Croix muskies

Is there any Croix muskie hunters out there? Just wondering how well you have/haven’t done and what is the most consistant lure/bait for you. Caught my first one over the weekend and the fever is on!

I have never fished specifically for Muskies. Actually quite scared to! I ‘m afraid that I will become addicted to it!! I am currently obsessed with Smallmouth/trout and walleye! Can there be more? Did you run into the Muskie fishing for something else, or were you focusing specifically on catching a muskie? I have fished the Croix a few times with my friend Turk, but we usually were fishing for walldogs, sandsharks and bronzebacks!! I caught my first Muskie on the Vermilion river( the one up NOrt) retrieving a perch I just set into on a jig and a minnow. No net, 6lb test and a 30 inch muskie! What a fight that was!!!

Cool! Same size fish! I was draggin 2 live lines and casting a #5 Mepps dressed natural bucktail shore side. Strictly to see what might be biting. I’ve scored so many different species on inliine spinners that I use them often for “what’s out here and aggressive today”. I’ve known that they’re around but never chased them. I think I’m going to change that! I caught a 32″ pike 500 ft. downstream from that muskie on the same set up as well. Certainly a rush when working a lighter action rod! I last read that only 7% of the Croix fishery is pike and the muskies fall in that “other” catagory for population so it’s strictly catch and release for me here. Just want to experience the thrill of seeing another one of nature’s more elusive finned critters! Size is just bonus! When I get it together I’ll have to swap Root for Croix adventures with you! Keep the journals!

It is a rare occasion that I keep fish, almost to a point of fault. However, if I’m on a decent walleye bite and I haven’t had a meal of “white-tip” in a while, I’m cooking up some walldog bayyybe!!! The thrill of the “hunt” for whatever is biting is a blast, especially on river systems!!! I’ll have to take you up on that exchange-o-rino! I think that would be a great program. I’m not sure if I mentioned that on this site or another one, but the species/fishing exchange would be a blast. Trade a day of Croix fishin’ for a day Root fishin’ or trade a day of catfishin’ for a day or trout fishin’ etc etcetc.!!!! Keep in touch and keep those rods a bendin’!!!! Jim W

I catch at least one every year by accedent….usually trolling cranks along the shore line.

However, I did get one out in the “Lake St Croix” area. I was feeding out line and about to pinch on a snap weight and WHAM! 20 feet behing the boat I have a dancing musky. Pretty fun. What was surprising is that fish came over 50 feet of water.

J.

I dont often see anyone slinging musky size baits out there on the croix…….. but I hear there are some really nice musky out there…. but these days… musky seem to be just about everywhere…. so Musky anglers concentrate on bodies of water with bigger numbers of fish…. still… Ive fished those “beaten to a froth” waters… and sometimes you do better on water that is less heavily hit….. would not suprise me if a day of slinging bucktails would yeild something on the croix……..

They are known to be roamers and scouters…………………..ever searching for signs of a new promise for food. I think the true BIG muskie potential would lie in the big water areas like Lake St. Croix but the better environment for muskie action is from Stillwater north. Lots of places to hide. With the water coming down, I’ll bet there finding new places to “park” to! I don’t know if I’d try any muskie cranks out there but I think the bucktails could prove productive. Maybe some cranks in the fall. Either way, I got the fever! BIG TIME!

Still a kid, (Big time fishin dude)

Do any of these musky venture south into the Miss-mud?

Like into pool 4 or further south?

I have never heard of one that far south but who knows.

Who knows? is right! I’ve never heard a report from that far south either but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. It does seem unlikely to me but maybe it’s because the envirionment is better in the Croix? Good ponderment! I want to hit Stillwater north ASAP to try and find one again! How far can we traverse up stream again? Maybe I should put in at Osceola and drift down to Stillwater…………you can cross the checkpoint that way right?

I have heard of Muskies caught below the ALma and Redwing Dams. Anything to back it up with? Nope, but If I could catch a brown trout in the Mississippi miles from any trout stream confluence with the Miss, why wouldn’t there be Muskellunge!!!!??

