st cloud St Cloud Fishing Reports

[Coleman]

Are most of you guys that are fishing above the SCSU dam putting in at Wilson Park? I've been put in there, and was wondering what the condition of the landing is. Thanks

[JeremyCampbell]

Made it out for a little bit last evening... I got outfished

She got me on size and numbers.... sometimes it's better to be the looser though

Even better that you two "caught" the best sunset together.Only Gained,Nothing lost

[Rick G]

You know it, bud

[jigginjim]

Not having fished the river north of paper mill, can anyone point me to a good launch. Plus interested in water depth, as I run a 19ft Ranger, not looking to go blasting around. Would like to try trolling or jig fishing for fall smallies, a couple eyes would be a good plus.

[srfishin15]

The depth is not an issue north of the sartell dam until you round the corner by Gordon's bridge and head up towards the county park. Between the dam and the bridge it is pretty hazard free. Dont fly too close to the first sharp left turn as you run upstream as there is a sandbar, and also as you head upstream towards the bridge, stay far to the left of the big island. Other than that there isn't too much to worry about, I haven't been out there lately but I would assume the hazard markers are still in. Channel depth is pretty consistent 25-35 feet. The launch on river road is the best (and I think only) launch.

[Coleman]

Not having fished the river north of paper mill, can anyone point me to a good launch. Plus interested in water depth, as I run a 19ft Ranger, not looking to go blasting around. Would like to try trolling or jig fishing for fall smallies, a couple eyes would be a good plus.

I would say, the best landing is on the east side of the river. You'll head north on Benton Dr NE, or County Rd 33. Then take a left onto NE River Rd, you'll see the brown landing marker on the side of the road. It's only about 1.5 miles north of town. Then, take River Rd for about 1/2 mile and you'll see the landing on the left. There is also one other landing on the west side of the river...I believe it's a Lion's run landing at the Park. It's alright, but I'd just use the one on the east side.

As was mentioned, the water levels are just fine, and the sand bars are still marked. If you stick on the west side if you head south, you'll have no problem. As you head north you may want to lean more towards the east.

I've been having some great luck fishing the ice breakers down towards the dam. I haven't been hitting a lot of keepers yet, but the action is pretty good. I've also went north a bit to the first bend/point. There's a nice drop right there that I've been working. Maybe I'll see you out there. I have a blue 17' tiller crestliner.

[jigginjim]

Sounds great, May head up that way if thing work out in the next few days.

[Coleman]

I'm heading out tomorrow despite the weather with a couple friends. Gonna give it all we got. I was hoping that this weather may have turned them on. We'll see...I'll give a report tomorrow once we're done.

[Coleman]

Well I can say this....the Small Mouth are on the rock piles. We initially went down to the ice breakers by the dam. We caught a few eyes and a few smallies. It was fun but it worked my bow mount all day. Then we headed up to a few rock piles I've found...every one would have 3-4 15-17" small mouth on them. We mainly used gulp and minnows. So, the bite is still going...just the weather is tough.

[Tom Sawyer]

As the weather gets tougher, the bite gets better.

[eyeguy 54]

waiting for my phone to ring

[Coleman]

Got out again today. And I must say, the small mouth bite is on fire. Every rock pile seems to have even more fish on it, and they seem to be getting a little better size to them. I caught about 10 today in a few hours. Biggest was a little over 16". I had a larger one on, but it didn't make it to the boat. So, if you can bare the wind...I would get out there. It's a lot of fun.

[cjac]

Going to head out Friday and Saturday nights for some walleyes pulling cranks. Any input on whether the stick baits with a wider action are still producing or are the temps dropping to the point of using the tighter action baits like a Shallow Shad Rap?

Any input would be much appreciated.

[Stick in Mud]

They've both been working. Let the fish tell you which they prefer.

[cjac]

Touche...... I guess a vague question merits a vague reply. I'll post a vague report on how I did.

