OPENER!

[tunrevir]

Hey this is a shout out to all of you that are getting up early or headed out tonight. May the fish gods smile upon you and fill your livewells. Be safe out there and good luck tonight/tomorrow. Maybe see some of you on the water. If you see a beat up 12' boat painted battleship grey with one lone fisherperson there is a good chance it is me. Stop by and say hello. Got my bait chilling down, batteries charged and the boat ready to go. Can't wait to put in in the early a.m. Lets hear some experiences and reports back here when you get in. Be safe, fish hard and don't forget to put the plug in the boat!

Tunrevir~

[Sandmannd]

Where ya launching and fishing around Tun, would be cool to see ya out there. I'm going out of Prescott at 5 AM, leaving my house at 4 and getting Pom Pom Princess on the way down. I'll be fishing pool 3 and below the Kinni. Have my Alumacraft Navigator 165 with a 75 hp on the back. If anyone sees us, say hi. Can't miss us, two big guys and little ol' Rui!!

[River Dan]

Just got back from the river, this is the last sunset before the opener, when the sun comes up fishing will have begun on a new season of open water on the croix!!

[tunrevir]

Nice pic Dan! I saw a guy today that I swear was you but he was upriver so i figured it wasn't. Sorry Sanndman, I didn't get this till I got back off the water this afternoon. I fished North of Stillwater and fared okay. I had three that were nice, 2 shorts and some silver bass action. Looked like most boats were hauling around 1-3 fish where I was at. I had three friends that I ran into that had 7 legals between them and a cpr of a 25" fish. I ran into milting males in the morning with a couple of nicer ones. All of my walleyes came off purpledescent, nothing on shad or firetiger today. Purpledescent wally diver took all of the legals and a #5 purpledescent shadrap took some smaller fish. What a perfect day to be out. Got some funny looks when i bought sunscreen at 4 this morning but I am sure glad I had it with! How'd everyone else fare today? I have pics but due to the stringer with no water in the background I can't post them. Hard to get shots of fish by my lonsome.

Tunrevir~

[River Dan]

What a blast, took a father and son who was 10 out today and it was so much fun showing and teaching them how to catch walleyes. For the son today was the first time he ever caught a walleye and he got one within 5 minutes The son went on to catch 7 and ended the day with the biggest walleye 18" and sauger 17" how cool is that!! Way to go hunter!! Looking forward to the pics, Great time out!!

[tunrevir]

Great job out there Dan! Another youngster hooked on fishing.

Tunrevir~

[Sandmannd]

Always good to get the kids on fish. That's what we live for.

[jigginjim]

I have not heard from Rui lately. I still have a open seat for him and his wife.

[Sandmannd]

Was just out with him today Jim. He's been really been busy with school lately.

[Fuzzbient]

We were out between Copas and Marine all day hitting the water just before sunrise and off at sunset. We had a few shorties but no legals. We had lunch at the marina in Marine and talked to a few guys that fished around Stillwater that had some in the 3 pound to 6 pound range.

All the walleyes we boated Today were caught on a free promo NSP countdown gold and black rap. At least the freezer is stocked up with some nice fresh spring silver bass fillets.

[Fisherman For a Lifetime]

I launched at 5AM and fished most of the day.

Went to Kinni for 3 hours, stopped by Afton for a long time, up to I-94 Bridge area, up & down the Wi side & Mn side.

Saw about 150 boats.

Never saw a single Walleye caught. All day. ...and I was looking.

Huh.

At least it was nice to get out, but out of THAT many people, you'd thing at least a few would be caught.....

[waleyhuntr]

river dan,

i think i seen the kid catch that 18 incher. i was in the ranger that was fishing next to you and the griz than left and came back. ran up the croix and missed a couple... had a pretty good day coulda been better and coulde been worse

[Dkoy]

Launched at 5:15 by hudson. Fish were active early for us. Brother nailed a 16 and fat 24 inch fish right away. I pulled in a bunch of 15's and 14.5" before 7am. They were hittin live bait with a slow drift up river. Used the wind and windsock to our advantage. My smaller boat was getting pushed around by the wind bad. bigger fish came from less than 15ft, smaller guys came in 16-24ft. Good to be out on the water.

