My first of many trips to the Croix this summer was cut short due to a fowled out rod that tangled 2 and caused a lead line mess to be reckoned with. I also took the womans daughter and her boyfriend out for the day getting to spot #1 by 8:30 am. By 2:30 PM we were sun burnt and off the water for the day.
My game plan for the day was to pull lead core although I did pick up some leeches and crawlers for back up which by no means were needed or used for that matter as crankbaits were working just fine for me and it kept the kids busy. I started off on the humps south of 94 with no success at all, I was marking plenty of fish there though but they just didnt want anything to do with a crank bait so it was off to spot #2 which was another shut out so off to spot #3 which was a steepbreak that leveled out at about 32-34 FOW, my main focus was to hold the 24 FOW depth though I occasionally wandered in and out from 18FOW-34FOW.
While getting about 3/4 of the way through my #3 spot the Croix let loose and it was game on and the daughter had the first fight of the day with a 15″ sauger making his way to the boat. While I was getting him off the hook I look over anbd see another rod load up another fish on this time it was the boyfriend bringing in a 16″ walleye. Get those fish off and get the lines back out and about 2 seconds after I set the rod in the holder fish on again at this time I am thinking this is going to be a good day another walleye just pushing 15″ comes to the boat. As I was setting that line back out BAM another rod loads up and this time it is a true pole bender and causing me to scramble to get the other rods in as the daughters boyfriend fights this fish for a good 5-10 but when the fish fianlly showed himslef I was disaappointed as I thought we were going to have a photo worthy walleye but it turned out to be a stinking smallmouth that taped just under 20″, photo’d and released.
After working spot #3 for another hour or so we had little to show for our efforts as things slowed and we only pulled another 3 14-16″ walleye and 2 13-15″ saugers so I headed back to spot #2 and pulled again with some immediate hook ups but thats when things turned south. The first fish in the boat in spot #2 was a 12″ walleye but that was quickly followed up by the nicest walleye of the day that made his way boat side (I am guessing it was easily pushing 22″) gave us the fin and was off as fast as he was hooked 
After the big one got away we picked up a few more small fish but nothing photo worthy. Then after banging the bottom I picked up some debris and the lure must have been fowled for a while before I noticed because when it was reeled in it was tangled in the biggest ugliest tangle I have ever seen in my fishing days so I called it a day. 
Best depth for the day was 24 FOW, thats what the majority of my fish came out of including the big smallie. I was running #5 jointed shad raps on the rear rods firetiger and natural perch were by far the best colors of the day but blue and fire perch also put fish in the boat. On the front rods I was running #7 Flicker shads that didnt come near to putting the #’s in the boat the JSR’s did but Blue Tiger and Black Gold were the colors that worked. River stage was at about 676-677 and is currently at 679.64 at Stillwater MN. Water temp is 62 degrees.
Good Luck and we’ll see you on the river 
