St. Croix Open Basin Trolling

Every Wednesday evening the brightest minds Hastings has to offer gather in what is know as the "Bat Cave" to solve the world’s problems, fix trucks, brake jobs, anchor & jig manufacturing, deer sausage making and smoking…a whole number of manly things. Well this last Wednesday, the owner of the Bat Cave got called out onto the road for work. So our master plan was to hit the Croix in my newly aquired "Dance floor on a hull" Warrior boat. Trolling with 5 guys was our mission. Lead core, long lines and planer boards were to be the methods to our madness. Deep crank baits like we would use on Pepin and Mille Lacs would be at the business end of the lines. So off to the Croix we went! Joining me for the evening was Bobby "BurBob Miller, Dan "Sauger" Miller, Josh "Red" Weiss and Kurt "Wilson" Angerman rounded out the clown crew for the evening.

We started trolling shortly after our arrival from Hastings and immediately found the suspended fish that we were targeting. The Croix is quite different than Mille Lacs or Pepin in two distinct ways. It has a thermocline. And it is dark tannic stained. Even though the Croix is a moving body of water, it has a definite thermocline. It can usually be observed coming off of a distinct break on a shoreline or reef. Baitfish and bugs suspend on these thermo-breaks. They can go on for miles. The fish can really spread out on these, so covering water is the key! You need baits that can be pulled fast from 2-3 MPH. This can leave out some of the smaller baits like straight #5 Shad Raps or Frenzy’s. But is right in the sweet zone for bigger baits like the Deep Storm Thunderstick or this Minnow Rap shown here. Zig and zag these baits in an erratic fashion both up and down river. The water from Prescott to Hudson is prime hunting ground for this type of fishing. A full cooler and a few hours will put fish in your boat and a smile on your face!

Dropping these baits back on lead or long lines takes a little work to dial in as every bait runs different. Nothing replaces time on the water to do this. Once bitten, you can write on the bill with a Sharpie the distance back for future reference. Note the depth so that you can also use those numbers for other waters. We actually caught our two biggest fish on a chrome minnow bait being pulled over 40 feet of water with the fish being marked about 24 feet down. Wilson shown here with a robust 23" fish caught one just prior which he claimed was "The biggest fish of my life!" when it was really a 12" sauger impaled sideways! Hahaha! That was a good one he won’t soon live down. But he was soon rewarded with the fish shown here. Both of the larger fish came on long lines. One on a board and one just pulled back a ways behind the boat.

The Croix’s main forage base is shad, shiners, sheepshead, carp, buffalo…and the list goes on and on. Needless to say there are a lot of options when choosing baits. When it is sunny and bright, anything in any shade of chrome will produce. When pulling along the rocks, any crayfish color pattern works. As I mentioned, speed in the Summer really isn’t a concern. I usually judge my speed by the vibration of the rods. If I get a good solid vibe going back a few eyes…and the tip of the rod says still…the speed is good. This is just the beginning of this suspended bite. Throughout August this technique works well! We like to see surface temps over 70 degrees to keep the baitfish up in the top part of the water column.

Hope to see you all out there some evening!