St. Croix

Walleye are showing up on steep and deep lower St. croix points, points that have a stair step vs. a straighter drop are holding most fish. Eyes are also relating to current ( as always ) but not hitting hard, work live bait slow and slower right through choice fast and slow water interfaces, team up the interface with rock or other current breaks for further pole bending. Keep Catchin’ T

thanks for the advice Turk!! very valuable tips…. the croix bite can be a real mystery in July and August…. I know that for a fact… so tips on solving it are GEMS!!…..

Hey Turk, what has been the better eye bite? Morning or evening?

Any smallies going there?

As of last weekend, the smallies were hanging around shore lines with vegetation/cover but spotty on depth. Before the big cruisers got rolling and pounding the banks with huge wakes, 15″ and smaller was my success but they were close to shore and bit on a small bucktail. When the wakes started pounding, they moved out to the 8-12′ range. No more bucktail bite, but the leeches enticed a bite and the fish went to 15″ and bigger, with the biggest for me going just over 19. In summers past, I have found the smallies to still hang with shoreline structure through July, but the better quality fish always came from deeper water. Exception being very early morning. That’s my experience anyway.

Ever use plastics for “bronzies” on the Croix?

I’ve only had success with plastics if they’re tipped with live bait.

alkfish,

The smallies are definetately going strong! After running into a couple last Sunday by accendent, we went out looking for them yesterday. They are jumping on the RingWorms big time. Look for shade near shore. Like a dock, fallen tree, or steep shoreline early. (The bite seems to fizz by 11:00am) We caught 15 or so in less than 2 hours.

J.

Launched at Prescott at 6:00 a.m. Pulled thundersticks, shad raps, and fat raps in the Croix. Put 6 small fish, (12-16″) in the boat in the first 40 minutes. After that we went down to the wings south of town. Popped a 25″ within a few minutes, (vertical in about 8′). Caught a few more small fish at that dam, then went to the back waters. Flipped jigs, traps, and pulled spinners. Only caught a few. All before the big boats hangovers had worn off! Didn’t make it to La Crosse today, but had a great day anyway. Keep it vertical!