St. Croix River Fishing Reports

[Lundcranking]

Must say I had a good weekend myself! This moring was productive pulling cranks with a number of shorts but still made for a great morning and had enough for dinner!

[WalleyeChaser]

Didn't fish the river this weekend but it sounds like the fall feed is starting to fire up! Will hopefully be out there a bit in the next few weekends and actually put some fish in the boat!! Hey by the way Dan leave a few fish out there for the rest of us!!! J/K. If i could catch 1/5 the fish you do i would be happy. Thanks for all the great reports!

[River Dan]

Got down to the river last night after work for some slab action with my friend and even though we put some really nice ones in the box it was slow for the most part

After a couple hours of crappies, we went handlining and put some eyes in the boat, another great time on the river, where were you last night funfish? I was looking for you!

[Dale Rueber]

I was not out Tuesday night, had to work late. Working late again tonight. Was out on Monday evening and did really good on the Walleyes. Between 5:30pm and 7:30pm caught 8 Walleye ranging from 17" to 24". Not even 1 short Walleye. Also picked up 2 Saugers and 1 nice smallie. Was fishing the Prescott area again.

I still find it very strange how you can catch fish in one place one day and not the next. Same weather/time/presentation/area, the only difference is the day. Fishing is great then the next day it's barren.

[Dale Rueber]

Was out again by Prescott and caught nothing by the bridges. moved up river and picked up 1 Walleye and 5 Saugers. Had another person in the boat with me that caught nothing. We were running the same lures on handlines and doing basically the same thing, only difference was that I had the raps tied directly and he was using split rings/snaps. I know that the action in the water is slightly different but I did not think it would make that much difference. Although it could have just been one of those days for him. Not sure if the split ring/snap was the problem but I will certainly be playing around more with different presentations of identical lures in the future.

[croixeyes]

Good thoughts,sometimes its the subtle differences that can add up to success..

[River Dan]

Was out on the river this morning and the walleyes were active for the first couple hours of light, when the walleyes shut down I went and found some slabs to finish off the morning, be out again tomorrow!

[tunrevir]

Put an 18" eye in the box this morning and a nice mess of crappies for the dinner table. Lovely morning on the river.

Tunrevir~

[Go Gators]

Went out Saturday morning from Hudson. Waited for the tourney anglers to clear the launch area and decided to head north. Trolled cranks on leadcore and snap weights. Tried to keep the speeds between 1.6 and 2.3mph and the depths between 22 and 30fow. Had a heavy fish on within 10 minutes of starting but it came unbuttoned before we could see it. Ended up with 2 nice eyes in the box by 11am. Messed around with some crawlers and leeches on lindy's for a while but that ended up being a waste of time. Couldn't have asked for a better day and had a chance to talk with some of the tournament anglers. Mixed reports from them with one team from KY catching 3 skis. Appeared they were trolling cranks and they were moving along pretty good, I'd say 3.5mph+.

[WalleyeChaser]

Well, started out in Prescott area with some success. Pulled a couple 15"ish saugers with about a dozen smaller ones and 1 16" walleye and 2 shortys. Using Jig and Fathead and riggin with fatheads. Moved up and fished some points back to the bluffs, no luck. Nice to see everyone down there, I must say a very friendly bunch of fisherman. I was in the tan/white Monarch with the 115 Merc. Nice to quick chat with you Dan. Caught me of guard with the Vikes Comment. You a Pack fan or what? Did you fill out your final 2? Don't know who else i chated with but you were givin Dan some smack talk, nice talking to you also. Well another weekend in the books and finally some fish in the box!! Got a little confidence back. I'll be out next weekend for sure. LATER

[Rugbyguy]

Looking to get out on the St. Croix for the first time after moving up here from SE MN. I would like to target some walleyes/sauger, but don't have a problem catching any type of fish. I work in Hastings and am planning on getting out Tuesday evening.

Where should I launch?

What presentations should I be using?

What depth ranges should I concentrate on?

Thanks for any help!

[Dale Rueber]

If you plan on launching in the Hastings area there are 4 local options.

1. Hastings public launch just South of Lock #2. Free, nice ramp but no dock.

2. Hastings Marina just East of downtown. $10 Nice ramp and docks.

3. Bluffs campgroung. $25 year pass not sure about daily fee. If you have a low slung trailer this ramp can be difficult. Nice docks.

4. Prescott $10 (I think). Nice ramp and dock.

For presentations it depends on what you are setup for - live bait, lead core, 3 way...

It's hard to beat jig and minnow/leach or a Lindy rig with a crawler. Look for 22-30 feet of water.

[Turk]

Although it could have just been one of those days for him. Not sure if the split ring/snap was the problem

I'd bet you simply did better than your partner... happens all the time. I have monkeyed around with a direct tie, split rigns, or snaps on cranks and all combination's in between. It comes down to running the rods better and the individual baits themselves being better than the other even if the size/color is the same.

Thanks for the report! Turk

[River Dan]

Was out yesterday morning in the fog, got down to the prescott area around 5:30 and pulled rapalas and boated eyes pretty consistantly till around 8 then it died off so hit a couple other areas, just couldn't seem to find two more decent ones to fill out, left the river by 10 be out again tonight

[Brad0383]

Was out yesterday morning in the fog, got down to the prescott area around 5:30 and pulled rapalas and boated eyes pretty consistantly till around 8 then it died off so hit a couple other areas, just couldn't seem to find two more decent ones to fill out, left the river by 10 be out again tonight

Are you pulling raps on handlines? I don't have any handlines but I am thinking about spooling my trolling rods up with leadcore. Would that be worth it this time of year? I fish around Prescott quite a bit.

[Rugbyguy]

FunFish, thanks for the info!

