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St. Croix River Fishing Reports


Joe

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Very very nice catches!

Those crappies are fine eating from the St. Croix. Not easy to find for most though. It is not like lake fishing where they are easy to find , but then lacking in size.

I have heard of some big hauls this spring of crappies.

Turk

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Fished for an hour by the king plant today. Not much happening. The water wasn't flowing and the bite was not on.

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Spent a couple of hours fishing north and south of Hudson. Caught a total of 5 fishes. (2 crappies, walleye, small bass, and sturgeon (22+))

All, by dragging a minnow on a hook on the ground in 10 - 15 of waters.

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Fished for an hour by the king plant today. Not much happening. The water wasn't flowing and the bite was not on.

They had a big fire down there last week and will be shut down for quite a while while they repair the damage. Looks like the spring bite at the King Plant will not happen this year.

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I needed to add up a few times out crappie fishing to put together a decent report. I can't seem to catch numbers worth a darn, size is okay. The fish are there but suspended and the biters are coming at a very precise depth. Right around 8 feet down over 13 to 17 feet of water. Best presentation by far has been a minnow on a plain hook under a bobber. I have thrown everything at them at every speed. This has been the only way I can keep the bait in that suspended zone consistantly. Water was a at 52-53 from saturday up to yesterday, and touched 57 this evening. The males were getting a tiny bit dark and the females had the bellies.

St.Croix dandies ...

DSC02408.jpg

DSC02411.jpg

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So you caught the trout at the same place you caught the slabs???? go figure? Nice fish Dude!!

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Fished the Croix south of Prescott bridge yesterday afternoon. Pretty busy, a lot of boats drifting in front of the docks. Ended up catching 2 eyes, a 14" and a 19"; 2 16" sauger and a 12" sauger. Lost somethin halfway to the boat that im pretty sure was a nice eye or fat sauger.

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Yesterday was the first day on the Croix. We had some help from Clint at B. R. Bait in OakDale. We started at the Windmail and headed down river to Prescott Bridge. We stopped at 5 differnent spots on the way. Water temp started at 55 degrees and hit 58 by the time we where done fishing.

Report: Caught 26 fish, which included 5 species, We ended up with 5 saugers, biggest being 21". The rest were catfish, sheepshead, whitebass and cisco. cool Just a fun day........

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Sounds like a great first day on the river for you Hook. Nice report. Congrats on a 21" sauger, those are piggies.

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Cisco? I haven't seen a cisco in the river. Are you sure?

Tunrevir~

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I meant no disrespect by my question but I didn't think there were any ciscoe this far south in the state. I thought that the far southern edge of their range was about Mille lacs. If so cool, those things are great in the smoker and make awsome bait for pike and I'm sure the catfish would love them as well being as oily as they are. Just another fish to try and cross off the list for species caught on the Croix.

Tunrevir~

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Lake Elmo had cisco for awhile, they stock them every once in a while too I think, so it could be possible that the St Croix has some ciscoes in it.

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I was the St. Croix also, we kept 1 walleye, and 2 saugers. My guests said they would enough dinner for His mom, dad, and him. Started the day have a 13" shad, looked like a giant shiner. (Musky bait maybe) we caught 11 different species, largest was a 5lb northern in 23ft of water on a jig. We didn't count how many fish were caught, we used up 2+ scoops of minnows. plus using plastics and pulling cranks. Many of the saugers were little(11-13"), even the Griz said they caught alot of little saugers.

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Thanks for the report!

Let me guess.. jiggin the channel in P City, that's where the little saugs congregate this time of year, and if you saw Griz, that gives away the location moreso, I think that's the only place I see him on the river. Jiggin by the bridges.

We were upriver a ways and did pretty good, kept 4 nice eyes from 16-18" and tossed a bunch of 14" ers... from about 4-8 pm.

Not a single sauger up there

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What Is with the sauger this year? Seems like the guys fishing south of stillwater are catching some but I sure havn't.I fish 98% of the time North of stillwater and usually this time of year you cant keep em off !! I caught a few about three weeks ago chasing crappies and have had 0 since ! just seems a little odd.(spawning or post spawn funk?)

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I haven't gotten any yet either. I'll take the eyes while I can get them. wink I do like eating the smaller 14-15" fish though, those 18" eyes fillet out looking like halibut..

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A couple of the fish I caught on Saturday morning were still milting so with the water temps the way they are they probably are on the tail end of the spawn to post spawn.

Tunrevir~

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It's my guess that the big girls will turn on in about 7 days, my best times the last few years for 25" plus fish has been the last 3 weeks in May. Post spawn transition is a tough time to pinpoint the larger females in transit.

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This weekend has always been the best, its like a ghost town out there on the mn opener just the river rats smile

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Yeah buddy, the herd will officially thinned as of Saturday, I'm still hoping two weekends from now will be prime as I am turkey hunting with dad this weekend so no river for me....

But the water temps indicate otherwise....but whatever the case save some for me!

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05/04/09 St. Croix River anglers are finding walleyes in 14 to 21 feet of water and hitting on livebait rigs and jigs. All three livebait staples the leech, crawler, and fatheads are catching fish. Anglers are also catching fish trolling Rapala shad raps, minnow raps, and floaters in the same depths.

Current flow is moderate in the neck down areas of the river. These necks downs have held good numbers of walleye for anglers; I have always believed these areas hold fallback fish from the up north spawn. Either way these neck down areas hold walleye.

For the opener, we found many walleyes willing to bite, though many were sub legal, we did manage a few for the bag though. Saturday was just a great day to be floating the boat and seeing lots of familiar faces. Many anglers I spoke to caught walleye but had a hard time getting fish big enough to keep The legal mark for walleye is 15” or bigger. Saugers have no rights and are without a size restriction.

Today I made it out by myself on a late morning trip and found bigger fish willing to hit and happily limited out. I caught all my fish on livebait rigs, either drifted or from an anchored position. I used split shot rigs for the anchored position.

The river is very clean right with low sediment and minimal debris. The water is 55 degrees and is 678.11 (about 2.5 feet high from normal summer level).

Keep Catchin

Turk

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I was catching fishin in 30fow when i went out. Ended up keeping 3 fish

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It is always fun to watch the bumper to bumper traffic headed North on Friday as I cross over 35, boat in tow to go to the solitude of the river. I'll be on the water early this Saturday.

Tunrevir~

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I love crowds (who doesn't?) so I'm heading to mille lacs Saturday with some close friends. It's tradition so it is a good time and some years we really get into the fish. But I'm with you guys...if it wasn't for good friends and tradition I would be on the river with tun early Saturday morning enjoying the solitude (and fish). Good luck all you river fisherman...don't get lonely down there.

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