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St. Croix River Fishing Reports


Joe

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Fished under the Taylors falls bridge yesterday and caught 3 smallmouth. Then I moved to the franconia landing and caught 3 more smallmouth there. The fish were caught on a white jig with a white twister tail at taylors falls and a nightcrawler on the bottom at the franconia landing. I also tried crankbaits, topwater baits and soft plastic crayfish with no luck.

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What does the river level look like after all this rain? Any issues getting out? Debris floating at all? Thinking of either Prescott area or up by Beanies.

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Had a great night out on the river, and yes the water is high

but the current on the other hand wasn't that bad, weird huh ?

there is some debris in area's so heads up on that.

char caught two walleyes on a shad rap and a drop shot rig,

and I caught a sauger and a nice crappie puling a perch colored

jointed rap, had some other good hit's on worms but no hook-ups.

looks like some decent weather coming up this week,

so I'll see you out there, and good luck . full-34906-1489-thestcroix001.jpg

full-34906-1491-thestcroix004.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

out on the river this morning caught a few saugers, nothing to brag about.

my buddy on the other hand managed to land this big old sturgeon, took him

quite a while to land it as he was using a walleye rod at the time.

going to have to get a bigger scale and start weighing some of those fish.

needless to say he'll probably be back there again in the morning, I would.full-34906-1928-tonyssturgeon008.jpg

full-34906-1929-tonyssturgeon007.jpg

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no but to give some perspective tonys over 6'and goes about 280.

he also catches walleyes sometimes like this 25 incher he landed this morning.

char caught 4 walleyes between 17 and 19 and a 20inch sauger,all I could muster was a few small saugers and a couple stripers. I gotta stop showing those two my secret lures!full-34906-1972-img_0332.jpg

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that is a beautiful walleye! just look at the golden belly! that sturgeon is pretty big too. im guessing it is close to 50 inches

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a hole sherrifs said it was no wake today and stopped everyone going full throttle i think its a bunch of b s when the water level goes below 683the no wake is off . but us coast guard regs. cleary state once it goes below 683 no wake is off. wanted to give sherrif a peace of mind but they would just keep on wrighting u a ticket.

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I don't get it, its below 683, no wake should be off. I was out yesterday, and turned around and came home because it wasn't lifted even though it was lower than 683.

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FYI, as of about an hour ago, there is 4ft 3 inches of clearance under the bridge (per the gauge on the pillars).

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I don't get it, its below 683, no wake should be off. I was out yesterday, and turned around and came home because it wasn't lifted even though it was lower than 683.

My thinking exactly.

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Pulled the cranks today to find a nice limit of eyes and saugers!

I got an interesting tid bit of info on the no wake this morning! According to the local marina it had been lifted and is not in effect or enforced when it runs below 683. It just takes the DNR a week day to lift it on the web site, which isn't very helpful for everyone!

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they took the signs off at the launch this afternoon when i pulled in. it's frustrating when we know the rules better then are great law enforcement does. i was kind of glad taht they enforced it yesterday though, i am a lucky guy that has week days off and i thought it was july yesterday with how many boats were out. fishing has been a little slow the last couple of days compared to what it has been still putting fish in the boat but not the numbers and size compared to the last couple weeks

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I had a few friends that were issued warning tickets, how can you get a warning ticket when it is suppose to be lifted?

I do agree with the point that it was a zoo this weekend and if it would have been lifted I think some shore damage would have happened or all debris pushed out from the wakes would have got someone injured.

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Jw, check some of the earlier reports or do a search for leadcore on previous posts. To answer your question, yes! Great presentation for the Croix. Good luck,

Tunrevir~

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Why is everyone talking like the no wake policy was still in effect yesterday? The level was below 683 there for it is off, I was out from 7am to 3pm and was driving with a wake (as was everyone else), although I never saw a LEO. Did someone actually get a ticket yesterday?

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jw - I've been running crankbaits with snap weights and 3-way rigs all summer. The presentation is close enough but next year I'll get some dedicated leadcore rigs. I have success with size 7 rapala floaters, size 8 husky jerk-baits, size 5-7 shad raps, x-rap shads, or berkley flicker shads. Anything with some orange is my confidence lure. I caught an 18" sauger on Sunday that spit up a shad that was more like 8-9cm, so maybe the larger sizes will work too but I usually stick with the smaller sizes.

Re: the no wake, the boating regs say that 683' is no wake. Before I went out on Sunday I looked online at the Stillwater gage and it was just under 683'. While on the water very few boats were running on plane and I had a lot of stares while doing so. It would be nice to see more education on the boating regs and it sounds like law enforcement needs it the most.

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What a great night once again on the water. I've been bowhunting in SD the last week and couldn't hardly wait to get back on the river, so glad to find the fish are still bitting good and some real quality fish. Put two nice ones in the box handlining and caught a few shorts, switched over to lindy riggen and that was the key, put four more in the box and caught a 20"eye that I released. Went through lots of fatties and many shorts, four of the limit were walleyes 16- 18" kept nice box!

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Huskyhunter... How did you did on the river today? I was in the Black Crestliner with the full windshield. Was gonna stop over and say hello but my buddy had to jet.

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we did pretty well, caught 8 walleyes and probably a dozen saugers.

kept 4 walleyes and released the rest, got into some big stripers

down on the flats in front of the bluffs unfortunately I had somethings

I had to do at home today but we'll be back again in the morning !

I did notice the current is starting to move a little better, which

generaly leads to some good fishing. caught most of the fish today in 16 to 18ft and that middle bouy was hot, we got one there just about every pass from around

7:30 until about 10:00am I'll say hey next time I see you and good luck out there. full-34906-2124-thecroix004.jpg

full-34906-2125-thecroix006.jpg

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new day with the same results.

most walleyes were between 17 and 19 inches and in 15 to 22ft of water.

lost a 25 plus right at the boat, reached for the net and my dog had his

foot stuck in it, freed him and the fish at the same time.

like I needed a reason to go back, I guess now I have one ! full-34906-2150-thecroix002.jpg

full-34906-2151-thecroix007.jpg

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Unless there is another small boat out there with a husky in it, I think we saw you out there last night. Nice fish!

We were looking for the whiskered variety and found a few nice ones.

We were in the 2 jet boats...

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Hit the river this am for a quick fish and was pleasantly surprised by the consistent and steady action. Took home 10 nice crappies for lunch and caught a couple nicer eyes while trolling with a few shorts. Biggest eye went 24" and all the walleye were released today. Had a half dozen crappies that were 12-13.5 inches and a few more in the 11 inch range for the frypan. Caught the walleyes trolling cranks and had luck on both a wallydiver and a shad rap. Purpldescent shadrap and chartruese and pearl wallydiver. The crappies came off of pink and white crappie tubes and 1/16th oz flu flu's I found active fish from 12-24' today.

Tunrevir~

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that was me admiring your jet boat as you went by, one of the camps

I worked at in Canada had two very similar boats. we called them our

troop transports as we used them to haul around the guests and their gear.

a total blast to drive, especially when they were empty and the boss was gone !

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