St. Croix River Fishing Reports

[St_Croix_Banks]

Fished this morning in about 37' and iced 4 crappies, 3 keepers. Only had time to fish from 7:30-9:30am. The bite seemed to slow for me about 9am. During the active bite they were very aggressive for a change

[Craigums]

Got my out today around 11am and fished in 33' fow, caught a sunfish and 2 smaller crappies then moved shallower around 2pm hoping for a better bite. set up on a 30' shelf and people must have thought we were on to something cause withing the next two hours people were setting up right on top of us, haha suckers. We got skunked the rest of the day, that'll teach them to set up near my dead fishing spots

[DonBo]

It seems like the shallower water is a better bet early and late. The deeper water has been better mid-day.

Try that 30'-34' before 10am then again after 4 or so. Mid-day look for the deeper basin water close by.

[iiccee63]

I would totally agree with DonBo.....was out most of the day March 6th under the high line area in 35ft and caught fish all during the middle of the day but, no one was catching anything in the morning or late in shallower water (23-29ft). Same thing happened the next day when I was out too. 36ft. of water and all small 5-7" crappies. 9 fish from 12pm-6:30pm all small. Where's the big ones these days?

[tommyk]

After hitting Pool 2 Friday, I returned to the south part of the Croix Saturday afternoon to give it a try. To my disapointment the whole area that I normally fish was under a layer of nasty runoff water. No problem I thought since it was still managable to walk through and fish. The bad part was that the water under the ice was super dirty as well. No kidding I couldn't see my jig 2" down the hole! Dark dirty stained water everywhere and not a sign of life under any of the holes I drilled. No baitfish, nothing. I am hoping after this week and some cooler temps and no more run off, that by this weekend the water will have settled and the baitfish and fish will be back. I hope so because this time last year is about when it started getting real good. There were a ton of other spots on the river down there that had runoff like that and all were over potentially good spots to try in place of mine. So needless to say I left shortly after.

[hunt4food]

It was a slow afternoon for my dad and I yesterday. I managed to land one sheephead and that was it. We tried fishing in three locations ranging from 40' down to 26' of water. marked fish in all three locations, but they were lookers not biters.

[need2fish]

Was also out yesterday hunt very slow. Managed to get 3 bites caught all 3 11.5 and 2 12's. All very nice and fat let them all go. The 11.5 was a white and had a 3in shad out of his mouth. My guess is this fish are just very well feed thats why for all the snifers. Also caught all 3 within 15 min from eachother, all were on a red glow jig with maggies.

[sausageman]

I was out Monday from 5:15pm to 7:00pm. Like everyone said, the fishing was pretty slow with very very short biting sprees. I ended up catching 5 crappies between 10.5" and 11.5", plus a few crappie runts. Also caught two walleyes, a 16" and a 17" both on black Fiska jig and a waxworm.

Three of the crappies came on a minnow set line and the other two were on 5mm Fiska Black jig with glow/red LA Wedgees tails.

You can usually coax a bite from the river crappies by having a set line with a minnow and then bouncing between a jig/maggots, jig/waxie, and a jig with Little Atom Wedgee tails. I've been having really good luck using the Fiskas tungsten jigs with a glow tail Wedgees the last four times that I tried them.

It's best to have a few rigs ready to go so you don't waste a lot of time switching out baits when fish are on the screen. SM

[PSourasinth]

DonBo,

My wife and I went for a drive down along the St. Croix River this past Sunday, south of Interstate 94, down to Prescott to see what ice fishing had to offer since, just in case I wanted to venture out before seasons end. I don't know if I was at the wrong location, took a wrong turn, or if there just wasn't anybody fishing that day, because I only seen a couple ice fisherman scattered over 2-3 miles. Plus when we got down to Prescott, it was practically all open water around the bridge. We drove all the way down to the point where the St. Crois meets the Mississippi. Can you please advise again the location where everybody is getting on the ice to go ice fishing on the St. croix River. Because when I drove past Bayport Marine, there was nobody on the ice around there. I just wanted to confirm the location so if I do go and get on the ice, that I'm at the right location.

Thanks,

Preda

[Ashton]

How is the Ice out there its getting a little warm?

I would like to get out one more time before it gets to bad. even though I was out last weekend and my Vexilar blew up on me and stated smoken so it will probably be wasted effort fishing(boring).

[Turk]

Go to the Bayport City Park (where the beach is) and look out on the river thats the main area everyone is talking about.

Turk

[DonBo]

DonBo,

My wife and I went for a drive down along the St. Croix River this past Sunday, south of Interstate 94, down to Prescott to see what ice fishing had to offer since, just in case I wanted to venture out before seasons end. I don't know if I was at the wrong location, took a wrong turn, or if there just wasn't anybody fishing that day, because I only seen a couple ice fisherman scattered over 2-3 miles. Plus when we got down to Prescott, it was practically all open water around the bridge. We drove all the way down to the point where the St. Crois meets the Mississippi. Can you please advise again the location where everybody is getting on the ice to go ice fishing on the St. croix River. Because when I drove past Bayport Marine, there was nobody on the ice around there. I just wanted to confirm the location so if I do go and get on the ice, that I'm at the right location.

Thanks,

Preda

You can't see where everyone is fishing from the highway. You need to get right down there. Everyone is fishing quite a bit north from the part of the river you can see from south of Bayport marina.

Again, here's directions to the river.

http://www.fishingminnesota.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1765774/Directions_to_Bayport_St_Croix

As far as Prescott is concerned, TommyK is our man on that part of the river. Maybe he'll chime in.