[Dale Rueber]

Fished opener with Andy (TooMuchFun) so I had good company all day. Caught several Walleys but none over 15" with the exception of a 28" beauty. Caught about 15-20 saugers ranging from 5-18". The 28" Walleye came out of 27' near Prescott. Most of our fish came from 25-29 FOW with a few in 22-24 FOW. Andy had multiple doubles and there was a while that he was the only one catching fish

It was a great day of fishing with a great fishing partner.

28" Walleye

Andy's future 22" Sauger

[River Dan]

Way to go guys!! Had a trip out this morning and boated a limit of nice ones and toss back alot of small ones,alot, highlight got a sturgeon good times on 4lb line, finished the trip off catching slabs

[Sandmannd]

Sounds like you had a great day out there Dan. Limits are always good.

[riverrat13]

hi! first time poster ,long time lurker. Launched at Prescott at 5:30 am headed to the kinni first, within the first minute I had

nice 19 inch walleye also later caught a few smallmouth and silver bass and then things went a little south on me,electrical problems took out my trolling motor and made me switch to trolling shads on leadcore with little luck.

Was still nice nice to be on the water . I got a chance to meet a fellow FMer in alumacraft near the kinni, didnt catch his name but he noticed my HSO decal and said hi! Im looking foward to more post,I dont know what took me so long!

[St_Croix_Banks]

I didn't fish today but on Sat we boated 13 keepers. (4 of us in boat)All on live bait rigs. Some on up in Hudson/some at the Kinnie. The other boat in our group netted 9.

[G_man]

Got to Bluffs at 6:15am. Paid our fee without anyone in sight. Drove to the launch area and the truck/boats were lined up all the way up the hill and up on the flat portion of the road. Couldn't believe it. I walked down to the launch counting available parking spots and people in line. We missed it by 5 spots and there were 10 boats behind us. We left right away and went to Prescott which was also pretty full. I parked in town. I bet we were fishing before prior to waiting in line at Bluffs. We fished slowly all the way up from Prescott to the Kinni. We didn't get to the Kinni until about noon. Marked alot of fish but couldn't get 'em to go. Minnows, leaches, on jigs or bait rigs. The smallies were more than willing to go but we were after the fish of the day and moved on. Lost a nice eye near the boat while at the Kinni.

[Dale Rueber]

Caught my first Sturgeon today. 48" 23lbs and about 20 minutes of fighting. What a rush. The Croix opener has been really good to me.

[Sandmannd]

Nice fish Dale, those are a blast to pull in.

G-Man, I feel your pain with the Bluffs, been there and done that. If you are going to go out of there, get there well before they open. That's the main reason I went out of Prescott this year. Figured instead of waiting for the gates I could be fishin' and it worked out great.

[brunziej]

Where do you launch in Prescott?

[Dale Rueber]

Here is the reply I recieved from the MN DNR after I submitted the Sturgeon tag number on their website. Thought you might find this interesting.

Congratulations on your catch, and Thank you for reporting your capture of a tagged Lake Sturgeon on the St. Croix River!

I was just forwarded the report of your catch by other DNR staff. Here is the information we have on file about the Lake Sturgeon (tag number 87127) you recently caught. This fish was originally tagged on August 19, 2008 at river mile 6.5 on the St. Croix River (mouth of the Kinnickinnic River). At that time the fish was 1216 mm long (47.87") and weighed 8981 grams (19.8 lbs). It also had a girth of 395 mm (15.55"). Your's is the first reported recapture of this fish since it's initial tagging. According to the information you provided on your catch, this fish had relocated approximately 6.0 miles downstream from the original capture site. The length you reported for this fish is consistent with what we would expect this fish to be. Our work to date has found that growth for lake sturgeon in the Lower St. Croix river is slow and they increase in length at an average rate of one-inch per year.

