Franconia fishing.

The past few weekends have found us enjoying the water and relaxed fishing of the the st croix. Pulling up on a shore line, wading or sitting in the lawn chair in the water has been our main approach for catching fish. Jigs with crawlers or minnows sitting on the bottom is what is catching fish. Finding areas with a little current near some trees or rocks provides good structure for the fish. Water depth does not have to be all that deep. 3 to 4′ is good in some areas. Just need to keep in mind that the shallower it is the spookier the fish can be. Here is a few photos from the last few weekends.

Here is a few fish the kids have caught. Small mouth have made up most of the catch. Been a few small walleyes mixed in also. I have been surprised at the lack of rough fish being caught. The kids get a big kick out of hauling in the 3 to 5# white suckers. Guess we will have to settle for small mouth.

Heres jonathan with a nice smallie.

Here is our top secrete set up for catching summer time fish on the croix. This is fool proof for a good day of fishing.

Great post, Mike. I enjoy getting out there and just relaxing as much as I do fishing.

Too bad there are no fish in the St. Croix!

My wife, kids, and a buddy of mine…

I do have a couple of poles out, but you can’t see them. I like your set-up better!

Great pictures Mike. I love the pics of kids and fish, that’s what it’s all about! Your set-up looks like the way to go. The boy and I are catching walleye on Pool 3 but we working way too hard at it. A day of shade and wading sounds pretty good after a weekend of cruiser wakes and bright sun.

My folks live near there, where to you launch? Is this an area good for the canoe? Sure think the kids would enjoy that area. We do the same thing here on the mighty Mo, the water is a bit muddy, but the rough fish are always willing. Oh yeah, the bikini scenery is second to none. Great pictures.

There is a gravel landing at Franconia. It is shallow but have never had a problem getting in or out there. You will put the entire vehicle in the water to launch.

There is a landing at Osceola also. Heard a rumor it may still be usable. Just need to be real careful with getting vehicle tires in the sand.

I think there was a bikini or 2 going by while we fished and swam. Canoes out number boats 50 to 1 up there.

Jon. Is that above or below the high bridge. What landing are you using? Looks like a fun time.

That is below the high bridge. I launch out of the DNR Boom site just north of Stillwater.

I want to explore above the bridge sometime but I’d have to put in somewhere else and I’m not sure where. (You can’t go past the bridge coming from the south).

Jon

Might want to wait until spring to go exploring. Lotsof shallow water north of there. William o brian has a landing but Im not sure of what type of shape it is in witht he low water. I you have a small boat you should be able to get around if you dont mind hitting sand ever now and again. Pontoon boat would be good for searching around.

Yea, I should wait for higher water. Is there a boat ramp at Marine on the SC?

There is a private launch there. Not sure if they let the general public us it or not. THere is also a landing on the wisc. side right across from marine on croix. It looks shallow over there but I have never used that landing.

There is also the copas landing north of william o brian on the mn side. This is a rough landing. Very limited parking. gravel. The landing itself is very steep and run parrallel to the river. At the bottom of it you turn the trailer and dump the boat in. Only good thing about it is it dumps into deep water. 4wd is a must and not even sure if that would work with a bigger boat.

The best landing to use to even get close to the high bridge from the north is the summerset landing. Its not hard to find I am sure Steve has put up a few maps on the landings.

The one in marine is private for the marina.

It is very shallow and their are alot of sandbars. Running a bigger boat of that size right now is gonna be tuff. It can be done, my brother got his boat down and up this weekend and he runs a 17 alumacraft. It really looked like fun
He didn’t make it all the way to the high bridge either and i’m pretty sure he wouldn’t make it back up, maybe down thats the easy part.

Thanks for all that info. I’ll post results if I get out there soon.

Jon

Had the kids back fishing out of Franconia yesterday. Think that cold front really slowed the bite down. We used our usual approach of anchoring up and soaking bait on the bottom and floating bobbers. In 3 hrs all we could find was a few samllies. Any one else been out fishing the area?

Last weekend we did find a few walleyes dragging jigs around rock island. Still havent found the crappies up there this year.