St Croix Report 7-29-11

Hit the St Croix Friday with Bob and John.  I thought the flows seemed great but looking at the clarity it was murky.  Fish were not on top water as they were earlier, most likely to due to the conditions.  We did manage a few fish including the 18 inch beauty by Bob.

You really had to get the lures right in front of the fish.  We went larger and if you hit the bank there were fish.  The catch of the day though was a turtle.  Bob put the size 9 Shallow Shad Rap right on a grassy bank and a soft shell turtle bit it.  I wouldn't have believed if I didn't see it for myself.  See the pics

St. Croix and Kinni - big weekend

Started out the fishing weekend Friday taking Tom and Dana on a float down my favorite stretch of water from Fox Landing to Hwy 70.  Driving across the river to Wild River Outfitters there were 2 drift boats already in and fishing and a 3rd at Wild River.  It was to be a beautiful day and it didn't disappoint.

Fishing started a little slow and I was surprised the fish weren't in the faster water yet.  Seams and pocket water held fish but mostly slower water by drop-offs and steep shorelines.  Overall I think we got about 15-20 smallies - all on top water and a few pike and walleyes.

The next day Brian and I took our eldest out for the first joint trout fishing on the Kinni.  We went in at River Falls and had low expectations.  There were few people out so we were able to hit some nice water right away and to our surprise caught a few - I think all on prince nymphs.

The more humours part was that Gus and Collin got temporarily separated from us.  Since they were fine it was pretty funny - they stayed close by for the rest of the morning.

4th of July and a huge storm

Brittany the boys and I took an extra long weekend at the cabin in Minong over the 4th.  Blake, Grant and I floated the upper St. Croix at Cty Rd T to Louise Friday - caught a bunch of smallies but nothing of any size.

 Grant Grinna (Double G) was in the bow of the boat and hooked this catfish on a shallow shad rap in a riffle (which I initially thought was a Muskie) and from the picture you can tell he didn't want to touch it.

The big news happened that afternoon however - we had 80 mph straighline winds that destroyed the area.  Fortunately we were not hurt badly but look at some of these pictures (not all mine).

Wall cloud from Solon Springs

 Red pine plantation by Danbury.

 Tuber shuttle smashed at Riverside.  The Riverside landing is destroyed, this was still there Tuesday on our drive back.

Red pines by Totagatic Cty Park on the Minong Flowage.

We canoed the St. Croix Saturday

 I thought Henry was going to be scared for life after the first 2 rapids - he recovered and both did great on their trip.

 The take-out was destroyed though - look at this tent.

And this is what we had to drag the canoes over.

Lastly, I tried out some of the camera functions - look at these firework shots that night - I need my tripod next year.