yesterday on the croix

me and my son fishead all day yesterday and could only manage to catch one sauger i swear we tried everything i could think of. is anyone having any luck ??

summertime on the Croix can be a humbling experience – sure has been for me the last few summers… not that I claim to have it all dialed in but I’ve been able to catch some decent fish pretty much every time I’ve gotten out this summer. The key is to fish where you find fish – I’m not meaning to be a smart – use your electronics and pay attention. The bait schools are spread out quite a bit so the predators are as well. Work an area for a little while – if you don’t see bait or fish on your sonar and you’re not catching anything, move on.

Last time out (a few hours last Thursday morning), we managed a few sauger, a couple of shortie eyes, a bunch of smallmouth, and some really big sheepies. By the way, if you catch a big sheephead, work that area a bit more… The highlight was when some BIG smacked my crankbait – at first I thought I was snagged but then it started pulling back. Ended up landing a nice 10lb channel after a very fun fight on gear set up to troll for wallies…

I’ve had my best luck pulling crankbaits and watching the sonar to find ‘active’ fish. Then, I’d slow down a bit and go with livebait, mostly crawlers on a roach rig or a crawler harness/bottom bouncer if I wanted to move a bit faster. Also, look for the gulls – they’ll tell you right where the baitfish are located

Check out my recent main page St. Croix report for proven tactics on fishing in the summer.
Good luck!
Turk