All Activity

During the summer I've seen rigs parked down by the pickle ball courts to the west of the access. I don't think there is a permit required there but not sure. There were spots open right across Mtka. Blvd. from the access when I've seen rigs by the pickle ball courts. Don't know if it's plowed in the winter. In the attached pic it shows this lot as parking for the Deephaven City offices which are in the nearby. See "P" in the lower left of the pic. Maybe I'll swing by there this weekend and see. I need excuses to exercise the truck.

Probably. Try charging it and monitor how quickly it comes to full charge. If it does it quickly it's another sign the battery is shot.

I think I know the answer, but . . . After running for about 3 hours the output on my flasher battery dropped from 12.5v to 10.1v. Pretty much means it's dead, correct?

I haven't fished that bay in years. The times I did go in there I did pretty well though. The entire bay is minimum wake so there tends to be less man-made waves than on other portions of the lake.

I don’t know dude and I’m not going to debate it. I’ve never used it and always came in from the lake side to Carson’s and there were always people there. Besides a certain spot I know in that bay you now know most of what I know about it.

That's not the issue. I'm wondering where people park if they're using the Carson Bay access.

Marcum is located here: 3943 Quebec Ave N, New Hope, MN 55427 I've owned 3 Marcums for 15+ years, all flashers. Both LX3s had an issue and both were fixed and no issues since. I live close enough so I brought them to their location. One of the LX3s is one I bought off of Craig's list. The guy was selling it cheap because it had an issue. It had the same issue as my other one so I knew what the fix would be. I bought it and dropped it off at Marcum to get fixed. Basically an almost new flasher for about 40% cost of new.

What part of the lake do you want to fish? I grew up within a 1/2 mile of Maxwell Bay. There are a lot of nooks and crannies and old fire roads. I don't know if all are still open in the winter but knowing the part of the lake you want to fish will help find access locations and maybe parking.

I did not participate in the youth hunt growing up because it didn't exist. I went on opener like everyone else. The early seasons and special youth regulations are relatively new. Do I think that having the youth duck season a couple weeks inhibits my success as a duck hunter? No, not likely. I don't think there's enough pressure to have an impact. But that's not the point. I believe that every hunter or angler that wants to hunt or fish should be able to. You buy a license and you can do it. You can make opener about teaching your child to hunt too. I know this because that's what

OK so where do they park if the ice isn't thick enough to drive on then?

Yah, no kidding! Heading the Winnie this weekend. Wife signed us up for a GTG for a wheelhouse group. About 100 confirmed attendance. The most important thing I packed was the 4 wheeler!

Looks like we lucked out with the weather compared to what they were talking about. See you all on the ice this weekend!!

Since y’all are weighing in. I don’t have a grand opinion either way on the youth season. Honestly for those I know, it seemed more important to the adults than the kids they took. I understand that’s not universal with all kids so I doubt I’ll stand against it even though I do prefer level playing fields for everyone as @gimruismentioned. Teaching kids to earn something is a life lesson in itself. Teal - I still see a good percentage of BWT on opener compared to other ducks so I know there’s still plenty that haven’t left. I’m more worried about the misidentified

I definitely appreciate your opinion and can see your point of view. Can I ask if you were as a youth able to participate in a youth hunt as I know relatively speaking it is fairly new. You are definitely right, hunting is not what it used to be. I myself don't even waterfowl hunting in MN anymore. Ironically speaking I grew up hunting a faimly farm. On bad years my family would attribute the poor numbers to me youth hunting but there were years where I hunted the youth opener and on the standard opener we had limits for 12 individuals, seeing this and reading data I do believe tha

I’d re-check the connections. I had a bad terminal on one of mine I couldn’t see the bad spot under the plastic insulator. Re-check the power connection on the back of the unit for tightness and the prongs in tact. If you have a meter and can ohm the power lead out, do that. If it comes down to having to open up the head, send it or take it in.

Winter access. I’ve never launched from a south side access. I always used Wayzata, Spring Park, North Arm or Maxwell Bay when boating. There were a few winter access spots scattered around but they were never marked. And who knows, they could’ve been shut down since the last time I was on Minnetonka ice. By the looks of the feedback, I’m either posting too much about this for some people or experiences with the lake have really gone down hill over the years. I’ve sometimes considered going back to the Cities just to fish my old spots out there. At one time I could

Thanks for the info.

I used that access one time in the spring but there's nowhere to park. There's no lot and the parking on the shoulder of the road requires some kind of designated parking pass. Needless to say after I launched my boat and realized this, I had to load back up and go to another access.

Carson’s is a pretty sheltered area as far as Minnetonka goes. Always been one of the early ice spots on the lake, especially with the access convenience and shelter from the big winds. I agree, 15 is surprising but possible. I talked to a friend from the Cross Lake area today and they’ve been hard pressed to find more than 9.5 on lakes they fish. We’re running 9.5 - 12 in Central MN and I had up to 14 in Ely on New Year’s Day. Never assume and always check, especially when going away from the crowds.

odd that Minnetonka has more ice than smaller lakes north of it...not saying it doesn't have 15" of ice but that surely surprises me when areas of the state with colder temps have less ice than that. I would certainly check for myself before I just drove aimlessly onto a lake let alone one around the cities

That’s a lot! @wobert, any report from Wednesday?

Just texted my buddy. He said there were 15 inches of ice and about 100 trucks. After the mild week we've had and the melting the past 3 days I would not drive out on the lake with a car/truck.

Although I can't comment on how the bite is from personal experience, I can relay information from others that I know. The fishing is very slow out there this winter. The ice is also very sketchy, especially the further you go out. The bays on the south end are probably the only place I'd even consider driving a car on. Like he mentioned in the previous post, there are tons of bait fish right now. There must have been a very good hatch of perch and/or tulibee this past year because the fish are gorged on those, which is why they aren't as hungry. This was found to be the same

my suggestion is to look up Marcum and stop by and have them take a look. It has been a few years since I had to do this but when i had an issue with a Marcum product i drove to their shop (Bloomington area i believe) and they resolved my issue on the spot in a matter of minutes. Good Luck

I have a Marcum LX5 that's been hardly used. I charged the battery then turned it on and let it run to check the battery life to see if I needed a new one. After a few hours it died. Tried to charge it again but no luck, bought a new one, hooked it up, nothing, checked the connections, nothing. Any ideas what's wrong? HTB