With this recent heat wave hovering over the upper Midwest, bushwhacking through some dense undergrowth on the trout streams would be a little too much work. Instead, I figured bass and carp would be a much more enjoyable pursuit. I decided to fish an unnamed beach on the St. Croix despite never fishing it before. With all the recent rain the beach I was fishing from was completely submerged. I was standing in waist deep water where the beach would normally begin in normal water levels.

I tied on a chartreuse and white clauser minnow and didn't take it off for the whole night. Standing waist deep I worked edges of a submerged forest. Immediately, white bass began slamming my fly, and let me tell you, they fight hard. I'd never caught one before and was really surprised how aggressive and fun they were on a fly rod. There was some type of insect hatching as well so the white bass and smallies were taking big gulps off the water. Seeing the surface activity really made it too easy. I just cast my clauser minnow right where they were feeding, gave a couple second countdown and started stripping and let the drag scream once I hooked a fish. All these fish were within 30 feet of the beach and water wasn't deeper than 4 feet.

Around the 8:45, as light really started to fade I noticed an incoming wake from some fish swimming close to shore. A quick cast towards their direction was rewarding with an aggressive bite. But unlike the bass which displayed some amazing acrobats while hooked, this one stayed down. But no freshwater fish can handle the drag on my Nautilus CCF-X2. As I brought it closer I saw a flash of white on its tail and some spooky, glowing eyes - a feisty walleye. I was blown away, I've caught plenty on spinning rods but never a fly rod. A woman who was walking her dogs was so blown away by this and thankful when I gave her the walleye to take home for dinner. The entire school of walleye swam past over the next thirty minutes and it was easy fishing. Just a great night on the St. Croix.

I do have pictures but it won't let me post them. I am probably doing it wrong.

Awesome report! Thanks for the pictures as well

I've caught a few walleye incidentally with the fly rod.

I typically get a strange look from anyone when I tell them about how possible it is to catch anything from trout to carp to catfish with a fly rod since it's assumed it's all about what's on top of the water.

Sounds like a very cool experience!

That's the great part of fishing rivers, you never know what you are going to catch. Your experiences are very similar to mine when river fishing, bass etc. early, and then walleye right at dusk as they move shallow to feed.