Fishing the St. Croix is….frankly, a complete treat for me! I have now been on it a total of three times and each time has been an eventful one. As you will see while watching the video, this is tannic water…or as they say, “Old black water-keep on rollin” (yes I was a Doobie’s fan growing up). If you haven’t yet made a trip to this part of the world…then what are you waiting for!
The aspect most interesting to me (besides large smallmouth) is the variety of fish you will find on this river; smallies, walleye (as you will see in the video), pike (too many at times) and occasionally…a big musky. This brings me to the point of set-up; better make sure that you go with very heavy tippet, even wire leader…unless you are wanting to donate a bunch of flies.
On this particular adventure, I have put in at County Road T and floated 7 miles downstream to the CCC Bridge. This particular run has lots of runs, riffles and then a deeper pool or two. All said, it makes up for some incredible fishing. As you can see the focus on this trip was fishing the run at the end of each riffle. Quite honestly I hit it very right because on the day I was almost 100% on catching a fish at the point just below the faster water.
The St. Croix is in itself a National Park…a scenic waterway and as such is well marked. You can quickly google The St. Croix and download or print maps of the various sections…the maps are well marked with places to put in and take out…as well as campgrounds along the way. The maps show river mileage which is a big help in trying to decipher how fast or how long you have til a pick up and/or how far you are away from your pick-up spot.
Once again…if you haven’t yet treated yourself to one of fly fishing’s great destinations….then please set your compass due north and hit the road. Trust me on this….you will love it and be counting the days until you once again can sit atop the awesomeness of the St. Croix.
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