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St. Croix River Fishing Reports


Joe

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gdog - nice running into you. After our brief pass, I go right on the iPad while I was on the river and ordered up some of those paddletails. I have been looking around for the ones I wanted, so thank you for the tip on where to find them. They should be arriving any day now. It was a little rough that day and had to try four or five different spots before we found some bigger fish. From what I have been seeing, there still are some bigger fish there, but there are a ton of small fish there as well. I think I made four or six passes there and knew better to move after the first two and seeing what was down there. I have been running three-way rigs with 2-3oz weights depending on conditions. Seems to work for me.

River Dan - I heard you a while back on the plastic. I usually start the plastics in the fall, but I am awaiting a new shipment of plastic from Dean and will be giving that a try. I look forward to adding a new method to the arsenal pitching/dragging them in certain areas. It will be interesting playing with weight while dragging and just keeping it off the bottom so as not to get hung up.

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Went out last night and found some nice walleyes in 30-35 fow trolling shad raps and floating rapalas. Beautiful night on the St. Croix. I have to say, this has been a much more productive year for me this year than last. Again, the bite seemd to come on at about 7:15 and last until 8:15.

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Glad to hear you got into them. I have always had better luck with qualifying fishing coming from the deeper water too.

I also sent you a private message. Hopefully that helped.

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I've been fishing around William O'Brien the past few nights. Things seemed to have picked up after the really high water. Lots of smallmouth and quite a few walleye though they all seem to be hovering around 13"/14" inches. Got a nice 19" for dinner the other night. Islands are starting to emerge though there's still a ton of debris in the water. I'm in a canoe but I'd be crazy careful in a motorboat.

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Dispite the fact that the river went down about 2ft I was still able to locate fish in the general area where I have been catching them. Fished yesterday from 5-8pm and hammered the whites and smallies again. There were schools of whites and smallies every where and kept chasing schools of shads around. Lure of choice is topwater Rebel and roostertail spinners. It sure was great to head out to the river again.

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Was out two nights ago, fished from 4:00-9:00pm. We got into them from 4-6pm, but after that, the bite slowed down and we moved. We tried three different, and normally constant areas, and nothing. In the first two hours, we watched them move from about 30' of water and followed them up to 18', but then the bite ended. We got them on cranks and ended with some plastic. Both produced pretty well. we did locate some more eyes in 17' of water in a different spot, but the bite was well over by that time. Heading out tomorrow morning.

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Hey everyone, it's been a while since I posted on HSO,

I've been busy working all summer, now as fall approaches

I'm looking forward to getting back on the river full time.

I went out and fished a few of the traditional spots this

morning and found walleye on all of them, kept a couple for the

frying pan, released the rest including a 25.5 incher near.....

well I can't tell ya that, so I'll just see ya on the water.

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The problem is huskyhunter, that you postd so many pictures of you with nice fish last summer that we all know what you, your boat, and your dog look like. Now, instead of looking at my graph, I am going to just look for you!

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That's not a problem, I'm quite used too it,

besides there are plenty of fish for everyone!

peace to ya man, see ya on the water soon.

Does anyone know if all the fish they have been

netting the last couple days are going back in

the water, or what, all I found was some still

pictures and it looked like the nets were in the

boats full of fish, not much info other than they

found no asian carp yet, man I hope they put`em back!

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Walleyes have been going real well, today the bite was great know matter which area we went to walleyes were eager to bite and to think it only gets betterjeff.jpg

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What is a paddeltail? I have had no luck with inquires at bait shops. I'm headed for Rainy for a week and will be fishing the Canuck side, I think this might be a great bait to try.

thanks

HTB

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This is the firecracker paddletail, happens to be my favorite go to plastic!IMG_1742.jpg You can get them from Deans tackle box

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I went out this past Sunday evening and had action the whole two hours we fished between white bass and keeper walleyes and saugers. It was a beautiful evening, my wife and two of my kids came out. We had a little picnic in the boat with chicken and mashed potatoes! Pretty much a perfect evening-until- we were heading back and my trolling motor deployed right after we got on plane. I saw it happening and pulled the throttle back but it was too late. Now my Terrova shaft looks like a busted open banana. Hopefully Minn Kota will cover it but we'll see. I hope I have it back soon!

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river dan if you don't mind what wieght jig heads are you using. aggressive jig or suttle? does color seem to make a difference on your jig's???

