St Croix River

[Eager Beaver]

Does anyone here fish the St Croix River at St Paul, before it joins the Miss. River. I will be coming up that way and would like to get some info for fishing it. I will be up there the last week of June. Appreciate any info you can give me. EB

[CTom]

The Minnesota River and Mississippi Rivers merge in St. Paul. The St. Croix merges with the Might Miss at Hastings, 20 miles or so below St. Paul.

[CTom]

Maybe you are referring to east of St. Paul where the Croix past Stillwater and Prescott. That area too is a bit of a drive.

You don't mention whether you'll have a boat or be shore fishing. If you are doing a boat, beware of the navigation hazards such as bigger boats. There are lots of cigar boats on the Croix in that area as well as huge cruisers and the one outstanding bad thing is that they don't give a rip about anglers.

If you are after crappies, any of the deep water wood found along the shorelines will hold them as long as the current isn't running thru it full throttle. Bridge pilings and dock poles will hold them too. There is miles of rip-rap and crappies will relate to the deeper edges of this stone shoreline where trolling can reap big rewards. Deep pockets in the backwaters will hold crappies now too.

Walleye and sauger are post spawn and on a tear right now. Trolling current breaks and dropoffs running paralell to shore or drifting leeches on a floater and three way rig thru the same types of area will smoke them too.

Northerns will be a hit or miss proposition right now unless you stick close to backwater areas. The rip-rap mentioned a minute ago will hold pike too.

You're too late for sturgeon, but some ugly big flatheads should be available if you want to target them.

Water temps are approaching the 70 degree mark here already and this is a bit strange for us at this time of year....we're usually looking at about 55 degrees yet. July/August weather is already here it seems and how this is going to play on this summer's fishing is yet to be told. Normally the Croix is bringing cooler water down from Wisconsin's interior and offers up some crazy good fishing, but this year is way ahead of schedule.

One salvation is that the fish live in a liquid environment and adapt to changes different from how we do. I'd expect the Croix to be giving up some decent fishing just as it always seems to do.

[Eager Beaver]

CTom: Thank you, that is what I was wanting to know about the Walleye-Sauger fishing. It is where the Criox runs into the Mississippi River. We will be staying at Cottage Grove and isn't to far from there. I don't know yet if I will be taking my boat yet. It depends on if the other guys take their boats this year. They are a lot closer than I am, but will take my boat if I have to. I am going for the Walleye especially, but I won't kick a Crappie out of the boat should we get into a few. Thanks for your help and good fishing to you. EB