Mike,
On the Saint Croix, shad, cut sucker, shrimp, and cut sheephead have all produced well for me (along with crawlers), but I have not tried these baits up on the Rainy. Part of this is my reluctance to try something new. I know crawlers work, and since you only get to fish with one rod up there, I don’t want to risk a 60″ fish passing up a bait when I know they like crawlers.
I haven’t broken my crawlers up like you mentioned. I might have to try that.
One thing we noticed last year, but I think it might be a coincidence. We had two flats of crawlers. One that was packed in the dirt they came in and one that I have washed and packed in commercial worm bedding. It seemed, for one day at least, that the sturgeon had a distinct preference for the crawlers from the bedding. I don’t know if there’s anything to it, but I like the bedding anyways because it’s a lot less messy.
) and we live kinda in the woods. She will always tell me, there was 3 does eating acorns again, in the yard, or I seen a couple deer across the creek…. but today at noon, out of the blue she says, “Whats going on with the deer ?” She said she seen Bucks (don’t see many of these) and Does, running around like they didn’t know what was going on, in the yard, in the woods, over the creek, back to the woods… that could only mean 1 thing to me… 
) on cams this year so I am guessing the bucks all left for the red light district 
