St. Croix River walleye

10-13-10 Last Sunday water levels on the St. Croix River fell below 683 feet above sea level in Stillwater, Mn. Thus removing the slow “no wake” designation on the entire river. When the river falls below 683 the no wake rule is lifted. I cancelled four trips last week, because I felt I could not sufficiently provide a complete trip simply put putting all the way from point A to inside turn B. The white tip and sauger bite before the no wake designation was applied to the river was plain silly, literally as many walleye as you wanted (the day of the Beanie River Rat Tournament, my partner and I boated two limits in the first hour and a half of the event). Then the flood peak came.

Good news is the fish are snapping back into shape, or so it appears (based on today’s bite)… Mondays guide trip was very good, followed by a decent trip Tuesday, and then today’s (Wednesday) was shaping up to be the same as Tuesday and then after a presentation adjustment the fish went on a feeding frenzy. Today we boated 11 in an hour and a half. The first few of the day were 14” saugers and it looked like it was going to be a slow day, and as I hate to disappoint meat hunters, I nodded yes when asked if they are keepers (saugers have no size limit, but 14” should be the minimum imo). The rest after that were all solid 16 to 18 inch eyes and saugers.

What changed? Well for the first time in ten days I woke up a bit chilled in the morning. It has occurred to me over the years as I look to gauge the fall bite, that nothing is more important than a cold night that cools the water. Before the flood peak the bite was silly easy, but one day I had an average trip where they brought home four or six eyes (sorry Russ! lol!). That where it was slower was 80 degrees at midnight the night before! No cooling there. That was a strange one folks remember two weeks ago the days high was at midnight, 80 degrees. Well the next day as stated before there was a slower bite. Analyze for yourself I believe you will find the same results.

Baits. Lures, techniques. Tuesdays trip when the trolling bite was slower found jig and minnow by far the best. Trollers beware the fall can mess you up where if you can not livebait you are out to lunch as somedays they will not hit cranks. In the depths I have been jigging 24 to 15 feet of water jigs from ¼ to 3/8 work. For trolling, Rapala Shad Raps are key plus Rapala original floaters and Storm Thundersticks. Fished in the same depths as above.

To wrap up this report I think the bite is on. The water is clear and debris finally starting to lessen (the floating grass has been a chore), plus the weather feels like October is showing up. Look for water temps to drop faster than from late Sept to date. Once this happens plastics are about as much fun as you can have, and yes they catch walleye. For plastics as long as you do not have a cold front and the bite is good , minnows are not needed. Have fun and keep catchin’ Turk

Proverbs 3:5 says a lot.