St. Croix River Fishing Reports

[WalleyeChaser]

Hey sausage man! How are you? Sounds like you found the fish yesterday!! I could only dream of having that much action out there. I've been having a little luck on a couple lakes so haven't made it to the river yet. Any way it was great talking with you at the RF Sportsman club this fall and hope to see you out there this year as well as all you other FM'ers. By the way where do you access the river? Sounds like people will be driving out there real soon though any ways.

[sausageman]

Todays bite wasn't as good as late yesterday. Still had a pretty good day considering.

Decided I better dig my camera out of the fanny pack I use for bowhunting.

Ended up with eight 10" to 12" crappies, three 13" to 15" sauger and one 15" walleye. Caught 10 catfish from 16" to 25 1/2". Kept a 18" and a 19" for the pan. Probably iced about 12 white bass if not a few more. Didn't get any hogs like yesterday.

Here the picture of the biggest Cat today.

Everything I caught today was caught on buckshot rattle spoons..except a few on a #5 jigging rap. I tried really hard to get another keeper walleye but all I could catch was about 7 or 8 walleyes (shorts) that averaged probably around 12".

I was suppose to go fishing with a client on Mille Lacs on Sunday...but I think I'm going to cancel. Maybe he and his boys would be open for some river catfishing.

[St_Croix_Banks]

Nice job SM! Thanks for sharing the pics.

[fishwater]

Awesome mixed bag sausage! This is the kind of stuff that makes me get all weak in the knees and fall in love with the river all over again.. Keep up the good work guys.

[fishkaholic]

nice catches sausageman. i have been out there a couple of times and manage only 1 9"perch. trying to find the cats but cant locate them. any suggestions on trying to catch those cats. better on mn or wi side and depth. any info would help?

[sausageman]

fishaholic

I haven't been targeting catfish. I'm was just trying to catch walleye and sauger. The past two years I would catch maybe one catfish every third or fourth time out when I was fishing walleye or crappie. The first time out this year I caught a bunch right out in front of Anderson's in about 32' of water. Mostly on jigging raps. Again...I was going for the ol'marble eye. Lately I've been finding them on top of the breaks near dusk or dawn and out in no man's land (33' to 34') off breaks in the main river channel during the day. My best producer for everything has been a 1/16 oz gold/with glow red back buckshot rattle spoon tipped with a minnow head.

Was out today and it was pretty slow. I ended up with 7 crappies between 10" and 12". Caught four on a gold #5 fiska tipped with spikes. The rest were on the buckshot. Also caught a 15" sauger, and a 14.75" walleye. (no matter how I pinched that tail I couldn't get it to break that 15" mark). Also caught about 5 white bass and a mooneye. No cats today.

[Meyer8043]

Hey sausage where do you find your fiska jigs been looking for them?

[croixflats]

I think you have to order them on line. yourbobbersdown they have a sale on a few selections till the end of the weak.

[fishkaholic]

thanks for the info sausageman. going to give it a try tomorrow and see what happens.

[fishkaholic]

regarding fiska jigs, gander mtn have some. was there the other day and saw them.

[croixflats]

Ganders got em you say, going to have to check out what they have. Thanks fishkaholic. Better than buying $75 worth to save on shipping. Not like I can get out of Gander without spending $75.

[sausageman]

Yes GM has fiskas...but not the ones you want, believe me I checked.

New this year is a jig called Skandia and are available at Fleet farm and Vadoos bait. They are in a blue package and are fiskas under a different name. They are made with tungsten by Fiska. The fiskas at GM aren't the "wolfram" and even if they do have some left they are the 3mm and 4mm. The 3mm and 4mm are a little light for river fishing. The 5mm wolfram fiska hangs straight down at the river and works great with the ST Croix Legend rod (with the pink spring bobber). If you have the orange spring bobber the 5mm fiska will be too heavy.

I believe the Skandia 10 is the same size as the 5mm wolfram fiska. The Skandia's have a lot of great colors. I bought some Skandia's even though I have a couple hundred bucks worth of Fiskas.

[St_Croix_Banks]

I was out yesterday about 4-6pm in about 38' and was marking all kinds of fish at about 20'. They would follow my Genz Worm but I could not for the life of me trigger them. They were filling my graph! I started to think, although I was getting a strong return (green/some red on Marcum) may be it was just a large school of small baitfish. What do you think?

