How the the opener?

How was the opener? Had to spend the day doing other things, would be fun to hear some stories!

wet cold and rainy, only caught a few walleyes. And alot of stripers, just couldn’t get on any fish worthy of the livewell. Anyone else do anything

Some guys were coming through the shop were having some luck between Hudson and Prescott. Believe it or not, leeches were hot. Fatheads then crawlers. Some decent keeper walleyes stringers. A lot of troopers out in the rain today! Im hoping for less wind and rain tommorrow. We will be open at 5:00 am again.

I haven’t been out yet…but my stratigy would have been very close to shore…like three foot of water…

We still have high water and the eye’s try to stay out of it.

Give it a try and tell me how it works..might save me some time when I get out!

We fished the Prescott area starting at 7:30 AM to 4 PM. Slow for the most part. Caught 12 or so Saugers (all except one was over 12″). No walleyes. 6 or so strippers and a couple of mystery fish (shad maybe?) that I never caught before.

Jig with fatheads seemed to produce the best.

Still trying to de-thaw my hands

Wasn’t able to get out yesterday… May try later today. If not, then I’ll wait until Tuesday. I have a couple of weeks free from a work schedule so I’ll be out as much as possible (although I have plenty of ‘homework’ to do – building a walled patio, outdoor kitchen, other landscaping). I have a 18 footer and will have open seats if anyone wants to go out (looking for someone who really knows the river – I’m new to the area and could use the help… I’ll provide the Leinie’s and snacks!).

Croix opener was good for us although the weather bit!
We managed 30+ fish but most were sewer bass, I mean silver bass. We got all of our walleye/saugers trolling #5 Shad Raps in 10-12 FOW north of Stillwater. Threw back half a dozen shorts and kept a 14″ sauger and 15″,16″,17″,18″ eyes…yummy! Every time we tried live bait we got silvers. We picked a couple pike also. The eyes were empty so it looks like the spawn is over up here the saugey had spawn in it though??? We hit the water at 5:20am and left at 2pm. The whole time there were over half a dozen openings at the public launch. It was nice to not have any crowds this year.
Here’s a pic of my brother with our catch.

Later,

Ferny.

Welcome King185!

Ferny, I hear the Afton area wasn’t too crowded this year either…

Briank (aka fair weather fisherman)

Fishing today was awesome!!!! Caught lots of fish lindy rigging crawlers and shiners. Walleyes ranged from 16-22 inches. Not many boats out…it was great!!!
ps. Cant forget to mention the biggest catch of the day….a DEER, thought it was a nice bite, hooked into it, and here comes a big log….nope a deer!!

Had a great day out there today. Waited till the rain stopped and then headed out. Not too many boats and a couple of walts to boot.

You caught a deer? This should be a good story, please tell.

Jami

My boat got 4 legals Sat and 5 Sunday. It was tough fishing and tough staying out all day in the rain.

Ok, I’ll admit it….. I’m a Wuss! No fishing in the rain for this guy.

Nice looking catch there Ferny.

-J.

Yep we caught a Deer!! We were Rigging north of Afton when Ashley got snaged. I tried snap it off but it kept coming up. We finally got it up to the surface and here was the back legs and the spine of a deer. You always wonder what you might catch on the river, but this was a first for me.

Nice catch Ferny! I didn’t take a picture of my 6 from sunday, but they were 16-18 inchers. I was suprised to hear that leeches were working because I couldn’t buy a fish on leeches. I caught one short on a fathead and the others on crawlers. I went through almost 4 dozen crawlers on sunday. The afternoon bite was good, probably due to lack of wusses, I mean fisherman, out there.

Jon,
I admit the weather was too wet/windy for me also. We are not wusses. Maybe “selective anglers”.
I’ve heard slow to lights out fishing. saw some pictures of some REALLY nice ‘eyes that were caught this weekend.
out this week and hope i can share some good news.

Hey now. Easy. I consider myself one of the “tough guys” but apparently not one of the lucky guys like you that stayed long enough for action. We ended up popping 3 nice ones after we last saw you. We woulda stayed had we known Sandbar did well late afternoon on Sat. Makes me want to go out after work today….
Keep in touch.

Seemed like an average opener to me as far as fish catching goes, but the lack of fellow boaters on the water made it a pleasure to be out there.

We found ’em shallow, but I saw ‘eyes coming in from just about every depth available on the upper Croix. Cranks and plastics were the ticket for my boat. Lookin’ forward to next weekend.

Me and a buddy went out Sunday morning, hit the water about 6:30 am. We were limited out before Classic Country Sunday Morning on K102 was over. Ended up with a dozen, all saugers, from 14″ to 19″. Threw back a lot of shorter ones and some trash bass. Even got an official kickoff to the season with a sheepie! All within sight of the Hwy 10 bridge, and all on minnows. Even managed to let a few boats bully us off our spot. It usre was fun to watch them come up fishless….