st. croix eye fishing

[kdawg]

I'm in the Hugo/White Bear area and have never fished the st. croix for 'eyes, however I hear it is pretty good fishing. My question is where's the easiest place to put in on the croix and once there it sounds like most of you recommend using jig/plastic and jig/minnows. What else would you bring? Also, I've been leery about river fishing because of stuff floatin in the river and I'm afraid of boat damage. Is this really not an issue? Lastly, how do you determine a good walleye spot -vs- a good crappie spot? Many thanks.

[tunrevir]

kdawg,

You can get some pretty good info from the St. Croix site on these questions. Access tends to depend where you want to fish and the size boat you want to use. Spring tends to better for larger craft when the water is a bit higher as there are areas that you can get to with a larger boat that you normally wouldn't be able to get to later in the season. However, this is also the time of year when you will see the most floating debris as well. From my experience on the Croix the crappies are fond of wood, rocky rubble areas much the same as eyes but generally not as deep of water. In spring the eyes can be had along the rip rap shorelines, flooded timber and hard sandy bottom areas. Look for you classic points and eddies, deeper holes and gravel bottoms. Trolling cranks is a good way to contact fish. Once you contact one work through the area again either casting cranks if near the shoreline or jig and minnow/plastic. Really look with your electronics to see what the bottom content is like that might give you a clue as to what type of bottom to key on. Hope this helps!

Kdawg, I do 95% of my fishing above Stillwater.

Tunrevir~

[kdawg]

Very valuable info. as usual. Thanks dude.

[Ritz]

Just hit up the St Croix section that is closest to hugo... I believe the closest section is about 15 minutes away from HUGo... Taking Hwy 4 all the way....