Wow, you were describing the upper St Croix to a T.
Gotta love having the ability to get there.

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Dave, what are you fishing out of? Is it one of them River Pros

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Yep, it’s one of the River Pro things.

Here are a few From the year.
First one is from the upper St.Croix caught 9/18 on chicken livers, it was 34 inches 16lbs.
The rest are from a couple of trips to the Red.

All nice fish
It’s been a great year on the St.Croix for me also, though not to many pic’s, caught a beauty at 32″ 16lbs. right before dark last night on cut sucker in 6 fow.
I have to find me a camera guy or better yet girl, that don’t mind the late night fishing in the fog.

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Nice fish! Me thinks it is channel cat season.

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You got that right!!

Way to get the guys on some fish!!
Flathead or not, those guys are going home with a big fish story.

Here’s a couple from the other night.

First 2 pics is 34 inches about 16 lbs.
3rd pic no length about 14 lbs.

Very nice way to start off the summer.
Nice vid and even nicer cat! Congrats!

Brian,

Do you know if this will include the upper St.Croix, or is it all MN waters.

I would love to participate in this program.
Are civilians (fishermen) going to be able to tag and record fish?
I think a civilian tagging program would be a great idea.
It would be easy to train a bunch of dedicated volunteers to do tagging of the fish they catch and release, record it and e-mail the info to the DNR.
It would take some of the burden off the DNR and we all would have a better understanding of the quantity and quality of the fish in our waters.

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I still like to run without a spotlight whenever I can, and just use it for corners and tight channels.

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This is the way I run also.
I can see better in the dark on the water with out lights (using required nav. lights of course).
The light is just for pin pointing the landing,lighting up the jerk with out lights and making sure the dead head or rock isn’t sticking above the water.
That’s where the streamlight I use works great. It’s small and still has the light beam of a large spot light. It is always clipped to my pfd,easy on easy off,with gloves on or not. No cords to trip over and no worry of draining the boat batteries. Heck even if I find my self in the dark drink some night I will have my light and it will work!

They are for fire fighting, new fire trucks are equipped with a bunch of them. I have family that work for a local fire truck manufacturer and got mine through them.
They work great in fog and smoke, which is nice especially if you get caught in the fog at night on the river.
Any good cat man knows what the evening fog is about and regular spot lights just plain do not work in the fog.

I use a small rechargeable called a Streamlight.
I clip it to the buckle straps on my pfd.
It works great for me cause I’m usually standing while cruising. All I do is point my body which way I want the light to shine. It keeps my hands free to run the controls.
They are awesome lights and very powerful for their size.
I have never in the three years I have had it run the battery down to where it was unusable.
http://www.streamlight.com/product/product.aspx?pid=121

Measures in tenths.

They also make a 110 lb. scale for those who don’t feel they need the 220 lber.

Rule of thumb on a scale of any sort is to get one that can weigh 2 times the average weight of what you are going to weigh. This is especially true on a digital scale, as the load cell in a digital unit is susceptible to damage if it gets over stressed. Over stressing a load cell will in time depleat it’s accuracy.

Also these scales have a digital thermometer built in and also a total weight feature that will alow you to weigh multiple items (fish) one at a time to get a total.

In my opinion alot of bang for the buck.

I have one of these.
It should handle any fish from these parts.

http://www.yeoldearcheryshoppe.com/coffey-digital-deer-scale-p-4108.html

Just to let you all know.

Fish lake bait in Harris, right off the I35 exit has plenty of crawlers if you find yourself in need on your way north.

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Nice fish there Dave!

Were the sinker slides from TEAM CATFISH possibly?

It was dark…the cats couldn’t see what color rod you were using.

Seriously I like the fact that there’s a PFD in your photo’s. I’m glad you are helping to set the standard in fishing safety.

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Sinker slides are Team Catfish (oops).

PDF is the first thing on when I get in the boat, after all it has my safety lanyard clipped to it and the boat won’t go without it.

Here’s a couple from this week end.

17 lb 34 inch caught with fresh cut sucker steak from the gut pocket of an 18 inch sucker on a 10/0 Lazer Kahle hook.

I also used for the first time Team Catfish size 5 sinker slide with a 5oz. bank sinker.

Second fish is a 9 lb 28 inch caught using the same set up.

Also attached to the set up is 65 lb Power pro with a WHITE Berkley big game rod and (you can laugh now) a Rhino RSC 5 spincaster reel.

It was the first time I had used the sinker slides and I think I like them. Not even one tangle with my leader line while using these.

I’ve never fished there, though I’m sure they will be back.

Channels are not affraid of white water. Most all my larger spring cats have been caught in white water or very close to the edge of it.

All great looking spring cats.

I’m hoping to get at least one good pic up soon.
Might call it a short day at the office and get out today.

Did you hear something? Is that the River calling?

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Dave you need to move that steering console all the way up and loose the box that is in front of it.

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I like the space it gives you. Though that box is a 30 gallon timed/aerated live well, a must for many tourney situations

I’m not much for sitting either!

Dang I can’t get in this.
No flats on the upper croix.
Willing to trade a channel cat trip for a flat trip.
I need to hook into one of those bad boys this year.
Any takers?

I have the same one Rob has. Works great!

Just do a google for Coffey Scale and you will find many retailers that cary them.

The silver one is 110# and the orange one is 220#.

It’s a super secret contest.

http://www.gfchamber.com/ndgracoc/doc.nsf/doc/events_special.cm

Cool!

Nice channel!

That just got me all excited about open water and river fishing.

They will work just fine.
I thought they were huge also when I first used them.
They don’t look that big when they are stuck in the mouth of a hawg.

Them 50 hooks should last you a few years.
My theory with cats is bigger bait brings bigger cats.
It’s kinda nice when fishing the croix to be able to throw out say a large cut sucker on a 10/0 and on your other line a 3/0 with some liver or night crawler.
Find the little ones with the worms and catch the hogs with the meat!

I get mine here: http://www.barlowstackle.com/

They got good prices and any hook you could ever want.

To answer the question: The more the merrier!!
2 on border waters is nice and I fish that way most of the time, though I would love to be able to use all the rod holders I got.

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Caught plenty of channels on the Red from 18 to 20 lbs and never felt mismatched with a 5/0 circle. 10/0 kahle is, well… Ummm…wow! BIG hook!

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It isn’t so much the size of the wire but more the size of the gap that the 10/0 offers. When you got half a 6 inch sucker threaded on there you still want to keep the gap open, and that is where the 10/0 works real good.

Larry, thanks for the vote of confidence.