St. Croix River Fishing Reports

[Wookiee]

Way to go Dale!

[River Dan]

Way to go Dale get that new boat smelling like fish

[Fisherman For a Lifetime]

My **new** Wife & I caught 7 Walleyes, kept 5 on Sat. between 5:30 & 10 am. Kinni to Prescott.

We caught a 18.5" White Bass hog. Not sure, is that big for a White Bass...?

[Wookiee]

yes that is trophy white bass caliber

[Jordyn Kaufer]

Got out last night. Caught 2 shorts and one for the pan! Tons oh sheepies, and as fast as depths, it's was anywhere btwn 14 and 26ft of water

[Jeremy airjer W]

Got out for the first time this year today. 2 saugers (one 14 1/2 the other 13) in 2 hours both in 30 feet of water. I tried 4" smelt gulp alive. Apparently they bite on those as well!

[BoxMN]

Was out on Monday, got there about 3pm. Fishing south of Stillwater area. Caught a bunch of nice crappies (12-13 inches) and lots of sheephead. Some white bass, but not many. Caught one small sauger down closer to Hudson, and then tied into my first ever sturgeon. I didn't know what it was, but knew right away it was the largest fish I have ever caught, larger than the 36" cat I caught there many moons before. Took about 20 minutes or so to get it in.

It was 48" - it put up one heck of a fine fight, I quickly took the hook out while in the net, snapped a quick couple pics and let her swim away powerfully, wow are they powerful!

ps, I know it isn't the season, and I was not fishing for it, and I released all fish caught...

[tunrevir]

Nice work and a beauty of a fish Box! You may find that you get the urgin to go for sturgeon after this I caught my first couple over in Wisc and although I never fish for them, I seem to catch one here and there. Great pic and and I am sure a thrill! Good work!

Tunrevir~

[fishwater]

Thanks for the post Box, nice fish!

[redLUNDrebel]

nice fish...what bait did you use? This is my 3rd, still a rookie, year fishing the river and i have never caught a sturgeon. I primarily fish for walleye/saugers so i use mostly minnows and leeches..

[BoxMN]

Thanks guys, it was fun, I was shakin' for awhile!!!

We were using jigs and fatheads, but this came when slow trolling a taildancer. Was just outside his mouth, so not sure if snagged or he went for it. Sauger was also on taildancer in about 18', the rest of fish were on fatheads, a couple on Gulp minnows.

It was a beautiful day out there!

[MrCrappie]

Nice fish. What's a good place to start for crappies on the croix by stillwater?

[Jeremy airjer W]

Nice fish Box! Someday I might hook into one of those, I hope!!

I'm eating to of the saugers I caught today as I type. Much better fishing than yesterday!!

[BoxMN]

Thanks guys. I can't say I know much of anything, since I used to fish the river more than I do now, but we got crappies basically just off about any little nub of a point, about 18-20 fow, not on the bottom. The sheephead were mixed in with them, or just below them and maybe a bit shallower... but that Monday. I wish we would have got a few ore sauger or even a walleye, but I won't complain, haha! Good luck!

I'm heading to Fergus Falls area this weekend after prairie walleye

[lexifer]

We caught a 18.5" White Bass hog. Not sure, is that big for a White Bass...?

The state record white bass was 18.5" long - FYI

[MrCrappie]

Thanks box. I fish lakes for crappies but I'll try the river once.

[River Dan]

Was on the river more hours lately then off and what a great time

i've been having and meeting some really great people and putting some good numbers of fish in the boat, sure helps when the fish are hungry. Most fish were coming on crawlers and lindy rigs but don't rule out minnows completely, In the last week fish have been caught from 4' to 35' but over all 20' would be the target depth, as my rule I don't go to leeches till mayflies start turning up, The crank bait bite is going great after the trip was over on saturday decided to pull some cranks and put three good ones in the boat on the first pass and in just a couple more passes filled the box half hour tops, talk about fun!

[Jeremy airjer W]

Had 18 total tonight. Most of them where 12" and under. Towards the evening they where in less that 13' of water. Changed up the presentation a little. Saw the "Griz" using yellow jigs and minnows so I decided to rig up a big ole yellow jig and a 4" Gulp Alive minnow. Worked very well. Even had one sauger that was just over 20 1/2"!!

[Dale Rueber]

Was out Saturday afternoon/evening between Prescott and the Kini running snap weights with larger Raps because I have not seen many larger fish lately, mostly been catching 10-14" Saugers, so I thought I would try a different presentation. Caught more of the same size Saugers on the larger crank baits but also picked up a 23" Pike and a 13" Crappie. Switched to jigging plastics and picked up a couple more small Saugers. Didn't see a Walleye all evening. Also did not see any Perch. Caught more 5-7" Perch this year already than the last 3 years combined. Anybody else notice this?

