2020 Detroit Lakes-Pelican Rapids Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions

[Cicada]

Hit Lizzie yesterday. Lots of floating mayflies. Put a half-hearted effort into walleye fishing and found nothing. Went to the rocks with my buzzbait. Five largemouth including a 19" and 20", one 18" smallmouth, a big rock bass and had three muskie follows. Not sure about Thursday, but may try Little McDonald.

[Brett Waldera]

Cicada,

Please email me your personal email at [email protected]. I am very interested in discussing your muskie activity on Lizzie.

Thanks,

Brett Waldera

[marbleyes]

just got back from vacation up there. You guys have some pretty

lakes to fish. We caught huge sunnies,huge bullheads,lots of

walleyes trolling raps on lead core including a 26.75". We let

all the walleyes go because we catch them back home on Miss..

Yes I am from Iowa and yes I did take some bullheads to smoke

and sunnies.Most of the crappies were spawned out, but we caught them later in the day up in 3 to 4 feet of water. It seemed like the nicer fish were in cabbage weed next to deep

water.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Awesome! Glad you enjoyed yourself up here and thank you for the report.

[watersguy]

Was on pelican Sunday night. Cabin season is in full swing with lots of recreational boat traffic. Pretty much flat calm and sunny but the eyes were still going good. Lots of 12 inch fish, a very strong year class coming up with some larger fish mixed in. The eyes were still hard on shiners, tried leeches and crawlers but the shiners were the deal. fish were in 16 to 20 ft, water temp up to 65 degrees.

[RK]

Cicada,

Please email me your personal email at [email protected]. I am very interested in discussing your muskie activity on Lizzie.

Thanks,

Brett Waldera

[Cicada]

Nothing to hide. They were all smaller fish in the pencil reeds on a point. 24", give or take an inch, fish. They followed my buzzbait. I have heard there are some nicer fish in the lake, but I have had few of them cross paths with me. Probably came from Pelican, which means they might be in Crystal, Prairie, and maybe Lida and Franklin.

[Brett Waldera]

Cicada, Thanks for the info.

Been some real hog walleyes biting on Lizzie the last week. Next time you are out try running some cranks along the cabbage.

Brett Waldera

[RK]

Hiya -

My cabin's on Crystal, and I fish bass there a lot. I see one or two muskies a year in there following in a spinnerbait or something, and I've caught two in there, one on a crankbait and one on a crappie jig, of all things. Three years ago I had a muskie porpoise right next to the boat a couple times - freaked my girls out like you can't believe. There are a few in there, but nothing approaching fishable numbers.

What's interesting is that at least some of them showed up in there almost immediately after they were stocked in Pelican. In probably 1986 or so I caught one - a fingerling basically - off our dock on a twister tail. Cool to have them around - always kick starts the heart a little bit when one comes steaming in behind a spinnerbait, even if it's just a small one.

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[SJMyers32]

There have been muskies found in the nets on the Red River. Where did they come from? Chances are folks that the whole Pelican chain has Muskies and eventually flows into the Red. As far as numbers I dont think I would go tear up the chain with "cowgirls". If anyone saw the show at "Bucks Mill" this spring it is more than obvious that these fish will move upstream or down? Fished Big D yesterday and couldnt get a walleye to move. Tried everything imaginable. Does anyone have any experience with the "shakey blades"? Ive heard smallies love em with crawlers.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

It's basically the same concept as a spinner!! Only the blade doesn't revolve around the line, I haven't used any yet but I can imagine they would work.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

I went out to Sargent lake last night, caught quite a few snakes and got bit off by a decent one at boatside. It was probably 6-7 pounds. The perch and the gills were going nuts though, I caught some decent gills in the 8 inch range, and perch that were 10-11 inchers. They all went back into the drink.

[Double A]

I got suckered into buying a pack of shakey blades. I typically try them every time I'm out to check out the mood of the fish. None of my shakey blades have any teeth marks!

