St. Croix River Fishing Guides and Conditions, Minnesota

About the St. Croix River

The St. Croix forms the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin for its lower one hundred and thirty miles and was one of the original eight rivers protected under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968. It is protected, clean, and remarkably intact for a river that ends within commuting distance of the Twin Cities, and it holds one of the best smallmouth bass populations in the Upper Midwest along with a serious musky fishery and a native lake sturgeon population.

The river has three personalities. Above Taylors Falls it is a narrower, faster, forested river with rock ledges and excellent smallmouth fishing, floated by canoe and jet boat. Through the Dalles at Taylors Falls it drops through a basalt gorge. Below, from Osceola down past Stillwater to the Mississippi at Prescott, it widens into Lake St. Croix, a slow, deep, half-mile-wide river fished from bass boats for smallmouth, musky and walleye.

The Stillwater gauge sits in that lower lake reach and reads the whole basin. This is a big-water reading, typically in the low thousands of cfs in summer; spring flows run several times higher and push the fish tight to structure. Water clarity is usually good, which suits sight-fishing the rock and grass in the upper river.

Stillwater, Osceola, Taylors Falls and Marine on St. Croix are river towns with lodging, ramps and outfitters, and the whole corridor is managed by the National Park Service, which keeps access reasonable and development limited. Guides here run everything from jet boats on the upper ledges to bass boats on the lower lake, and a day can be built around numbers of smallmouth, a shot at a musky, or a mix of both.

One more thing worth knowing before you book: the St. Croix is a border river, and Minnesota and Wisconsin have a reciprocal agreement covering most of it, but the details differ by section and by species. Confirm which license you need for the water you plan to fish, and check the current season dates for bass, walleye and musky, because they do not all open on the same day on both sides.

Access

St. Croix Falls and Taylors Falls: Interstate State Park access at the Dalles.
Osceola Landing: the standard upper river ramp below the falls.
William O'Brien State Park: Minnesota park access with camping and a landing.
Marine on St. Croix and Log House Landing: quiet mid-river accesses.
Stillwater: town ramps near the gauge at the head of Lake St. Croix.
Bayport, Hudson and Prescott: lower lake ramps toward the Mississippi confluence.

Seasons

April and May: pre-spawn smallmouth and walleye, high cold water; check current season dates.
June through August: the main season, topwater smallmouth in the upper river, musky in the lower.
September and October: the best smallmouth month and the start of prime musky fishing.
November through March: musky and walleye until ice, then ice fishing on the lower lake.