St Croix Opener

Who going? Where you fishing? Which state rules ate you rolling? It’s coming up fast.

I hope to be out on opener. Wish it was next weekend instead of May 4th. I need to follow the WI rules.

I’ll be out of Franconia like normal on the Croix, can’t wait. The rain really made the river look good again

Gonna get up around Marine and chase some smallies. I have never really fished north of the Taylor Falls. Is that better water for smallmouth fishing or not? I have a 16 ft so should be fine if the water is higher.

Aboxy17 wrote:

Gonna get up around Marine and chase some smallies. I have never really fished north of the Taylor Falls. Is that better water for smallmouth fishing or not? I have a 16 ft so should be fine if the water is higher.

I run my 17ft6 up there year round. That’s my go to area. Definitely have to get through shallow areas, but those giant tour paddle boats have a solid dredge to follow, some of my favorite smallie fishing can be up in the st croix bluffs. And fishing pressure is about 0

Be out the “hot spot” between Hudson and Prescott.

Hoping the weather cooperates.

Fished out of Franconia on Sunday. Wow was the river busy. River was up a good 3 feet or more from the end of May. Guessing it’s high enough now that the new boat at Osceola might even be usable. Lots of boats out fishing White Bass but we didn’t see any get caught. Just a few sucker caught for us.

Mike W wrote:

Fished out of Franconia on Sunday. Wow was the river busy. River was up a good 3 feet or more from the end of May. Guessing it’s high enough now that the new boat at Osceola might even be usable. Lots of boats out fishing White Bass but we didn’t see any get caught. Just a few sucker caught for us.

That rain really brought the water levels back up. We needed that, franconia was looking real bad.

Launched at the Bluffs yesterday. Went out to test new electronics and trolling motor. Beautiful couple hours on the water. Few folks out cruising around. Seen a couple pontoons and few tuna boats. Water around 50.

Want to get out, not sure where now as WOB is shut down and don’t care for crowds.

Croix levels predicted to be above 680 by Saturday.

Hopefully below no wake. Or not?

I think the St. Croix No-Wake kicks in when the level at Stillwater is 684 or higher. I saw the crest at Stillwater was forcasted for 681.7 so you should be good to go.

How heavy of a jig will you need to fish in that ?

boone wrote:

I think the St. Croix No-Wake kicks in when the level at Stillwater is 684 or higher. I saw the crest at Stillwater was forcasted for 681.7 so you should be good to go.

No no wake is at 683.00. There is another 1-2 inches of rain forecasted this week. If that hits we will be no wake by next Monday, Just in time for walleye league to start.

Justin, doesn’t walleye league start on May 14? I’m going to miss the first week this year.

Will be out around Hudson on the opener weekend so will likely not even get up on plane! Imagine it will be busy but that’s par for the course there on opening weekend!

14th is first week of league @Kirk and @Justin.

bzzsaw wrote:

Justin, doesn’t <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye league start on May 14? I’m going to miss the first week this year.

Yea you guys are right maybe Randy switched it or I just read wrong (probably the case).

I am going to try and get out this weekend for bit if I can. I never do real good for some reason early. Maybe I need to try shallower.

I’m going to be launching near boomsite tomorrow morning and going to be heading north and drifting. That’s the plan anyway. Might do some trolling handing on how the fish are active. Tried to do some crappie fishing over the past couple days and haven’t caught much. Argh. Flow is fast.

Hope you guys are catching some fish while testing your rain gear! At least the wind isn’t howling.

Here’s the NOAA site for water level on the St. Croix

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/safety/boatwater/nowake/index.html

My son got sick so I couldn’t make it out this weekend. How was the bite for everyone?

The water came up a foot at least since last weekend. I shore fished for 2 hours and caught two short walleyes and a couple pike.

My boat got a good wash on Saturday. Not sure what performed worse, my fishing or my rain gear. I didn’t catch a walleye on Saturday. My partner kept 3 fish between 16 and 17 inches. Fished from 6 until 1230. Weather was much better Sunday. Fished from 830 until 1. Caught 2 legals (17 and 23). Was hoping fishing would be better this past weekend. Saw some fish caught in the Hudson channel but it wasn’t fast and furious.

Thanks for the updates – I hope to be out this week or weekend at least once. Got one good report from a friend who was pulling leadcore.

Just so I understand, MN license holders can legally fish the WI side (now that it’s open) and follow their regs, despite fact that MN side not currently open?

Thanks.

St Croix is open shore to shore. You can fish anywhere. You just need to follow the MN border water regs.

-J.

Got it. Thanks.