Trolling today

Got out for a few hours this morning in my little boat, electric only. Was trolling upstream from the area around catfish bar. Marked plenty of fish everywhere from on bottom in 10-25 fow to suspended in 35-40 fow. I pulled flicker shads, flicker Minnows, reef runners, deep tail dancers, jointed shad raps, and deep husky jerks, all over the freaking water column, in a variety of colors. I ran at 1.1, 1.7, 2.2, and 2.8, and 3.4. I let them sit in the holders, spent time pumping rods, changed speeds and did
S-curves. Pretty much everything i had I threw at em today. Had one measly bite that broke off my mono leader. ( back to tying direct to braid)

It was great to be on the river with no wake, the lake area was manageable with my 12 volt trolling motor. I could’ve trolled another hour or two before the battery died. But I’m having a really slow season as I adjust to the new small setup. Usually I can at least grab some white bass on the croix. Not today!

Surface temp was 77.

Some days ya get ‘em.
Some days they get you.

A beautiful day on the water, i would say you won today.

Get some slow death rigs and drag crawlers…that’s been my best bet during summer months on the Croix.

Would’ve been a great day out there. Couldn’t have asked for better weather. Doesn’t matter if you don’t get any to the boat on a day like today.

I definitely won! It was perfect out there. The one hit I had was a nice fish too, stupid leader.

Don’t give up on the suspended bite. Caught and released this one 15 feet down over 35 fow…Husky Jerk. Hot and flat (no wind or wake!!!). I am reminded that these fish are not much different than the Lake Oahe suspended bite…..miles and miles of trolling for one or two good fish. Sometimes you get a flurry but in my experience it is a true test of patience. I used about every lure you mentioned and about every speed. July and August are my favorite months to do this so will put that to the test this year. Just got back from Lake Oahe and the big fish are starting to get predictable there…maybe I can continue it here!

That said…and ss you have already pointed out…what better way to spend the day than sitting in a boat on the St Croix at 1.5 to 2 mph?!!!

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I’ll never get the pics to post right! @$#@$%^$%^

Nice fish — I’ll never give up!

Took me 3 months but i made it back to the st croix today and it was worth it. Picture perfect. Spent about 5 hours out there pulling cranks in 15-40 fow, all south of Hudson. The suspended fish I caught were all short saugers, 14” or so sitting at 20-25 in 40 feet. The keepers came off the bottom in 18-22 or so.

Got fish on gold reef runner, firetiger flicker minnow and jointed shad raps. Pulled tail dancers, plain and scatter rap, to no avail. For all the money I’ve spent on td’s, they haven’t produced for me yet.

The cooler is a Rubbermaid btw. I store it in the garage with the lid cracked.

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Those look delicious

They were! My first meal of fresh caught fish this year to be honest. Gotta get off p2 more often. The croix was ideal today, not much traffic at all.

I haven’t been on the St. Croix at all this year….when the leaves start to change there isn’t a better place to be.

Nice fish, crappy cooler.

Serious question….are you long lining those? I picked up a couple of lead setups and I hate them. No fun at all to fish with them.

Matt Moen wrote:

Serious question….are you long lining those? I picked up a couple of lead setups and I hate them. No fun at all to fish with them.

What is it that you don’t like about pulling lead?

I was long-lining on one side and pulling lead on the other. Same rods, reels, leaders, snaps, and baits swapped back and forth. 4 outta 5 fish came on the lead. The flicker minnow was the only bait that caught fish on both sides of the boat.

I would prefer long-lining if it produced the same results for me. It’s less complicated and MUCH better feel. At times yesterday the lead felt like pulling a brick up on a slinky and it’s only 1 year old. Suffix 832, not the newfangled Advanced stuff. Don’t get me started on the difficulty of tying the sheath to the mono backing.

Francis K wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Matt Moen wrote:</div>
Serious question….are you long lining those? I picked up a couple of lead setups and I hate them. No fun at all to fish with them.

What is it that you don’t like about pulling lead?

There’s no fight to it. Especially with eater size fish it’s like dragging a stick off the bottom.
It’s just a personal preference thing I guess.

Matt Moen wrote:

There’s no fight to it. Especially with eater size fish it’s like dragging a stick off the bottom.

It’s just a personal preference thing I guess.

x2, but it is effective and when you get a 20″+ they feel huge with the extra weight!

Both sound like accurate statements to me.

The “fun” parts of pulling lead are figuring out how do get a jointed rapala down to 25 feet, the sound of the clicker going off, the second-guessing of whether you even have a fish on, and the over-excitement after applying a little pressure on a 20-inch fish that feels like a monster with 6 colors of lead separating you.

I don’t long line…. Ever.

Guess I miss out on all the fun running leadcore!

its always fun to catch a fish but I have to agree with Matt, while I use lead core it only comes out when I deem it necessary. I even went so far as to use down riggers on Mille Lacs this July. Once I had the release dialed in it was a lot more fun than lead.

Nice to have a non-controversial thread on this site every once in awhile.