Eater Catfish

No desire to catch a cat as long as my leg-just like to get a few for the pan that are a couple of pounds-clean water with a walter thrown in would be good too. Don’t need an exact spot-wait, yes I do! We caught a couple in a lake by Pine city and now my friend has the bug. Think somewhere on the croix might be our best bet—-Thanks

Horseshoe chain west of the cities. Lots of nice eating size cats in there. Check out the horseshoe chain forum.

Any shore along the Mississippi with some stink bait!

Thanks Jeff is next weekend too early?-I would want to fish for crappies how is the lake for those? All day bite for cats out there?

Tim I’ve only fished it in the summer. Have never gone after crappies, but my guess is that the crappies will be in transition areas from there winter haunts on there way to the warmest shallow water they can find. Cats bite all year. Where to target them now is a different question. I would post something on the horseshoe forum. You will get more local advice hopefully.
Jeff

Ice out spring channel fishing can be very good on the Mississippi. I haven’t been out this year as in the past but here’s some indicators that might help you.

Shad. They die with changes in water temps and get frozen in ice. Any place there might be a concentration of dead shad should be a smorgasbord for channels.

A little more specific, tribs that have frozen over will contain shad in the ice. As it melts it frees up the shad and they drift down stream until they come to a (deeper) hole where they come to rest. That location is your 1A location.

Since there isn’t any good/easy/legal way to get shad for bait right now, I would use smaller then normal slices of sucker or even fathead on my circle hook. I’ve used Sudden Impact fiber bait with good luck as well. Just bend the barbs down on a treble hook and push it into the fiber bait. The fibers will cling to the trebles and will stay one and give off a good scent for a long while.

Hope that helps, Good Luck!

Go back up to Cross or try it where the Snake dumps in to the Croix east of PC.

Where the Snake dumps into the Croix-like that idea could fish for Walter at the same time. Should we shore fish or go out of a boat?

Shore fish in that park or cammpground or whatever it is on the Snake just before it joins the Croix. Or any likely-looking spot on the St. Croix in that area from the boat at night.