Continuous Season on the St Croix

The WI spring hearing will have a question on their form for a continuous season on the St Croix River.

I’m in the process of learning more about the MN stance on this and will update when I can.

For all fish?

From Joel Stiras, East Metro Fisheries.

The suite of changes being proposed are to match the Mississippi border waters with a few exceptions. The continuous season would apply to walleye, sauger, bass and pike. Muskie will be unchanged.

The earliest we could implement would be spring 2024. WI has their process which takes longer, so people heard about it earlier on their side. MN will have the public input process sometime this summer/fall.

The St Croix can handle it. The daily creel will be reduced to 4 for walleye/sauger (with the same length limits and one over restrictions as the Mississippi) and we are adding a no fishing zone spawning sanctuary from the Taylors Falls dam to the Highway 8 bridge that will be from March 2 through June 15.

Obviously we expect some pressure to shift. But our walleye release rate is highest early in the year, pressure has been highest in June, and harvest success rate is highest in the fall.
In addition, we are sharing fish with the Mississippi. Early spring populations in the St Croix will be a mix of resident St Croix fish and transient fish from the Mississippi.

Growth of these fish is so fast that they can quickly turnover and replace harvested fish, mature early, mostly at age 2 and 3 with some maturing as early as 1 year old. The major difference between the St Croix and Mississippi is the walleye/sauger ratio. St Croix generally has fewer saugers than the Mississippi and that is likely a function of water clarity.

Pool 3 (the inland portion) is a separate issue that is on Lake City’s list to address. The St Croix revision does not include that couple mile stretch of inland Pool 3 upstream of the St Croix, but there are plans to address that. Pool 3 downstream of the St Croix has already been addressed.

The main goal of this regulation proposal is to simplify regulations for connecting waters for anglers and enforcement to reduce confusion. Anglers can freely boat between these water bodies and matching regulations will make things easier on everybody. Minnesota has a long history of having closed seasons to many people’s dismay.

All that being said with making regulations consistent between connected water bodies, there will be a few differences. The Sturgeon regulations will not change right now. We are working with WI on many aspects regarding sturgeon and are not ready to make any changes.

However we are proposing to make catfish regulations different from the Mississippi. I do have information supporting the catfish population is less dense in the St Croix than the Mississippi, and catfish that are caught in the St Croix are harvested at a higher rate.

The proposed catfish regulations will match the MN inland catfish regulations (more accurately it will match the eventual inland catfish regulations). 5 channel catfish, 1 over 24”, 2 flathead catfish, 1 over 24”. We haven’t split the species yet for inland but it is coming. This will also help protect catfish on the WI side that allows for catfish bow fishing, hand grabbing etc and help curtail any issues that could arise because WI has not adopted the winter flathead catfish season closure.

Finally! The stars have aligned and the two states are working together for the fish AND the people!

What did Neil Armstrong say? “one small step for fish, one giant leap for fisherman”!

I don’t believe them and am strongly against it. I cant imagine anything but greed driving this change.

Would kinda suck to have Osceola north closed until June 15th !

-J.

Jon Jordan wrote:

Would kinda suck to have Osceola north closed until June 15th !

-J.

If I read this right the closure is the HWY 8 bridge to the dam. That bridge is in Taylor’s falls so very little of the river would be closed. Almost exclusively shore fisherman in that area.

Oops, yes you are correct, Mike!

-J.

Not sure how I feel about this. Going to miss St Croix river openers. Always thought the season before opener was called “I’m fishing for White Bass”.

Mike W wrote:

Not sure how I feel about this. Going to miss St Croix river openers. Always thought the season before opener was called “I’m fishing for White Bass”.

Confused season is a compromise with with Wisconsin to agree with catch rates. That’s all it is. The st.croix can handle the catch rate as they are in the summer. Open season is a wash but it negatively effects regular season fisherpersons.So were going to see how many peoole really fishing the St Croix after Feb 28 to icecout. Viscera safe ice late fall. Mn wants low catch rates.

1hl&sinker wrote:

Confused season is a compromise with with Wisconsin to agree with catch rates. That’s all it is. The st.croix can handle the catch rate as they are in the summer. Open season is a wash but it negatively effects regular season fisherpersons.So were going to see how many peoole really fishing the St Croix after Feb 28 to icecout. Viscera safe ice late fall. Mn wants low catch rates.

Can you please translate this to English?

Until the average person can catch the rate of fish they can at Mille Lacs or Red I wouldn’t say the river “can handle it”. Its not easy to catch eyes out there as any experienced person can attest. Why do they insist on pushing the population so low?

One thing I never understood.
We return spawning females back to the river in the spring (or have a closed season for the spawn).
Then for the rest of the year, we take those same fish home.

So we are really netting one more spawn.

With a healthy system, I would think that “one spawn” wouldn’t make that much of a difference. From what I’m told, spawning walleye are a tough fish to get to bite.

I don’t have a cat is this race.

