Thanks for the report. I’ve been beating up pool 2 pretty good lately. Think I’ll head down to the croix this weekend and see if I can round up a few.

Anyone know water temps? Fishing starting to pile into bottle necks yet?

I’ll be joining this year with a 3 person team. Myself Nick S, Cody E. and Kyle T. Looking forward to it.

I’ve been out a handful of times since easter Sunday and its been tough for me. Other than the dam, I havn’t found much for numbers or concentrations. Anyone have some decent reports lately for the 494 area?

P.S Thank you to the gentleman who gave me a tow back to the launch Easter morning. I don’t think my bow mount was going to make it much longer upstream.

There has been a decent amount of debris floating down the river the past week or so. I’d pick a stretch of P2 you want to fish and pick the launch closest. The 494 ramp in South Saint Paul is a common starting point with good fishing both north and south of there. This year has been very strange with the weather and its reflecting with the bite right now. Like everyone else, scanning a lot and trying to pick off the active fish seems to be best.

PLENTY of wings dams to choose from but it does seem these fish are relating to current seams/slack water right now if you can find them. Not sure when the run up stream will start but when it does, the lock areas have higher probability. Never hurts to check it out if you want to run up that way.

buschman wrote:

The walleyes were deeper than they were a week ago. Not sure why but had to look for structure along deeper water and found them. It took us about 2 hours on Saturday to get our first walleye. We caught a few on crank baits but meat and plastics were best.

Nice fish! Deep water checks out. My last few outings I mostly concentrated on the shallower end of things. Also I almost never bring meat with me to Pool 2. I can usually get it done with hard baits/plastics. Appreciate the response, buschman!

Went out yesterday afternoon and into dark a bit. Can confirm the 53 degree water tamps but had to grind for a few bites. LOTS of baitfish being chased around on the surface and I’m wondering if that has something to do with the bite still being tough. Has anyone else had any decent success after the water temps fell below 60? I’m just a bit surprised its still as tough as it is right now but I suppose thats river fishing.

Was out yesterday from just about sun up to sun down. Most fish were scattered on sand flats in 7′-12′. Getting them to eat was a chore. Ran cranks up and down those flat areas with nothing to show. switch over to wing dams and those were pretty quiet as well. Managed a few fish on cranks and the rest on jig/moxi. Half dozen fish caught all day with one just over 5lbs. Overall pretty slow and had to work quite a bit. Water temps still 58-59. Another week or so of cold weather should help get them going.

I did pretty good 2 Sundays ago fishing wing dams. Several over 20″ using Flicker Shad 7s and the shallow diving flicker shad 7s right over the top of the dams. Lots of those fish were right on top in 2-3’fow.

Beautiful night last nigh. Water temps anywhere from 62-66 degrees. I found most fish were in 5 – 16 fow. Throwing pretty much anything at a wind blown shoreline and working it back to the boat produced. Flicker Shads, jerk bait, snap jigging plastics, blade bait all put a walleye in the boat. Back down there tonight for league night.

Anything to report back? I’m heading down to St Croix Bluffs tonight and wondering how the newly renovated ramp is? Also it looks like no wake should be lifted given the current gauge reading at Stillwater. Would be nice to get on plane tonight.

The top 3″ of ice was packed down snow/slush from the warmer days that hardened up. Travel in the truck was pretty easy in 2×4 with no deep pockets of snow anywhere. Fished the WI side off the beaten path with ease.

ICE UPDATE: I went out last night for a bit. I measured 13″+ everywhere I checked. Drove out in my pickup without issue.

Fishing was pretty slow. Lot of lookers and non willing to eat except a few decent crappie.

Anyone have an ice uodate? Any pickup trucks driving out yet?

Now that I see the coming cold temps forecasted, I’m sure the ice will be good… not sure I’ll be willing to give it a go

Thanks fellas. $12 launch fee is well worth the price of admission.

How busy has the Prescott launch been with Bluffs being closed down? Wondering if I need to worry about it filling up weekend mornings?

Good deal. If I can just get out on the ice with the truck, I can hoof it to the fishing hole. Thanks for the response!

Looking to get out on the ice in Bayport. I spend all summer on my boat out there but not entirely sure how to get on the ice with the truck. Are people going out of beach house marina or is there a public access I don’t know about? I’ve heard Hubs Point Dr. is another option to get on the ice. Apricate any info. Thanks!

Under $300 for the season is definitely cheap. Everything I’ve been finding is over $500. I’ll check this one out. Thanks dhpricco!

I had an old 55# PD with Co-Piliot and it was ok. Upgraded to a Terrova a few summers back and its 100% night and day difference. I would take spot lock over SI any day of the week. Once you have spot lock, then you can use SI to find the spot on the spot. Everything is easier with anchor mode esp. when fishing in current.

Got out Sat morning. Water temp was 67 everywhere I fished. Managed 3 unders on a crawler harness. Jigging Rap was a no go. Worked it pretty consistently without a bite.

Anyone have a recent water temp reading on the lower end? Going out of St Croix Bluffs this weekend.

Fished last Sat. for most the day out of St. Croix Bluff. No wake down there but it seems non of the fishing boats (or cruisers for that matter) seemed to care. Everyone was on plane. Fished most the day with jigging raps and dragging jig/minnow. Plenty of numbers but all were under. Couldn’t find the size. Everything came in 22′ fow or less. Anyone know where the keepers are…?