06 04 11 St. Croix River walleye bite is still good, and this last weekend had some actual summer weather, all around good vibes on the Croix. I have to admit it is nice to see the big boats on the cruise, sailing, and the young kids out smiling and listening to music.
The current bite is going to be changing some, the water we have right now is high and on a slow drop. I am a believer in fish moving very little when the water is high, and true the river will drop by about half a foot in the next week, and still be 6.5 feet high, but I do feel that the shad development will drive the walleye to start looking more for shad and start finding summer locations. In other words I think a fish holding location transition will be soon. (Current water temp 67 and 682.8 in Stillwater, MN, looking a little darkened from blooms as the water warms ).
I did get nearly busted by the no wake entire river wide zone…No not what you are thinking, nothing to do with the sheriff’s deputies. I took off on a slow cruise to a spot and when we got there the bite was dead, and I had to totally scramble the next half of the day to find fish. My point here is I have done pretty well lately despite this no wake zone, but I am happy it is off!
Best depths for fish are still the same and the same things are working. Trolling Rapalas in 15 to 22 feet of water has been excellent at hooking fish. Bright colors have been best. Lindy rigging in 16 to 22 feet with crawlers and leeches has put fish in the boat fast. Split shot fishing in 8 to 15 feet of water has been good for numbers of all species and keeper walleyes as well.
Below: Jay Leary long time customer, great guy, world traveler with a trolled up eye, and an eye caught using a nightcrawler.
The walleyes are still nice though this last week I am seeing more of the 16 inch keepers than the 18 to 19s though they are in the bag, but not the majority of the bags. We are still getting nice numbers of keepers, mainly in the double digits, and large walleyes 23 to 26 inch fish as well.
More about the presentations for the transition that I think will happen. I will now have spinners rigging up and ready to deploy. I like bright blades on sunny days and dark or golds on cloudy days. I will run both tandem and single spinners. I do like fatheads here on single hook spinners.
Keep Catchin’
Turk Gierke
Good stuff
Nice fish Guys, it looks like a great time!