[SJMyers32]

I was out all of Friday night on Pelican and absolutely could not get a fish to move. From what I heard from others at the boat launch I wasn't the only one.

[paceman]

Was out this morning. The lake was like glass. Fish jumping out of the water all around me munching on mayflies. I put on a little spin glow and pulled a crawler. From 5:15 to 6:30 I boated 6 eyes. kept 3 in the 16-18" range and released a 22,24,25. They absolutely crushed the crawler. From 6:30 til almost 9:00 nothing but junk fish....A pretty good fathers day start. Good thing I went this morning as now it is raining. Stupid rain.....

[Double A]

Was out tonight at Big C. On the lake at 6:15 and fished until 1am. Seems like everything was at 17 feet.

70 degrees on the East side. 68 on the West. Only Rocky action until about 10:30pm. Kept a 17 and 18" Walleye.

1st time on Big C with no slimers.

Busy for a Monday night. Jet Skis, Jet Boats, Water Skiing and even a float plane making about 10 practice landings. That thing is louder than any of the boats.

[Cicada]

Fished Beers in the morning. Had one follow and saw one muskie just sitting below the surface. Caught a few largemouth. Picked up my brother and stopped at the gas station for fuel and bait. Topped off the boat and walked in. The gal says, "Did you have the diesel?"

[PoorWordUsage], had to dump the whole thing and start over. We went to Lida. Caught a bunch of smallmouth and walleyes. Only one of the ten or so walleyes was small enough to keep. Got them on leeches, nightcrawlers and crankbaits. The only thing we didn't get one on was shiners. Hey Fisherdog, were you out last night. I think I met you at the lights at the corner of 59 and Cty 6.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Fished White Earth last night with 2 of my kids, they had a blast catching bass sunnies and crappies. We ended up catching a dozen slab crappies. They weren't too aggressive but they were fun.

[paceman]

Last night was a bust for me. Fished from 7:30 until almost 10:00. No gamefish at all. Some dandy sunnies but no eyes. Tried crawlers, leeches, spinners, plain hooks...Lots of folks out and about enjoying the awseome evening.

[RK]

1st time on Big C with no slimers.

Interesting that you say that. I fish Big C for bass a lot, and in the past 3 years I bet I can count the number of pike I've caught on one hand. I'm around the rocks most of the time though.

That does lead me to a question for you Big C regulars.... Do you guys catch many smallmouth fishing the weedlines/cabbage on C? Just curious...

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Cicada]

No, for me. Most of the smallmouth I catch on Big C are on breaks at the end of bars and rock piles or right on the deeper rock piles. Once in a while they are near the weedline, but usually deeper.

[paceman]

Took my four year old boy out last night. Went to tamarac. Holy Moly were there people out there. Apparently that lake has been in the outdoor news the last few weeks. Anyways the fish cooperated. Caught some dandy sunnies, a pile of snakes, a few ferocious bass, and a couple bonus eyes. A pretty solid couple hours. Also learned that when your kids set the rod down, make sure the bail is closed or after about 10 minutes the line is all gone. Pretty funny watching him reel and reel and reel with no line on.......

[fisherdog19]

Cicada, I had my kid out on Big C searching for crappies in a regular summer haunt but they have yet to show up.

RK- I fish Big C quite a bit in the summer for slabs during the day and eyes after dark and caught 1 smallie after dark on cranks and got my first 1 two days ago fishing cabbage. I have caught quite a few in deeper water on rocks in the past when I used to do more live bait rigging for eyes. I've gotten quite a few on Pelican on the rocks, and also on Lida. If I was to target them, I'd probably hit Lida which I'm sure you have fished plenty of times being you're only a stones throw away.

