getting out again!

Finally, after a few weeks of staring at my boat in the driveway (to do list and other fam commitments kept me off of the water), I’m heading out tomorrow morning to give the Croix a try… any updates on activities? Have the ‘eyes started the fall pattern yet? Any schooling-up? Are they still hanging on the steeps?

Hey King185 – Tonight might be a good night to hit the St Croix. I was out last night, the river is at 675.4′ and the water temp was 72 degrees. The sunset is creeping down each night, last night sunset was at 7:50pm and we had a 1st Quarter moon. Still marking lots of bait schools all over the river. The gulls are pretty active on the shad right now.

Last night there was a pretty strong SSE wind early in the evening and we started out chasing crappies but only picked up 1 crappie and 1 good sized sunnie. It was hard to control the boat in the strong breeze. About 6:00 we tried trolling and picked up 1 small (tiny) smallie. The wind started to die down about 7:00 and at 7:30 we started drifting for channel cats. We hit a 27″ channel at 7:45, a 22″ channel at 7:50, a 17″ channel at 7:58, and a 27″ channel at 8:05pm and then the wind died and the cat bite just stopped. We called it a night at 9:00pm and headed in. The channel cat bite was really fun while it lasted – they just clobbered cut sucker. I’m using 5/0 circle hooks and the channels are hooking themselves on the hit. They just grab it and run and by the time you get the rod out of the holder they have hooked themselves on the circle hook. We were drifting a 14′ to 18′ flat just off the main channel. I seem to have my best luck with a SSE breeze and that power hour just at dusk seems to be the best bite.

Sturgeon season starts on September 2nd and runs through October 15th. I will be primarily chasing sturgeon starting next week. I think this drifting technique might pick up some sturgeon too so I am going to give that a try.

Hi C15 – good to hear from you… thanks for the info – I won’t be heading out tonight as I’ll be watching the Hudson vs New Richmond football game but I do plan on heading out early tomorrow a.m.

For the late day/dusk people, make your plans now to be out on the 7th… A full moon is rising at the same time as the sunset (within a few minutes). All we need now is a low front moving in at the same time… I’ve already told the boss that I’m going out after work that night and that I might not be back ’til 10 or so who knows, I might even through a few musky lures out there…