Saturday afternoon Steve (Comanchero15 ) and I had the pleasure of hooking (no Stillakid I didn’t 
) up with Mr. Catten Addict on the St Croix for a little catten fun, sharing knowledge, picking on Bowfin Hunter (it’s easy to do when he’s not there) and just plain good company.
CA brought his new River Pro up to give us a “memorable” ride to the hot holes North of Stillh20. Apparently, he’s use to boating on water slightly less crowded and a little calmer. When he asked if we should “just get there”, Steve and I didn’t realize we should have brought our SCUBA gear. After crossing a couple wakes that sent the (full) cooler sailing and one that almost had me looking like a fat superball :doah, we slowed down to around 3/4 throttle….which is about the time all three of us felt the warming waters of the St Croix from the wake we nose dived into. Once Steve and I cleaned our glasses and rung out our shirts…we realized we were making great time at 1/2 throttle. North of Stillwater there was much less boat traffic as normal and with the temps in the 60’s it keeps a lot of people home (but not enough).
One thing nice about those River Pro’s, you don’t have to follow the channel markers. In fact, the only two things we had to watch out for was the end of logs rising out of the water and the pleasure crafts…more so the logs.
Stopped at our first spot and set up 6 lines…I believe we were using cut bait. Since I was in charge of the sucker portion of the bait, I assured everyone that no law was broken in obtaining these suckers. (Because of the zebra mussels, it’s against the law to use any bait fish out of the St Croix or Mississippi…IF you are a MN resident and buy your bait in WI and transport them to MN)
We weren’t having any hits until CA started thumping his rod. It was like magic and we started to get bit. Shortly after “thumping” my rod started to sing and the fight was on! When he came to the surface all I saw was mouth and green! I was in the process of trying to figure out how I could cut the line before CA could realize it was a bass when Steve called out Dogfish! Kind of fitting considering we were chewing on Bowfin Hunter most of the night. : 
We had the most pecks and short runs at first spot. Just couldn’t quite connect until CA finally had a good bend in his rod. Turned out to be a nice little eating size channel, which we returned to the water because he was hooked on the outside of his mouth with the circle hook. (MN laws require all “foul” hooked fish returned to the water).
We moved on to a number of other good-looking, catty spots but couldn’t raise another fish the rest of the night. It really didn’t matter, because of the conversation going on it the boat…well it made time fly.
I have to add at this point that Sean and Steve were both very impressed with my casting ability. First off, I didn’t hook any of them…but with one cast in particular, I place a chunk of cut bait just inches from the wood in just the exact spot that was sure to pull a jumbo cat out of the submerged wood. Sean even said “Wow! Right into the trees!”. What I didn’t realize was that my cast WAS right into and over the top of the trees! The good thing is, that with 80 pound Pro-Line…I could have pulled the tree to the boat if needed. That stuff is the only way to go for fishing in timber!
The Forest Service Rangers stopped by to see how we were doing and check our licenses. They were a couple nice young fellas. I mention that I was using less than seven inch bullheads, but the other guys were using 7 and a quarter in fish…then I figured I better keep my mouth shut since I didn’t see the bullheads that Steve brought along (He assured me that he measures each one and we were legal after they left). The rangers didn’t seem to have a clue as to what I was talking about…even when I mentioned that Sean was using Walleye for bait…All I got was dirty looks from my partners in the boat. And people ask me why I always wear my PDF!
The water has been dropping about 6 inches per day. The temp went back down to 69 degrees. We all agreed that the best fishing is yet to come when the water warms a bit.
Because the cat fishing was a little slow, Steve and I had a hard time keeping CA from shore casting a rap searching for bass. It was tough, but as they say…”Friends don’t let friends fish for bass”. We pulled the plug around midnight. It was a smooth but darn cold ride back to the landing.
I think I can speak for Steve that it was GREAT meeting up with you Sean. You are a standup kinda guy….(River Pro’s don’t come with chairs). Next time we’ll clean up on those cats! Maybe we can get that elusive Bowfin Hunter out there so he can defend himself!
:
. I’m still thinking about a river pro for my next boat, but that a couple years away .
didnt realize you got injured when we came off that wake at full speed lol, you sould of been using the throw cushion to keep them from bouncing off my boat lol… 