[croixflats]

DonBo,

My wife and I went for a drive down along the St. Croix River this past Sunday, south of Interstate 94, down to Prescott to see what ice fishing had to offer since, just in case I wanted to venture out before seasons end. I don't know if I was at the wrong location, took a wrong turn, or if there just wasn't anybody fishing that day, because I only seen a couple ice fisherman scattered over 2-3 miles. Plus when we got down to Prescott, it was practically all open water around the bridge. We drove all the way down to the point where the St. Crois meets the Mississippi. Can you please advise again the location where everybody is getting on the ice to go ice fishing on the St. croix River. Because when I drove past Bayport Marine, there was nobody on the ice around there. I just wanted to confirm the location so if I do go and get on the ice, that I'm at the right location.

Thanks,

Preda

I'm not DonBo as you can see.

No one fishes close to the access to the river. Generally You will see people fishing straight out inthe middle and to the north.

To verify if you took the road next to the marina on the south end of town and made your way down the gravel, road after crossing the railroad, to the ice then that is the access. For a landmark at the end of the road there is a big ugly, to my eyes anyways, newer home sitting on top of a boulder wall next to the road.

Beat me to it slow to the punch I am

[tommyk]

Prescott ice has been empty for as long as I have been accessing down there the last month. I think people pulled their permanants even before they had to be off. My last experience out north of there was disappointing. When you hear of the St.Croix River ice fishing bite it is almost always out from Bayport park. If you saw 2 to 3 people ice fishing from 94 to Prescott I would say that is busy for that stretch

[sausageman]

Went out for a few hours this morning. The action wasn't fast and furious, but fairly steady. I decided to only fish one line and try different things.

Ended up with 10 crappie between 10 1/2" and 12 1/2". I'm gaining a lot of confidence in the 5mm fiskas and the wedgee tails. The crappies were really pounding this combo when they hit.

Joel (the guy that found my tackle box) was catching them pretty steady on his minnow set line.

I just came in for lunch and I'm heading back out now. Hope to see some of you down there. SM

[Luck e 1]

Anyone want to head out tomorrow morning?

[iiccee63]

I'll be out with the wife.....high lines, by the red and white ball, 37ft. white ford focus wagon, good looking guy...hahahahaa see yazzzz @9am

[Luck e 1]

See you out there...I will be in a silver 4runner probably not all the way to highlines...

[Big Jeff]

The ice is getting a little soft, not sure the landing is going to hold up much, hoping to get out in the moring but it was looking shacky when I left today!

Slow day 6 fish 3 fisherman

[llee873]

Not too bad yesterday despite the wind. Ended up with 6 crappies and 10 perch.

[Luck e 1]

iccee...my wife got sick in the night so I ended up not going.

how'd you do?

[sausageman]

The ice cover on the river is disappearing fast.

That said, I had a pretty good day fishing overall. Caught a 13" and a 17" smallmouth, a 17" walley, some mooneye, some white bass, a sheephead, a 9 1/2" perch and 22 keeper crappie (10" to 12.75"). I went home with a limit of crappie after a fellow FM'er dropped three of his crappies in my bucket before he left for the day.

The crappies hit minnows off and on all day. The fiskas jigs tipped with maggots and plastic tails took up the slack the rest of the day. Probably a 50/50 mix between the two types of presentations. I had to change things around on the jigging end today more then usual to get a reaction from the light biting crappies.

SM

[DonBo]

Sadly, I'm afraid my ice fishing time on the Croix is over. With the very warm temps this week I'm sure the ice will be shot by the time I'd get another chance to go.

I did get out for a couple hours on Saturday afternoon and though I didn't do as well as sausageman (who does?) I managed three nice crappies. A 12 incher, one 12 1/2" and this one, just under 14!

I don't know about the rest of you, but this is why I fish the Croix. I'm happier catching these three fish than I would be catching 30 8-9 inchers on other metro area lakes.

The bite was frustrating most of the season, but I think everyone will agree there was no shortage of lookers. For whatever reason it was tough to make them bite. Hopefully next year will be better!

For those of you still venturing out, good luck be safe! I'd like to see you all on the river again.

[Cheetah]

I fished the high lines Saturday and Sunday morning. Saturday between four people we took 25 or so keeper crappies, and two nice catfish from 7am til 10am roughly. Bare hooks and minnow, dead or alive didn't matter, very active. Caught a few on EL.

Sunday morning I went back 7am to 930am, lots of fish still, not as quick to eat. Ended up having to jig a lot more and slowly lift the line to get the fish to chase and bite. Used a variety of colors, bare hook was definitely not working like Saturday, but did get some hits. Three people, only caught four keeper crappies, one white bass, and another nice catfish.

Lots of fun, wish I had more time.

[tommyk]

Isn't that how it goes. The bite turns on and gets the excitement up ..... just in time for the warm wether to eat up the ice and end the season!

[hunt4food]

Well that figures! I fished Friday morning and caught two and then Sunday afternoon and caught zero! At least on Sunday sausageman let me look in his bucket so I could see what a crappie looked like again Time to get the wooden toboggan out and start hooking some catfish!!

[Luck e 1]

Thanks to everyone who provided information the the croix this ice season...as a rookie to the river your posts really helped. I would imagine that between the sun, current, and temps that it is pretty much over...so I hope to see you guys out there next season.

[PikeFerret]

Sausageman,

Were you the one my wife and I talked to and shared a cold one with? Sounds like a similar report to what he had. Anyway, if it is, we ended up with a couple 10" and a 13" and a 3 lb. white bass. Lots of fish, but not many takers, all were caught on minnows.

[Cheetah]

I would imagine that between the sun, current, and temps that it is pretty much over...so I hope to see you guys out there next season.

Next season? [PoorWordUsage], I was thinking of going to Redwing next weekend to fish walleye in the open water... Spring is always good down there, some boat launches are open now, and there are shore fishing options too. Continuous season for walleye, 15" minimum.

[openwater9]

How's the ice?Can you still drive on in Bayport