Saturday came and went! With some unanticipated chores and not enough time I was cursing not being able to get down to the Pool Two event. Joel and Mike clearly put together a great day with good food and stories to tell. I was envious I couldn’t make it.
Yesterday I finally had the chance to get out and decided to give the Croix one more smallmouth trip. Picking up some fatheads I put in at Stillwater and headed up river focusing on places with good feed, some current and hoping for hungry smallmouth.
The first spot I tried was up river of one of the sand islands with deep timber on the inside and a nice dropping lip to deeper water. I fished the top end of the pool, to keep snags to a minimum I fished 16th ounce jig and minnow or BfishN dragging jigs. Holding the boat in 15 feet of water I pitched the jig up to the timber and let the current and minnow do the rest. Both jig types worked well, but most of my success came on a straight jig and minnow. Cranks and tubes also turned a few fish.
I’d work this area most of the day with side trips to other spots without much success. I’m sure I ended up with easily over 25 smallmouths most coming in the standard Croix one to two pound range. Being so location specific made fishing fun but also reminds the angler how vulnerable this population is this time of year. Even for the smaller fish I used a net keeping any unnecessary stress to a minimum. Soft release and a thank you!
The highlight of the day was the big muski! Bringing in a smaller bass all of a sudden a jaw dropingly big muskie slid up to the surface and gave the fish a good look. I got a long look, this fish was amazingly long and thick! Taking a careful look at the bass he just slip out of sight. For anyone looking for that big one this would be it! It was a great day on the water, my last for a while so it was fun to end with a nice trip.
October 3, 2011 at 6:45 pm
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