St. Croix River Fishing Reports

[River Dan]

met up with a guy tonight around 530 and went on the search for decent size walleyes and went through many fish finally at the third area we hit nice size ones ended up with eight in the box, great night on the croix!

[Moses2531]

Great afternoon on the river... any way I fished produced a few fish! Pulled cranks over deep water and got a mix of northerns and eyes, than ran into a sandbar and jigged a fathead all over it and got Smallies and a few more eyes.. A rare no rough fish trip for me on the Croix! haha! Caught 9 walleyes, 6 shorts and 3 eaters... Great day!

[Dale Rueber]

Was out on Saturday evening. Nothing special to report as far as the fishing but there was a tremendous amount of debris. There was a large amount of leaves, weeds, and grass that was fouling my lines constantly. Worse there was a lot of wood ranging from small branches to large logs. Be carefull out there if you plan to get up on plane. I was in the area from Prescott to the Kini but I assume that the rest of the river probably looks the same.

[fishwater]

The water north has been filled with organic debris for a couple of weeks, makes it pretty frustrating to troll to say the least. My buddy hooked into a huge blob and we played it for a good 5 minutes before I started the kicker again . Yesterday there was actually less debris in a couple of spots, I think the wind moved some of it out and possibly down south .

The amount of algae in the water in the Lake St. Croix basin was obscene yesterday. Green wakes and living blobs of slime everywhere.

[Lundcranking]

Fished Friday,Saturday,and Sunday until about 1:00 each day and had a decent weekend! Pulled the lead with cranks most of the weekend and found the walleye and sauger in 27 - 32 feet of water. It is impressive to see the amount of 13 inch sauger in the system.

[BizzityB]

Hey Everyone!

My Cousin lives in Afton on the river and I just talked to her about going out and doing some fishing on the river. I have been out there couple times on a boat but never fishing? She has a 18 ft bayliner not the best for fishing but it will work? Is there any good fishing right out from Afton there? Or do I need to head south to Kinni? Any tips on what to watch out for would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks

T

[Dale Rueber]

You can generally find something to catch just above the Kini. Does the Bayliner have a trolling motor or will you drift/anchor? If you have to anchor or drift, find about 25' depth and throw out some live bait. I'll have to let somebody else answer about the Afton area because I don't get up there very much.

[BizzityB]

Thanks Dale! No Trolling motor. I have one but i need to figure out a mounting system. We will probably just be drifting and anchoring. Is it better to slip bobber or just bottom bounce with a jig?

[Dale Rueber]

Personally I would jig with a minnow or splitshot with with a crawler if anchored.

I was out dragging crankbaits by Prescott last night on handline and snap weights. Both sytems worked well fishing cranks from size 7 to 9+. Colors that were working best were natural or darker, couldn't even get a white bass or sheepie to hit on the Hot Tiger rapala. Very rare that I don't see any fish on the Hot or Fire Tiger colors. The amount of debris on/in the water has decreased significantly since my last trip.

[fishwater]

Hot tiger was pretty good yesterday evening up north. My wife, two kids and I trolled for a bit over an hour with good action the entire time. Got 5 on hot tiger bouncing behind 8 oz of lead, 3 right around 20". Worked mostly 27-32' running around 2.4mph. We had decent luck running chartreuse/silver as well.

[ndfisherman]

I fished the boomsite and the island to the east of it this morning on my float tube. I had a few bites, but I didn't catch anything. I tried a white jigs, chartreuse jigs, plastic worms, nightcrawlers and flukes. I fished throughout the water column and didn't have any luck. I started out by casting towards shore and retrieving and I also did a little drifting with a nightcrawler rig on the bottom.

Any Suggestions of what to use? Thanks

[tunrevir]

You may want to try down towards the marina where Browns creek dumps into the river. With the high water that shallow flat should be holding some decent fish right now. The entrance of browns into the croix along the rip rap can be awesome for a mixed bag this time of year if you want to try kicking around in your float tube over that way. As the water recedes a bit and warms there are some opps over that way for some sumo pike and occassionally a guy can catch a brown down that way as well.

Tunrevir~

[tunrevir]

Fished the upper reaches of the croix last night from 4 to 9. Beautiful night and the fish were active. Started out trolling cranks and picked off a few short eyes, some smallmouth, a couple sheepshead and a crappie. Worked a jig and minnow, jig and crawler and found the sheepshead really like crawlers, found a couple nicer sauger for the box with the biggest being slightly over 18 inches. Worked a lindy rig for a bit but the sheep and the rockbass were ferocious. Towards dark worked shoreline cover for smallmouth and whitebass with decent action on both cranks and topwaters. The river was down slightly from previous trips and the fishing should just keep getting better as it gets to some more stable flows. Most fish came out of 12-18 fow.

Tunrevir~

[luv2gofishn]

I was also out from 5-10. I was rigging crawlers in mainly 20-30 fow. I caught 2 sturgeon, 2 walleye, 2 sauger and a handful of sheepies. The sturgeon came as quite a surprise, especially the second one. I've never caught one of those on a lindy rig with 6# test, so that was fun! Came home with 3 keepers (sauger/eyes) for the box.

