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Home › Waters › Minnesota › St. Croix River
River · St. Croix Valley · Minnesota

St. Croix River Fishing Guides

A National Scenic Riverway on the Minnesota and Wisconsin border, running from the Namekagon confluence through Taylors Falls to Stillwater and Prescott, with world-class smallmouth and musky.

Sunrise over a winding river cutting through open farm country
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the St. Croix River

Claimed profiles take booking requests. Unclaimed profiles are built from public records so the river is never empty; the guide can claim or remove one any time.

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.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Posting to St. Croix River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Flow alert

Tell me when the St. Croix River cfs

Now: 2,400 cfs, read 3:15 am CDT, Mon Oct 19, 2026 (USGS 05341550, ST. CROIX RIVER AT STILLWATER, MN).

We never use this address for anything else and never share it. See the privacy policy.

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.

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Questions

What is the current flow on the St. Croix River?

As of Oct 19, 3:15 am, the USGS gauge ST. CROIX RIVER AT STILLWATER, MN reads 2,400 cfs, the 19th percentile for this date, with water temperature 53.8 F. Conditions update every 15 minutes.

What species can you catch on the St. Croix River?

Anglers target Channel Catfish, Lake Sturgeon, Muskellunge, Northern Pike, Smallmouth Bass, Walleye on the St. Croix River in Minnesota.

Are there fishing guides on the St. Croix River?

GuidedFloats lists 1 guide and outfitters on the St. Croix River. Claimed profiles accept booking requests; unclaimed profiles are built from public records and link to the business.

Where can you access the St. Croix River?

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.

When is the best time to fish the St. Croix River?

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.

Where are the fishing regulations for the St. Croix River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Minnesota agency site: https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/regulations/fishing/index.html