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Fishwater what are you using to run cranks that deep if i may ask? Been playing around doing more trolling but can't seem to get much deeper than 15ft. Been running bottom bouncers should i try a diff. method?

Havn't been on the river for a week and a half, was up on the big pond last week and took in the full throttle tournament lots of fun and good guys run it, plus walleyelabman and I always have a great time together, caught alot of over slot fish and even manage a 28 1/4 released of course. Got back on the river for a trip on thursday and put 11 nice eyes in the box, the guys I had out were pleased as can be, got together with sandman and wade and put some decent eyes in the box shane and wade got three I believe and I boxed five, today Walleyelabman and I boxed five really nice ones and had a great time beating up on stripers for some fast action. The eye bite seems to be good, all eyes have come from lindy riggen with leeches and crawlers take your pick they both seem to be working well, fish have been running shallower then this time last year don't be afraid to stay in less then ten feet! Good luck and see you on the water!!

Yep, that's the one. Did not recognize you with the beard.

We we're running leadcore. If I'm trolling with someone else, generally I run at least on crank on a 3way setup, often it gets some sort of fish on it. We were being lazy and only ran two lines the other day.


My wife's laying into me hard about it, I'll probably be looking like a schoolboy again within the week. I didn't recognize you without a hat and a short fishing pole either

Yea, we had three keepers between 17 & 19 inches in the boat. Lots of shorties for sure. Got out yesterday with Dan again and we managed lots of shorties and then fish from 16.5" to 22"!! Was a great day. My morning was slow as I was watching Dan pull in fish, then I nailed my 18.5 incher and shortly after a nice phat 20". Course Dan had to show me up with his 22 incher. Walleyelabman was out as well and had a couple 18's in the box before we took off.

Gotta love the river!!

Plan on going out tomorrow morning. Has anyone been trolling spinners and if so have they been effective? I haven't tried this method before and have wanted to for awhile. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

Sure was fun having you in the boat again Shane, seems we always have a good time even if the fog was thick starting out, the quality walleyes were a nice touch, just think we caught eyes up to the time we left, thats fishing!




Shane with his 20 and I with a 22 good times!

Nice report and fish! Look like P3 eye's. I was out on 3 last night and got a few, moved up to the Croix and got into some decent slabs, kept 5 for a meal for my wife and I this evening. All eye's went back this time. Sure was alot of carryover boat traffic from the weekend, but was another nice night out there.

Yes, I have. Spinners with crawlers harnesses also spinners and fatheads turn fish...
Turk

Have any particular colors of spinner outperformed the others?

What depths are you finding walleye?

Any information/help is greatly appreciated!

I'm kinda partial to gold and orange spinners.

I second gold but red beads please

07-10-09 St. Croix River walleye fishing is productive in deeper depths now and 15 to 25 feet of water is a great place to locate walleyes in. Popular presentations have been Lindy rigging with livebait (crawlers and leeches), trolling spinners on three ways or on lindy weights, trolling crankbaits, also casting jigs with bait from an anchored boat position.
Walleyes are nice sized with 16 to 18 inch fish being caught and many smaller ones as well, the bite is not as good as the spring time but good enough to bring home a half dozen or more (including saugers). Saugers have shown themselves lately and these fine fish pad the catch totals and the fillet count if you choose. Normally if you catch a few legal walleye (15 inch and over is legal for walleye) you can get the as many nice eating sized saugers as walleye. Saugers hit the same walleye presentations. Lure colors for Spinners have been red and gold or chartreuse is especially good with crawlers. Crankbaits remain the Rapala raps, minnow raps, deep tail dancers, and RS raps. Storm Thundersticks are also working.

Smallmouth bass are definitely moving deeper, where jigs from 1/8 to ¼ are in order to take these bronze brawlers. Tubes, grubs, lizards, and worms on jigs are turning fish. The shallow near suicide smallie bite is looking over and they are making you work for them now in deeper water. Rapala DTs will quickly cover ground to catch and locate active smallies. Best depths are now from 6 to 20 feet (btw - we turned a nice smallie a bit deeper fishing for walleye today – shallow is always more enjoyable and easier, but you have to fish them where they are.