We are going to launch in Prescott and try jigging with minnows and/or 3-waying with cranks. Neither of us are set up for leadcore. Hope to have a positive report up on Wednesday.

[DaveZman14q]

Id like to get in on some smallmouth action but had no luck last time out. What depth should i be targeting? I was fishing marinas and shallower rip rap shoreline with top water poppers. Any help would be awesome. Thanks! Oh yea also i was fishing bayport area.

[Dale Rueber]

Been out lately pulling leadcore along the shorelines and edges of flats. Not much to report for fish on leadcore but I really want to give it an honest try.

Questions for you guys that pull lead core and snap weights;

1. Which method do you prefer and why?

2. Which method do you find to be more speed sensitive?

The biggest problem I have had lately with leadcore is the floating weeds. It's not much fun when you have out 150'+ of line that has to be reeled up clear the weeds and spooled back out. At least with snap wieghts most of the weeds that run down the line stop at the weight.

[tunrevir]

Funfish in reply to your leadcore questions. I feel that the snap weights tend to be more speed dependant to keep in the target zone because any change in speed with a turn and the line plummets with the snap weights. Not much of a problem with strighter trolling runs. The lead is great for contours as it typically follows the path of the boat when moving along the edge of a flat. Downside is the longer leads and beefier reels needed to run the core. One way to work the floating weeds if your running the core is pinch on a snap weight release sans weight right onto the core to catch the weeds or use a split ring with a large bead above your leader and a shorter lead of 8-10'. Can make for interesting net jobs when alone but it works. I like snap weights when I can get by with shorter leads and hold tighter to structure with a more linear edge. Hope this helps!

Tunrevir~

[fishwater]

Dale, good to hear your determined to catch fish using a pole! Even though I've been running leadcore more than snap weights this summer, overall I like running snaps better. I can usually feel the action on the lure way better with snap weights, even while using the bigger 2+oz. weights. I think the depth is more speed sensitive using a snap weight, but leadcore probably has a narrower range of speeds to work with. You can't go too much faster than 2.3mph with leadcore or it will blowback considerably, making it pretty tough to figure out your lure depth.

[croixeyes]

Try a split shot on your leader,It will cut down on some of the junk but not all.Ive watched my lead lines for so long I can usually tell when a small leaf is on my bait.But your right,It gets to be a giant pain when you just get your lines set and boom!!! weed on .Alot of times you can clear it with an extreme pull and then set back of the rod.Cant wait for the weeds to run their course,then of course starts the leaf hooking season.

[Lundcranking]

Been out lately pulling leadcore along the shorelines and edges of flats. Not much to report for fish on leadcore but I really want to give it an honest try.

Questions for you guys that pull lead core and snap weights;

1. Which method do you prefer and why?

2. Which method do you find to be more speed sensitive?

The biggest problem I have had lately with leadcore is the floating weeds. It's not much fun when you have out 150'+ of line that has to be reeled up clear the weeds and spooled back out. At least with snap wieghts most of the weeds that run down the line stop at the weight.

Another little trick with lead core is to use longer rods, 9'6", and when the weeds are bad I will run the rod tips in the water.

[fishuhalik]

Any recent reports on sturgeon?

[River Dan]

Was out for my tuesday evening fishing fix and the slabs were bitting but slow then the last hour of light went handlining the eyes were hitting they were just all shorts great night out on the water thats for sure

[AuggieDawg11]

Went out on Tuesday night from 5:30-8 p.m. and did pretty well. Got into a lot of saugers and a few eyes trolling sr7's. We were just messing around using multiple colors and they all seemed to be working at the time. Saw a ton of bait fish boiling the water for about 45 minutes. We casted for about 20 minutes to see if we could hook up with whatever was causing the action but we couldn't figure out what was going on. Cool story of the night was watching 2 bald eagles trying to take a dead fish away from a group of turkey buzzards.

[MuskieJunkie]

Was out yesterday during the day, spent most of the time muskie fishing, didn't see anything.

First fish of the day was a double header, 2 smallies, came on lindy rigs with crawlers. Plus some other missed fish and bite offs.

Great day to be on the water, note to self: weekdays in September much more enjoyable due to A LOT less boat traffic than weekend day in summer.

[Dale Rueber]

Dan, what do you normally use when trying for slabs? Crappie minnows, fat heads, artificial...? I have only targeted them a couple of time with very little success. Had a spot that I picked up a few casting crankbaits so the next day I came back with crappie minnows/slip bobbers and caught nothing. Pesky crappies!

[River Dan]

For crappies I lindy rig them easier to hide the area, during the week when theres not much boat traffic I'll slip bobber them, just a blue hook and white bead with a fattie Made it down to the river yesterday and lindy and jig fish the day with pretty good success, had to take off the hand line reels so I didn't go that route. Put alot of walleye/saugers in the boat for the day but most ran on the short size, did put 5 decent eyes in the box and I was happy to find them active about every where on the river we tried, even though they ran on the short size that many active fish spread out was encouraging,

[Dale Rueber]

Tried a little experiment on Sunday evening. Ran snap weights up and down river around a good size point, ran the same path with leadcore, and again with handline.

Snap weights - 2 Sauger

Leadcore - 1 Sauger, 1 Sheepie

Handline - 1 Walleye, 5 Sheepies

So what did I learn from this experiment? Not a lot except that all 3 methods work to catch fish.

Most of the handline sheepies were caught on one lure so I changed it out for a different color. I had just changed it and as soon as I got back down, bang, 23" Walleye. It was a good fish to end the night on.

Prior to finding this point with active fish I had tried the bridge area by Prescott and a couple of spots just North - 0 fish, not even a sheepie!

[luvin2fish]

well...

The bite is on at bayport by the powerplant in the morning!!!

Not kidding...go try and thank me later.