Minnesota DNR Fisheries is currently tagging Lake Sturgeon on the St. Croix River and to date we have marked over 900 fish. Our Hinckley office has tagged over 450 fish in the Upper St. Croix (above the dam at Taylor's Fall) and the East Metro office has tagged over 450 fish in the Lower St. Croix. The tagged Lake Sturgeon have ranged from 14.4 to 60.3 inches in length. By tagging these Lake Sturgeon we can monitor their age and growth rates, their movements, population size, and the number of times they have been caught and released. This will enable us to better understand and manage this remarkable fish species in the St. Croix River into the future.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me at any time and I'll do my best to give you accurate and factual answers.

Thank you again for contacting us about your capture of a tagged lake sturgeon. It is through the help of cooperating anglers such as yourself that we will learn more about these fish in the St. Croix River system in a shorter period of time.

Minnesota DNR Fisheries

East Metro Area Fisheries Office

[Sandmannd]

That's a great read Dale. You did good reporting it and thanks for sharing. Always cool to see how these fish move and grow.

[Sandmannd]

Where do you launch in Prescott?

When you come over the bridge into Prescott take your first right at the lights. Go down a couple of blocks and take another right then a quick left and just follow the road behind the condos.

Make sure you pay to use it as they are patroling it heavy and I saw a lot of tickets being writen while we were fishing and coming off the water. You can also go to city hall and get a one year pass.

[Fisherman For a Lifetime]

hi! first time poster ,long time lurker. Launched at Prescott at 5:30 am headed to the kinni first, within the first minute I had

nice 19 inch walleye also later caught a few smallmouth and silver bass and then things went a little south on me,electrical problems took out my trolling motor and made me switch to trolling shads on leadcore with little luck.

Was still nice nice to be on the water . I got a chance to meet a fellow FMer in alumacraft near the kinni, didnt catch his name but he noticed my HSO decal and said hi! Im looking foward to more post,I dont know what took me so long!

Hey riverrat13,

That was me!

Welcome to FM! What a great conversation I had with you! You'll be a good addition to the forum.

I didn't get any Walleyes and still did not see any others caught that day. Quite odd, but oh well. I'll make up for it.

Good luck, keep in touch and thanks for posting!

[Stratosman]

Opting to avoid the opening weekend I hit the river last evening. Caught several fish on live bait rigs and put four nice walleyes (16-18") in the box. It was sure a nice evening out there, fish were biting and hardly a boat nearby!

Had intentions of trolling some cranks, but the action on live bait was just enough to keep me interested. I always have a hard time leaving fish to check out other areas.

[riverrat13]

Nice to meet you Fisherman For a Lifetime !

Im looking foward to meeting other FMers on the river this summer.

My boat is in the shop this week ,but hope to have it back this

weekend until then good luck and I'll see you on the water !

[River Dan]

Welcome aboard, riverrat13, I'm out there every chance I get, only fishing on lakes twice this year, gull lake for the first annual teen challenge tournament the end of this month and the big pond for the full throttle tournament at the end of june other then those events I'm or the river! See you on the water!!

[FWA]

...finished the trip off catching slabs

That's what I gotta try and find. The wife is a willing participant this year so gotta get her on some fish to stay on the water...

Anyway, made it on the water last Saturday afternoon with the entire family - wife and kids. Everyone was pretty excited. Only problem was that the motor didn't start. Sounded like a dead battery but both batteries (under the panel in the middle of the boat) were charged up and even a jumper pack didn't do anything. So re-trailered the boat 20 minutes of frustration and back home we went. After $225 on Tuesday, found out the trolling motor and accesories uses those 2 batteries and that there's a separate battery for the motor (that was dead).

Oh well, lesson learned... We'll have at it again on Saturday morning. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.