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1/4 oz now that the river has been dropping, pink and orange is my best color lately, today lift and drop slow and then hold about 6" off bottom and repeat was getting crushed love that thump

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Hi,

I just moved from Fargo to Woodbury and can't wait to get on the St. Croix. When you guys are talking cranks in deep water are you using lead core line or fishing them suspended? Also, any suggestions on which direction to go from Hastings (north or south). Any help is appreciated.

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If you are launching from Hastings you will need to go South on the Mississippi (all Hastings boat launches are on the Mississippi) to Prescott to get to the St. Croix.

To troll cranks in deep water most people are using Lead Core, Snap Weights, Handline or deep diving lures. I have also used Dipsie Divers with some success but did not find them as easy to use as the other methods mentioned. My go to methods for trolling cranks are snap weights or a Handline.

Welcome to Minnesota.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hit the river from early this morning until 1:30 today.

Man, it's slow.

Saw only 2 other fish caught among all the boats between Prescott & Hudson!

Nothin' was biting!!

Then, we were lucky enough to get 5 Sunfish by the I-94 bridge area, 1st by accident, rest we re-rigged & tried for to get a few for dinner.

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Wife and I pulled leadcore this evening. One catfish (wife), she thought she was snagged. One 12 inch crappie snagged on the turnaround and one 12 inch sauger. Lost 3 other fish on a Hot Tiger #5, Too much boat traffic and a blue bird sky, hmmm.

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Good weekend for a buddy and I. We put in at Beanies friday and fished through sunday morning. Boated 8 sturgen & 6 channel cats. All the sturgen were inbetween 30-40" and cats 20-28". I'm sure we missed a dozen more by not holding the rods and feeling for the tap tap, we also lost 3 fish. Overall it was a lot of fun as we got our first sturgen and i got my first channels of the year. Daytime fishing on saturday was fairly poor, but water temps are still high for the fall bite I was expecting to find. Water temp was perfect for a cool down swim though!

Worms & squished fatheads or cut chub worked for us.

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Here's a report from today (early Friday morning to late afternoon)

- Water Temp = 68 - 69 Degrees

- Caught Sauger, no Walleye, on a Orange & Yellow Fireball & Worm. Fish did not want Minnows, they wanted worms.

- Bonus! Hole of unexpected Sunfish made for a fun day.

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Was out fishing on Saturday from 12:00-4:00pm. It was pretty slow. Marked fish in all of my spots, but it just seemed like the marks were all smaller fish, and that it pretty much all we caught. No keepers..and at best, we caught only about 5 saugers and 1 walleye. Pretty bad. Can't wait until the water temps drop a bit more. Could only find sporadic larger marks here and there.

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really nice night out, alittle windy but had alot of fun, the guy I had out caught some nice fish and even lost a couple good ones hoisting them in the boat, nothing real big 17" was the largest but good eaters, quite a few shorts also water temp 67.4

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When does the fall bite start on the Croix? Is it usually around the first week of October once the water temps have dropped?

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When does the fall bite start on the Croix? Is it usually around the first week of October once the water temps have dropped?

Define bite, everytime out so far this year I've cleaned walleyes its been a good year for my boat, the fall bite for me means the big girls are easy to come by and its soon, in my black book I have oct16th water temp 59.6 according to my record keeping from that date to ice over its on!

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River Dan,

Your definition of the fall "bite" and mine are the same. I have not fished the Croix yet, but after hearing so many great things about this river system, I am looking forward to trying it out this year. It was a busy summer as usual and I did not have the chance to get over there. Thanks for the info.

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Headed out for the first fall trip of the year in the morning! Haven't fished out there since early summer. What depths have been producing as of late? Gotta get some time in before that magical 59 deg. when its time to go after the big ones! I plan on using crawlers, big and little fatheads, and maybe even try some plastics again. That should have me covered I hope. Fishing Kinni to prescott in a white/tan Monark with 115 merc. Stop and say hi!

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Lately I have been finding fish from 16 to 22 FOW but I can't say that I have really been "On" the fish. Have been catching plenty of small Walleyes and Sauger but the larger fish have been harder to find. Going to try working shallower than normal to see if I can find where the big Walleyes have been hiding.

Good luck and let un know how you fare.

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9/24 & 9/25 (Saturday & Sunday) Report between Hudson & Bluffs:

- Water Temps 64-65

- Panfish were biting well, but saw only "onesies" of most of the other fish caught by other fishermen.

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9/24 Walleyes caught were between 16-25inches. Smaller ones came in at 20-22ft and the ones that were 20+ came in at 40-45ft suspended. had a pretty good day was lots of fun!

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