St.Croix eyes question

I’m thinking about hitting the river this weekend for some eyes. I’ll be trying something new to me as far as technique on rivers in the summer, going to try pulling long line cranks and/or three way rigs (maybe some live bait rigging too)- no leadcore for me yet, maybe if this and other ventures pan out. My biggest question is I’m not sure what location on the the river would offer the best opportunity for at least some sort of success – areas on my mind are around the railroad bridge just north of 94 or the areas down towards the Kinni. Any insight would be greatly appreciated, I’m certainly not looking for depths, colors baits speeds or anything like that, just a decent geographic location.

Esox23,

Expect to fish many spots, there will not be one place you can fish for hours on end. Right now you have to scrape together fish here and there. So what I am saying is expect to move, if where you picked isn’t producing.

Lately I have been from the Stillwater Bridge to the Kinni that is a 16 mile stretch. In the spring I would go 2 to 3 miles at the most.

I would troll right now to find fish, then rig if you want, don’t be afraid to try spinners. They are tricky right now about the speed they want. Crawlers have been good for my boat.

Turk

Charlie “Turk” Gierke wrote:

They are tricky right now about the speed they want.

Meaning about .5 some days and 1.2 other for livebait rigging, I have not found a “set” speed.

Excellent – thank you so much Turk this definitely helps. Now I just hope I don’t strike out, a few fish for a confidence boost would be great.

Charlie “Turk” Gierke wrote:

Esox23,

Expect to fish many spots, there will not be one place you can fish for hours on end. Right now you have to scrape together fish here and there. So what I am saying is expect to move, if where you picked isn’t producing.

Lately I have been from the Stillwater Bridge to the Kinni that is a 16 mile stretch. In the spring I would go 2 to 3 miles at the most.

I would troll right now to find fish, then rig if you want, don’t be afraid to try spinners. They are tricky right now about the speed they want. Crawlers have been good for my boat.

Turk

Great info, Turk!

I’m still a St Croix river newbie so take it for what it’s worth, but I’ll echo Turk’s comments here. I’ve been out a few times the last couple weeks and I’m finding a fish here and fish there, but with no real consistency. It seems like every trip out I have to re-learn what type of bait they’re looking for as it’s changed from the last time. My depths are also all over the map getting fish from as shallow as 15ft and deep as 30. And while we’re getting some decent fish, I’ve struggled to fish any true pattern or consistency between trips.

Good Luck out there!