Walleye report and umm a cat mention

I have had a string of St. Croix walleye trips lately and I am pleased to say the bite has been good for walleye and sauger. It is my opinion that all this rain has helped the bite and though the river has not risen whatsoever I know the flow has increased. If you are not familiar with the St. Croix River, it is deep and wide, and because of its depth it is hard to find good flow. There is a tremendous volume of water in the Croix, and hypothetically speaking if this water flowed through a shallower river, it would move quite well.

I love the current and the reason, I do is simple it concentrates the fish. The current does not make them bite better, it simply brings them into tighter groups, so that if you get one, you can get more. This is exactly what I am seeing on the river.

Also for additional fishing enjoyment the juvenile flathead catfish are swimming through these same locations as the walleye and we have had success landing a few of these 10 pound teen aged fighters. Saugers are also schooling tightly and do not appear to be mixed in with the walleyes at this point. I have seen some walleye spots and some sauger spots.

Oddly we have had a massive school of sunfish pester us while pulling walleyes out of deep water on one spot last trip. I can not recall this scenario playing out before. True enough, I have caught plenty of sunfish from deep water, but not common at all with walleyes near.

On these guide trips livebait has been the staple presentation, So bait fishing is perfect and customers enjoy this type of fishing. Leeches and crawlers have been working on rigs in 22 to 28 feet of water.

I have a couple smallmouth bass trips planned this week, and look to play off on the flow rates to hook into these fish. In this 73 degree water they sure pull. I have not had much more time for muskie fishing, but we are one for one (43 inches long, yes these are big fish), and there are more of those toothy critters to come.

pictured #1: Mike Fischer with some eaters from the half day trip last week. We also yanked a bunch of 14 to 15 inch eyes.

#2 Harold Hass with a hog walleye turned flathead. I know the guide was at least disappointed. He loved that fight.

#3 Matt Willig got this one this was the snag that turned into the flathead.

Those darn swimming snags!

Good write up here Turk…

As far as the sunnies, its a loose-loose situation. What I mean is if you stop using the crawlers you won’t have to put up with them, but you are going to miss out on the eyes too. Look at the bright side at least you don’t have sheeps messing with you.

Nice report, Turk. Interesting info on the flatheads.

Thanks for the report !

The croix is narrow and shallow…speaking as one who has only ventured south of the high bridge twice since ’77.

Take care,

TC

TC river fan maybe you could post some stories about the skinny Croix? You fish walleyes, smallies, or cats? The last time I was up North it was at the Hwy 70 launch in May ’07 and I curled up my prop I did pick up a sweet 18″ saugeye though.

We used to have a cabin in the barrens across from Sunrise. I never caught much from shore but would see these big pike hanging out where the small springs entered. They would be right on shore kind of in a daze?

It brings back memories of a float trip in ’85. Left Gordons dam and camped all the way down to Hwy 70. Fed a lot of mosquitoes and horse flies, caught tons of 8″-12″ smallies. Walking into Danbury for more beer! Those damn coons kept us awake several nights at the camping spots. We left a lot of aluminum on the rocks but never tipped over but came close many times! That is sure a beautiful stretch of the river. I bet all of those cabins are gone now? That was a great trip!

Ferny.