Opener repo

04/30/05 St. Croix River opener found quality fish and maybe not the numbers as usual but an overall better size range. Many walleyes were just plainly bigger than 15”s, which is the legal standard by the way. The amount of anglers hitting this opener for 2005 was less than normal, maybe a result of the cold weather. The river is dropping fast and is going down more in just a matter of days. The river is at 678.42 and the water temperature is 49 degrees. Many walleye still had milt in them. Action was good on livebait rigs and trolling cranks also turned some fish. The white bass were not out in massive numbers but some bruisers made their way to the landing nets. Sheepshead were also on the chew as can be expected. Best bait appeared to be nightcrawlers rigged on orange hooks, though jig and fathead also good. Anglers caught walleyes in a wide range of depths but less than 18 feet held a majority of the fish.

Side note- Not jumping in the boat, but we got many keepers plus two 21″s, no hogs but a good day!
Keep catchin’
Turk

Thanks for the report Turk. I bet there are alot of people glad the Croix is open now for walleye fishing. It kind of makes everything come alive again in the midwest. Look forward to reading and learning more about the St. Croix from your reports.
Thanks, Bill

Turk thanks for the post I was unbable to make it out because I’m at work. Look forward to going out this week can I ask where you were? Thanks again.

Adam.

Osceola was a little slow for opener this year. Low water levels and temps in the mid 40s did not help anything at all. Water levels are what you would see in august. Not this time of year. What was suprising with the low water levels is the amount of garbage still in the river. This made long lineing crankbaits alot of work. A lure in the water for 5 minutes max was fouled. Not good. There where still walleyes and sauger to be found on crankbaits. It was just alot of work.
Plan B was vertical jigging live bait. This produced some walleyes and alot of other action also. Think we ended up with 8 different species today jigging crawlers and fatheads.
Total for the stringer for today was 1 walleye, 1 sauger, and 5 crappies. The crappies where a nice suprise with the size running between 11 and 13″.

Most of the people that I talk to had about the same report. All had caught a few fish but nothing great. Im hoping to get back at them again on sunday.

We managed 10 keepers before noon today!!! Then we headed for home.. As Turk stated, all were working today. All of our fish were caught on cranks in 17-25′ of water, with 1 over 21″. Looking for someone to fish tomorrow early. Otherwise i’ll fish in the evening.. Colors on cranks were ereidesent and silver and gold style cranks.

I must be getting old. I’m typing this response on Sunday morning instead of fishing. On second thought it’s snowing as I type! Crossin Eye’s and I hit it hard yesterday. We ended up with 9 in the box. The suprising thing was size. They averaged much bigger than usual for opener. The first three fish were 18, 19 then 20. Another fish almost hit 21. Out of the mess only two were near 16. Fishing was definitely not fast. We spent over 10 hours on the water to get our fish but it was not a bad day at all.

Me and the kid went out at Prescott Sautrday, from 10 to 2 caught 9 sauger/walleyes, jig and minnow, along the docks, missed more than we caught. Cold windy but fun!!

Opener was a bit slower than usual for my boat this year, but we found a few for the box working in the Hudson area. Lindyrigging w/ a crawler got the nod yesterday.

Didn’t get on the water till about 2:30pm and fished till 7:30pm . Caught a few shorts, a 16 for the frying pan, and released a 20″er. Forgot the most important bait, crawlers, in the fridge. Did have minnows and leeches to try though. The walleyes I did get were on leeches with a plain hook. Minnows produced numerous nice silvers in the kinni area. It was also nice to fish in the late afternoon after many of the boats had left. Almost forgot how beautiful the croix eyes look with their darker color compared to the old mississippi eyes. Didn’t see any catfish caught today, but there were a few sturgeon caught. There was enough sand to camp at the kinni narrows as there were two tents set up yesterday, brrrr would have been a cold morning to wake up to out there today.

Thanks for the report Turk! I’m hoping join you for a day soon…trying hard to get the HoneyDo spring cleaning projects done.

Two us fished the Kinni narrows Saturday with decent success. We ended up with 5 keepers in the boat, the largest was 19.5″. It was a pretty steady bite until around noon. We caught 12-15 short walleye, a couple smallies, one measured 17.5″, and one sheepie. The best fighting fish for the day was a foul hooked sucker.

A few people that know me would agree, I need my head examined some days. Three of us hit the Bluffs ramp at 6:00 am Sunday morning. When the winds were gusting to 15+ mph at 4:30 am, I knew it would be an interesting day. We ended up putting 4 15-17 inch Walleyes in the boat. Only caught 7 or 8 short Walleye, one little sauger, a big silver and 4 sheepie. It was darn cold on the water, the wind seemed to change from North to South as it swirled in the river valley. The worst part was the sleet, snow pellets, and plain old snow. The sun came out a few times, only to be followed up be another burst of snow. I should have brought some “doctor” with to ease the cold. Sounds like the weather is going to be nice this week. The bite should improve.

