5/14/04 report

Not a bad day at all on the upper Croix. Boat traffic and fishing pressure was light, light, light. I’m guessing the weather had something to do with it, along with the MN opener. I’ll take the relative peace and quiet of the Croix over the opening day crowds any day! Although it was fairly cool, windy, and wet, the multi-species action was second to none.

My fishing partner and I spent 4 hours this afternoon pursuing white bass and to our pleasure we found them almost everywhere we suspected they’d be. Very few dinks and well over 100 fish made it to the boat. Most were cookie cutter 14″ers but a couple 17″ers were also landed. Curiously, we also landed 3 15-20″ walters on our white bass gear, all of which were caught fairly shallow along a nondescript shoreline with no obvious fish-holding cover. All were caught within 5 minutes of each other and really hammered our swimming lures. It was a wind-swept shoreline however and I suspect they were on the feed. Not a bad bonus at all, especially in the middle of the afternoon with the sun high in the sky (between rainstorms).

Noththing like action Southerner!

Were you north of the birthplace of MN or south?

Gotta talk in code…

Questions about silvers?

I have caught plenty of silvers while fishing for walleyes and saugers. I think these are great fish and worth pursuing, especially with kids.

I am wondering if any of you would offer suggestions as to lures, locations, etc, that might help catch more of these great fighters. Thanks ahead of time.

If you see them surface feeding go for casting surface lures. Jig minnow or white twister tail will work. Small narrow silver spoons work great and can cover some water well. Floating raps or other floating stick baits. Alot of times the floaters can be tossed out and just twitch them across the surface. Adam had some pretty good luck on a popper last time we where out.

Hope this helps.

Mike hit the nail on the head, Professor. Any smaller minnow-imitating lure should do the trick. As far as color goes I gotta say white. My personal confidence lure is a 1/4 oz white roadrunner as I can cast it a fair distance, fish it at a variety of depths, and can see it fairly well in dingy water. Did I mention it catches whites hand over fist?

Briank, I was north of the ol’ birthplace. Can’t go wrong in that locale.

See ya’ on the river, fellas.