st cloud St Cloud Fishing Reports

[JeremyCampbell]

Would I say it's more productive in st cloud? I wouldn't know by experience but there are others who fish there on HSO that can answer that.

[Griffond]

Was at the area in Sartel he was just talking about yesterday morning and lost a nice eye right at the shore saw a couple smaller cats get pulled up as well gonna try my luck there again here in a little bit now that I found some frogs for bait ;-)

[JeremyCampbell]

Those little cats are funny sometimes over there.I was out there recently around 2am and I pulled them out like crazy off live or plastic minnow from the bottom on a drifty presentation.one of them took the minnow just a few ft down from the top of the water in a deep hole.Sun fish have been on the loose too from sartell to st cloud.When the bite stinks I get kid happy on sunfish to pass the time.

[JeremyCampbell]

Found a bunch of 8"-10" crappies tonight around 12:45 am in sartell.I was hunting eyes with everything from misc lures, jigs on bottom,jigs on bobbers and I decided to go to a hook instead and the crappies showed up.Live minnows were catching them.They wernt up for plastics at all.Released all the fish for the next guy.

[Griffond]

Yeah the crappies were biting at the St. Cloud dam last night as well no walleyes or catfish thou weather is not helping out any at the moment either... I may have to switch to catching crappies I guess lol

[JeremyCampbell]

I decided to try early for walleye today.Around 4:45.I found this one.Small one around 15" but the good news is I noticed the bass are biteing more.Most of the fish were caught on crawlers including the walleye.

[eyeguy 54]

whens the fish fry?

[JeremyCampbell]

No fish fry today.Catch and release

[Griffond]

Were you up by Sartel again?

[Griffond]

Also total random question I am 100% a lake fisherman and new to rivers I was using just a few split shots and a long snell with a crawler is there a better configuration to try out with crawlers?

[Stick in Mud]

That's more or less what I use, though I don't use a "long" snell (compared to places like Mille Lacs, anyways). On the river I'll use roughly 18'' between hook and sinker, maybe a bit less, maybe more.

This time of year, for what it's worth, I tend to have better luck with minnows. Not that crawlers don't produce--sometimes, randomly it seems, they'll do better than anything else--but if I could only bring one bait, it'd be minnows.

[JeremyCampbell]

Went to a different st Joe lake today.Crappies were biteing well in 20'-30' depths.Size wasn't great.All were 8"-9".They were hitting Swedish pimples and jigs with crawlers and minnows for bait.Bp bait in st Joe were fresh out of leeches in case anyone wants to know for catching walleye.

[Rick G]

As usual, great report and pic's, Jeremy! Using ice jigs to catch suspended open water crappies is always fun, you must have learned that one from Mike R.

[Scott99]

Anyone hear if the bite on koronis?

[eyeguy 54]

crawlers on the river in a boat try a bottom bouncer and a harness. In a lake i am partial to a bullet weight and then a 4 foot leader or more. I always inflate the crawler a bit. Deadly.

[JeremyCampbell]

Stayed out til 2:30 am on the west end of the river in Sartell.Found some pan fish around 1:30 and then things got hyper when useing live bait.This Blue Gill was @ 9" and this crappie barely hit 11".Patients was the lesson I got for tonight.

[Griffond]

Nice panfish Jeremy! I'd take a half a dozen of those for a dinner.

The girlfriend and I tried fishing the Sartel dam yesterday evening I think from like 6-8ish had some bites at the bottom side of dam and watched piles of fish jump up the topside but didn't catch anything we were using crawlers on the bottom and with a float.

[Rick G]

Nice fish, Jeremy! I think I'm going to try my luck tonight.

[JeremyCampbell]

Grifford-The fishing has been like this for a while but I'm finding everyday is different with the fish more than usual. It can get frustrating but if you don't mind moving spot to spot and even go back to where you started it can pay off.Last fall I had the similer situation.Even though it's a pain to keep changing tackle and baits,your gonna have to do some work to find them especially these last couple of weeks.The fish are chasing more and bringing your tackle to the fish instead of waiting for them to come along is the trend I'm focusing on.I find it has been helpful too. Also good luck to you Rick.LOL check your rod tips before you go tonight.

[Griffond]

Thanks for the advice Jeremy... if I am by myself I tend to walk up and down the shore trying different spots if my girlfriend is with me its allot harder since she has a bad ankle so we tend to kinda just stick to the same spot for awhile and then move to an easy to get to spot again. I am still really new to river fishing but not fishing in general...I was half tempted to bring my boat down from the Brainerd area but I don't think I want to learn navigating the river this time of year so I'll stick to shore... I would like to find somewhere to get a nice 3-5lb catfish since I've never caught one... that is what I seem to be trying for the most anyway... and I got plenty of nightcrawlers to use since there are tons of them in the garden lol.

[JeremyCampbell]

Griffond,I have a couple of spring time holes for cats in sartell.I'm just a rookie on the river myself not a great angler or anything but hit me up with a pm in the spring and I can show you one in particular where the bite lasted for a few weeks.I gave it a nickname (The Kitty Den) most cats were around 30".It's one of the most challenging spots to fish and it can only hold one guy in its surroundings by shore.It's one of those fishing stories you hear from grandpa.lol.Here is one of them at 31"

[Griffond]

NICE! No hotspots for the fall bite? lol I have a friend I am supposed to go help up in Fargo a little later on in October and for trade he is going to take me catfishing lol I figure that will be a blast since he knows the river rather well I was just hoping to get a little more experience before I got there lol... I am so used to lake fishing I've fished little rivers before but nothing like this.

[Brad B]

Griffond,

the cats don't totally shut off in the fall but they slow down. as the water temps drop so does their metabolism. this simply means they will slow down and feed less. they still will feed but there will be longer time frames between feedings. the prime time for the cats would be late may through mid august(some might even say September). I don't know how to exactly explain it but come early ice fishing season there seems to be a switch back to where the channel cats will move to the deeper holes and start to feed again(this is on lakes that have a river system coming through them). as the winter goes on the feeding slows down again. this whole concept is explained in this new book that a friend of mine wrote on fishing channel cats(he's a professional catfish guide on the Red River). PM for info if interested in getting the book and reading it. Ice fishing for channel cats is a whole new experience if you have never done it. it is fun to pull a 3 to 5 pound channel cat through a 8 inch hole in the ice. if you are interested in trying to ice a cat this winter let me know and I will see if I can get you on some (as long as my schedule works out I have a lot of things going on over the winter this year but plan to chase the cats as much as possible).

back to open water cats. I have a open seat in the boat every now and then from mid May through beginning of September and would be happy to get you on some cats next year if you wanted too. the last time I was out with a friend we put five 3 to 5 pounders in the boat that day.

[Griffond]

Could be fun not sure with work were I will be that time of year but we will have to wait and see I guess... so from all the talk here on the reports it sounds like this time of year is better to chase pan fish and walleye on the river?

[pushbutton]

Go to east side of the scsu dam and give it a shot...can't imagine it is too cold yet. Would probably try something stinkier than crawlers though

[Rick G]

Griffond,

Brad is quite the little expert, and gives solid advice, but don't let it discourage you!!! Cats are still plenty catchable from now till ice up Do as Pb said, you should get a few there... otherwise shoot me a PM, I might be able to help you out.

[Rick G]

Almost forgot, I got this one today

I know it's not a catfish, but I think it's almost as cool anyway

[JeremyCampbell]

Slam Dunk Fish !

[Nhamm]

That is a beautiful fish, nice catch!

[Stick in Mud]

Nice fish, Rick.

What are the water temps up in your parts?