Sandbar

Eyejacker and I made it out for a couple of hours Sat. afternoon. Worked the main channel and a couple of other spots. Wind made it tough to work the spots I wanted to. Highlight of the day was a mondo black crappie that Eyejacker caught. Huge fish. Couldn’t find anymore so we let it go. Water is a little too cold yet. Wind and temperature made it a ltttle uncomfortable out there. Heard varying reports. Fish to be had but you had to WORK!

We had about the same results. All our eyes came out of kinni narrow and catfish. Now I like the 15-17 inchers for the table and the eyes we caught were under 15 or and a couple over 19.So I ended up bringing back 4 saugers(14-16″) and one nice crappie sat and Put all them back on sunday.Nothing fast and furious but they were out there.

My girlfriend ended up with the best fish of the weekend. A 19 inch smallie caught 7am on saturday in 5 fow off a sand bar. I think it was the best fight she has ever had with a fish. By the end of it we got into quite a few smallies off the sand but the 1st one was the biggest. Everything was caught off 1/8 and 1/4 oz jigs with a fathead or crawler.Hopefully the weather will start to work with us a bit.

I will post before Briank gets on here with his in depth report of our fishing on Sat. We started our day at 0430 fishing for cats. Didn’t catch any but I learned a lot about how that is set up. By 0700 we were trolling 3-ways and caught several shorts. I believe one of my walleyes was 15.001″ but Brian made me throw it back. We tried rigging with crawlers and minnows with similar results and then went back to 3-ways. I think Brian would have done better if his rookie partner would not have made him back up all the time to retrieve sinkers stuck in the rocks. I’ll get the hang of this river fishing yet. Thanks for the fun day, Brian.

Well Putz, we have the “Big” opener coming up! Save some sinkers for the rocks up there too! If you get the chance to come up a little early on Friday, we are having a fry at Hooks. No lutey, but some really good beer battered panfish and walleye. Bring Winston and Jimmy too! I heard Brian makes everyone who catches bigger fish than him throw their fish back! Any truth to that ?

Sounds great, Chris. Need some more fillets?

Winston is kind of a bobber and leech guy. I can usually keep the sinker out of rocks with that method although the clip on depth finder gets caught once in a while. Winston doesn’t need an Anchor-Mate. He just says “pull up the anchor, Putz” and it’s done for him. Hard to tip a few after 10 or 12 moves. See ya there.

As long as they are NOT soaked in lie ahead of time.
We should get a head count over on the Mille Lacs forum.
Tuck

My computer’s crashed and I’m working feverishly to restore everything…darn glad I back up once in a while…once I get thing back to normal…I’ll show you guy Putz’s 15.01 fish…

Now, be nice, Brian, or no more deer sausage.

Well…I’m sorry, I don’t have any pictures…so here’s the tale …without pictures… My camera media fried and all the images were lost.

Catfishing started out slow…or dead rather..I thought we might run into a sturgeon if not a channel…but it wasn’t meant to be. Putz seem to enjoy the calmness of the river at 4:30 in the morning.
Sandbar came by around 6ish…(I don’t know about the time…time flys when your having fun!) He made sure we were awake are ready to fish for those…walleyes.

I had one picture were I was taking off a 23 inch eye off his hook for him and he was patting me on the back…He’s not only a good fisherman…but a good sportsperson!

Another one of Putz and me….arm in arm…each holding a 27″ eye…well, ok…Putz was holding a 27.5 eye.

Wish I had a movie camera…I got about five fishing boats to help me sing….PUTZ! PUTZ! He’s our man…
If he can’t catch it BK can.!!! We made good harmony.

I’m thinking I had about 30 or so pictures of Putz holding a big eye before releasing it…there were a few of him and I showing off our freindship and fish…the whole trip was a bonding experiance between Putz, the river, the fish and I…

Ok…I may have stretch SOME of he story…just a little…so I’ll get more serious here…

Thanks for coming along Putz! We’ll do it again when the airtemp si closer to Optium Ford running weather.

Opps! Almost forgot…After that story, I’m in on the venison…right?

No picture’s Too bad. I was hoping to show the monster I caught on one of Jeff’s Nuckle balls. Oh well, maybe this will help. Can’t say Brian doesn’t love his bass.

Putz, everyone knows I wouldn’t kiss a BASS of any kind. You’re not pulling anyones leg here…

The real story is I was trying to save a lamprey from certain death by using my lips to pull him off and release him back into the healing waters of the Croix…the bass lay flopping around in the bottom of the boat for three days…until it finally died….damn things!