Kelly-Dudley (Faribault)

[Aaron Carrell]

Hey guys,

I'm hitting this lake for the first time this afternoon and boy does it look interesting. I took a look at the maps and just the fact that such a small lake (~110 acres) can get to 60' deep is gonna throw me for a loop. So I'm looking for anyone that has fished it before, and might have a heads up what works well with that type of environment (not to mention our recent weather change).

I'm not real great with figuring out how to fish deep if thats what its gonna require, but I do what I need to catch some fish. The whole lake IS surrounded by lily pads though by the looks of things, so that should make for an easy starting point for something to try. I dunno, any heads up would be great. Thanks!

P.S. I want primarily bass, but some nice sized northern would be great as well (and I hear this lake has em).

(copied from the Metro Area Forum)

[Matt C]

Here's a post on the lake.

Lake info

Basically, pitch into the pads for bass. I have also had luck with slip bobber and a sucker minnow for both bass and pike on the Kelly side (boat ramp side) near the 60 foot hole.

What kind of boat will you be in? I'll look for you. I may take my kids fishing tonight. I will be in a black Trophy.

[heiman507]

Kelly-Dudley is a great lake to fish on. I have just started fishing there this past year and have been out there half a dozen times or so with success.

I have mainly focused panfishing, but have pulled out some nice bass. I prefer Dudley, because of fewer weeds and recommendations by others. I have primarily focused the edge of the lilly pads some of the breaks in the lake. I have not been out there for about a month now, so not sure about the changes that may have occured due to the heat and recent rain.

I havn't gone after the northerns too much yet, but i have heard Kelly is a better option, of course, they do have a 30" restriction on them (regulation book & posted at launch).

Good luck to you, and let's hear how u do.

[Aaron Carrell]

Bunt- I'll be out in a tan Polarkraft w/ 70hp Yam. There will probably be a few boats out there tonight, cause its our fun church league night, and they picked this little gem of a lake. There will more than likely be 2 other guys in the boat with me, but I have yet to confirm that. I'll keep an eye out for ya.

All I hope is that we can some fish, no matter what size. We've been struggling recently with our lake choices, but this place sounds exactly like a lake I do summer vacation on, so it could be good times.

How is the water clarity right now anyways? From what I'm reading, the Kelly side is typically a little thicker weeds i the shallows and not quite as clear? I figured I'd end up fishin the pads on the Dudley side (NW bay), but that was just guessing. Thanks for the info guys. I'll get some pics up if we get anything worthwhile too.

[smg04]

i did alright last summer slow trolling yellow and white bass spinner baits and a yellow/red 5ofdimonds daredevel spoon for the northerns, not alot of room out there we just kept doing laps, didnt seem to matter depth, cought some in deep water, some shallow along the lillypads, both kelly and duddly produced northerns, most were small 15"-25" long but we did get a 32"er also, we didnt keep any and i think theres some pretty strict regs for pike on those two lakes, also did alright with bluegills&bass throwing small leaches and minnows under a slipbobber up into the pads

[Aaron Carrell]

Well, it looks like theres a very strong chance its gonna be raining, but I plan on stickin' it out either way. Probably means the lake will be pretty much empty, but I guess we'll have to wait and see what mother nature wants to give us.

Thanks for the info, and I'll do my best with it.

[delmuts]

they are fun little lakes!!!!! i usually work spinner baits along, and between the weeds, and down the drop offs. don't be afraid to toss some kind of a frog into the weeds also!

[Matt C]

Aaron, it was nice to meet you out there. How did you end up doing?

My daughter was sick of the rain so we headed in.

[Aaron Carrell]

Well we didn't have a great night, but it wasn't terrible either. We ended up fishing mostly the Kelly side cause neither us or many of the other boats were having luck in the deeper areas. Anyways, we boated 2 northern and 3 bass. I lost a bass trying to flop it into the boat, but it was only like a 11 or 12". All in all we had a pretty fun night and boy did that weather turn out amazing. For our last hour and a half or so it was just beautiful, and we got to see the brightest rainbow many of us had ever seen, which lasted for nearly 45 minutes!

Every one of our fish ended up coming on topwater though oddly. I was throwing a buzzbait once we got in 6' or less, just anywhere I could see open water. I had quite a few hits, including a HUGE northern that decided to show us its tail swimmin' away. We lost more than we got in the boat, probably cause we were using topwaters fairly quickly, but it was alright. I did pretty well compared to most of the guys out, and had we fished shallower the entire night I think we would've produced some more good fish. Biggest northern was 22" and biggest bass in our boat was 15". (16.5" biggest bass for the group)

One of my buddies in my boat lost a very nice largemouth, 19" or bigger, that snapped his line against a huge clump of lilies and whatever those tree-like things that float around in there as well. Every big fish we lost seemed to want to show itself too! Whether it was in the air, or just surfacing.

Anyways, thanks for the info and it was great seeing you out there for a while. I very well might come back and try that lake again sometime. I enjoyed it, and it definitely has potential. Not to mention I LOVE fishing topwater.

P.S. You've got some aggressive sunnies in that lake! (see pic)

[walleyejim]

Give the lake a shot in the winter. I think you'll see much different results

[vikingmeatwad]

Thanks for posting about this lake. It's not a bad lake but I find I catch more fish in the other lakes in the area.