I did mark some fish at about 35' near bottom but they were negative as well.

[shooter_mcgavin]

I was also out yesterday, from about 4-7. Parked at lakeside park and walked out to about 22-24 fow. Caught one 14" sauger and missed two other bites. Was fishing a fathead on a deadstick and a crappie minnow on the other (the sauger actually bit on the crappie minnow).

I watched dozens of fish appear on the marcum about five feet up and swim down to the bottom right past my bait. I could turn some of them by jigging but they wouldn't commit. Never seen that before (but I'm fairly new to the St. Croix).

[sausageman]

Yup...that's what I was seeing too. Large schools of baitfish on the screen. I turn the gain way down and then concentrated on the larger red marks. In many cases I had to pry their mouths open to get them to bite. I was using a gentle swimming motion on the fiska, sometimes the only hint I had a bite was the spring bobber would rise up about a 1/8 to 1/4 inch....set the hook! Tough fishing for sure.

[rainylakewalleye]

Hey guys I am down in the cities for college and was trying to find somewhere to fish. I have been reading about fishing the st. croix but have no idea where to fish or even get on the ice. Do they plow any roads out there? Any help would be appreciated.

[DonBo]

Directions to the ice are stickied at the top of the St. Croix forum. They are here:

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb...oix#Post1765774

Oh, and welcome to FM!

[rainylakewalleye]

Thanks a lot!

[croixflats]

There is one road that gets plowed and thats from the access from Bayport and that goes straight to the Wisconsin access. There always one or two paths running north off that road. The ice is rough right now from the rain/slush we had. So take it slow if any one ventures out so not to create a wave under the ice. The river usually is travel-able by car.

[jimmyjames76]

Do you guys ever fish the St. Croix at night? I'm new to the river and I'd like to go after work (5-5:30 PM), but I wasn't sure if it would be worth the drive after dark. Any info would be greatly appreciated!

[AuggieDawg11]

The river can be good for about an hour or so after dark then it normally shuts off. Not sure why but that's the experience that I have had.

[AuggieDawg11]

The river usually is travel-able by car.

The river is most definitely travelable by car though do not go off of the beaten path too much because it is easy to get stuck in drifts.

[Ice em]

I went out at 3 pm last week and fished til 7 caught crappies during the day as soon as it was getting dark everyone left. Caught one more right before i left but that was the only fish after dark 12.5 inch crappie. So i think you may be able to catch a few but it will be tough. Maybe someone with more knowledge of the river can chime in but only been fishing the river for the past 2 years, and that was my first time out past dark.

[DonBo]

Everyone leaves at dark for a reason.

[jimmyjames76]

Thanks a lot for the info! I thought that was probably the case.

[croixflats]

Between 6 and 7 a bite occurs ounce in a while and sometimes around 9 and 10. One has to have a comfortable ice house to wait these bites out and expect you might catch nothing. I'll sit out there at night on occasion but then again I have nice insulated 8x8 Canvas Craft and thats better than watching the tube at home.

[WalleyeChaser]

Yup pretty much non-existant after dark. Have even tried moving to varios shallower depths with limited success. Figured maybe the eyes moved shallower but couldn't even find them. Its makes it easier to make it home in time for dinner to keep the other half happy also! I'm pumped to get out there this weekend finally now that it will be driveable!! As i have no wheeler or sled and terrible asthma so walking isn't and option. Unless its under a 100 yds with a light load.

[sausageman]

river-newbie

Hang in there...typically the river gets better as the season progresses. I tried to send you and Craigum's a PM and but your PM's are disabled.

Personally, I like the thin ice...I'm not into fishing around cars and crowds. ha ha I would be a happy man if the ice stayed at 8" thick. I need all the advantages I can get.

I don't know what going on with the baitfish on the river but their back!!! Had baitfish from 18' to 33' solid. Not happy.

It was nice meeting you last fall at the RF gun club. SM

[Fisherman For a Lifetime]

Not had very much success well after dark by myself and others that have posted here last winter.

But give it a shot if you like & let us know how you do.

[croixflats]

May be we can get channel 5 out there to report on the bait fish explosion like they did last year on the bait fish die off/kill. And maybe this time they will interview the guy who knows a guy that fishes the St.Croix.