Hello everyone!
New to the forum here…. A brief introduction, I grew up on the Red River in Whapeton North Dakota (Can you say Catfish Heaven?). Anyway, I have strayed from the one thing I love (Fishing!) and I intend on getting back in the swing of things. A buddy and I are heading north of Stillwater in the Rice Beds to take a shot at Catfish. Anyone have any suggestions?
Hey welcome to the board.
I don’t haer of many people going North of Stillsville to go cattin. I usually get them accidently in the Bayport/Hudson area. I would say try near the pilings of the power plant and by the Hudson railroad bridge.
Good Luck,
Ferny.
Leech and a slip bobber anchored in 10-18′ of water will get you channels pretty much anywhere from the RR bridge down to Prescott. Best I’ve done this year is about 8#.
I have yet to catch a flathead on the Croix. Grew up in New Ulm. Lots of flatheads there. See attached.
Thanks for the info guys! The flats didn’t sound all to hot to me either … but rumor has it the catfishing has been phenominal in some of the channels just north of the Federal Parks Boat (Zebra Mussel Alert). Apparently they have been catching #15 plus consistantly up there on 6-8″ sucker minnows … It’s worth a try! Going this week … I’ll keep you posted!
I don’t have any advice for your question but I just wanted to welcome a fellow “Hudsonite” to the forum! 
My advice for “where to” on the Lower St. Croix is to work the fastest water within the general area you are, meaning with in a three or four mile stretch, and that usually means slow no wake areas…and use the usual cat baits – Good luck! Meow!
Also Also Mr. Jim Merimonti AKA Mr. Croix Flathead King 
brought a 45 pound flat (or mudcat to some) to the scales early am on the 27th of July down at Beanies…
Jim has won the Beanie Big Louie annual season long contest (seven wins) more times than even walleye king Steve Herte (six times)
As many of you know this is a four month long contest to bring the hogs of the Croix to the scales, and has been running since 1971! Anyone can enter and the fee is only 15 green backs.
If you see Jim give him a handshake as that fish is strongly in first place… though a 60 pounder ( weighed )was last years winner! thats a hog!!
Keep catchin’
Turk
Well, I went Catfishing as promised … and here’s a brief caption of my day/afternoon/evening …. you’ll find this quite entertaining.
Started off with leaving my buddies house just south of Osceola… Stopped at Russels Bait Shop in Star Prairie…. my buddy realizing he had forgotten his wallet (Wonderful). Come to find out they are nearly out of Sucker Minnows and we had to take the final pickings. 6-8 miles down the road … POOOOOF! Yup…. there went the drivers side tire on the trailer! As I look back I see the remnants of the tire bouncing down the road (and catch the lid off our (dry storage container) flying off into the roadway (closely followed by a car and you can imagine what happened to the lid). Pull over…. No spare, arrange for someone to drop off a tire (leaving us sitting there on the road for what felt like an eternity). Get the spare on… start driving…..well I’ll be damned! The spare is going flat! We barely make it to the boat launch. Launch the boat (Somerset Landing South of Osceola). Toodling down the river and EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRR…………..PUT! What the ???? was that? Oh … nothing more then the engine SIEZING UP. Guess the impeller wasn’t working to hot? That’s alright… just a cheap $2000 engine … and we all have $2000 laying around to throw in the water. Let’s try the trolling moter (god knows it’s not enough to fight the current and get us back upstream to the boat launch). Might as well keep heading south. Find us a place and set up camp. Call a buddy to “put in” north of Stillwater and come get us in the morning. Needless to say we caught “0” fish. Got rained on! Storms about blew the tent from beneath us. Buddy finally gets us in the morning….tows us back to Stillwater and we drive his vehicle back to WI to get my truck…. needless to say the tire on the trailer is COMPLETELY flat now. Drive 15 minutes back into Somerset to get fix-a-flat and return…. well you know where this is going ………didn’t get any better from there…. and guess what…….I missed work!
I’ll do it again the first chance I get! That’s what I love about fishing!
Mike
AKA Finally on the water
And then they wonder why we drink beer !! 
I know why I drink beer, but Mike didn’t mention any beer….
Thank you for this post. I’m glad to see that my little problem of having the trailer come unhitched, thank God for safety chains, and not having the plug in the boat until we had about 1 foot of water in the back isn’t so bad! What an aggravating couple of days it must have been for you! You may want to consider changing your username to Barely on the Water!
Steve 
Mike, I’m sorry. I didn’t have anything to do with your misfortunes but still, I’m sorry. . . I feel your pain!
Steve-
I can REALLY relate to not having the plug in! I normally leave mine in all year. Last year, very late (read: late November), I took one more big-boat trip to the Vermillion (on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon) south of Hastings. Sort of “de-winterized” the boat at the launch (read: ran out fogging oil) if you know what I mean. Anyway, I forgot that the plug wasn’t in the boat, and I didn’t realize it until I noticed water splashing up on my (Gore-Tex) boots. Anyway, long story short, got the plug in (read: cold hands), and had a great day on the water. Nothing quite like fresh walleye to compliment a Thanksgiving turkey!
Well Brook Martin a “young” but Old catman hooked and landed a hog very sumo big buffet eating 54 lb. flathead two nights ago! Fat fat fat fish!!! Brook is another great guy and a cat fishing fan through and through! and is now first place in the Beanie Big Louie Contest flathead division, and no this isn’t an ultra competitive contest it is mainly for fun and held for a bit of pride, but mostly fun. Congrats Brook.
Turk
Also, I don’t know any of the facts or how did’s (presentations, etc.) of these caught big fish so that’s it for the info, and if I did know I suppose it would be rude or worse to post “their” info…? The good news is big cats are biting and a species bite good or poor is really the single best piece of info you can get… Good luck fishing-Keep Catchin’
Monday morning I was fishing a break in Afton, close to the city dock, when I wandered into about 11-12 feet of water. I was using a 3 way with a #7 silver rap. I connected with what I thought was going to be “my record eye” if not the state record. But it fought a little odd.
Turned out to be a (roughly) 7 to 8 lbs cat (channel?). It was the most fun I’ve had all year! I didn’t know they would chomp on a rap! Ruined two good trebles, but it was worth it!
Back in the water to show it’s ugly face another day! 
Beach Brian,
Nice channel cat!! I too have had on a state record walleye suddenly turned channel cat before!
Turk
That’s what is so great about the river. Just never know what or how big your next tug is going to be! Don’t let the word out! 
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
