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South Metro Lakes Fishing Reports


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What's been everyones experience this year with the south metro lakes like Marion, Crystal, Orchard, Prior, Spring, and others? I've had good luck with bass and small northern on Orchard. Nothing on Crystal yet but only gave it a small test so far. Got skunked on spring and haven't been to prior yet but plan to this weekend if all goes as planned. I think these south metro lakes can be very fun and it's nice for me to be able to get to them quickly but sometimes it seems they are finicky. What's this spring/summer brought for you?

P.S. If you like to jump from spot to spot to find the fish and want to go out sometime I'm open to that. I have room for me and one other in my boat or could hop in with you.

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Hopped around via canoe/shore all around the city lakes (chain, medicine, nokomis,hiawatha, etc.) and minnetonka all "spring" and had the same luck fishing with cranks, soft plastics, and jigs. Finally got a hawg spawner the other day but for the most part haven't seen any gigantor fish. Always down to throw a line and do so daily just throw me a message as I haven't fished down that way yet and love fishing uncharted territory.

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Fished Prior the last couple days- smaller bass active in the shallows and some nicer gills. Was looking for crappies, but found none

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Hit one you mentioned yesterday-got 2 19s 1 18" and some pounders. Bigger fish were not shallow for me all in the 9-13ft range. Hit the shallows pretty good and got zilch.

Good Luck

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Shoot me a email Rohne and we can maybe figure something out. I live in Eagan and fish Marion and Crystal a decent amount not so much orchard anymore. Crystal has been pretty consistent so far this year the few times I have made it out

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Yeah, don't bother wasting your time. Make a day of it and hit something in the SE part of the state instead.

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You could try Courthouse Lake in Chaska for the planted rainbows, but there is no such thing as metro trout streams around here as far as I know.

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Any guidance on metro area trout streams?

The MN DNR has a list on their web site. As far as producing fish, that maybe another story. The driftless area or the "put-and-take ponds" would be far better for that.

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Thanks for the input, I figured that would be the case, rods will likely stay home as I'm Mpls for the next 5 days.

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Contact me if you want to fish Cedar. If you are going to do the canoe thing go where other kinds boats cannot go-you will find lots of eager fish.

Good Luck

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  • 5 weeks later...

Little update: almost 2 weeks ago we pulled out a good size bass and northern out of Orchard fishing with sucker on a jig and bobber. Anyone else getting much in this mid summer heat?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I love Orchard and Crystal. Fish them 1-3 times during the work week. Weekends I shoot for Tonka, only because I can fish all day. The traffic isn't fun, but just have to manage. How often do you fish Crystal/Orchard? What's your boat? I may have seen/talked to you a few times.

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  • 2 months later...

Has anyone fished Prior Lake recently? I'm driving up from Mankato to fish with my grandpa on Wednesday for some crappies and sunnies. He said that it's been tough lately, so I'm curious if he's been in the wrong spots or if they really aren't doing much out there.

Any tips are appreciated.

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I haven't been there, but check the normal winter spots. I used to start pulling decent fish in those spots around now, back when I lived down there.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Anyone catch anything good recently!? Thinking about bass fish in this weekend.. Need some inspiration to help me brave the cold for a bass..

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
    • leech~~
      As I get older it's really not just about sending bullets down range.  Some of it's just the workmanship of the gun and the wow factor. The other two guns I have really wanted which I'll never have now because of their price, is a 8mm Jap Nambu and 9mm German Luger.   Just thought they always looked cool!  
    • jim curlee
      I had a guy hit me with a lightly used 1969 BAR, he wanted $1650 with an older Leupold scope. More than I think they are worth, I made an offer, he declined end of story.   You know if you look at the old brochures, a grade II BAR sold for $250 in the late 60s, $1650 would be a good return on your investment.    Why would anybody want a 50 year old gun, they are heavy, have wood stocks, and blued metal.  I guess mainly to keep their gun safes glued to the floor. lol   You can probably buy a stainless rifle that you never have to clean, with a synthetic stock you never have to refinish, is as light as a feather, and for half as much money, perfect.   I'm too old for a youth gun, although I've shrunk enough that it would probably fit. lol   No Ruger 10/44s.   Jim      
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