Above the Dam at taylors falls…

ya know.. I never hear about fishing the croix above the dam at TF…… only a few of us fish the area below…. Ive heard from locals some of the best fishing is above the dam…. I have seen pix of really nice sturgeon and channels from the area above the dam… and Ive heard the smallmouth fishing can be exceptional…. also hear there are some decent walleyes… so today I just wanted to get my feet wet (and I did when I slipped off the trailer at the landing!!)….. what I NOW know is.. the landing at the lions park just north of st croix falls is VERY nice….. you could launch a BIG boat… there.. and I mean a house boat or something! theres plenty of water depth running up river and I went up to Nevers Landing (the site of the old Nevers dam)….. there are a few dead heads, but they seem easy to see…. the main channel for a long ways has plenty of depth.. and the first break off the weedline drops right down to 12-13 feet….. my sources tell me the Wisconsin side is the best side to fish…. but I saw good habitat both sides… weeds, rock, sand, dead falls…. flats, holes….. you name it… plenty of nice habitat…. the boats I saw seemed to be fishing smallies…. one was using flyrods!… another was working big spinnerbaits.. possibly for pike or musky (both are present)…. I know that there are channel cats that commonly run in the high teens and low 20’s….
I chose to troll cranks along the channel edge and breaks… 6-13′ deep… pounding bottom… I found plenty of rocks…. but no fish.. we also tried a little bit of a 3-way with crawlers… tossed jigs for just a bit too… in the end.. I found no pattern that worked for us in the 4 hours we fished…. but I found LOTS of great habitat…. and I think I need to check out the points a bit more.. there is deep water off a number of them….. also up by Nevers landing, the site of the old Nevers dam there is a LARGE and DEEP hole… where I found 33′ of water… and lots of current breaks, drops, flats, there is a launch right there, and that area alone could be checked out pretty easy for a few hours… Ive heard thats one of the prime walleye spots on that body of water… but I think there are plenty of other places that hold fish… I just need some time to work out whats working…… so the only pic I have of the day is of my partners.. in this pic they seem to be studying the situation… perhaps plotting mutiny against a captain who would not give up even though nothing was going on!!!
I would be happy to learn anything about fishing this area if someone wants to post it… or PM me……..
have a good one…..

Yea rivereyes. It looks like they are wondering about you. So, It looks like good water up there. Cant say I have ever tryed it. I do think I heard of some nice crappies coming out of the loins park there. Maybe I will have to put it on my list of places to try for next year.
I am going to try to get back over to fronconia tommorow. Hopefully the weather wont be to bad. I would hate to stay home and do that work thing.

Been there, done that, RiverEyes, but never much success. Most of the time trolling/casting/jigging within a mile of the dam along the dropoffs produced a handful of fish in three or four outings. Mostly small walleyes, SMB (one at 3.25#) and one nice crappie. Have heard good things about that part of the river but can’t find ’em. So where is this Nevers dam–sounds like the deadheads would be good crappie habitat.

Nevers dam is up river a few miles… my honey told me the park on the Minnesota side is about 10 miles up…. by road.. I would guess it was about 7-8 miles by river…. so it was a good run… the launch MUST be on what they call the river road that runs right out of St Croix falls……… considering yesterday was nothing special there were a fair number of boats out fishing… and most of them “looked” like they knew what they were doing…. but who knows? its good to at least hear something about it…. I will keep checking… its CLOSE to me… so its worth checking on anyway….. but there must be a reason that there are no guides fishing that stretch (that I know of)….. and it probably isnt because the fishing is so easy that you dont need a guide!

RiverEyes,

I’ve been up north of the Dam several times and I can suggest one more spot that shouldn’t be overlooked. SOUTH of the Lions Park landing is a small rock island that has some decent structure off the channel side. Watch your electronics for a bottom density transition. The eyes like to be on the harder bottom there. We typically anchor and cast jigs quartered upstream and let them tumble over the bottom transition.

I too am looking for additional info on the upper Croix. I live outside Marine on St. Croix, near Square Lake. Any help on locations south of the dam, north of Stillwater would be helpful…

Bil

Bil, Pick up a set of “Fishing Hot Spots” St Croix river maps.
It’s the cheapest good info on the river besides this board!
I too live in Stillsvile and fish the Croix as much as possible. My general advice is to fish North of Stillwater in the spring, in the summer Bayport/Hudson then fall, Catfish/Kinni/Prescott for the numbers.
Good luck,

Ferny

Thanks Ferny! This is the kind of info I need! I already have the Hot Spots maps, but there is just too much water to cover. I’ll do my focusing on the Catfish Bar and Kinni areas.

Bil