Fished by Steamboat last night in the normal “hot stops” couldn’t mark or catch a single thing. Tried a couple other spots up the river and still not one eye. Any one else having this problem or is it just me? I’m jigging with a fathead from 12-25 ft. Going out again tonight and would like to land something. Any help would be great.
We were out last night in another area. The riggers/jiggers did not look too busy. We found the fish would snap at a crank pulled fairly fast. Straight upstream or a bit cross current. Bang up the speed to 2.5 mph and hang on.
3 inch stick baits on a 3-way with 4 ounce bell sinker…20+feet was best.
J.
Went out with Steve O from the sight, and a couple of his buddies on a day long guide trip. We tore them up in front of the Steamboat, as well as the docks in Prescott. Many sauger in the 16-17″, with one topping 20″. We had one keeper walleye, around 17″. We kept 14 for the frypan, and probably released 20??? We caught a number of smaller (8″) walleye right on the current break. We had a couple of small mouth, one a nice female, 16″ or so, loaded with eggs. Plastic is the key!!! Leave the minnows and leeches home!!!
Tuck
figures I would go to the WRONG place!!… I was at the Kinni… we had some success.. but nothing like yours… our best bet was crawlers on a jig… I tried some plastics.. had a Pike cut off a ringworm…. and lost a real nice eye on a ringworm….. what kind of plastics were you using? I tried the chameleon with orange tail… I had 2.. the pike claimed one… the bottom the other….. never found another color they really wanted…..
tried to talk my buddy into hitting prescott.. but he figured we should stick it out at the kinni.. *sigh*…. caught enough to keep us from being bored.. but not enough to call it a good day…….
We were using the Chameleon Ringworms, and Chartruese Metal flake 3″ Berkley Power minnows. She was ripping through the Kinny. We did a fly by, then went to the other side of the river, out of the current. No luck there either. Back to Prescott…
Tuck
the current was really gong strong there all right… our success was along the Mn shore…..
Whew!!
What a weekend.
thanks for putting us on some fish Tuck. great day of fishing!
you knew exactly where they were. we tried Hudson for a little while on Friday. picked up a couple of short walleyes and headed back down to Prescott and cleaned up again. 9 sauger on 3 passes. refined my ringie technique and finally hammered some fish.
the smallies were just starting to move in the spot where we were going to slip bobber in. picked up a couple of 16 inchers. fun, fun, fun
thanks again Tuck for an awesome day of fishing and mentioning us in your report
Glad you got on them! Took Chappy out Saturday night, and even HE cleaned up!!!
Good luck!
Tuck
We fished just north of Prescott yesterday and did pretty well. We caught just over fifteen saugers with a few walleyes mixed in and kept six. Fishing the area upstream of the bridge around 4pm with a jig and fathead seemed to do the trick.
Also, something everyone should be aware of, there are some teenagers hanging out at the city dock claiming to help out boaters “for tips”. We didn’t require any assistance but another fisherman did and they watched his boat while he ran to the store. Turns out, they helped themselves to one of his rod & reels and made off with it. Keep an eye out for this…
Thanks for the tip! I often would like to use those docks and go into town but always afraid to leave my gear. I did pay a kid once last year but I approached him. I will definitely not be parking there this year.
It would be nice if the local PD would spend more time patroling the area for this kind of thing, rather than writing parking tickets to anyone with a MN plate!!!
Still steamed…
Tuck
I forgot to mention I spoke with the owner of one of the smaller marina’s in Prescot Saturday night. They have a bar right next to RC’s Riverfront. Anyways he said normally he’s got a spot or two for rent which means pretty secure. It seems like he said $2/hour for a fishing boat. He sells drinks, giant broiled shrimp and gas so you may not have to go any further!! I like to stop at Diamond Bluff a few times a summer too. Hopefully no pirates hit my boat there. The beach is quite a ways from the establishment as well. Tue night taco night!!!!!!
Tuck,
lol!!
Well… I tried all day Sunday and was disapointed with my results. I found a school of small 9″ +/- Eyes in 21′ of water just south of the Afton Park Launch. I started with 2″ Powerbaits and jumped to 3″ when I was getting nothing but babies. I got two 17″ Smallies and that was it.
What can I try for Wed. Trying to get out before the crowd on the St. Croix. I will be launching at Hudson and distance is not an issue. Looking for some Eyes… Thinking I would try cranks along the breaks of the sand bars where the current slacks. Any ideas?
Thanks,
Brian
Hudson, WI
Try the Kinny channel. South end, Mn side. Past park beach down. I was out “pleasure boating” with my wife last night and could only get away with one small pass but mannaged two shorts (14″) and two other good feeling bites. (sponge)
If you put in the time and take numberous drifts you will get some keepers. Also verified that sauger bite in Prescot. Caught one just messing around with ringworm. Like the guys said around the Steamboat.
