tourney out there so I did some snooping lol seemed to be alot of boats in certain areas.

[sartellangler05]

Yeah, I talked to the old fella who works BJ's Bait, and he said Saturday there were like 60 boats in the tournament. Somewhere around 320+ crappies were weighed in, with quite a few pushing 14".

[nater]

I hear ya, I've been out there twice in the last week and haven't found many crappies. Saturday after the tourney, I looked around the north end finding nothing. Then Monday night on the south side I found some small gills and a few smaller crappies deeper. Marked quite a few but they were finicky. Nothing shallow.

[Rick G]

Was out there last week, Tue or Wed.... can't seem to remember what day but anyway, found some crappies around the shallow rush points. They were starting to stage up for the spawn. There are still a few in the shallow bays, but for the most part they have moved to their spawning areas now.

[Borch]

In the summer they'll even crush a buzz bait ripped along the surface.

[Tom Sawyer]

Area lakes were really pumping out some nice eater size sunfish today. Don't bother looking shallow yet, zero spawning activity and from the looks of this upcoming weeks forecast, I doubt any will be happening soon. Sad to say, but from the looks of most of the females I caught, I think they may be absorbing there eggs already. Tough spring for spawning....

 

 

[eyeguy 54]

nice crawler.

[Rick G]

Got out with Andrea for a while again today. Hit a couple backwater spots on the river. As usual, she outfished me.  1/8 oz jigs tipped with a half a nightcrawler has been working very well for us as of late.

[Tom Sawyer]

nice crawler.

​Waxworms worked equally as well, crawler meat stayed on longer.

Nice eye Rick, may need to go for a bike ride to fish that eddy. Great spot!

[Naturboy]

Went down to the dam this morning to see if I can still cast (with a broken bone in my hand) and the river is up maybe a foot from a week ago.  I can still cast and caught a cigar and also got checked by the CO. He never gives out much hot bite info, I guess he's not selling anything so he doesn't have to lie. :)

[IceHawk]

Tom you are so right those magicall spawning temps of 68 degree plus are a ways away yet. With this weird weather it wont be for a while yet.

[IceHawk]

Rick looks like you and Andrea are finding some good shore fishing. This rain should help out your river fishing eddies and current breaks will become a little more defined.

[eyeguy 54]

the creek is rising as we type.  

[Rick G]

Made it down to the fishing pier for a few casts between thunderstorms. Water is very high and dirty from all the run off. Would like to say we got into a bunch of fish  but that would be a lie. Got a couple walleyes and some small smallies

 

[Tom Sawyer]

Nice one Ricky. Fishing was great down on a eddy Saturday  

Much needed rain, but certainly will make fishing more of challenge with muddy water. Fishing slower and using brighter color jigs with twister tails and tipped with meat will still produce fish. The temps 30 degrees colder then this weekend today, may effect the bite more negatively than the murky water. Very strange spring weather we're having. 

[Rick G]

Made it out again today, after panfish and bass in the am. Starting to see the gills and crappies crusing the shallows again. Water temp was 61-63 and very high for this lake.  We had our best luck fishing pockets in the deep weedline. Throwing small mr twisters and tubes on 1/16 oz heads to the weed and reeling  back slowly produced well. 

If you look close you will notice the bull sunfish has a missing eye...it was big gill of the day at a hair over 9in.... still swiming ad I type this.

After dinner Andrea and I hit the Creek. Not much happening, water is moving fast. Andi scored big bass of the evening

[Tom Sawyer]

Nice fish you two!

[Rick G]

Hit the chain for a bit today. Boat traffic was pretty nuts to start, but as the day wore on less and less pleasure boaters graced the lakes. We didn' t do quite as well as I would have liked, stiianagrd some fish though. Found a mix of panfish on a 6-9 ft flat that had some emergent green weeds. The fish were holding tight to the cover. The only way we could get them is with floats and small jigs tipped with tiny crappie minnows or pieces of nightcrawler.

walleyes were a littke easier to get to bite. Found decent numbers in the river. They were holding in the current breaks on the section we were on. 1/8 oz jigs tipped with crawler pitched to the slack water seemed to wirk best for me today.  

sorry, no pics today, forgot phone at home.

[Tom Sawyer]

Friday we found most of our better size fish relating to neck down areas with quite a bit of current. Transition from mud to gravel areas held some nice keepers.