Smallies

I’ll be fishing the Criox between Hastings and Afton. Wondering if the water temp increasing will have an effect on the Smallmouth? Last weekend we caught 40 smallies, biggest being 17 inches. Had a 1lb smallie on and a big ol musky smacked it. Never hooked it, but landed the smallie Hard to tell how big it was but I figure at least a 42 incher or so?
thanks for you help!!!!

been my experience that the hotter it is the better they bite. Temps were in the 69 dgree range last weekend.

are you talking hotter the better for smallies or muskies? my experience has been hot for muskies!…. but not so much for smallies….at least not the big ones…. now FALL… thats when the big uns go crazy….

Fished Saturday morning from 6am to 12, with my brother who had never been on the river. Fishing was slower than last weekend. we got 13 smallies, 17incher beening the biggest, one 15″ walleye, one white bass, and a pike. The wind was really whipping out of the south, which made it very difficult to hold the boat close to shore. all in all it wasn’t bad, great fishing with bro.

Talked to a couple at the osceola landing sunday afternoon. It was there first time on the croix and she managed to pull in a 21″ smallie. What a treat. I dont think I have even caught on that big up here.

hmmmmm Ive not caught one that big up here either!… dont think Ive heard of one that size….. but no reason why there shouldnt be one…. course once in a while you hear some interesting things… like a guy who claimed to have caught and released a 55″ pike up by the rock island…. hmmmmm nice pike… world record class or there abouts…. funny thing about the croix though… its a dangerous place to totally discount the stories you hear… there are some mighty big fish swimming the croix… the habitat is awesome…. and honestly I dont understand why you dont see numbers of 20″+ smallies… I just havent… but fish to 18″ even 19″ are not uncommon up here…. so there HAS to be bigger ones…. it just seems that in this upper stretch that the bigger fish head south to Stillwater and parts further down river even…. oh.. and Ive heard there are dandy fish above the dam as well.. and in the croix farther up river too…. though the word I get from the river above the dam is still SLOW fishing….

19.5 is the biggest I have had in my boat up here. I only seem to see about 1 around that size every year. Plenty of 16″ fish to be had. But then again most of my time is spent chasing eyes.

yeah.. same here.. though 19″ is my biggest… mostly I go after eyes… spring and fall…. but fall is when the smallies go absolutly bonkers… and the biggers ones are on a tear then too…… I dont know why there are not bigger fish up here… plenty of great habitat…. maybe it lacks something they need……. or maybe my effort is not sufficient to pull out a really big one….