St. Louis River Fishing Reports

[st.louis.eyes]

Has anyone tried allouez yet?

[SKIPPERS KID]

Spirit Lake temps where 73.4 and arrowhead flats 67 degrease and the bay's are 73 to 78 degrease. The carp are getting ready to spawn and the shooting has been great. looks like the walleye have moved out of the shallow water? I have not seen and mixed in with the carp. I think the closer you get to the lake the water should be cooler.

[tacklejunkie]

Has anyone tried allouez yet?

Yes.

Allouez works better when it's windswept.

It was calm when I tried it and nothing bit

[Heartman]

were. degrees X 2.

[st.louis.eyes]

went out for 3 hours tonight and caught one 20in eye, was down by bouys 36 and 38, i think i caught the only fish. same thing last night. also caught two crappies 13 and 11in and a 10in perch, all on a crawler harness, crappies were a nice suprise, at least i was catching something. oh yea, and a 27in northern. have you all gave up on the river now??? because this forum has been dead. should i be heading to the bay now or is that still dead? there's only so much time and so much gas to burn, so any advice is greatly appreciated

[musky hunter]

The wife and I went out yesterday concentrating on the river above the 23 bridge. Combined we had a six specie day, as well as she limited out on serenity and peace, which is why we went up there in the first place. The lone walleye was a nice eater, but my wife couldn't get far enough away from the two beautiful cats that came out of deep, shady holes. It's been tough.

I have seen clouds of baitfish similar to what might be seen in November and do not remember seeing them so early in the year before. The walleye hucked up a 4 inch long skinny minnow. Marked lots of fish Sunday evening from Oliver down through Spriit lake, most suspended and some apparently associated with those baitfish clouds. Could it be that those remaining walleyes have a plethora of table fare, are gorged, and not too hungry? My next tactic may be speed trolling cranks trying to trigger a strike from suspended fish, since I'm down to plan D, E, and F.

[tacklejunkie]

Interesting theory on the forage

[Mr218]

I spent Sunday evening and Monday afternoon/evening fishing the river from from the Boy Scout area up to the dam. Nice cat in the 6-7 lb range, some crappie, bass, nice northern, but only ONE eye. Finally landed the eye late Monday, at the bottom of "Walleye Alley" on a jig n crawler in about 12ft of water on my last pass. If that wouldn't have happened I probably would have quit fishing, and sold my boat at the launch to the highest bidder. Tried crawler harnesses, jigs, spinners, slip bobbers (very little current/wind both evenings), minnows, and worms. Been fishing from 5-25ft. Most fish I marked were suspended as well, and nothing seemed to be hungry....

[Northlander]

Try shallow weeds and spinners with no weight. Still some nice fish coming off the weedy flats.

[biff]

Ya there is a ton of baitfish around for sure.

[musky hunter]

So I gave it a go tonight, getting out by 7:15 pm. Armed with a partial half dozen leftover crawlers I had and your last tip NL, thanks very much, I hit a flat that I have never caught a walleye on before and seldom see anyone fishing, yet I think walleyes should be in that area. Nice surprise, first came a 24" 'eye out of 4' and a little later a surprise 23" cat came out of 2'. The walley put up a great fight, but nothing fights like a cat, pound for pound. Released both unharmed. And then I was out of crawlers, tried several other tactics but to no avail, so I left and was home before 9 and well satisfied with tonights results. The Bong Bridge wasn't too far away.

Marked lots of fish in deeper water and a lot of them are bait fish size. Still seems to me that there is plenty of fish food so the mood remains negative. It's persistence and work and willingness to keep trying different approaches until something works.

[Northlander]

Musky Hunter I know that spot well and the cats are always in with the eyes. They give ya a big thrill until ya see them. Glad you had some luck.

[Jarrid Houston]

I also know and have fish that spot. For every few cat can come a walleye! Keep at her. I'm heading to nemadji / allouez / harbor today. Will report later.