White bass, still little surface action. Sheepheads have been moderately active and caught on walleye presentations. Believe it or not – sheeps are decent eating fish, firm white meat, don’t believe me? Sneak on home and try it, make sure nobody sees you because heaven forbid you got expose as a sheephead eater. Client Steve Benke calls sheeps – a real mans fish! -. Prepared blackened Cajun style, sheeps (freshwater drum) are a tasty meal.

The river itself has a slight algae bloom, my water filled livewell for weeks has been as clear as a mountain streams water, but today it had a slight green tint. You will also notice that the fish themselves have taken a bronze hue. Our first walleye today had a bronze coloring where I initially mistook it for a sauger…Also the smallies have taken on this coloring too. The river is still 675.3 with light amounts of floating grass. Forgot the water temp but I would guess surface water was 75 degrees.

Keep Catchin!

I was out ALL day yesterday and caught a grand total of 4 fish. 1 rock bass, 2 small smallies and a small channel cat. I tried different depths from 5'-25'. I tried lindy rigs with leeches and crawlers, spinners, jigs with plastics, and trolling cranks on leadcore and without. I fished from Kinni to Prescott. It definitely got tough when all the wave makers came out and felt a lot like a Sat. I've been having decent luck the past few weeks in other areas I've been fishing, but yesterday was tough! I talked to a few other guys who seemed to have similar experiences. Maybe it was due to the rain Thurs night/Fri early morning? Not sure. It was still better than being at work, but a few more fish would have been nice. Oh well, that's enough whining from me! Anyone else have any luck yesterday?

We had really good action this morning pulling cranks in 27-34'. We got a fat 22" and a 20" and 3 between 17-20", one nice sauger. They were pounding the cranks pretty good. We got mostly walleye with a few sauger, no other fish at all.

We we're running sr7's on leadcore and ssr7's on 4oz 3 way rigs, both did about the same.

Nice report Sean. Those river eyes on cranks are fun as heck to catch.

Shane, have you always had the * in your name?

I went out again this morning with Andy, got a few nice fish pulling cranks on 3way setups in 28-30'. We didn't have any luck on the leadcore baits at all today. It wasn't super fast and we didn't get any pigs, but the quality was there again today. Worked one area over pretty good trolling then ended up rigging a good hour in shallower in about 15' picking up a couple more before heading home.

Nope, not sure where that came from at the end of my name. Maybe I'm marked now!!

Nice report guys. I got out with Dan as my trolling motor is on the fritz. We rigged all day. Man were fish shallow. We caught some nice keeper in less tha ten feet of water!!

What time of day on the shallow fish?
ThanQ,
Turk

We were on the water by 4 AM. But we were catching them shallow up till we left at noon. Pretty much all morning. Caught a couple of keepers in 5 & 6 FOW.

Went out Sunday evening just south of the Kinni. We ended up with a 3 Wallys, all just short of the 15’’ mark. We also caught a handful of Smallies, a couple rough fish, and a small cat that roughed up my buddy pretty good. While he was trying to get the hook of out the cat, it did a crappie flop and it’s barb stuck right into his foot! He said it made him feel kinda goofy and his foot started to swell up. After he washed it out he was fine, but it gave us a pretty good scare for a minute. Anybody ever had the same thing happen? Is there anything he should do to prevent some sort of catfish fever?

yeah that sure was exciting, at least now i should have better luck on the river since i am half man and half channel cat....

Andy (TooMuchFun) and I were out Monday night pulling crank baits on handlines. Caught 3 or 4 Walleyes with the biggest 23" (CPR'd) and 18 Saugers with 3 over 17". Most of the fish were caught in 25-30 FOW along the shoreline North of Prescott. It was a great day on the water.

Just went out last night. The lindy rigs weren't producing much, but a chart deep diving crankbait was killin them

Hello,

I've fished the St. Croix up by Taylor's Falls, but not down by Stillwater/Afton/Prescott. Anyone have any recommendations on boat launches?

Thanks!
David