[Turk]

Summer time fishing appears to be upon us as white bass are on the chew and preying heavy on minnows. Walleye fishing has been up and down, with some days being tougher than others. The bite improved later in the week. From what I am seeing it has been the norm on most days this year to be able to catch at most about three good eyes from one spot and then that spot appears burned out, this should change as summertime locations will start to produce fish. As mentioned above white bass are getting active and smallmouth bass as well are being caught inadvertently on walleye presentations. Walleyes have been caught in depths from 6 to 27 feet. I focus on a shallow fish or deep fish, and then the depths ranges are from 6 to 14 and then about 17 to 27. Livebait has been the key for my guide trips, and last week fatheads were the dominant bait, and then last weekend nightcrawlers and leeches were again being gobbled up by walleye. I know other anglers are getting walleye gold on Rapalas trolled in 16 to 22 feet of water. The new Rapala DT minnow works wonders in this depth range.

Last Friday and Saturday were big fish count days. On Friday, I took out long time client Mark Cavaleri and his son Aaron and daughter Liz. We found some serious action with white bass and walleye these fish were very aggressive and caught on the cast. The fish were up gorging on minnows. The key here was to find the eddies, because they held light blue fish eggs that appear this time of year. I suspect these eggs are shad eggs based on the sheer volume of them. The fish initially were being caught on jig and minnow then they were so hot, that a jig and plastic tail fooled the fish just the same. Good trip, Liz reeled in the largest walleye and we all had tight lines and good conversation.

Saturday, the Runk Bothers of Stillwater, MN, Terry, Dave, Aaron, and Adam got together for some angling on a half day trip. Fatheads and nightcrawlers did most of the damage on this trip. I think most of the brothers were irritated at Adam as he personally bagged six of the 13 keepers (the walleye keepers ranged from 15 to 20 inches). Hard to know if the bite has turned on, or the fish bit well prior to the storm coming in. I’ve guided these guys before and went to high school with Dave, he was a football star for the Ponies, he got the ball, I got to ride the pines. Actually all these Runks were Pony star athletes, now some serious anglers. They took the white tips home for fish cleaning and cold ones.

River water elevation is 678.0 feet (and dropping) above sea level in Stillwater, MN. Water color is stained the normal tea color. Have fun and Keep Catchin’

[TRZ II]

Went out sun. for the first trip of the year near stillwater. Got 2 nice eyes for the box then ran into a school of nice sunfish and got a limit of nice fish all over 8 inches. Also got several shorts all on raps.

[Moses2531]

Something is always biting in the river... makes it so fun! Plenty of Whites and sheephead lindying with crawlers in about 18 FOW.. 2 small sauger and 2 short walleyes mixed in but the highlight was a 47 inch Sturgeon to end the afternoon! Im a walleye guy for sure, but wow that really is the king of the river... she was in control for a good 20 minutes between runing and jumping a managed to land her, get a quick picture and let her swim off! Now I have no experience with sturgeon but that fish bit in water no deeper than 15', I didnt realize they swam up that shallow...? Guess I always envisioned them sitting at the bottom of deeper holes? Great time though! Love fishing the river!

[TRZ II]

I got my biggest open water sturgeon a 67 incher in about 8 ft pulling raps. Snagged it in the cheek, took 3 hrs to get it in.

[MidCoast]

I did pretty good with the Eyes and Saugers this morning. Pulled Cranks was pretty much it.

[TRZ II]

What kind of depth with the cranks?

[Jeremy airjer W]

It was a good morning overall. Found plenty of saugers in the clear water during the sunrise. They moved to the stained water and shallower as the sun came up. 17-20 feet was the key after 10:00. 4" Gulp Alive and yellow jigs did very well for me again. The bigger bait seem to attract the larger fish and keep the sheephead off! 6 keepers the smallest 13 1/2 the largest just under 16 with a total somewhere around 12.

[MuskieJunkie]

Thanks everybody for the reports.

Just got back from a sucessful day on the croix and P3. Saw Airjer and his 2 boys out there EARLY. Any one who can get 2 little kids out of bed that early must be a good fisherman

We ended up with a bunch of saugers and walleyes, the biggest only being 17, caught on rigging, jigging and trolling, no clear winner any of those ways, all of them picked up fish here and there.

The only thing we tried that didn't work was casting up to the wing dams although we didn't give that too much time.

For trolling it was a purple taildancer that caught the most. Great day to be on the water and it was pretty funny listening to guys on channel 16 gripe about getting cut off.

[SS 9 IRON]

Got to the ramp today, put the boat in the water and realized I forgot my depth finders...Had to go back home to get em. Found a few walley early. Picked up 4 in 10 to 12 ft of water. 2 for the box and the other 2 were 14 and 14 and a half. Lindy rig no spinner with half a crawler.

worked a few other spots and missed too many fish. Tons of sheephead, Had to come off by 1pm. Did well last week in the same spot pulled an 18, 22, and 24 inch walley. All in all a great day on the water. Will be back next weekend.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Any one who can get 2 little kids out of bed that early must be a good fisherman

There's a fine line between good and lucky and I ain't no where near close to crossing it!!!

[River Dan]

Last night took my son out, caught lots of shorts, then went pulling cranks but still nothing of size, switched to handlining and wow did we put some quality fish in the boat, high light was hooking something really big on the handline the power of that fish was unreal, Id like to think it was a state record walleye but Im thinking I hooked a big sturgeon or a cat fish, what ever it was, it didn't want to see the boat!