A good change for sure, slightly disappointed they are exempting Sturgeon from the mix. Would like to see some kind of Spring catch and release opportunity for everyone.

suzuki wrote:

Until the average person can catch the rate of fish they can at Mille Lacs or Red I wouldn’t say the river “can handle it”. Its not easy to catch eyes out there as any experienced person can attest. Why do they insist on pushing the population so low?

Yeah the croix can definitely be tough to figure out. During select times it can feel like “fish in a barrel” and (many) other times u really gotta put your thinking cap on and dial it in, unless you’re focusing on community/hot spots. And even then it can be a challenge!

I, personally, am not in favor of a continuous season unless the usual “off-season” is catch and release only. Pool 2 is a landmark experiment and has proven results in regards to size and numbers of walleyes. It is open year round and is also catch and release year round. But just because a body of water(or section of river) can “handle it” doesn’t mean it won’t be affected by it. I say leave it alone because it is already a challenging, yet great, fishery. That’s my opinion.

At our work group last night, we were told of the out come of the WI spring hearings.

More people were in favor of reduced bag limits across the board, with the exception of bass they thought.

The continuous season was pretty much 50/50.

Brian Klawitter wrote:

At our work group last night, we were told of the out come of the WI spring hearings.

More people were in favor of reduced bag limits across the board, with the exception of <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass they thought.

The continuous season was pretty much 50/50.

I do not have a problem with reducing the limit to 4 vs 6 walleye/sauger. I don’t see why anyone would need six walleye over 15” per day. One or two is plenty for one person to eat in a day. I could see if you’re feeding a bigger family or taking a long trip to fish there however. So, on second thought, I don’t know. What does the science say?

*enter fishbloodrivermud*

carry on

It would be nice to have the option of fishing the Croix in the spring, provided we get an early ice out without flooding causing landing closures and no-wake zones. Its a lot to ask for but once every few years it might work out!!

If the science says there’s a need for a reduced daily bag I’m all for it. But I don’t believe the science said that about P4.

Having matching regs would be great for those fishing Prescott, for everyone else this is just a PIA!

I wish Pools 2-5 + the St. Croix were open year round for walleye with a 1 over 28” or 29” from March 1st until May 1st regulation. I’d make it an objective to fish all of them just to see new places and avoid the crowds.

Let them all have a 4 fish limit the rest of the year. Regulation consistency and more spread out angler pressure would be great for everyone

cougareye wrote:

If the science says there’s a need for a reduced daily bag I’m all for it. But I don’t believe the science said that about P4.

The science is public opinion. That’s not being hidden. As with P4, it’s what the majority of the people that completed the surveys wanted. No secret.

buckybadger wrote:

I wish Pools 2-5 + the St. Croix were open year round for walleye with a 1 over 28” or 29” from March 1st until May 1st regulation. I’d make it an objective to fish all of them just to see new places and avoid the crowds.

Let them all have a 4 fish limit the rest of the year. Regulation consistency and more spread out angler pressure would be great for everyone

Boley is probably doing a better job of spreading out crowds and any regulation ever will. Release video, watch crowd find “new spot” lol.

Dnr would tell you protection of fish over 20″ completely unnecessary.
But, I’m long past giving a hoot. Science is gone as a tool to manage resources. Teaching logic to reddit types (new DNR staff) mentality is lost cause.

FishBlood&RiverMud wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>buckybadger wrote:</div>
I wish Pools 2-5 + the St. Croix were open year round for walleye with a 1 over 28” or 29” from March 1st until May 1st regulation. I’d make it an objective to fish all of them just to see new places and avoid the crowds.

Let them all have a 4 fish limit the rest of the year. Regulation consistency and more spread out angler pressure would be great for everyone

Boley is probably doing a better job of spreading out crowds and any regulation ever will. Release video, watch crowd find “new spot” lol.

Dnr would tell you protection of fish over 20″ completely unnecessary.
But, I’m long past giving a hoot. Science is gone as a tool to manage resources. Teaching logic to reddit types (new DNR staff) mentality is lost cause.

Who?

Never heard the name and fished the river a long time. Maybe I’m just old! I don’t really keep up with the Youtube sensations.

He’s a YouTube star. Luckily hasn’t fished the croix yet. I figure his fan boys are giving him spots to film.

He has a few videos of the croix.

joe-winter wrote:

He has a few videos of the croix.

He goes to great lengths to hide his home waters but not so much on the sippi… has its positives in spreading out pressure but it isn’t positive for me who now sees pressure where it wasn’t. Free market though so I can’t disagree with him making a buck.

Reason I voted for the reduced bag limits had more to do with being proactive. Let’s face it, farming practices are NOT going to change in the near future. The MN River will keep dumping its mud into the Mississippi and spawning habitat will continue to degrade. Habitat degradation is going to happen on some level with every fishery, including the Croix. Personally, I’d like to see it catch and release thruout the pools, and Croix, from Jan. 1st thru May 1st. The Great Outdoors might be God’s Grocery Store, but heck, they’re not running a firesale! I agree the fisheries are in fantastic shape, the whole idea is to keep them that way.