William O'Brien SP

[OnAFly]

Anyone tried the backwaters of the Croix in the park? I'm online scouting a few new carp locations and this looks like it could be a possibility in the summer.

Only question I have is about water clarity. Most of what I do is sight fishing for them. If the water clarity is under a few feet, that becomes really difficult.

[LightningBG]

I'm not sure specifically by the park, but in general the clarity on the croix is only a couple feet at best.

[fiddleFish]

One of the intermittently connected backwaters in the park has a really cool assortment of native riverine "trash" fish and and a few carp as well. It could be worth checking out. Better hurry, though. DNR plans to "reclaim" it to get rid of all those despicable river fish, berm it off so the river can no longer flood it, and create another sorely needed bass/panfish pond fishery.

[OnAFly]

Sounds like a place to check out after the spring high water recedes. Thanks for the info.

[Fazerfish]

Last year the family went camping there, I took the kids down to where the backwaters run into the area where the boat launch is. Just thru out a couple lines with crawlers, caught maybe 3 or 4 suckers in like 1/2 hr fishing, 12-15 in long roughly. Wasn't very deep but it looked real clear, I could see the fish once they were hooked probably 20 -30 ft out...

[OnAFly]

Was it shallow enough to wade or would I need a canoe?

[Fazerfish]

This was in mid June, waders would get you around shore maybe 5 ft out, chest waders maybe a little more, but not accross the channels.. Probably want a canoe to get around to more area...

[slipperybob]

I always wanted to but the thing that I don't like is waiting for them to open the park at 8am...sometimes they'll wait till 9 am to open the gates, by then you've got a long line of people waiting to get in. They need to have an express line for the annual park sticker holders.

[LightningBG]

If your going to use a canoe, you can skip the park all together. There is river access in Marine on the St. Croix to the south of the park and in Copas to the north of the park.

[MN BassFisher]

If your going to use a canoe, you can skip the park all together. There is river access in Marine on the St. Croix to the south of the park and in Copas to the north of the park.

I appreciate the heads up, I'm pretty much a rookie when it comes to the Croix (been out twice) and I'm hoping to have a kayak this summer and want to take it out on the river.

[MN BassFisher]

Do these access points in Copas and Marine on St. Croix, I know in William O'Brien state park you need a pass. Also, is there parking? I looked them on google/bing maps and I can't tell if you can park there.

[LightningBG]

If your using a kayak on top of your vehicle, I doubt it would be tough to find parking. But truthfully, I'm not really sure if you were to have a trailer. I'd take a drive down that way and check it out. I've never launched at either, only seen them from the water. I normally use Franconia further north.

[MN BassFisher]

Okay, yeah I would either have the Kayak strapped to my car or in the back of a truck. No trailer.