Has everyone been vertical jigging these fish? I went on the afternoon of 5/16 and early on Sunday morning. We caught a quite a few on the shallower bar (19-24′) just to the north of the steamboat, as it sounds many of you have. I had good luck with ringworms, but minnows seemed to work a little better. I’m going tonight and I’m going to have to try Tuck’s technique. I saw a guy on Sunday morning anchored in this same location. At first I kind of laughed to myself, until he started kickin’ our butts. By 9:00 the fish had slowed down and there were a ton of boats getting there, but this guy that was anchored consistently outfished the jigging fisherman (maybe 3 to 1) from 6:00-8:30 am. I don’t like to get to close to people, but it looked like he was just casting a jig downstream, letting it rest on the bottom, and occasionally feeling his line until he got bit. I guess this is called horizontal jigging?? I’m thinking he was catching more of the inactive fish. Has anybody had luck doing this? I’m going to try vertical jigging downstream and then slowly three-waying back up. I’ll post tomorrow and let you know how I did. Also, has anybody caught any with some size? The biggest we are getting is 15-17 inchers, and a lot of them are smaller than that. If anybody is going out, I’ll be in a gray/blue 16′ Alumacraft with my 6 year old daughter and a buddy from work, stop and say hello!
Chappy’s brother has been fishing that way! It may have been him. We have been getting fish of all sizes, but keeping 16-20″ fish. There have been plenty!
Tuck
I forgot to list presentation. I have had good luck with crawlers on a bait rig, 2-3 foot snell. 1/2 oz weight. Single or double hooks and a bead or two. Drift with current or slightly slower than current. Depth vaires and marking fish is uncommon. You just have to go over an area to know if they are there or not.
Best colors for hooks and beads seems to be orange and glow in whatever combination you choose however I’m sure other colors will work. Occasionaly I throw a spinner on the rig with favorable results. This is what has put eaters in my boat this month and just keeps working better every day.
I can’t believe I just gave out every detail of my current pattern. This site has me brainwashed. You guys keep this info to yourselves!!
anchoring works good if you know the structure very well.. and position yourself just right.. then you will surely kick everyones rump (as long as you have fish stacked on your structure!)….. there were a couple of guys doing this on the upper part of the Kinni when I was there.. they were a bit pushy I though… as I was trying to position myself for a vertical jiggin drift they yelled at me while I was at least 150′ out telling me they had lines out? no way they were THAT far out.. and I was heading at least 50′ to the side anyway… and no way they were fishing to the side either… current was way to strong…. guess they just figured they owned the area for 150′ around their boat….. they guy I was with did not want me to push it so I did not… but I wanted to just motor right up there…. we all have to fish the same river and I had no intention of crowding them…. I guess it bugged me when they were so pushy about it…. but thats life in a heavily fished spot…
Thanks for your confidence pal,See if I let you come along and use my boat again!!!! Terrific time pal.
It was’nt my brother but he was down there,I told you it was his neighbor,Geez get the story straight Tuck!!!!LOL.My brother was there for a while in a Bass boat but said he did’nt do well. Better then working I guess.I was there on Tues.morning and we kept 2 really nice Sauger and 2 smaller ones and probably caught 10 fish in 3 hours using nothing but plastics.Even the DNR was catching(people that is)Saw them right up one guy.Nice to see them around.
Chappy, when you leavin’? Gotta get your rigs…..
Here’s the report from Tuesday evening. We fished from about 5-9 pm, ended up with 15 walleyes/saugers. Not slammin’ them by any means, but enough to keep things exciting. Fished the bar again above the steamboat in 18-20′ of water. It seems like they were right on the tip of the bar in 19′. It was pretty windy out early on and we decided three-waying was the easiest thing to do. We ended up catching 6 or 7 on three-ways, with a shad rap. Later in the evening we went back to vertical jigging and just as the action began to heat up, it quit! I thought the bite was going to be hot for the last hour, but it just went dead. Has anybody else experienced this? We did the logical thing and moved shallower and shallower looking for the fish, but only caught one fish. It downright frustrated me! Saw the Griz bringing a client in from upriver. Is the Kinny bite that much better or does he have one of his secret spots going? Keep the reports coming.
Same here. We moved down to the landing, and can get them in the last hour of light, but not near as fast as during the day. No reason to ruch down in the AM either…8-10 AM is best!
guess I will just add to the ongoing thread here…
was out all day today…
started at Prescot… early on we had some action…. best was with a “shortened” ringworm… they seemed to like it best popped off the bottom and dropped back down all the way….. the bite started to die badly there towards noon and we went to another secret spot… the kinni…. caught some real nice whitebass there….. did not see much going for eyes….. then went back to prescott just in case it was going there again… scored a few smaller fish trolling cranks.. switched back to jigs and nothing… so in those 2 spots it was pretty slow.. keeper sized fish were caught… but if there were limits taken they were sneaking them in…. it seemed like people were moving quite a bit… usually an indication of tough fishing…… and thats what it was for us… I dont have numbers.. I did not count… but we caught almost ALL saugers… and only 1 real NICE one.. everything else was marginal or smaller!… total numbers? hmmmm.. 20 at the max…. I would say… not very good for a 6 hour day….
I was out on Sunday from 7:30am – 6:00pm. We did OK. I wish I knew what some of you guys drive for boats I am sure I saw ya if you where fishing the Kini or Steamboat. We did good jigging suckers (4″) early and switched to trolling cranks in the afternoon. We caught about 18 between the two of us. Biggest at 20.5″. BUT we had alot of fun for about 10 min. pulling in a 26″ carp just north of the Kini. WOW.. it was so much fun and my arms were sore at the end. It was the biggest I ever caught and I got it on a crank bait???
It was wet but good fishing. Got checked twice for Lic. and livewells by Pierce County Shrf. at the Kini and the DNR at the Miss./St. Croix.
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