[Steelhead Chaser]

Made it out last night also with the wife for a couple of hours fishing the Hudson area. Wasn't fishing real hard, but managed to catch about 10 smallmouth(biggest was 16”), 1 short walleye and 2 nice sunfish. Fished in 14-17 feet of water using jigs and leaches. Amazingly, not a single sheepie. Can’t remember the last time that happened.

[Dale Rueber]

Fished Thursday evening by Prescott with my cousin, his wife, and daughter. Caught many small Saugers (8"-14") and lost 1 decent Walleye at the boat while running crankbaits. Ran up to the top of the Kini narrows and tried minnows and crawlers but we only caught sheepies. Finished off the night dragging crankbaits back by Prescott again. All in all it was a very nice night to be on the water and the fish were cooperative most of the time.

[rattleL]

will be down to prescott hopefully by 6 will be in a green dark green 16ft lund funfish or anyone else going to be going out of prescott stop and say hi have a black gmc pulling the boat.

[Turk]

07-11-10 St. Croix River walleye and sauger are biting even in July. The bites come in waves lately and when they are going it is a solid bite, and when slow it is slow. However nice chunky walleye and sauger are the reward for the slow phases, these fish are in the 16 to 19 inch range plus large walleyes from 22 to 28 inches. As the bite has been up and down what the fish want also changes from day to day. For instance last week on Wednesday the walleye and saug dogs wanted livebait, then the next they wanted Rapala shad raps regular and RS, and would not touch bait. Our best fish of the week hit a crawler, and the other nice ones we have caught were from rigging crawlers and some on spinners (do not forget that option). For rigging we have used five foot leaders. Productive crankbait colors are hot steel, crawdad, bleeding hot olive, and firetiger. More about the bite, you can sit on a spot and not even a sheephead or sunfish will hit then the light switches, and you have about a half hour to catch them, then another lull starts again. As the water is still high we have been getting eyes and saugers from 9 to 20 feet of water.

In the last week alone I have heard of two instances were the skis have clamped down on an angler caught fish and taken the hooked for a fish for a ride. I have seen numerous muskie porpoising (breaching) lately and know of two spots that are holding fish though I have not been able to hook any gray ghosts yet. In regards to muskie hitting the hooked fish, I have been told that one of these skis was a flat out GIANT fish, and this friend of mine is not much of a tale teller.

The river water level is reported to drop all week and been two feet lower by next weekend. There has been very little surface action for white bass. Have fun out there! Turk

[River Dan]

Nice my friend

[ndfisherman]

I am going to fish around Hwy 70 this friday. Has anybody heard what they are biting on right now? I appreciate any advice. Thanks

[DonBo]

Water's still pretty high up that way. Be carefull.

[River Dan]

Trip out monday with 4 in the boat and all they wanted to do is catch fish and boy did we have a real busy time, found fish active in several areas but very few quality fish. Everyone in the boat caught plenty of walleye/sauger mix and had a great evening on the water. Last night put a few in the boat handlining then picked up a friend and headed up river for some lindy and jigging, Smallies were really active on sharp breaks, while the walleyes were laying at the bottom of the breaks most came out of 29-34' on minnows and on trigger X artificial, finished the last hour down by the confluence smacking saugers another great evening on the water!

[rattleL]

nice report river dan any size on the saugers down by the confluence.

[River Dan]

not much size there last night, sorted out the 3 decent ones needed to complete the box, up on the croix is where we picked up some nice ones along with some walleyes. Sure wish the weather would be better, I'd be out right now!

[MidCoast]

I am going to fish around Hwy 70 this friday. Has anybody heard what they are biting on right now? I appreciate any advice. Thanks

The Redhorse bite in that area is awesome right now.

[rattleL]

thanks dan, yea i know they tend to run smaller down there. Were you jiggin down by the confluence then. Those trigger X plastics seem to work good down their too.

[River Dan]

That is a fact that try tend to run smaller there but the numbers seem to aways be high and if your willing to sort 15"+s are there the little ones are just more hungry, thats where cranks or for me handlining works well.

[rattleL]

Thanks dan i dont have handlines havent invested in them yet cant really mount them in my boat but three waying would perhaps work. Ill be down friday probably taking of work early. Thanks much for your help.

[Ctrl_Alt_Dlt]

Last friday through sunday, I went on a 3day 2night canoe trip from HW70 to Nevers Dam. The fishing was awesome! Caught a bunch of smallmouths and a bunch of northerns. We were using senkos and frogs. The weirdest catches involved my nephew reeling in a bass and a muskie attacked and my friend using a top water ribbit frog and catching a 24 inch walleye.

We saw a bunch of carps, quill back, and red horse. The water is higher, hence canoeing was a breeze in the shallow areas. Saw a few boats, but they were limited.

[tunrevir]

Fished the northern reaches of the river last night and found alot of willing fish but none of legal length. Caught walleye in the 12-20' range pulling cranks and jigging, couple of big sheepshead on cranks, smallies were active on top waters, panfish were found in the same depth ranges with some nicer perch present.

Tunrevir~