Croix Gilling

Sounds like a cool name! Actually its what I plan on doing tomorrow night. Every year late summer I hit the Croix for Gills one night after work. At least the last 3 years when it became a viable option. I usually only make it out once and so far have always brought a nice meal home for my wife and I. The Croix Gills push the 8″ mark and are good eating in the summer but difficult to locate. I have a few go-to spots but I always intend on finding more. Problem is once I’m on them I just stick with them and giterdone.
Has anybody pursued Gills out there yet this year? Do any good?

Mike

This may be the first post I’ve ever seen devoted to St Croix River gills. You’re either a trendsetter or I’ve not been paying attention. I’ll be watching this post with curiosity.

Haha. My gill spots are secret bait spots.

Found some last year about this time. Dont seem to remember them being all that big but they where aggressive. They kept hitting the tails of larger plastics. Ended up finding a small ice fishing spoon with a treble that worked great for them. Had enough weight to cast and get down in the current. The small treble did get caught up in the wood but the small size of the treble let me rip it out of the soft wood pretty easy. Found the crappies liked this spoon to.

The big ones are near _______. Hopefully.

On the lower Wisconsin River gills hold on or near rocky features that have deep water nearby and moderate/slow current. Down here the river is pretty sandy so that’s a relatively rare feature and the gills will stack up on them. The rocks need to be large–softball to bowling ball size. I get them with a slip bobber and live bait. I’ll start by throwing within a foot of shore and let the current bounce my bait along those rocks. I’ll slowly work my way out to the deeper water until I find what depth they’re at. I find our gills tend to run smaller than ones you can get on the Madison chain, but they are usually thicker and taste just as good.

Report:
Forgot my phone.
Partner late. Left dock without him.
Could not find the Gills.

Pretty sure there are others of us there that would be on time if you ask.

Yea but the Gills are Goooonnnnnneeeeee!!!!!!!
If anybody sees them out there please let me know.

I’d get the boat back into marinas and cast in the shadows of moored boats. Pay attention to the larger pilings pounded down in the mud too…right up tight to them. Vertical. Tight line. Small jig and plastic. Gulp is a great option.

I had a first hand account of gills on the river near the Kinnie. They eye bite was tough. We trolled by a boat three times that was anchored and thought a guy with his back turned to us was targeting white bass. We constandly saw him setting the hook and bringing fish in..by the third time we passed, I finally saw they were gills. Trolling, we thought we might have found another pocket school of gills, changed up and we indeed did pound them. No giants, but good 7.75″-8.25″ were the biggest. It made the day end up nice. It was a different approach to catching them…we used a drop-shot-style rig since we were in current and 20fow! IF a guy could find them on a more regular basis…one could bring hoe some nice table fare..

Yea. The gills are great tasting out of the Croix.

I always have them steal my crawlers and leeches when targeting eyes. Have gotten some dandy ones with broad shoulders.

Might want to switch targeted species Chuyi.