Upper, Upper, Upper St Croix

The past 2 weekends the flows have been perfect to float a very upper section of the St Croix from County T Landing down to Louise Park Landing.  On the map it doesn't look like very much water but the water is prime, the shuttle is short, and the fish don't have any pressure. 

Russ, Austin and I floated August 20th and we got a number of quality fish.

The picture I wish I had would be of Austin holding a 35 plus inch Muskie.  He was fishing the Skitter Prop when a big fish took it.  Austin did great and battled the fish close enough to the boat for us to get a good look at her before the she turned her head and bit him off.

The 27th Brian and I fished the same stretch of river and because of the previous weekend's results, I had high expectations and it didn't disappoint.

Brian caught a bunch of nice fish with this 20 inch fish as the best.

I also finally put the Bank Robber through a little test and loved it.  Hopefully next weekend and can get some better use and I'll right a little report.  I was using the heaviest tip on the Rio Versitip for a 7 wt and it casted great - and I was throwing an articulated Butt Monkey - Kelly Galloup would be very proud.

St Croix report and devastating hook set

Fished the St Croix last Friday and it was really good considering the water levels leading up to it.  The record high waters had receded considerably but the Kettle and Snake were still sending above average flows down the river.  Last year I was dragging the boat - this year I'm not even touching rocks.  We decided that our best bet was to put in at Nelsons above the Kettle and Snake.  Fish were right on the bank and we definitely caught some quality fish like Bob's 17.5 incher -

Jeff did boat the biggest of the day with this beauty that was 19.5

Overall we landed 16 plus fish with 10 of them 16 inches or bigger.  I was surprised by the clarity but probably should have expected that it clears faster than it drops. 

Saturday we slayed the bluegills off the cabin dock and had to share two great pics.  One is of Gus's great over acting hook set

The second is a cool shot of the bluegill