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St. Croix River Fishing Reports


Joe

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hit the river last night for a few hours and sorted through a lot of small walleye/sauger to end up with 2 nice keepers. all fish were caught pulling lead in 20-25 FOW on steep breaklines. natural colors seemed to work best.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Made it out with FunFish last night caught 30+ sauger, 1 walleye, 1 28 inch northern, some sheeps and some whities. Most saugers were small with 5 that made the box between 14 and 19 inches. Handlines, size 7 floating rapalas and fish were caught anywhere from 17 to 34 fow. Lost the last fish of the night next to the boat about a 16 inch sauger. shockedcrazycrysmirk Mental Note: next time ask to stop motor and get the net! grin No biggies either.

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Hey guys, it sounds like you are doing pretty well up there. Been fishing the Minnesota Riv pretty much this whole summer, but the guys and the girls are heading up to St. Croix State Park next weekend. I have never been there and was just wondering if anyone has had any luck around there for eyes or saugers. I would rather eat the fish out of the ST. Croix than the Walleyes and Saugers I've got out of the Minnesota. Appreciate the help.

Thanks

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Made it out with FunFish last night caught 30+ sauger, 1 walleye, 1 28 inch northern, some sheeps and some whities. Most saugers were small with 5 that made the box between 14 and 19 inches. Handlines, size 7 floating rapalas and fish were caught anywhere from 17 to 34 fow. Lost the last fish of the night next to the boat about a 16 inch sauger. shockedcrazycrysmirk Mental Note: next time ask to stop motor and get the net! grin No biggies either.

I'm glad someone's catching fish! I was also out last night for about 4 hours or so and ended up with 3 sheepies! It was my worst time out this year as far as catching fish, so I can't complain. I marked a lot of fish, but they didn't like what I had to offer I guess! I was rigging crawlers, jiggin fatheads and did a bit of trolling.

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After how bad yesterday was (very humbling tournament wabasha) had to get back up on the croix and pull some cable and redeem myself and God blessed me with 5 decent ones, three of which were walleyes, had alot of action till about 830 then it went dead, pulled for another half hour with nothing so put the boat on the trailer and headed home. Fish were in 28-34'and hot color once again was the bleeding charteuse shad #5 floater

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Despite the heat and humidity the walleye and sauger bite is pretty good. The fish are always cool and swimming in their pool so what do they care? It is us anglers above the surface sweating our shirts off! When I mentioned the fish are biting, I refer to an anglers bait or lure, because fish always feed in the summer and feed heavy they do. In the river their main forage base is shad. Finding the shad bait balls on the graph is paramount to catching eyes and saugs.

Top fishing presentation/technique summary: Troll well tuned cranks in 18 to 29 feet of water. Rapala tail dancers, shad raps and RS, Storm Thundersticks – colors to use: , flash perch, crawfish, bleeding olive, chartreuse, and blue combinations. Rigging crawlers in the same depth with ½ to 1 ounce weights at .5 to .7mph. Key is finding bait balls on graph.

Trip story: Yesterday I guided Cay Hellervik and her grandson Malcolm Martin, he was in town from California. My plan was to troll Rapalas until we found fish and then rig them up. The trip started out well with Malcolm hooking nice fish on the second pass in a warm up spot I like to fish to get guests used to trolling, it is an area with nice clean sand bottom and no weeds. This fishing rod pumped like a sheepshead but dug down like a cat, he had a tough time reeling it in. We were all pleased to see a 19” walleye come to the net. We went through the warm up spot two more times with nothing tugging and then moved.

This trip started after lunch and these two fishing buddies did not have lunch yet, so we cruised at idle speed to the next spot. Out from their cooler came some Trader Joe’s cold salads, and Cay was kind enough to think of the guide and brought me one. I have had customers feed me many times and well too, but I will say a cold salad hits the spot in July on the Croix better than any chow on the boat I can remember. Topped the greens off with some cookies, cleaned up, and speed off full throttle.

It must have been the salads or the fact that this group was the first to wear my lucky type I lifejackets blaze orange and all, but either way the fish were snapping. First trolling pass through the next spot, Malcolm hooked a sauger just too short to keep. The States of MN and WI give the saugers no rights, but I make them be 14 inches to keep (fyi- eyes must be 15inches minimum and I do a voluntary release over 20 inches). Then we doubled up on keeper walleye and saugers or combinations of saugers and walleye too short to keep for an hour straight. Really fun stuff with synchronized hooksets as Malcolm would say -got one!- and then so would Cay. Cay would later put the rod down, and just shoot pics of him enjoying catching fish.

