Bayport Ice Fishing

The other day 01/03/18 ice was 13.5 inches solid. I only had the hand auger 8″ so I didn’t feel like moving around in the 1F temperature. When ice is less then 6 inches the hand auger is fine. More, then It sort of becomes a tiresome.

Saw a few light trucks and other smaller vehicles on the WI side shanty village.

Nice, any action?

Looked like an ice fishing contest from the freeway today. They catching or just fishing?

Don’t now about bayport but where I was today the walleye and sauger were hungry. The vex was set at the wrong range so we were fishing in 33 ft of water at 3pm and were able to pull in 3 14″ to 16″ sauger. Ounce we realized how deep we were we moved in to 26’ft at 3:45 then the bite was on until the sun past the horizon. 1 18″ 2 19″ 2 17″ and 1 27″ walleye on the ice with 2 biggies couldnt get on the ice. We both were using blue/chrome jigging raps tipped with small crappie minnows.

This warm snap had to be the trigger because as we know the St.Croix just does not give those walleye up in the winter very often. A special day to say the least.

1hl&sinker wrote:

This warm snap had to be the trigger because as we know the St.Croix just does not give those walleye up in the winter very often. A special day to say the least.

Were you out of bayport?

I went out of bayport last Saturday for sturgeon and got the skunk. Not even a mudpuppy. Tried 3 spots and saw nothing that looked like a sturgeon.

There were sturgeon caught in the bayport area. Biggill you can’t catch them all everytime you go out!

Sure, rub it in.

Biggill I was not in the Bayport area. Location was off a shelf that drops off fast.

All I needed to know. I was just curious if I should bring the light gear next time I hit the croix for sturgeon.

1hl&sinker, sounds like an awesome afternoon, great report! You’re not kidding, Croix Eyes tend to be crotchety come ice over!

I have never fished on the st croix in the winter. I imagine that it is all done for the year, but if it isn’t could someone give me a pointer as to where to crappie / walleye fish? Ice depth?

Thank you in advance!

Walleye season is closed, but crappies will be in 20-30 feet. Haven’t been out recently so i can’t comment on ice depth. Should still be plenty thick, but i can’t say for sure. Fish are caught within sight of bayport park quite often.

Any recent ice reports for this year? Looking to get out this weekend.

9″-12″ around the bayport area.

Any where to park a truck and snowmobile trailer ?

Park them right on the ice.

biggill wrote:

Park them right on the ice.

Where do you pull on the ice?

This is the best I can do to show how to get to the access.

Attachments:

1. 

   A0B4A5B5-C890-4197-9A41-05A5B0F46ED5.jpeg
   

Thanks biggill

I don’t think (or at least it wasnt last week) that route is open yet.

Anyone driven on from Ferry landing yet?

So many people driving on from Ferry landing this past weekend. A ton of traffic Saturday, quite a bit less Sunday but still plenty of people driving on from there. The landing ice was in pretty rough shape when I left Sunday.

Anyone driving out from the Bayport side?

mark z wrote:

Anyone driving out from the Bayport side?

Did on Saturday. Great ice and nowhere did I find less than 12-13″ or so. Trucks and cars going 40+MPH all over the place, like normal…

Got out last Friday. Drove out of Bayport. Fished at the highlines from 7:15 am – 11:00 am. 12 inches with a tape measure of clear ice. Caught a half dozen. Couple nice ones. All fish caught 4 feet off the bottom in 39 FOW. Lots of lookers. With no snow cover the ice was talking anytime a vehicle drove by.I can’t imagine the the fish were not affected by the rumble.

Im new to fishing the river gonna go out of bay port how heavy of lures do i need to use for walleye? and where do guys usually target crappies?
do vexilars work well with the current? any info helps

I generally fish the same lures on the st. Criox that I do on lakes. For the vexilar, I usually pop an extra hole a couple feet down river to put my fish finder in, depending on depth, you can sometimes get away with it in the same hole as your lure, but it works better a few feet down stream. For crappies, you will see a deep hole (40ish feet) out from Bayport, you will also see a pretty good size group in that area.

Any new ice reports in the Bayport area any info would be great Thanks in advance

Brandon 14″ plus near shanty town. I saw full size trucks out some driving north towards the high lines, if that helps.

Thanks zoomer