St. Croix River Fishing Reports

[sausageman]

PikeFerrat

Yep that was me. Didn't know you were an FM'er. That's good that you caught some nice crappies. Was there a time that they turned on??? It was a pleasure meeting you and Crystal.

I met a lot of different people on the FM forum this year. It's nice going down to the river to fish and visit with friends. I'm going to miss it. SM

[PikeFerret]

Pleasure meeting you as well....and if it wasn't for your advice, we wouldn't have caught 13 crappies

Anyway, right when you said they would, they came in by the numbers and we were marking fish steady for about an hour. Only a couple of takers, and they literally chased the bait as we pulled it away from them. Have a feeling after these next few days, there won't be much to fish on...see ya around.

[hunt4food]

I am planning to make one more trip out there this afternoon. gonna go on foot though.

[Pumkinseed]

Went out his morning out in front of ferry's landing on wi side fished in 20-35fow and got one perch on a diamond jig tipped with a black tail no bait must not be fishing in the right spots cause i couldn't catch nothing anyone have any suggestions? oh yeah the landing is done...

[hunt4food]

I drove down and saw a few trucks still navigating the Bayport area of the river. Mine was not and will not be one of them

[Luck e 1]

Those guys are crazy

[hovermn]

My friends have all called me crazy at one point or another after telling them I drive on the St. Croix. When I said I'd be out there last weekend when it was 60, they stepped the crazy talk up a bit.

Now, I've switched over to the other side. Those guys are NUTS! I am however working on getting the hovercraft up and running to extend my ice season

[superchill]

I was looking to go down and shore fish the prescott confluence... But i dont know where the "official" dividing line for the croix-sippi is and dont wanna be targeting the wrong fish on the croix without knowing it so if anybody could help me out with where it is that'd be sweet....

thanks Nate

[fish_4_fun]

I was looking to go down and shore fish the prescott confluence... But i dont know where the "official" dividing line for the croix-sippi is

you make a good point. i would really like to know this too. I want to know the border too.

[SteveD]

Stay south of the railroad bridge and you are OK.

Page 50, 2008 Minnesota Fishing Regulations: The boundary waters is defined as: Mississippi River downstream of Prescott, Wisconsin and all waters between the Burlington Northern (Wisconsin) and Chicago Milwaukee (Minnesota) railroad tracks.

[SBakken]

About what time will the Copus and O'Brien areas be worth heading out?....are these areas strickly summer areas?

And with river fishing...does the mixed dirty water in these Copus type areas need to get post run-off to be worth trying??

Any insight would be helpful....as you can probably tell - I don't fish rivers much but got the fever and intend to get out.

Thanks...

[shnelson]

About what time will the Copus and O'Brien areas be worth heading out?....are these areas strickly summer areas?

And with river fishing...does the mixed dirty water in these Copus type areas need to get post run-off to be worth trying??

Any insight would be helpful....as you can probably tell - I don't fish rivers much but got the fever and intend to get out.

Thanks...

I'm wondering the same thing, i've got an itch to take the kayak out and see if I can locate some panfish. River was open near the osceola bridge a week ago which gave me the idea to check out the Copas area.

Can anyone say if it's worth it or not, and are there any proven techniques for early ice out on the st. croix?

[tunrevir]

Osceola traditionally has a crappie bite that starts about midapril in some of the backwater areas that are nearby. Copus doesn't have much for panfish that I have found other then whitebass which start to pick up about the second week of April but you can pick off a few fish here and there. William O'brien has a few pannies that hang around the rocks and side channels but the water has to warm a bit for the bite to take off. The high water will chase those panfish off to the side channels and to water that is relatively current free and warmer then the surrounding areas and if you can find a bottom change from rocks to sand or with sunken woody cover you have a likely spot to poke around. The whitebass will hold in current seams and where current is deflected and again if you can find a transition in bottom content then all the better. Many of the better walleye spots will hold some whitebass as well. Hope this helps and good luck out there!

Tunrevir~

[Luck e 1]

Has anyone been out neat bayport since ice off?

[tommyk]

Not Bayport, but I spent the earlier part of Saturday south of the Kinni down to Prescott looking for spring Slabs. Water was about 45 degrees. Caught a mixed bag of species which adds to the fun of fishing the Croix. The crappies were not jumping on the line yet for me. I marked a lot of fish deep, ice fishing deep. I landed a handful most around 9". Biggest was 11". I broke down and went with live bait, probably was a good decision. I caught everything on a rig I tied up with two #6 aberdeen plain shank hooks with a minnow on a roughly 12" floro lead off of the main line that was tied to a 1/8oz. bell sinker. Messy at times but worked like I hoped it would.

[OnAFly]

Are you talking about some sort of a drop shot rig?

[Stratosman]

I'm heading out tomorrow to do just that, search for slabs, might slide down to P city to do some jiggin, but I want to get into some crappies.

Tommy, you talkin 20' +?

