Smorgasbord on the St Croix

Fished the St Croix with my son from 6:00pm to 11:30pm last night. Water has come up about 1 1/2 feet in the last week and is finally warm (78 degrees). It was about perfect last night with a good current flow in the backwaters. Finally caught our first Flats of the season – we seem to be about 3 weeks behind the Mississippi bite. We picked up two small flathead – 1 on cut sucker (7#) and 1 on a bullhead (6#) about 10:00pm. Had another nice run on a bullhead that we missed about 10:30. We also caught 1 channel (24″) about 7:30 pm. Moved around alot last night – about every 30 to 40 minutes. It was a mixed bag for the night: 2 big turtles; 3 Bowfin; 2 gar; 1 sucker.

I thought I had the rights to the Croix’s dogfish!

Had some action! What about minnow buckets…any of those come by?

Sounds like a great night out, except for the turtles

CA

I had a unique experience last night. We were fishing one of the skinny backwaters (maybe a 100′ wide) and I had a boat pulling a water skier try to run the channel we were fishing in. I flagged him off by waving my hat at him as he entered the backwater and he stopped, he ended up dunking his skier and then turned around and went back out the way he came in. He looked all pissed off because I challenged him. The channel is full of stumps and timber, I couldn’t believe he was going to pull a water skier through there besides try to run it while we were fishing in there. Some people really have their heads up the butts.

Sounds like a true “variety pack” last night. I had one of those ocean liner boats go by me the other night up near Hastings. I was anchored and he went by me about 15 miles an hour about 20 yards away, throwing about 4 foot wakes. Nice guy eh?

last night, i only got 2 little flats about 5 lbs apice. But they bit within the one hour that i fished a new spot….so i will fish it again difinatley. Oh yeah, each run was within 2 mins after a barge went by….

Comanchero, any size to the gar?

Thanks,

CA

CA – The Gar were both about 3 lbs. There are alot of them cruising around chasing small shad minnows. These two both took cut sucker. The Gar didn’t fight that much but the Bowfins were really awesome. They put up a great tussle and were fun to catch.

Thanks for the info Comanchero, good to hear the fishing is picking up with the warmer water. I have never caught a gar before….Might have to stop out there this week, time permitting that is….and next week bowfin and myself should be out there sometime.
Take Care,

CA

Ya know…about these pleasure boaters…do you think I could fit an anti-aircraft gun in the bow of the ‘Ark? And if you want to see some GAR come on down to the lower Wis. we’ve caught two now in the mid 50 inch range…those are some badass lookin critters…they also make green sunfish all but useless for bait down there.

Jason.

Steve…if you would have let that skier through…you could have added one more specis to your smorgasboard! (Did I just say that?)

Nothing like getting out with your son and having lot’s of tugs!

Oh, Say Steve…If you see Bow the Fin Huner and CA out running around next week, would you take a picture of BFH for me? I have to see if it’s really true about his ’70’s tye dyed hair….

Thanks!

mealy, remember whats said in the boat stays in the boat you said you wouldnt talk about the tye dyed afro
Ill keep you posted when we are planning on getting out, maybe we can all hook up

CA

I didn’t say anything about the Afro…or the tatoos…

Steve…better use black and white film…