Finally found some St Croix Channels

The St Croix is alive with bait right now. We have had some kind of minnow hatch and they are everywhere. You can watch up and down the river and the white bass and smallmouth are flying out of the water chasing minnows. Fortunately the channel cats are doing the same thing and this minnow hatch has really turned on the channel cat bite. I picked up 5 nice channels last night with two KOTC channel upgrades along the way ( a 35″X19″ and a 32″X18″). I finally broke a long string of skunks and it felt good to have a fish on the end of my line. The river is stable at normal summertime pool elevation of 675′ and water temp was 74 degrees last night. I better get on this prespawn bite before they get an urge to spawn and the bite turns off again.

Nice Kitties!

Great lookin’ barbed finned critters you have there Steve

Gotta love those chunky Croix Kitties! Nice job Steve!

Those are big fighting fish. Toughest fighters in the river.

Cats still going?

What’s with that sign in the background Steve?

I’ll be your camera man some night as long as you dont stay out past 11:00…..

And by camera man I mean I will take the occasional picture as long as it doesnt interupt my fishing very much.

And by 11:00 I mean home in bed.

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What’s with that sign in the background Steve?

I’ll be your camera man some night as long as you dont stay out past 11:00…..

And by camera man I mean I will take the occasional picture as long as it doesnt interupt my fishing very much.

And by 11:00 I mean home in bed.

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The sign is the control item needed for a King of the Cat contest entry. To enter a fish you submit a digital photo that has to have that sign in the background somewhere. I’m doing pretty good on the channel cat board but not to well on the flathead board. It is a great contest – it runs until 1 October and then the top 5 guys on each board are the King of the Cats. The Minnesota river guys are kicking my butt on the flathead board, they are posting some big flats. It is still early yet – I’ll find the big ones once the shad hatch happens and the bait starts to show up. Here is a link to the King of the Cats fishing contest – check it out: King of the Cats Fishing Contest

In bed by 11:00, what a Woosy. The flathead don’t start biting until the 9th inning of the Twins game and if it is a west coast game that is usually 11:30 or so. You can’t go home until the game is over – those extra inning games cut into the beauty sleep.

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Cats still going?

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Turk – The bite is on again/off again with this weather. I am starting to see a lot of bait which is a good sign the cat fishing will pick up. The river is predicted to go back up to 678′ so it will be interesting to see what that does to the fishing. I may be back into some of my shallow backwater spots with higher water.