[trollingguy]

My son and i were out yesterday in the Bayport area. Water temperature was 54.4. Trolled beedle-spins w/crappie minnows with no luck.

[tommyk]

Onafly, the way I did it last year was identical to a drop shot setup except instead of the weigt at the end I used a jig head. I found that the hook-ups were not the best on the top hook due to it beign so tight to the line. That is why I wanted space in between the main line and the hook. There are a number of ways to tie these things up. All the ways I have tried caught crappies real well, some just take longer to tie up and some tangle more easily. Search the web for some instruction and maybe some illustrations. It would be better than trying to make sense of any steps I give. Heck, I don't even know what I am tying. If the hook is facing the right direction and the line doesn't break when I tug on it, it goes in the water!

Stratos, 20'+ for sure. I think shallowest I pulled one out of last weekend was 22', caught them down to 30', continued marking them even deeper. Do these crappies even go shallower than 20ft?

[fishwater]

Do these crappies even go shallower than 20ft?

Late Aug/Sept they are often in the 12-14' range.

[Stratosman]

All summer, about June on I catch them anywhere from 8-20' pretty consistantly. I got blanked today though...tried all depths and marked a ton of fish in a few spots, just down river from small shoreline points, but never did catch a crappie, smallies, whities and even a 18" walleye, but nary a crappies to be seen, slid shallower to no avail. I will be back, if it weren't for class tonight I'd still be out there.

What an absolutely georgeous day on the water!

[DaveZman14q]

was out yesterday hit andersons bay and andersons point and not a thing. marked a lot of fish from about 22 to 28 but couldnt get any to bite. Didnt try live bait since I usually have no problem boating fish on artificials... maybe thats my problem. Didnt see any other boat out there pull up any either... Is it too cold still?

[croixeyes]

Try the marinas,Sunnyside and the Bayport marina.Those marinas warm up fast and have good structure.

[tommyk]

I got a big goose egg on slabs last night too. Except I didn't really even mark fish. I went to my same spots as Saturday and they were pretty empty. Caught a rock bass, that made my night. I think I would have rather caught a sheephead. At least that wasn't my only fish.

On the positive side I found the best way, for me, to get these double bait crappie rigs tied up. I used the "dropper loop" knot. Makes a loop in your line, just snip one part of the loop and you have a straight piece of line to tie whatever you want on the end. It is fast to tie and didn't get any tangles while fishing or landing fish. This knot is probably nothing new to some of you, but I had never tried it and it worked out great for this setup.

[SteveD]

On the positive side I found the best way, for me, to get these double bait crappie rigs tied up. I used the "dropper loop" knot. Makes a loop in your line, just snip one part of the loop and you have a straight piece of line to tie whatever you want on the end. It is fast to tie and didn't get any tangles while fishing or landing fish. This knot is probably nothing new to some of you, but I had never tried it and it worked out great for this setup.

I don't want to rain on your idea but I'm not sure that is a legal rig to use in Minnesota. Reference Page 9, Angling Methods, 2009 Minnesota Fishing Regulations.

"Anglers may use only one hook. An artificial lure is considered one hook. A treble hook, when not part of an artificial lure, is considered three hooks and is not legal. The excxeption is that three artificial flies may be used when angling for trout, crappie, sunfish, and rock bass."

Maybe if you added flies instead of a plain hook your rig would be legal. I'm not sure if you tipped the flies with crappie minnows if that would be OK or not. Just thought I would bring this to your attention.

[GudeMN]

Border water....different regs. Look towards the bottom of page 57 in the '09 fishing regulations....

WISCONSIN–MINNESOTA Regulations

• Two lines with a single lure or bait on each are permitted. If fishing

with one line you may use two baits.

[SteveD]

Border water....different regs. Look towards the bottom of page 57 in the '09 fishing regulations....

WISCONSIN–MINNESOTA Regulations

• Two lines with a single lure or bait on each are permitted. If fishing

with one line you may use two baits.

Yes, you are right. I forgot about the border water provisions. That would make this presentation good. Now I will try it for sure. I catch sheepshead for cut bait and two hooks rigged this way would work good for sheepies. Might even get a double. Thanks for the correction.

[BrianF]

Was out for a few hours crappie fishing yesterday. We didn't score any numbers but the size was impressive. Caught 8 between 12-14". Casting jigs to shoreline vegetation. All released.

BrianF.

[luvin2fish]

Crappie fishing has been amazing for me this spring on the croix. I've been able to catch 12" slab limits. I find them to be 15-20 ft and near some kind of structure(mainly stumps). I've been using a small jighead with a small green twisty tail and been able to produce these crappies every time I go out. The presentation that I use is to just let the jig drop. Most of the time I get a bite when the lure is dropping. Hope this helps all you crappie fishermen. Good LUCK!

[soccerputz]

Tried the same thing around Afton near the "sunken" park south of the marina, tough fishing. Hoping the levels drop some.