The trolling died down as the baitfish left the spot, and I wanted to switch gears and crawler fish with heavy split shots. We did this for the last part of the trip and caught sheeps and saugers. It was a great trip in the middle of the afternoon in hot July. Thank-you.

More trips in the heat went well this week, even on Tuesday when it was equatorial Africa hot and humid, Nick and Jeff Milleson hooked sauger and walleye, plus cats. That day they brought in 2 walleye, 6 saugers, 4 large crappies, and 6 good sunfish. Jeff had on another big cat from the same spot Tim Carter had caught his 35 inch channel cat.

There is a lot going on the St. Croix River from saugers to catfish to muskie (even though I have not been able to fish them much with booked walleye trips, I know were those big toothy suckers are! ha.) Have fun enjoy the summer because in a blink its going to be September.

Keep Catchin Turk

my computer and photobucket do get along real well so no pics here, sorry guys.

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We fished from shore last night and caught some fish, nothing too big but a few species. Smallies, Largemouth (my first largemouth from a river), Sunfish, and a smallmouth Buffalo (I'm pretty sure, I have to see if that's what it was).

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Got out today and pretty much lindy rigged crawlers and leeches with a little bit of trolling. Came home with 4 keepers of walleye/sauger. I did catch one that had a hunch back?! I've seen that on here one time before, but it was the first time I caught one like that....it was kind of creepy.... eek

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Last night I went in search of crappies and found some willing fish in the 18-23 foot range taken off a rock to sand transition with 1/16th oz jigs and minnows, caught fish casting and vertical jigging and even managed to put a 16" eye in the box. Trolled a few areas with cranks and picked up some short eyes. A nice night to be out but the river was packed!

Tunrevir~

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Bite is going great for about anything you would like to catch, spent lots of hours out on the water, took a guy out that wanted to fish crappies and the croix didn't disappoint put some really nice slabs in the box, walleyes are smacking rapalas in 25-34' even some cats on handlines been great even in this heat!

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Hi River Dan.

I never fished in Croix, so i would like to try it for channel cats with my 14' alum boat.

Do you think it is doable with the 14' boat? and where would you recommend to launch?..

Thanks.

Soft.

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I typically fish the upper St. Croix but have ventured down around stillwater with my 12' boat. Keys for going small is get out early and get off early or go above the area where the cruisers run. Catfishing north of Stillwater can be pretty decent and you won't have to deal with the traffic. When I fish the Stillwater area south towards afton and prescott I typically will run in my bigger Crestliner which takes the waves better. I was out last night before the storms and found the crappies and smallies to be cooperative. Found fish from 15-20' on bottom transitions. Lots of floating gunk right now so I chose not to troll and worked vertical and casted jigs and minnows. Crawlers didn't put any fish in the boat for me last night. So to answer your question 14' is fine but get out early and off ealry if you decide to fish lake st. croix and south.

Tunrevir~

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I would say 14 ft. is small but do-able for the Croix. Lots of big cruisers and big waves, be careful, go at off peak times during nice weather. I have a 19 1/2 foot boat and I get beat up out there on the weekends !

I'd say launch at the Cove over on the Wisconsin side, it's $7.50 for non troy township residents, you can write a check. It's just one road north of the "Troy Burne" Golf Club and then head towards the west to get to the river. It's right where you want to be, no matter where you are fishing.

You can also use Afton's Windmill Marina , it's $14 on weeekdays or $21 on weekends., awesome launch but spendy. THey take checks or cash. The croix is an average of 55' deep, make sure you know where you are going and have a depth finder. You can come up on a sandbar here and there south of afton.

LOts of debris in the water south of afton as of the past 2 days cause of the rains. Logs, trees , you name it.

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caught some awesome catfish (5 keepers between 14" - 30"), a few 13" smallmouth bass, a 17" walleye, several suckers and sheephead , even one mooneye.

Fishing was best with nightcrawlers on the bottom.

The biggest cat was landed after we had pretty much finished fishing for the day. I took the boys over towards the southern end of the beach, south of that outlet for the kinni and threw a couple lines out as far as I could from the parked boat on the beach.....ten minutes later I thought I had a river monster. Tons of FUN !!

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Looking to go out after some cats maybe tues or wed. I have never been on the river before and not quite sure where to begin. I would like to fish somewhere south...like maybe the Prescott area. Any help on where to start would be wonderful!

