I was surprised to hear a few people think that the fishery on the St. Croix has declined. I’ve fished the St. Croix 30-40 days a year for the last 10 years and I’d have to rank this years Smallmouth action, and action overall on the river including size to be one of the finest years I’ve had. I contribute that to experience and taking time to find new spots. I think people tend to forget that for the size of water the St. Croix is it does get very little fishing pressure. I think the Crusiers on Sunday outnumber us fisherman 20-1 on a warm day in July! From what I see on this post most of the folks tend to discuss fishing from Stillwater on South. There is lots of river north of there that holds fish! This is a very long and diverse fishery with hundreds of miles of shoreline and mid river structures to fish from Pine City to Prescott. Lakes like White Bear get ten times more the pressure than the St. Croix gets. And Just because there isn’t a point or major structrue in the area you fish doesn’t mean its not holding fish. Some of the biggest flattest pieces of nothing on the St. Croix are fantastic places to fish if you put the time in and figure out what all those fish you’re marking on the sonar are. There is so much water and structure to fish I don’t think you could fish it all in a lifetime.

But I think the “fog” around the St. Croix is it is a challenging River. It took me at least a lot of leg work and trial and error before finding those patterns that work. And the other thing is patterns do dry up to. Some years you can’t miss, other years they just don’t go. So I can see why people tend to be very guarded about giving out to much information as a hot spot can go to a dead spot in a hurry. But I would recommend if your spots are not yielding those bigger fish look for new ones. Some of the biggest fish caught on the St. Croix come from very little or overlooked cover. And considering the vast numbers of small fish, late winters and early springs we should be only looking at better Smallmouth fishing ahead. Even the best fisherys have swings of good and poor fishing and I would have to say we are very fortuante to have such a quality and healthy smallmouth fishery in our backyards!

Thanks for the clarification on that. Thats a good example with the trout stamp and a non designated trout lake. And I’m totally with you… I wouldn’t mind 100% catch and release year round!

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On a couple of different occasions this year I’ve fished with guys that had a tag and (against my wishes) wanted to harvest a “hoover”.

During each trip there was discussion about others catching a fish and giving to a person with a tag. I made it clear that if I personally caught the fish it was going back…..period.

I guess I didn’t realize however that the law was also in my favor. The person with the tag legally needs to catch their own fish…..even if it’s in the same boat.

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I never plan to harvest a Sturgeon but I’m questioning whoever told you that the The person with the tag legally needs to catch their own fish…..even if it’s in the same boat. The Minnesota Regulations books appears to read otherwise.

In Minnesota it is legal to party fish. On Page 10 of the Minnesota Regulations states:

A party is defined as a group of two or more persons anglging from a single watercraft or if not in a watercraft maintaining unaided visual and vocal contact with each other. The total number of fish possessed by the party my not exceed the combined limits of the numbers of the party.

So if I were fishing Sturgeon and my buddy in the same boat had a tag the and I didn’t the total limit of the party is one Sturgeon. Based on the understanding of this rule explained to me by the DNR it then doesn’t matter who catches the fish, as long as the limit is maintained. No where does it say on page 9 of the Sturgeon Tag Criteria the angler who lands the fish needs to have a tag. If thats the law then it should reflect that. It does clearly say you can’t bring it to another boat to give away as that would be a “seperate party” but if you are in a party as defined by the rule books I think you could legally give a Sturgeon to someone with a tag in the same boat.

This party rule is the same rule that allows you lets say on opener when you have 1 fish less than your limit of Walleyes for 2 anglers you can both still fish for the last Walleye or whatever. If this law didn’t exist someone would have to put the rod down. And I’m sure a few have you have put a clinic on and caught your limit and helped someone in the same boat catch theirs out on the water. Thats party fishing, it combines the limits and lets all anglers fish together and share the fish.

So I would like an explanation of how this rule doesn’t apply as again, I’m not for harvesting Sturgeon but this law seems to say otherwise as if you have 1 tag in the boat, I don’t see anywhere in the rules where you can’t party fish to fill that tag.

Thanks!

I had to check the regs to confirm and you are correct that there is no open season for Sturgeon on the Upper St. Croix River North of Taylors Falls and I’d never keep one anyway, especially a fish that size that could have been older than I am. However, when one puts a glob of crawlers or in this case a fathead minnow on the bottom of the river with a weight I’m not sure how anyone could say one was purposely fishing for them. What fish that swims in the river doesn’t like a nightcrawler or minnow? I’m a happy to catch anything that swims type of fisherman and love to make a big fire, set the rod out with a bell on it and see what swims by. I can’t tell the Sturgeon not to bite after all and we catch many Smallmouths, Walleye, Suckers, Dogfish and Catfish from this site. It’s not like in the Spring watching people in April toss spinnerbaits at spawning bass in lakes when there is no other open species that would hit that type of bait in a lake. I’ve seen many Sturgeon caught in the river outside the Sept 2nd to Oct 15th window so I know I’m not alone in catching these things when they decide to bite. Just like catching Walleyes on Red Lake fishing for Crappie before the season was open. How could you not catch Walleyes fishing for Crappies the last few years up there?

But this brings up a good point and I glad you mentioned it. If I do intentionally target Sturgeon I’ll make sure I’m below the dam at Taylors falls. I noticed the Rainy River has a Catch and Release season Oct 1st – April 23rd and 2 separate harvest seasons. I think the entire St. Croix should be open to this catch and release type of fishing. Heck, a fair number of Sturgeon are caught ice fishing by Bayport every year. From the posts I’ve read there sure seems to be a healthy population growing in the St. Croix so lets give the fisherman more chances to catch this amazing fish and put em back!