Bayport area, MN side

I have never done much river ice fishing, but now that I have moved to Hudson and fish the st.croix all summer I figured I would be stupid to not try it out in the winter!

We went out yesterday and headed onto the ice around 12:30 pm, we didn’t bring any minnows because the main goal was just to take a test run of my new setup. Which is very basic and lightweight this year, I am just using a quickfish 3, a gas auger my dad gave me that needed a fuel line and is good as new for only $3.00 a portable buddy heater, an old zercom flasher,and an otter sled. I used my navionics to put us in about 20-22′ of water just about 75 yards past the point when entering the ice from the bayport park area. We setup and dropped some waxies down, found nothing till we were literally bouncing off bottom and got into about a dozen very nice sized sunnies, around 4:00 they totally stopped and we moved towards shore into about 13 fow and found quite a bit more good sized sunnies but that was IT. As soon as the sun was down the bite stopped. So we packed up and headed to the hill that becomes enormous when pulling a sled up that beast!!

So today I decided to give it a shot solo, and headed on the ice around 8:00am and headed to deeper water, set up in 32 FOW and had crappie minnows on now, within about 3 minutes I ran into ok sized crappies just about 1′ off of the bottom. After catching a couple I realized I was getting very cold…. Of course I had forgotten my heater, and dropped my glove in my minnow bucket first thing this morning, so I only fished till about 10:45am but ended up catching a handful of nice crappies.

Tomorrow I wanna get out around 7:30am and want to find some bigger fish, I have sucker minnows, shiners, and crappie minnows. Anyone have any ideas? Also how is the fishing near Afton marina?? And where is a good walk on place in that area? Thanks in advance!

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an old zercom flasher

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Are you a relatic of Suzuki??

That hill is pretty small going down, but becomes a mountain on the way out! LOL!

I don’t know of any place to walk on in the Afton area without knowing a property owner. There is a landing one the WI side but that’s one heck of a walk!

Be careful out there!

use the ice road in bayport, its the best place i know of to get on. How thick was the ice? Any cars out yet? I only fish for crappies out there and usually have the best luck near the power plant in 30+ fow. If you find any action on the suckers id love to hear about it

Ice was about a foot, alot of noise from snowmobiles and even when guys would drill 100-200 yrds away the ice was doing some talking! No cars in the area just out in front of the bayport park/marina.

I seen a few dum dums out there today who looked like they were just joyriding around… on some thick hard ice

Seen a truck parked at shanty town yesterday, I drove out and turned around on the ice, plenty of people just parking on the ice as well

just came from there,4
(10 1/2)crappies.out from anderson point 35’fow ice is clear and very solid 12″in.buddy drove mini van out there bout 10am.nice day.

I put money on it a vehicle will end up going through before monday from all the cars that keep heading out on ice, getting pretty bold out there.

Yeah I parked on the very edge of the ice but you weren’t catching me out there in the truck!! Today 3 trucks came down onto the ice and whipped shittys for over an hour, it was so damn annoying, and when I went back to my truck there was tire marks 5′ from my rear bumper, and my plastic bins that are in my pickup were unstrapped and opened, luckily all I keep in them is salt.

But on a fishing note I fished on the WI side near North Hudson and started in 25 FOW and worked out to 36 FOW and had a couple little white bass and that was it. Pretty slow today, for me anyways

heard a truck went through on northside white bear out of hwy 96 ramsey county each access,heard it was a blazer of some kind.

I can’t believe how so many people each year put a vehicle through on early ice, I understand that crazy stuff happens on big waters in the middle of winter on “good” ice and it truly is an “accident” but I know I don’t get on the ice with a vehicle until the roads are plowed and there are 25′ wheel houses out!

Yesterday I also noticed a tandem axle fifth wheel trailer, that was probably 27-30′ long being pulled with a dually and it had race sleds in it parked on one of the bays out of Bayport… Craziness!!!