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Go up-river to the next no-wake zone north of Prescott. There is a public park/campsite/beach on the WI side of the no-wake, (southern end of the no wake). Anywhere from the south end of the beach to 1/2 ways up thru the no-wake where the Kinnickinnic River comes into the St Croix is good as of 2 days ago . watch the depth. If you line yourself up with the center of the kinni and stay west of the sandbar, yet inside the red river markers and throw crawlers on the bottom you should be happy.

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Slow fishing for me yesterday, but how refreshing was it to actually wear a sweatshirt again?

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  • 2 weeks later...

August 26, 2010 The St. Croix River is full of forage fish for the walleye, bass, muskie and all other gamefish to eat. Large pods of baitfish abound suspended off of structure and on structure. White bass fishing has been particularly good this last week on sand structure in and around the bait pods. These fish will take a jig and minnow without hesitation and produce a great fight. Sheepshead also are hitting jigs, as well as walleye, channel catfish, and sauger. Lots of action on the river.

I had a grandfather and a 14 year old grandson trip yesterday where they wanted to get their feet wet and become acquainted with the mighty muskellunge. We muskie fished for a little over two hours and had two blow ups on topwater baits and one boat side follow. The grandson had his big toothy critter on for a long second but the hooks never were driven home. The brief fight was a thrill for him and all of us on board none the less. Another -big one that got away- story was birthed yesterday

Back to the baitfish. Every year the walleye bite slows right about now and will be slower until the fall bite gets going strong. There are two reasons the walleyes really bite strong as fall approaches. One is the forage base becomes depleted and the second is the forage bases grows to a size where they are not as easy pickings anymore, it seems the bigger you are the harder you become to catch. When this happens an anglers lure or bait becomes more acceptable to the fish again. Muskies do not have the above issue as they bite this whole time until late fall. White bass will continue on a good bite until late fall, sheeps and channel cats will drop off, but flatheads and sturgeon will get hot. This could be a banner flathead fall bite as the summer has been slow. There will be reports this fall of 30 to 40 pound flatheads caught accidentially on walleye gear, and of course by catmen trying to handle them beasts.

Best depths for white bass, walleye, sauger and sheeps have been from 14 to 24 fow on 1/8 to 3/8 ounce glitter jigs.

Have fun out there and keep catchin’ Turk

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Went yesterday with a buddy, we fished from 6am till noon. Beautiful weather, we pulled lead on shorelines, off shore, and alot of different depths and nothing.We marked a ton of suspended fish and even tried some planerboards and had no luck. Finally we found a 17 and 19 inch walleye flatlining cranks in 14 feet of water. It was an area with a little more current, too bad we had to roll as we figured this out right before we left! Good day on the water though.....

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What does "flatlining cranks" mean? Thanks!

Trolling with a plain line, be it mono or superline. The term just separates it from other trolling techniques like 3-ways, leadcore, snap weights or handlining that use something extra to get baits to the bottom.

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My son and I went out this morning. Pulled cranks all over the place north of the Kinni with no luck and then went back down by Prescott and did some three waying. Caught a 13" walleye, a nice white bass, and a crappie. We love it because you just never know what is going to be on the end of that line. Beautiful morning, would have been easy to stay out all day...

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I was up in franconia for the 2nd half of the day, and it was windy and rainy. Fishing was slow too. 2 smallies and 2 pike, and a redhorse to top off the day.

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We love it because you just never know what is going to be on the end of that line.

I can relate to not knowing what you are going to catch. Was out tonight for an hour and a half before the lightning chased me off. Caught a small channel cat, a Crappie, a Walleye, and a 13lb Carp. All were caught trolling Rapalas. Last Saturday a friend caught a big Sheepie. That is me holding it because she said she did not want to.

full-20378-988-lizsdrum1.jpg

13lb 3oz

full-20378-989-carp13lb3oz.jpg

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Took my son out this afternoon for an end-of-summer trip before he starts 2nd grade tomorrow. We lucked into a mixed bag -- 26 total fish, 8 different species (walleye, smallmouth, rock bass, white bass, perch, bluegill, green sunfish, sheepshead). Highlights were 19" walleye and 16" smallmouth (that he caught).

Here are some pics. CPR for the smallie, and kept a few of the others for a mixed grill summer's-end dinner.

16" smallie

DSCF3381.jpg

Mixed grill!

[Note from admin: please read forum policy before posting again. Thanks much. Nice Smallie.]

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