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St. Croix River Fishing Reports


Joe

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Great job there Herky! That little guy is quite the fisherman! Pretty soon he'll be raiding your tacklebox grin

Tunrevir~

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glad you had a wonderfull outing with your son and the pics were nice. i have never eaten a white bass, how are they? good luck.

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I don't care for white bass, but the little guy really wanted to try it, along with his rock bass (he's had walleye and bluegill before). The white bass was not very good -- reminded me why I never keep them. On the other hand, the rock bass tasted like other panfish, pretty tasty.

I usually keep very few fish to eat in the summertime, but we tend to keep more panfish, walleye and pike we catch ice fishing. I definitely think they taste much better in the winter. Whether that's because the meat is not as mushy when the water's cold, or because we flash freeze them on the ice, who knows?

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The DNR river water level data is down apparently. I'm going to be camping on some islands near hudson this weekend.

Can anyone tell me if there is an expected rise in the water level predicted for this weekend???

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Try this site Stillwater water levels.

Fished yesterday by Prescott and the fishing has been a little slow but we managed to catch a few Walleye/Sauger . The water temp was 70.5, this is down dramatically from the 80+ a couple of weeks ago. Most of the fish we caught were in 15-18 FOW which is also a dramatic change from a couple of weeks ago when we were catching fish in 20-30 FOW.

Another big change is the boat traffic. On Tuesday evening we only saw 1 other boat and yesterday there were less than 10. I'm very glad that Labor day has gone by, let the relaxing fishing begin.

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Hey Dale-

Can I ask what you were using for bait? Cranks or live? Typically what is the hot bait for the fall on the St Croix? I am a total newbie to this, hence all the basic questions. Thanks man!

-Gary

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Thanks FunFish. My priority for the weekend is Sturgeon, Catfish, and Walleye, but i appreciate the report. I'm glad the traffic is WAY down!! smile

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Hey Dale-

Can I ask what you were using for bait? Cranks or live? Typically what is the hot bait for the fall on the St Croix? I am a total newbie to this, hence all the basic questions. Thanks man!

-Gary

Most of my fishing is with crankbaits with snapweights, handlines, or leadcore so I don't really know how well you would do with live bait. The last time I used livebait was this spring/early summer and we did OK but you can get a lot of Drum at times. My primary reason for running cranks is that I can cover a lot of ground in a relatively short time.

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this is my first time posting on HSO so if I may let me introduce myself .

some of you may have seen me fishing between the kinny and bluffs ,I'm the

guy in that little 16ft with my girlfriend of 20yrs and that siberian husky.

I've been fishing the croix since about 1975, when I was finally strong

enough to pull the rope and start my dads 25hp merc. I spent 5 years in the mid 90's living in the canadian bush working as a guide for the geary

family out of red lake ontario, at the time Kevin geary was still filming the [ outdoor encounters ] tv series with Debra johannesson. caught many huge pike and so many great walleyes that I wouldn't even know where to begin.

enough about me lets talk fishing ! I'm starting to get excited, the

tourists are all but gone from river, the water temps are dropping,

and the fishing is about to get interesting. caught a few sturgeon

already and the walleye seem to be gearing up for something.

landed a huge carp on thursday morning just north of the kinny , now I don't normally talk carp but this thing was huge somewhere between 35 or 40lbs also picked up a few nice eyes and some smoking smallmouth .

looking forward to chat'n with some of the regulars on HSO as I'm sure

we can swap some good info . that's all for now ,and good luck out there.

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Hey there Huskyhunter. I was on the St. Croix today too, caught about six saugers. That looks like a buffalo...or could be a carp I don't know, lol, but either way...awesome fish!

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I would loved to have caught that fish yesterday! It was a another humbling experience for me. Launched at the boomsite, and made it all the way to the railroad bridge. Was very hard to drift because of the upstream wind. Only ended up with 5 total fish...very small pike, small largemouth bass, 2 decent smallies, and a st. croix 1st for me...a perch! This has been by far my worst year on the croix frown

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Well, I've been checking this site forever I figure it's about time I pitch in... Did really well trolling the river yesterday on a beautiful day. Was able to get a limit of eyes in a few hours of fishing. Gold and Perch seemed to be the best colors and all fish were in 15 - 20'. Sprinkled in a couple of white bass and even 2 bonus crappie. Funny thing is I was out of Friday with the exact same setup and was skunked. Good luck!

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Went out Friday night. Pretty good night of fishing. Caught 2 nice channel catfish, a big flathead catfish, a 32" and 44" sturgeon and a nasty big soft shell turtle. It was a great night out there. Fished 2PM to 11PM. 35 FOW is where we were fishing. Cut bait and crawler balls worked best. Here are some photos.

Fishing033.jpg

Fishing036.jpg

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Fishing047.jpg

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nempls we were out there too, pretty nice night we were the green tiller lund boat a little ways away we were dead set on that spot, you beat us to it glad to see you got some nice fish we headed north and found some action.

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I think its starting to get better. Been getting a few on jigs and minnows. I tried cranking for awhile. I don't know why but i never do good on cranks. Just started fishing the croix and I've been pulling leadcore with a 20 ft leader. Troll all over 13 to 30 fow 1 to 2 mph. If its 15 to 20 I will let out about 2 colors. Nothing but lost a few lost shad raps. Maybe I just need to work on boat control, there's some steep drop offs.

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I had my first outing on the Croix this weekend. Put in at Beanies Friday night and came off on sunday.

White bass were on a tear! Crankbaits in 14 fow downstream of the 94 bridge. Sauger all came on the 14' break. I had both rods bent most of the mornings, bite quit around noon each day when boat traffic picked up, and the grass started flowing!

My best this weekend was 2 fish on 1 crankbait, pretty funny. A 14" sauger and a 17" white bass came on a Salmo Poland in the crayfish color. My other rod also had a fish on...busy busy. They were also slamming a taildancer in crayfish color.

Didn't get any sturgeon or catfish like i had hoped. Went down to Afton and fished the Catfish Bar saturday night with no luck. Tried on top of the bar in 17fow, and just off in 35fow.

Hands are sore from those white bass!! Must have caught over 80 between 14" and 17".

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Truth, now you know why so many love the St. Croix. grin Glad you had a great first experience.

I think the Croix is great in the mornings...but less than desirable when the boat traffic picks up. Hopefully i can plan another trip this fall when the boat traffic resides, didn't like paying $45 to put in at Beanies- is there a cheaper weekend launch in that area? Or better yet, a cheaper launch that is next to the best sturgeon action?

My first Sauger and White Bass experience, and i got to catch more than enough for a year!

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$45 for a boat launch? that seems unreal, but i haven't launched there for some time. i launched across the bridge there on the wisconsin side some time ago and they had a pay box to put $10 in. that was a nice spot to launch. but i have no idea what it cost now. good luck.

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$45 for a boat launch? that seems unreal,. . .

He launched Friday and stayed out on the river for 3 days and came out Sunday. Sounds like you got charged $15 per day which is the normal daily launch fee of $15 X 3 days = $45. Sounds like a lot when you think of it as a daily launch fee but you were there 3 days. Your truck and trailer were sitting there for 3 days so the charge sounds fair - not cheap but fair I guess.

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