St. Croix River Walleye

July is always an interesting time of year to fish for ol’ marble on the scenic St. Croix River. The month is interesting because normally the month starts off with a peak in the bite around the 4th, surprisingly this bite can rival the spring’s hot bite. This year was the same. Mike Branch landed this hog walleye on the 7th while the fish were snapping, both eaters plus big ones were coming in. Mike Branch caught and released this fish with the help of a Wally Diver trolled in 19 fow.

I was expecting the fireworks to taper off but legal sized fish (15" minimum to keep on the Croix)kept biting, and then the saugers started to hit well around mid July. Big fish kept showing up for my boat and others. Reports from other anglers indicated the same for big fish. A lot of these fish were being caught were on super sized structure with long breaklines just perfect for trolling cranks or drifting bait. On the 12th of July, Alex pictured here was on a business trip and his gang decided to hit the river instead of the usual golf outing, his enormous smile is from his personal best walleye that he is holding prior to release. This fish hit at 8:30 pm within in minutes of our trip ending, and piggie took first prize for their groups big fish contest. This hog was also caught on a crankbait, a number 9 Shad Rap in firetiger color from 20 fow. During this mid month time crawlers on spinners also did well for us, and also took big fish too. This was a very good time for anglers, and though I thought the bite would slow down, it didn’t. I even talked to a good angler that hammered them on vertical jigs and minnows, and no he wasn’t in Prescott (lol) he launches from the Bayport area. It wasn’t so much the presentation you picked, but being on top fish (but isn’t that always the game?).

The bite started to waver a bit as the month progressed and trips from this time frame went from 6 legals one day to 9-12 from the next. The biggest change was that the walleye both scattered and found on only a few places and being caught from small little runs of only 200 feet wide. Cranks ran through these areas still produced but soon spinners did flat out better. Zac Dockter shown here with a dandy St. Croix walleye on the 20th of July, caught this fish in exactly one of these areas. This time the bait changed though and the minnow imitator style crank did best, during this trip the walleye wouldn’t even sniff a shad style. Zac’s fish came from 20 to 22 fow. A key during this period was to find the bait balls and fishing near the shad.

To date the areas where white tips are locating are still tiny areas and simple to pass up. Hard to say, but I believe many walleye are out in the soft basin chasing shad and off of structure and shoreline breaks. Good news though is eyes are still on structure and hitting, the areas are just fewer and further between. Dan Greensweig caught and released this dandy today, another personal best, on a silver spinner blade with a crawler in 18 fow.

During this whole month saugers have been a staple for anglers wanting to bring fish home, and though not pool 4 sized are respectable and easily hit the 16inch tape mark. Through this whole month the heats as you know was dialed up! It’s nice to know river eyes don’t get lock jaw and stay on the chew.

Good luck and I hope August brings more of the same.

Keep Catchin’

Turk Gierke

Croixsippi Guide Service

www.croixsippi.com