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Orchard


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Anyone Fished Orchard recently. I was thinking of taking my kid out and looking for some gills and crappies. Any other suggestions around south metro? Thanks in advance.

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Are you shore fishing or boating? If shore fishing then maybe take them to a Children's fishing pond like Valley Park Pond in Apple Valley on Galaxie Ave & County Rd 46.

They should have plenty of fun catching panfish & bass along the shorelines.

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I agree with andy! But....I was on it all saturday. Got a nice tan to prove it! It was just a buddie and me on a canoe. We got plenty of lm bass, gills, and crappies. I don't eat much fish but my buddy did...so we kept 10 decent sized crappies. Lots of hungry sunnies everywhere! we took the whole day just paddling around the lake. We fished every corner and dock there was. It was fun...but we didn't end up with anything to brag about. Largest fish was a 14inch lm bass. My buddy was using lots of top water rapala lures. I was using just my lucky grn/yel/orange roostertail and my yozuri pin minnow. Lots of fun...with fish everywhere! But I wouldn't recommend the fishing by shore. grin.gif

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How big were the sunnies/crappies? Last time I fished Orchard I got a 33" tiger musky on a 1" crappy tube! Under a bobber! With no action! lol I was drinking a can of pop and noticed the bobber had gone under.

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If you look at the DNR information on Orchard, they've stocked pretty aggressively for walleyes in this lake over the past 4 or 5 years or so. Anyone had any luck catching them? Is anyone even fishing for them? With all the fry they dumped in 2001, I'd think there'd be some eaters in there somewhere by now.

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WOW! That would be a nice tiger muskie to play with! The crappies were about 10 inches We got one that tipped it at 12 3/4. Get yourself a nice set of polarized glasses and you'll see the bottom and the feeding fish everywhere! Once you find the crappies, just keep going through the area and surrounding spots. If you miss the hookup...just go through again. They'll hit it again. The sunnies were pretty darn hungry and big there. We had nice ones in the 6 inch...some maybe even bigger. But they were really messing up my crappie game. wink.gif Funny thing was....we didn't run into any pike or walleye action...at all. confused.gif We thought maybe one or two...but nothing. It was a lot of fun though. You have to go through a million sunnies to get to the crappies...but it was sure worth it. GL and have fun. grin.gif

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  • 1 month later...

Fished out there this morning, haven't been on that lake for 10 years. Few crappies, lots of sunnies. Put a few big top waters on...no tigers. Saw a nice sized dead one floating frown.gif Water temp was 83.7. Crappies bit on minnows, sunnies on worms. Power grubs worked well for crappies also.

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  • 2 weeks later...

i dont think orchard will ever become successful when it comes to walleyes. the lake gets way to warm in the summer. and it doesnt matter how many fry or fingerling they put in that lake. there is 7 lb bass in that lake that would eat your leg if they wanted to. dumping walleyes in that lake is stupid and a waste of minnesotas money. as for the crappies they are starting to get a little bigger but nothing to brag about. if you want crappies go to minnetonka. there just isnt enough forage and structure in orchard to support a walleyes lifestyle. and once they get big enough to eat if they do, it wont matter because everyone and their brother is going to be on that lake keeping everything they can. catch and release is the best way to keep a lake harvested... let em go so they can grow eh guys. meat fishing went out of style about 60 years ago....

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
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    • LakeofthewoodsMN
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    • CigarGuy
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    • PSU
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    • Hookmaster
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