St. Croix River Bite getting better

A bit better bite recently due to the tight groupings of baitfish. The good fall bite is still far away and dependent on the arrival of the cool weather. I have found that the faster the cold comes on, the quicker the bite becomes good.

The river has risen due to the recent rains and is now two feet higher than last week. The flow has also increased. The water is not dirty though and debris not present as is normally associated with a water rise.

Out of every three outings recently we have had a large Muskie attack either a walleye, smallmouth, or drum. I have seen a muskie at boat side six times, though one day we saw likely the same huge fish five times.

River water level is 677.3 5 and looks to rise another foot in a weeks time to 678.5. this water rises makes fish move. On the Helmut, Brigitte, and Blaine’s trip (pics below) the water rose on this spot and next time there the fish were not receptive to our lures, or they were gone. Rising waters changes fish locations.

Water temp falling and is 71 to 72 degrees.

Walleye depths all over the boards from 12 to 28 feet, have not cranked much at all. Mostly crawlers.

Image captions:
1. Brigitte with a home on Lake Minnetonka stated numerous times how she loves the river with the scenery and beauty. Brigitte is holding likely the biggest smallmouth bass of this season. This trophy hit with a thump! A great battle on six pound test line.

2. Helmut all the way from Frankfurt, Germany is on visit with relatives and brother to BassChamp Brigitte. Helmut says the St. Croix River fishing is fantastic! Here he holds his keeper walleye caught livebait rigging with a crawler. Helmut is a very vigilant fisherman and always ready to get his line in the water. I believe he would like to fish all day long. It is clear when he is fishing he is in one of his happy places.

3. Brigitte had a hot hand this day she landed two -19inch walleyes plus another legal fish. Very fun all on livebait light line fishing with Medium Light Poles.

Keep catchin’

Charlie “Turk” Gierke

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Nice fish, Turk!

I haven’t been out as much this summer, but most our trips have yielded some pretty solid fish. It seems in the last week the fish have really started to bulk up. Many coughing up decent sized minnows in the boat.

Here’s a bulky fish from last weekend.

Good fishing – See ya out there.

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Dale and I headed out on Saturday and they are still in the same depths as Turk mentioned. Find the bait and the fish are there massive white bass, sauger and walleye, it was a good day and am sure the bite will continue to improve with the colder weather coming.

Not to mention the catfish (both flats and channels) have been on fire comparatively speaking!

The sturgeon were a little slower for our boat this weekend, but if a guy is only going to catch a few fish, a 52″ is nothing to sneeze at!