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St. Croix River Fishing Reports


Joe

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Went out yesterday night from 2 to 6pm on 32ft of water, caught 3 whitebass, 1 mooneye, 2 12" crappies and a 13" crappie also missed a lot. Most of them hit the deadstick plain red hook 6ft off the bottem. Marked a lot of fish on the bottem 6 feet but they wont even look at it, might just be bait fish.

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WOW! 3 crappies? In one sitting? That's an awesome report compared to what we've been hearing. Maybe it's FINALLY gonna kick in.

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I've been out several times in the past 2 weeks and consistently avg 2 crappies per outing in 32 fow. I wonder if anybody does better in shallow water. I feel really bad for any fish caught this deep since I want to release some of the fish, but they always die. I like to practice selective harvest and want to release really small fish and the bigger fish, but so far none have survived.

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When you guys fish away from the shanty towns what depths are you normally targeting? Ive been on the river 2 times and any help is greatly appreciated. Also do you think about what direction you drill your holes? As in drilling 2 with the current or horizontally across the current.

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Well I finally had a fun day on the river this year. They were not crappies or 'eyes but got into a nice school of white bass. Ended up catching 13 fish between 14-17" before the school moved out. Also got into some perch and sunnies.

White bass were off a legde in 28-30 fow and the panfish were generally near the top in 20fow. Gold jigging spoon/crappie minnow and a chartruse lindy darter took the bass.

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When you guys fish away from the shanty towns what depths are you normally targeting? Ive been on the river 2 times and any help is greatly appreciated. Also do you think about what direction you drill your holes? As in drilling 2 with the current or horizontally across the current.

I drill mine horizontally across the current, then one hole about 3' downstream from my jigging hole for my electronics. Your jig will be drawn downstream at least that far. This helps to see your jig when it is not directly below your hole.

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Had a decent day today. Did not catch one crappie which was a first for me this year. Switched gears and targeted walleye and had a little success. Decided to work a steep break that went from 9fow to 25fow in about 15 yards. Started deep and worked in. Foul hooked what would have been a keeper(16"). Met a fellow FM'er and talked for a bit. About 2 minutes after he left I caught another 14" eye. Both on blue jiggin shad raps. That was all the action that I got today but it was nice to target fish and have a little success.

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Originally Posted By: builtFORDtough
When you guys fish away from the shanty towns what depths are you normally targeting? Ive been on the river 2 times and any help is greatly appreciated. Also do you think about what direction you drill your holes? As in drilling 2 with the current or horizontally across the current.

I drill mine horizontally across the current, then one hole about 3' downstream from my jigging hole for my electronics. Your jig will be drawn downstream at least that far. This helps to see your jig when it is not directly below your hole.

Don's tip is a must for deepwater and current. He's right on.

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Auggie- Good to see you out there again today. I ended up with a 12 inch smalley and a 13 in sauger. No catfish today. Had more lookers today than yesterday. Fished from 20 to 30 feet of water.

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Buddy and I were out yesterday from 6 to noon Four smallies(13,14,14,16) and one sauger(14), a few misses and two break offs. All caught in 22 fow. We tried quite a few things, but silver and gold swedish pimples tipped with full fatheads were the only producers. Those smallies sure are a blast on a jigging rod.

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Kinda quiet on here. How's the crappie bite going? Been finding scattered sauger out there, picking up an average of a couple a trip. Hoping the crappies get going as the walleye and sauger season closes after next week end! Or at least the panfish start biting on the lakes!! Good luck out there everyone!! Keep your fingers crossed and hope they start opening those tight-lips.

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We didn't mark any fish either. We had a camera down as well as the flasher. The walleye and sauger were there just hugging the bottom. Not many would even look much less bite. The small mouth were hugging the bottom as well but they were a bit aggressive and would come up to a rising bait. Then and only then would they show up on the flasher.

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Get to fish the croix again since I have a new Granddaugter. Will be going this upcoming week. Any feeling about cloudy vs sunny days.....

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Was out on Saturday, tried a few spots ended up with 2 nice crappies, a couple of perch. But the highlight of the day was the 61 inch 70lb. sturgeon i got on my 6 lb. rod, i fought that thing for an hour! luckily my buddy was there to pull that thing through the hole. I'll post pictures as soon as I can dig my camera out of my stuff.

[img:center]http:///turbofishing.shutterfly.com/

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tried by the highlines just off the open water no luck, saw some come in but no takers, any body having luck south of ferry's landing

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Jedi, that was fun huh?

big gills, welcome! If you read a bit of this thread you'll see no one is doing very well anywhere right now, hopefully it picks up soon. Good luck and keep us posted.

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Jedi- any pics of that sturgeon yet? I would love to see that. I caught one a couple weeks ago out there, but not nearly that big. I have seen a couple as big as yours caught over the years, but I am still waiting for my chance.

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I was wondering what's the easiest way to put some pics up, I have been trying to put that pic up of that sturgeon and i can't seem to do it. I am not the most computer savvy person, any help would be greatly appreciated.

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go to photobucket, start an account if you don't have one, then upload it (large size)

then you can copy the IMG Code and paste into this window

or you can email it to me and i'll put it up for you (bddickinson at gmail)

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Finally! thanks goblueM and DonBo, i was having a hell of a time doing that. That's way easier! Here she is!

CroixIceFishing009.jpg

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