I don’t normally spend a lot of time in the boat during October or November due to hunting season, but this fall has been great fishing on the Croix! The fish are stacked in the typical deep current areas and they are hungry! I would guess that your average 20” walleye right now weighs about 1 pound more than that same 20 incher in the spring. There is also a great class of saugers to be caught out there with some fatties going over 20 inches! I have also heard many reports of 30-40 fish days lately and they seem to be coming from all over the river.
I had a friend of mine(Brad Ertel) offer to teach me how to hand line for walleyes and it is a really great way to fish current. The St. Croix is probably a little light on current compared to your typical hand lining water like the Mississippi or the Detroit river, but after a few times out I can really see the advantages. As with any crank bait bite the key is to get your bait down there and keep it in the zone until you get a strike. Hand lining is the best way to control your bait when you are fishing an irregular bottom and/or fast current. With this type of precision you can literally hold your bait within a 3 inch zone on the bottom and keep it there.
What is also nice about hand lining is that you can have two baits running off of the same set up(one long set up and one short on separate leads) so you can mix up the style and color to find what is working best that day. Our best baits were a size 7-9 Rapalas or Xraps in the clown or firetiger colors. We typically ran about 18-20FOW, but did manage fish in as shallow as 12ft. Being in the current, our speed would vary quite a bit….sometimes we would hit 2+ mph and other times we would just hold in place. It seemed that once you found the active fish it didn’t really matter-they were going to hit!
If you don’t have hand lining equipment then you can experiment with a 3-way rig using a small crank bait and will get similar results. I’m hoping to get out a few more times before freeze-up to dial in on the bigger fish.
Good luck and see you on the water!
Mark
Great report Mark! I need to make another trip out there before freeze up!
Eric
Mark,
Nice fish!
I might have to give the walleye/sauger bite a try this weekend, word is 50’s and not a ton of wind!
Nice fish!
Hopefully we can dial in those big girls this weekend!!
Another awesome report Mark! That really is an interesting technique. Lookin forward to a lesson in late fall eyes with you and Brad! Nicely done!
I keep looking at the hand lining set up Dean at Everts sells.
I’m just not sure how well the cats will go for them.
Thanks for another informative Croix report Mark!
BK…If they did you would probably need a seatbelt and a firstaid kit
Hand lining appears to be a harvesting method. Great for collecting fish but not much sport. Kinda like a tip-up.
I intent to try the three-way “make-do” tactic in the next two weeks when I can get time out on the Croix.
Are you finding these higher current areas adjacent to some type of structure…points, deeper drop-offs, etc or are you simply dragging right down the middle of the channel?
Mike, i would say it is the exact opposite of that…the only similarity is pulling the fish in. You really should try it sometime-it is a blast! Do you troll?
Great Report
Mark,
FYI. We got 2 limits in 3 hours today! Should have been out. All on 3-ways, 15′ to 20′. Really had to rip those 3-ways to trigger a bite. I can deffinantly see how hand-lining would come in handy!!
Good report Mark,
I was able to get in on that great bite the last two days. Three ways and cranks were the hot ticket, but like Has said, you really had to be pumping the rod to get hit on the three ways. I saw many other tactics working as well, jigs and minnows, blade baits, and three ways with live bait were all producing catches.
Walzer,
Were you out yesterday? Same story again yesterday, 3-ways and cranks. Done before 10am with a nice 2 man limit of mainly all walleyes and a couple saugers.
Sad note: After a great couple days of fishing, it was time to put the boat away last night, for the year.
Time to drop the 
on some Big Bucks!
No I didn’t make it out yesterday, I had to work.
Friday and Saturday were awesome days though with similar success that you had. We used three ways and cranks exclusively. Hopefully the bite stays hot, I’m planning on hitting it again on Thursday.