StillaKid,

I have fished many times on the Croix specifically for muskie, and I will give you a big tip- they can be anywhere-seroiusly though we have the best luck pounding the marina’s such as Bayport, Sunnyside, Rumpf’s, and Wolf. North of stillwater is great, but it is to hard to narrow down a spot to fish. Backwaters near the high bridge will also produce. Friend boated a 48″ last year in the main channel on a 4″ rapala! I have a buddy who CPR about 3 from Wolf last year with the biggest being a skinny 45″. Most fish are taken on Flo orange Reef Hawg’s or Suick’s. Please remove any lamprey’s you find on these fish, they are everywhere, and really take there toll on the big fish. Case in point, last year a buddy caught a 42″ PIKE(IT was sweet) and it was so lamprey ridden, that we could absolutely not release it(fish had no energy, and was boated in about 10 seconds with no fight). When we weighed it on certified scale it came in under 14lbs. Pathetic that a monster like that had to be killed by them damned lamprey’s. Best of luck

Ben

Ben, I did just that last weekend! There was a lamprey on the 32″ pike I caught. I had never seen one but I knew what it was and removed it and put it on a hook! I didn’t catch anything with it but something got him! If you couldn’t release that big ol’ pike, did you have it mounted or pickled? And what did you do with the lampreys?

I agree Jim…………..why not? I believe in a river system that almost anything is possible. An old friend of mine saw a trout caught and released south of the Mallelieu’s south dam this last May. Shallow water, far from tribs! But I wouldn’t go searching for them!

I saw a decent musky caught on Pepin last spring and I have a buddy that took a small one last summer pulling cranks for eyes in Pepin. This spring a guide customer caught a 30″ musky from Big Lake near Wabasha a few days after we had fished together in that same area.

I doubt these fish are anywhere near being common in the Mississippi River south of the Twin Cities but with the tremendous food available to these fish it does puzzle me a bit why they’re not present in greater numbers.

Just think of all those big mooneye and monster shad we have and let the imagination run with how big those musky could get if they found this habitat to their liking!

James Holst

Moving Waters Guide Service

http://www.movingwaters.net

I guess I don’t understand why there aren’t more of them either. I think the food source is equal in both rivers but I figured the clearer water of the Croix would be a preferred area because of their vision properties and it’s role in their behavior.

The Croix is supposed to have a good muskie population but the Miss below the twin cities muskie are very rare according to the DNR. There might be a few in the Miss but if you want to target muskie fish the croix.

I think the croix offers the variety of habitat that muskies prefer…. there is lots of structure, lots of food, the water is usually much clearer (great for a fearless sight feeding predator!)….. and even with all of that I dont think the place is “crawling” with Musky… and from what Ive heard is NOT the first choice of metro musky anglers…. BUT… they ARE there…. I did not know about the lamprey problem…. Ive seen them on crappies before… but Ive only caught 1 decent sized musky (I dont fish them on the croix), and it was clean….. and in good shape….

I spoke with Dave Zapetello(sp?) (East Metro district fisheries supervisor)… and he said they were a native speices, they dont get very big, and they dont seem to cause a problem on Croix fish populations…. so it would really suck (pardon the lamprey pun)…. if they were targeting pike and musky instead of say…… some rougher fish……

The croix and the miss (above the cities) don’t have as many muskies as other more popular lakes however you don’t have to wait in line to fish a spot so if you can find the areas that are holding muskie it could definitly be worth your while due to lack of pressure. I am thinking about trying it later this summer and into fall. I have heard that the miss (down to the southern part of wisconsin) is part of the native range muskies. I know that dams had an adverse affect on some species (sturgeon, paddlefish, and a few others) maybe the dams hurt muskie populations on the miss. It would make sense since the part of the miss that has a decent population of muskie is above the dams and the croix doesn’t have dams other than the criox flowage in northern wisconsin.