Upper St Croix fishing?

Does anyone have experience for smallmouth on the upper portions of the croix (Danbury area). My wife and I are planning an overnight canoe trip and I am wondering if any sections of the river are better than others up there fishingwise?

As of now, I plan on going Danbury down to Grantsburg, but wondering if the far upper stretch northeast of Hwy 35 is worth a shot?

Thanks in advance

When I was a kid we had a cabin on that stretch by Norway Landing. I seem to remember catching a lot of bass there, but that was 30 years ago.

Grew up near Sunrise and fished the section from Grantsburg down to Almelund many many many times and it is a good stretch. You will find lots of good smallies in the stretch from the Grantsburg bridge to the Cty. O landing. Muskies too!

Well due to lack of responses I assume not many people have been up that way, so I’ll give a report from the weekend for future reference…

My wife and I ended up going all the way up to the Gordon Dam (Mouth of the river) and the plan was to end up at Riverside (Hwy 35). I believe its about 23 miles by river. We made about 10 miles on Sat, camped and then did the rest on Sunday.

The weather Sat was a little chilly with some morning drizzle and it took a while to get the first fish, a solid 10 incher, but it still felt nice to get something. Once it got a little warmer I was able to get into a few more. I decided to throw a topwater the majority of the day since it was easier to work with the current and avoid snagging (my wife isn’t the greatest paddler against the current )

I found the best action on stretches right after a series of rapids on either cut banks or small eddies with some wood around them. Ended up with about 14 on Saturday.

Sunday brought a little better weather with sunshine right off the bat. Fishing time was cut down a little to make sure we made it to our final destination on time. I was still able to get about 6 or so. The stretch of river was a little slower with a lot more grass, so I was primarily fishing in the fast water areas and on the downside of islands that had nice sand tapers with grass on the end.

Nothing huge for 2 days as I expected, but I had 4 over 14 inches and 1 that was just over 16 that I caught with about 30 yards before we were done. Even the small fish were a riot with a medium light rod in a canoe and battling the current. Had a few pike crush my topwater as well and saw a nice 15 pound catfish swim under out canoe.

We only saw one other canoe over two days and no less than 20 deer along the river and a myriad number of other critters (including ticks, skeeters and horseflys ). The scenery was second to none and it was nice to be away from everything for a weekend.

Thanks for the update B. Hey, how’s the water canoing? I’ve been wanting to get my nine years out for a paddle, I don’t think they are ready for the Brule quite yet.

The stretch we did might be a little rough with the water continuing to drop. I had to get out in a few sets of rapids and kind of glide us through. Once you get to the Riverside landing though, the river gets more mellow with just a few sets of rapids here and there.

Sounds like a fun trip. Looking forward to trying some more new sections of river this summer.