Albert Lea Area

[CrappiesNCats]

hey everyone. just discovered this site. i fish fountain lake a lot in the summer and a fair amount in the winter. grew up fishing fountain every day.

anyway, thought i'd give my two cents. the best fishing area on the lake has no houses last time i checked. everyone sets up by the old beach to Hatch Bridge (commonly mis-named as Edgewater Bridge) but the best ice fishing for crappies and nice sized bluegills with decent walleyes as well is across from all the houses. i went out this weekend on "Monkey Island" and did well with the crappies. stayed out fairly late and had one good bite but missed it.

a lot of my old spots are worthless this winter though. i used to catch fish through the ice near the aerator-by the cemetary as well as on both sides of the beach. those spots have been dead.

whats strange is the "honey holes" of the summer seem to hold no fish in the winter.

am going back this weekend to fish at the channel late to try to catch some 'eyes. does anyone remember when you used to be able to catch tons of jumbo perch there? i miss those days.

[CrappiesNCats]

whoops...forgot to pass along a bit of exciting news. we FINALLY have a bait shop in town again. the old Mobil station down from the courthouse is selling bait. no more driving to cabelas

[norwall]

Ive done well in the past on crappies as well at monkey but have not beeen there yet this yr

[CrappiesNCats]

whoops, i was incorrect. its not the old mobil station its the Holiday (the boycotted one, that recently sold again)

[duffy]

jumbo perch, found some nice ones in the channel the other day and even a few walleye it was early in the morning 6:30. I havent fish fountain to much this year but did well in mid december.

[mlb]

I fished the channel yesterday with no luck. Fished between the fishing dock/pier and the bridge. Marked very few fish and only saw 1 dogfish with the camera. Any info as to where a few fish could be caught would be greatly appreciated.

[duffy]

Try the mouth of the channel were the fish houses end at the corner the best bite has been late and early morning, our try the point out from big island state park caught some nice perch there this year and there was a few houses there. good luck lets us now how you do.

[Whisker Trout Slayer]

Last Sunday coming home from church we were headed south across the I 35 bridge and seen some houses by the sw side of the bridge and a little city off that point from the state park.

My question is how do you access these two places. Is the ice safe enough to drive a 1/2 ton across the lake from the boat ramp by the channel to get to the spot by the bridge? How about accessing the point by the park. I have heard in that the ice under the bridge is iffy. I hope you don't say go through the state park as I don't have the park sticker unless you don't need one now. Any help is appreciated.

[deek]

you can get on at the boat landing on southshore drive to go out to the point by the state park or drive thru channel to get to the freeway bridge.ice has been anywheres from 12 to 16 inches.have done well at both places with eyes and perch.hope this helps you out.

[Whisker Trout Slayer]

thanks deek

I am guessing that this boat ramp is east of the interstate, between the dam and I35?

[mr marbles]

That is correct, you can drive directly to the point from the landing, just go slow, but no one should drive under the freeway bridge iffy ice conditions with current,The city always promotes the lake but they can't even plow out the landing area ,its a little steep down to the lake coming out. good fishing some days when its not to busy. good fishing.

[Team Salmo]

Its rather slow now... like one nice walleye that whole day slow!!!!

[mr marbles]

I know a guy that caught a pig out on Al lake the other nite but not the places where evryone else is fishing, bad thing about it is its a waiting game out there, but some really big eyes have been coming out of that lake. im exploring some other areas when this cold front gets over with.

[wanger29]

Cold front? It aint that bad now!

[Team Otter]

Question; would you guys in the Albert Lea area ever like to have an FM Get-Together in your neck of the woods?

If interested, please send me an e-mail. Thank you!

[email protected]

[mr marbles]

Oh i know when fish are biting and when their not, this is just good for keeping the beer cold! wanger i thouht you would be out freezing ,i mean fishing and put some more of those tracking tags on them wallys so we know where to hunt them down at! man i wish we had some structure! football tomorrow go packers, i never thouht i would say that.

[norwall]

Mr Marbles you live in Al if so for ever? whats your name PM Me

[wanger29]

Go Packers...? You have been sitting out in the cold too long.

[norwall]

are ya referin to the GB fudge pukers or your own Austin fudge packers ? hahah jk couldn't resist

[6028]

Wheres the fish @? I have found sum but there so darn finicky. Is it like this anywhere you go? I know that there catching 10-12" crappies under the front street bridge pretty consistly. You can actually catch your limit within an hour. This was the only place that I found that the fish werent so finicky. JUst gotts use smaller crappie minnows or waxies.

[shintz]

Don't you think that enough people know about that? Could you give me that address of the house that they are biting in front of, possibly the color? Come on, do you really thing that we need the hundreds of users online to know what street and bridge the fish are biting by. The lake name is fine, techniques are great, but specifics like that are just going to ruin a good bite for the 40 people who are already out there.

[CrappiesNCats]

relax, there are like 5 people from albert lea. there are not 100's that know about this site. that being said, i think most people in albert lea already know about that spot. the only problem there is the current is a little stronger and i have watched more than 5 people go through in trying to fish there. ps you cant fit 40 houses or people under that bridge.

anywhere in that whole stretch has been good for as long as i can remember.

[deek]

Has it slowed down on the points on a.l. lake since aweek ago?Did good on some perch & eyes while i was closer to shore then most are now seems most are movin out farther.Sure is nice to have the bait shop in town again!perch were 8-11",eyes good too

[norwall]

cmon, are ya that worried about not catchin fish that every1 is going to move in on ya I think theres enuff fish to go around there greedo, I mean shin splintz.Besides ya actually think half of thoses yo yo's and flintstones actually have internet acess? We were out Sat got 2 perch and thats it.And another thing most of us have probally lived in AL are whole lives and if ya fish consistantly, its no secret where to catch fish. I could care less if there 1 or 100 people out there. It is what it is.What are ya gonna do about it, deter people? oh thats cool.Although I do see some of your pts cuz we had 2 yahoos park their hunk a junk right next to us and we simply said do ya mind ? and got the response oh sorry,so yeah in that aspect I know what ya mean.

[shintz]

Wasn't trying to be mean about it. Obviously I know that everyone in AL knows about (and I think that is good) it but,,, there are hundreds of people from the STATE of minnesota that look at this site every day. I guess from proir experience there is virtually no one on this site that gives exact directions to a spot where they are catching a limit in under one hour. And I was dissapointed/frusterated, that someone from our area did. Even though you may think that only people from the AL area look at the AL posts, you are mistaken. I am sorry, didn't mean to ruffle any feathers. I am just glad that the directions were not given out a month ago, if you know what I mean.

[Team Otter]

Please keep this discussion civil or I'll have to do some editing. Thank you.

FYI:

The amount of anonymous people on FM probably adds up to almost 40 - 70% of the traffic on any given day. These are unregistered users that are "cruising" for information and in some cases, would have no problem driving well out of their way to take advantage of a hot bite.

[CrappiesNCats]

[Note from admin: Please read forum policy before posting again. Thank you.]

[Team Otter]

Misspelling fowl language in order to sneak around a word filter, "spot debating", and other remarks most would perceive as fiesty or simply not necessary are not going to fly in this forum or any other forum on FM.

Thank you.

[norwall]

any1 been out or intend2?

[wallyhunter]

Was out last suday by the channel and got some nice perch and a couple good crappies. Then out on Foutian last night and picked up a few crappies but not many. only there from 5:30 to 8:30 though. Going to head out to foutian again tonight and suday again and see if I can get a few more and run across a couple eye's again to (maybe?).