[Bryan P]

Went out looking for some eyes today on the river. No luck but the smallies are getting fat for the winter

[Borch]

Going to head out Friday and Saturday nights for some walleyes pulling cranks. Any input on whether the stick baits with a wider action are still producing or are the temps dropping to the point of using the tighter action baits like a Shallow Shad Rap?

Any input would be much appreciated.

For us it doesn't matter what you use some nights and others they show a definite preference. As there temps drop it'll be long baits with various actions most nights. The last night out as 100% long baits for us.

[cjac]

Thanks Jeff, that helps a lot right out of the gate. Looks like I'll be solo so that info helps me cut down the trial and error time a ton with only 1 line in the water. I think I'm going to be on Rice.

FYI: The southwest launch on Rice has been redone.....all new concrete slabs. A much needed improvement. Plus, they put the dock back in after the work so it should be there for a few more weeks.

As far as Rice reports: Didn't fish last weekend but until then bass were active, inside and outside weed lines and a few dock fish mixed in. With the cool off I'll be looking for remaining green weeds and working those hard. Same areas as they were before, but out a bit deeper looking for the green stuff. 5.5# smallie and a 5.1# large in the last few weeks are the top fish with several more 19-20+ mixed in.

[Stick in Mud]

Touche...... I guess a vague question merits a vague reply. I'll post a vague report on how I did.

Looking forward to it.

In all seriousness, we've caught fish on successive evenings pulling Salmo hornets and original floaters and other stickbaits. Whacked 'em on Lindy River Rockers one night, too. As the temps cool off, they should start to show more of a preference for the stickbaits, but there are still a lot of active fish looking for the more aggressive wobbles and rattles.

[Stick in Mud]

Went out to Clearwater today with 621vs....surprisingly, these walleyes weren't Ranger shy. We pulled in about 25. No pigs, but a few over 20'' to help him justify those monthly payments.

We fished sharp-breaking points, shallow flats with weeds, and a few inside turns with weeds and deep water nearby. Got them on jigs and minnows and trolling cranks.

[pushbutton]

Huh, guess I must need a nicer boat My dingy had a hard time tonight. Only a couple of eyeballs up shallow ......pulling wobbly flashy stuff Later, parked over roughly a zillion crappies and also had a rough go......a pike eventually bit me off to end my suffering. By far from going out on top, but think that might be it till ice.

[Coleman]

I wanted to get this post on here on Friday, but time caught up to me. But, Jeremy and I got out on Friday, and we went after some Small Mouth. I have a hard time not going after them, because they're so fun to catch. We did end up catching two small eyes as well.

Mainly doing what I've been doing before. Locating large rock piles and jigging a minnow over them. We did seem to catch some larger fish this time, some hitting the 17" mark. I believe we ended up catching 26 in total for about 3 hours of work. So, another nice day on the water.

[Borch]

Nice fish!

[Naturboy]

sounds like fun

[matt320]

We Just moved back to the St Cloud area after living in the South for 3years hadn't been out fishing in a while so we decided to hit a local lake where I always had good success in the past we fished from shore got a lot of perch bass and some nice crappies feels good to be back cant wait for the hard water season to start.

[matt320]

facebook.com maybe this will work if not can someone let me know how to do it.

facebook.com

[Genofish]

I have been finding the crappies starting to stack up in the traditional fall areas. Good bite in the area now, deep basins with soft bottoms have been holding fish. Jig with minnow and or plastics has been putting fish in the boat. Keeping a few eaters, releasing the larger ones.

[621vs]

Nicely done there Genofish 😄

[Josh.P 86]

nice.

[Stick in Mud]

Yep, I've been seeing the same thing. Nice schools of crappies out deep.

Went out today for a bit in a buddy's boat. Got a few 'eyes, but our bite has slowed down considerably. Ended up putting six in the boat for two of us over four hours. Got one big one, three keepable if we'd been keeping em, and the other two were dinks. The little 'eyes are schooling up too, it seems, out where the crappies are. Where the big girls went I don't quite know just yet. Maybe Benton Station?