[Northlander]

1 out of the 3 will be good Jarrid. Maybe 1 and a 1/2. Thats if you get a little wind. It was pretty flat out there this morning.

[musky hunter]

Wife was out last night so I got to play again. It was the night for alternative game species. Jumbo perch and a brace of plump northerns hit jigs and minnows, a very silver sucker and a lone 19" walleye took a crawler on a spinner in shallow water. Hit areas from below the Bong up through mid Spirit Lake. Found water temps from 69-77. Maybe I'll try Aloueze next time.

[Jarrid Houston]

Logged about 9 hours on the harbor / allouez / and nemadji. Caught perch, rock bass, northern pike, only 2 eyes (a 14 3/4" and a 17"), and a few cats. Pretty slow day. Was hoping for more walleye action, but at least we stayed busy reeling in a few fish. Allouez seemed to have tons of boats up in there, so we got away from the crowd and were able to find fish congregated in one spot. Made the night bite a bit easier.

[jwmiller33]

made it out today and caught 8 walleyes around the spirit lake area... a 17 incher was the smallest, and biggest was an extremely fat 25 incher. i would guess 6.5-7 lbs. caught a couple 21s and a pair of 22s. an extremely good day out on the water for hitting the river for the first time all year... gotta love being able to fish two lines. looking to log many more hrs out here in the near future

[ricerdude69]

what kind of depth were ya gettin em in, all my luck out there has been under 10 FOW

[LETSgoFISHIN]

got 9 eyes today between 13in and 21in. spinners with crawlers in 20+ fow.

[jwmiller33]

i was getting them all over the depth charts... got a few under 10 ft and got the rest in 20-25 feet. try experimenting with everything.. i was three way rigging with cranks for about half of the fish i caught and trolling spinners with crawlers for the other half

[ScottW]

Just wondering what the water temps have been up there the past few days? I was out on memorial day and had 69-71. I'm wondering because I wanna try catch the carp spawning for bowfishing? Anyone seeing any carp breaking water/splashin aroudn in the shallows at all yet? Any help appreciated! Thanks. Scott

[SKIPPERS KID]

Scott, I have been shooting spawning fish for about 2 weeks. a lot of hawgs the river was really muddy yesterday when we where out and they where still spawning. The water temp really dropped it was from 68 to 70 degrease in the back bays.

[S.S. Fiasco]

heading out after kids go to bed with my trusty net-man FatFinger, post reports when we return home providing mama hasnt switched the locks lol

[Northlander]

Fished in the fog this morning. Not much on the lake so I hit the bays. Got into some smaller fish and then got 2 nice 17 and 18'ers for the pan real quick. Headed home and mowed my hay field. That rain sure made for quick growth.

Fish all came on sticks except for 1 that came on a jointed hot n tot. Shallow on the sand off park point boat house area.

[S.S. Fiasco]

takin the ol' man out tomarrow, he's up visitin for couple days, anyone suggest area to try for northerns? got enough info on the walleyes from all u folks, but havent heard much if anything on the pikes

[Northlander]

The weedy Mn shoreline above buoy 61 all the way to the Oliver bridge. Seems like I always get a few pike and or musky when trolling cranks on that shoreline. I got a HUGE pike up there pre fishing for the Grand Slam a while back.

[musky hunter]

It's been the big chill and the big cloak with all this rain. Water temps are about 60 degrees and not much variation anywhere. I got out yesterday afternoon and went up to get as far away from muddy water as I could get. I actually found a weak walleye pattern and put two whoppers in the box that combined measured over 30-1/4". Lost several better fish and released one that looked like it had an intimate encounter with a musky. Wish I could give some current pike advice, but haven't hooked up with one since before water temps dropped.

[cranken21]

Once again, I cant understand why people have to keep fish that size to eat???? Just doesnt make any sense to me. Lol. Thanks for the report.

[Heartman]

cranken21, those fish COMBINED to make a 30" fish. I'm not saying, I'm just saying...

[cranken21]

I understand... just given him a little bit of a hard time.