Looking for a place to launch after dark. Looking closer to hudson and stillwater. Any info would help. Heard stillwater is a little shallow. Have a 18ft lund. Would like a little deeper if possible. Thanks.

If you have a boat needing a lot of draft the Stillwater Boomsite DNR launch is fine as long as you stay in the channel over towards Wolf Marina. I saw a guy and his wife beached yesterday near the island south of the launch. They didn't realize that the bay gets shallow. If you have never been there before go slow and watch the depth. When you come out of the launch head straight towards Wolf Marina and then get in their channel between the bouys out to the main channel. If you want to go north just go south from Wolf until you get in the Red and Green main channel and then stay between the red / green bouys to go north.

Regular fishing boats don't have much trouble going due east from the launch to the main channel. Just watch the depth and trim your motor up as needed. River elevation is 675.3' which gets you some shallow water in the backwaters.

Is there a website that posts river levels for the St Croix?

I will try to find the link, but I believe the army corps of engineers site has it, but let me dig a bit

RiverGages.com for river levels. I wish I knew how to do this link thing. Or go to page 11 under "River level and flow...?" for a link

lets try this out River Level Site

If you do a lot of boating on the St Croix you will find these two links invaluable:

This is the link to the St Croix river level reading. This is a Army Corps of Engineers site. The gage reading is taken at the Stillwater Lift Bridge.

St Croix River Level

Some important river levels to know:

675 feet is normal pool elevation.

At about 678 feet the Stillwater Riverwalk in Lowell Park is under water

At about 679 to 680 feet the upstream islands start to go under water

At 683 feet the Minnesota DNR may impose No Wake restrictions on the entire Lower St Croix Riverway from River Falls, WI to Prescott, WI.

Here is another link that you may find useful. This is a site that provides an advanced St Croix river level prediction. I use this site a lot after a heavy rain or in the spring when water levels are fluctuating.

St Croix River Level Prediction Service

SteveD as always dead on with the info