Croix opener

Well just got home after spending a glorious 9 hours on the river and what a great feeling it was to be out there again and watch that sunrise come over the trees. No eyes were caught by us today, but boy the saugers were on a tear 2 limits and many misses on the light bites..also the occasional rock bass….good luck and be safe out there everyone!

Any pattern suggestions to share. I hope to get out tomorrow.

Anybody fishing the upper near Osceola, and whats the water depth. Heading that way to fish Cedar in the AM may stop short of that if there are fish to be had. I have a 19′ IO will there be enough water down stream? Thanks

We got over to Osceola around 8 this morning. Managed 1 small walleye and no saugers by noon trolling crank baits. Water levels are a little low for this time of year. You should be able to get around if you take it easy. 4 to 6′ is pretty common.

After noon as water temps warmed up the white bass started coming out. Picked one up a little of 18″s. Also caught 2 nice smallies about that size and a nice pike.

Thanks Mike, Very helpful. are you going that direction Sun?
Maybe try Cedar out of Star Priarie?

I should be back over to Osceola around 9 Sunday morning. Going to change up some presentations and see what happens. Think the draggin jigs are going to see a fair amount of water time tomorrow.

I fished the lower Croix, got out about noon and it took a while to find fish but I managed 6 walleyes, 3 keepers 16,18,18 which made for some good eats last night. I didn’t catch anything else, no sheepies or bass, I couldn’t believe it I caught my fish on lindy and crawler, the bites were very soft. Today I am going to hit the Afton area, good luck to all.

F.Bart sorry didn’t realize I didn’t have that in there, jig and minnow brought them in and was snap jigging and on the fall is when the bites would occur

Got out on Saturday afternnon with my fishing boat co-owner and his 11yr. old son. We ended up having a blast on the Southern end of the Criox and stayed out until dark. It was a 5 species day (sauger, walleye, smallie, rocky and 1 sheepie). Lots of fish boated.

The saugers were hitting hard (1/4 oz. jig w/fathead in about 15-20 FOW). Biggest of the day was a meaty 18.5 incher. Ended up with about 6 or 7 keepers, but only took 3 home with us for a late night fry.

It sounds like the boy may be hooked now.

Also saw a 30-40 inch sturgeon get boated next to us after about a 10 minute battle.

Last minute change of plans had me on the Croix early Saturday. Brother Todd and I decided to go out of Beannies and knew we needed to get an early start. So we got there a little after 5 am. I figured even at 5 bells we would be waiting in line at the ramp. Surprised we drove right down, paid the launch fee, picked up a scoop of minnows and we were off. ROCK STAR PARKING – BABY!!!

Between 5:15 and say 8am we boated 10-12 eyes trolling cranks on both lead core and long lining the Hudson channel. Two just over 15 and the rest were your typical 14ers. By 8am there were too many boats to continue trolling and did not see a lot of action with the jigger so we headed downstream hitting a few spots that typically put out fish early season. Did not see another fish and called it a day at noon. I did get a report that the north of Stillwater bite was pretty good.

Got a call from Mike W. and took the open seat out of Osceola on Sunday. This trip had been on my to-do list for a lot of years as I had never fished that stretch of the Croix. Mike had fished the area Sat and had a good idea of how the bite was going. Not a lot of success trolling so we concentrated on pitching both plastic and meat on jigs. We managed a handful of scrappy white bass and a few keeper size walleye. Plastic beat out the meat hands down. BFT paddle tails on draggin jigs won out. White or white tail got bit. Pattern was main channel current breaks from fallen trees and back water cuts with some current. The BFT draggin jigs did a great job staying clean pulling through the wood there. Fish here and there. Nothing hot and fast. Re-visiting spots that looked good early in the day put additional fish in the boat once the sun started warming up. Thanks Mike!

Couple shots from Sunday in Mike’s boat.

-J.