St. Croix River July 12 Fishing Report

We have been having a great season on the St. Croix for walleye. Now that summer is here the walleye fishing becomes tougher. Though the strength of the river, comes into play for anglers fishing the St. Croix will find sauger, white bass, catfish, two kinds of bass, muskie and northern pike to make up for less walleye action. Largemouth bass and northern pike are harder to find, but in they are in the system (more later…)

My best guide trips to date for walleye have been with livebait (crawlers mostly) presented either on rigs and/or spinners. For spinners, gold blades and red beads, as traditional as it sounds the pattern is a walleye catcher (there is a good reason company’s have sold that pattern since the 50’s). Walleye are deeper now but still found in moderate depths from 17 to 25 feet of water. Trolling crankbaits is also effective when the fish are scattered. Last Wednesday I took out Joe and Leo Mose for a fishing trip, the weather was perfect, and this father and son team caught lots of fish, and had seven nice walleye and sauger to bring home. They had a good time; I like to think fishing provides folks with memories to last the ages.

The indicator for me that summer has arrived is the sauger bite. When they show up they are normally in good numbers Many river rats I talk to prefer the sauger for eating, I enjoy walleye eating best, but most people can never tell the difference when the fish is prepared and on the dinner plate. About four days ago the saugers showed up, I found them about 5 feet less in depth than the walleye, but not in a set depth, but deeper depending on the structure I was fishing. Sauger are caught exactly with the same presentations as walleye. They also hit harder than walleye making bite detection easier, though many of these fish were lip hooked and barely on. Here Leo holds up his sumo 20” sauger.

As mentioned before the St. Croix does have two kinds of bass, if you now anything about the St. Croix you know it has tons of smallmouths, but it also holds largemouth. Largemouth and smallmouth are great fish for kids to target, especially with a topwater presentation. Bass search out and just lose it on these lures. Too many people, the blow up of water, fish, and lure, as a bass hits is fishings most enjoyable time, there is nothing like watching a fish come and smash a lure!
Good topwaters choices on the Croix are Zara Spooks, Rapala Skitter pops, Jerkbaits (actually hardbaits and plastics like Flukes too). Another easy presentation for kids are spinners baits though they are under the surface, spinner baits work well. A key tip with topwater fishing is to delay the hook set and let the fish mouth the bait before you crack the whip, it takes practice, but this delay is very necessary. Yes, Largemouth are hard to find on the St. Croix and really the river is a bronze back fishery, but the greenies are here. Target slack water with vegetation, downed wood is a plus. Here, Max is a bit proud of this bucketmouth caught on July 12 on the Croix; this youngster is 11 and had no trouble working topwaters.

Of all the fish the river holds, I would say that northern pike is the most over looked fish. In fact when time has allowed, and they have been targeted, my boat has raised some thick Croix pike. The really nice factor about pike fishing is that northerns are caught while targeting largemouth, and hearing about a great largemouth catch recently, I thought it would be great to mix in a bucketmouth/pike fish for a few hours. The key is to get away from the smallmouth spots. If the spot looks like a classic bucket mouth spot with slack water, there is a good chance some nice pike are also holding near. Very similar to how to catch sauger, just try to walleye fish; for northerns throw the same lures as looking for largemouth (not plastics, but flashy bass lures). We had some good success catching largemouth, smallmouth, plus pike. Max will be talking about this big northern pike for a long time. Summertime fishing on the river is great with mixed bag in mind. Keep Catchin’
Turk Gierke