[RK]

Hiya -

Cicada, Peter - thanks for the info. I was mainly asking out of curiosity. One of the many things about smallies that baffles me is when and why they relate to weeds - and when and why they don't. I fish a couple other smallie lakes where it's almost completely a weedline bite at certain times during the summer. I've poked my nose into the weedline off and on on Big C though and never done much. I think if they were there the walleye guys would probably be screaming about what a nuisance they are - heh. Not too many smallies can pass up a leech or crawler on a live bait rig. It kind of puzzles me on Big C though because in other cases where I catch them in cabbage weeds it seems to be a forage deal - they puke up baitfish when you bring 'em in. (One of the great things about smallies is they barf a lot and tell you what they're eating... ) I really think they're fish eaters on Big C too, but they don't seem to use the cabbage much. Smallies are weird...

Lida is my 'overslept' lake. It's so close I go there when I couldn't haul my butt out of bed early enough to go somewhere farther away

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[Prairiefire]

My parents had a cabin on Lizzie for about 15 years. I caught 3 muskies over that time period and all were pretty small; two were in the spring pitching shiners in the river.

RK, you mentioned you saw one porpoising? I was on Miltona last weekend and about a 40 incher came up with its head completely out of the water swimming like a snake. It did it for about 30 seconds and you could see him looking back and forth checking out the boats that were around slip bobbering for walleyes. About 2 minutes later he came up and did it again. I would assume it was looking for ducklings to eat? Is that what you call porpoising, and is it a common thing with muskies?

[Jim Panfish Uran]

I seen a big northern doing the same thing about 3 years ago on North Twin, it was a BIG one too. His head was completely out of the water kind of bobbing along, one of the craziest things I ever seen.

[B K'S DAD]

Does anyone know any thing about trollbridge just north of vagas.I might be staying at lost valley in august.

[BrianLucky13]

My parents had a cabin on Lizzie for about 15 years. I caught 3 muskies over that time period and all were pretty small; two were in the spring pitching shiners in the river.

RK, you mentioned you saw one porpoising? I was on Miltona last weekend and about a 40 incher came up with its head completely out of the water swimming like a snake. It did it for about 30 seconds and you could see him looking back and forth checking out the boats that were around slip bobbering for walleyes. About 2 minutes later he came up and did it again. I would assume it was looking for ducklings to eat? Is that what you call porpoising, and is it a common thing with muskies?

Happens all day long!! Something to do with digesting, I believe!!

[RK]

Hiya -

Prairiefire - yeah, that's what they do. Sometimes they just come up and go right back down - kind of a slow motion deal. Other times they'll swim for a ways with part of their head out of the water. I had one on Lake of the Woods swim half way around the boat with it's head almost all the way out of the water.

Lord knows why they do it. I don't think it's any kind of feeding behavior. I've casted at hundreds of fish I've seen porpoise over the last 25 years, and I've had exactly two of them bite. You get a follow now and then, usually slow and lazy. I have on occasion seen a fish on the surface chomping on something, and I suppose using gravity to help them choke down whatever it is they just ate, but even that's something different than porpoising. It seems to be weather related a little bit. They seem to do it more when it's warm and calm. I remember one night on a lake by Longville after a storm, and there were fish surfacing all over the lake. You could see 2 or 3 at any given time. It was freaky (and, we never had a bite that night...). They seem to do it more on some lakes than others too. There are a few lakes where it's unusual NOT to see one.

I've heard about every theory out there as to why they do it. Best one I've ever heard is from Doug Johnson, the legendary Lake of the Woods guide. He says "It's because it feels good, and makes them happy..."

Cheers,

Rob Kimm

[BrianLucky13]

RK, have you noticed that the few days after a new or full moon the fish do it a lot more??? Im on the lake everyday and noticed that last summer. Also after a nice cold front goes through they will do that a lot more the next day(if its sunny and calm.)

I had a muskie follow the boat for about 100 yards last year with a pike hanging out of it mouth. Half of it head was out of the water and nothing even bother the fish(including a few well placed bulldogs!)