Albert Lea Lake Fishing Reports

[Team Otter]

Let's compare February calendars.

[email protected]

[Whisker Trout Slayer]

If you do a GTG on Albert Lea Lake in February please do not have it on the 21st.

Oops just checked the GTG calendar and you already have Duck Lake for that date, so carry on.

Thank You

[CrappiesNCats]

lets just say "someone i know" has a birthday on the 10th.....would you albert lears care to do some ice fishing like the evening/late evening of the 7th?

the next weekend is valentines so i should probably count that one out

[wheres the fish?]

Any updates on the oxygen levels?

[jerad_s]

High 6's to low 8's is the report im getting from my field crew. The emergency aerators have opened up a large hole, even in this frigid weather.

[bryguy247]

Team Otter, Note for your Feb. Calendar. Feb 1st is the Fountain lake Ice fishing contest in Albert Lea. More info on this in the Tourney section.

[Team Otter]

February 1? Super Bowl Party at the neighbors house...

[wheres the fish?]

High 6's to low 8's is the report im getting from my field crew. The emergency aerators have opened up a large hole, even in this frigid weather.

thanks for the report... is the aerator out off of the "dog pound" point?

[morefishplease]

High 6's to low 8's is the report im getting from my field crew. The emergency aerators have opened up a large hole, even in this frigid weather.

Thanks for keeping everyone updated jerad, nice to see the levels are holding. The ODN has a great article on surviving low oxygen levels and the threat of winterkill.

fish survival ranges for dissolved oxygen levels in lakes:

5.0 ppm- fish become stressed

2.0 ppm- fish become real nervous

Walleyes: 1.5 ppm- first fish to die

Bass: 1.0 ppm

Crappies: 0.6 ppm

Perch: 0.2 ppm

Pike: 0.2 ppm- suprisingly tolerant to low oxygen

Carp: 0.2 ppm

Bullheads 0.1 ppm

[Deep]

Hey all, I just moved here from Lake City, I know nothing about the lakes around here, by the reports I need to get bait at the gas station. I mostly like to target walleyes, does the bait shop have a lake map I can get ahold of, not really the person to fish in the cluster of people if I don't have to.

Thank You for any info. in advaced. Doug

[CrappiesNCats]

Hey all, I just moved here from Lake City, I know nothing about the lakes around here, by the reports I need to get bait at the gas station. I mostly like to target walleyes, does the bait shop have a lake map I can get ahold of, not really the person to fish in the cluster of people if I don't have to.

Thank You for any info. in advaced. Doug

print one off of dnr website. shoot me an email and i can tell you a few spots that i would try. 20 some odd years of experience on the AL chain.

davidolsen003at yahoo dot com

[norwall]

The Fountain Lake Sportsmen’s Club will hold an ice fishing contest on Feb. 1. People participating can meet at the gazebo at Fountain Lake Park. The contest will go from noon to 2 p.m.

The cost is $5 per hole. There will be raffles, too. Cash prizes of more than $1,000 will be awarded, according to a news release. All contest proceeds will go toward the annual Take a Kid Fishing Day in June, which has been sponsored by the Sportsmen’s Club for more than 28 years.

[morefishplease]

Hey all, I just moved here from Lake City, I know nothing about the lakes around here, by the reports I need to get bait at the gas station. I mostly like to target walleyes, does the bait shop have a lake map I can get ahold of, not really the person to fish in the cluster of people if I don't have to.

Thank You for any info. in advaced. Doug

Welcome to the area. If targeting walleye a good place to start would be the channel area of Albert Lea lake, can't miss the ice houses set up there. Good area to start and get you off in the right direction.

[norwall]

1st and foremost ,Welcome to FM n SC MN Deep. Both Lakes offer a vast amount of hard water and open water fishing, with many of the typical species of fish(pike,walleye,perch crappie,panfish,bullhead etc) readily available throughout the season.As MFP mentioned previously,Start in the channel of Albert Lea Lake n go from there,also there should be enough info in this thread to go back through n research to get a good feel about the lakes..Good Luck

[Deep]

Thank You you all your help, soon as I can get out I'll let ya know how it went. Deep

[JIGGIN']

Any recent report on Albert Lea Lake? Going down there tomorrow to take my cousins kid fishing. He claims that a person can really get into the walleye down there. Can I drive on from the state park??? Is that a good end of the lake to begin the search?

[morefishplease]

The wind the last week and today has blown the access in pretty bad to get onto that part of the lake. No way to drive through it, 4 ft drifted in. No place to drive in from the state park either. Looks like your best bet is in the channel where it is accessible.

[norwall]

Does any one have a report,and how are the acesses ,thanks

[bryguy247]

Anybody have anything on the Oxygen level? I heard from one source that they were around 3 ppm. If thats the case, I am getting worried for AL Lake.

[bolan16]

They still getting anything down there? I've heard relly been slow.

[jerad_s]

I sampled AL on Wed and Fountain yesterday.

I sampled 26 different locations on AL and the numbers averaged in the 3.5 range.

Fountain was a little better.

This numbers are a little low but there is no need to panic just yet. Lets hope for some warmer weather to melt some of this snow and put more water over the fountain lake dam.

[norwall]

Thats quite a drop in ppm from the high 8's -low 6's that was reported last wk. I hope we get a good thaw soon. Are both aerators running? In that report from the ODN a few wks back they had reported that fish get stressed when the oxygen levels hit 3ppm and real nervous when at 2ppm and at 1.5ppm walleyes are the 1st to go. Thanks for the update Jerad, could you keep us posted on the samples you take if you have the time. Thanks

[morefishplease]

I sampled AL on Wed and Fountain yesterday.

I sampled 26 different locations on AL and the numbers averaged in the 3.5 range.

Fountain was a little better.

This numbers are a little low but there is no need to panic just yet. Lets hope for some warmer weather to melt some of this snow and put more water over the fountain lake dam.

Thanks for the update. I have a question you might be able to answer? If the lake were to freeze out like it did in the past when all the fish ran up the channel to the dam, does the DNR consider netting those fish and transporting them across the street to Fountain or are the fish so stressed by then that the DNR just opens it to liberalized fishing like in the past?

[wanger29]

When it gets to that point they'll open it to liberalized fishing. It's too late for the eyes when you see them thick as thieves along the water's surface. I'd thought that myself, it would be nice to just transport them. But the fish have been through just too much by then. Their bodies are slowly 'shutting-down'. And if you can remember, for the walleyes, they where the 1st to go and it happened really quick.

[jerad_s]

This is one idea that the watershed has been considering. If (when) the time comes we will be looking for people to help transport the fish across the street to fountain lake. I know I was spoiled this summer with the awesome walleye fishing that AL lake had this summer. It would be nice if we could rescue some of these fish if the kill happens.

One thing that I wanted to discuss was the rumor that I have been hearing about how the aerators were turned on too late. Well that simply isnt true. The aerators will help in a normal, or even a marginal year. In some conditions though(very thick ice, heavy snow fall, low water levels from this fall), no amount of aerators can save the lake from killing off. We have done everything we can now we have to hope for the best. If worst comes to worst, we know where to get more walleye fry.

[wheres the fish?]

well it would be great if we could transplant the walleye and all other game fish over to Fountain if it would be possiable... atleast that way they wont go to waste per say...

[CrappiesNCats]

This is one idea that the watershed has been considering. If (when) the time comes we will be looking for people to help transport the fish across the street to fountain lake. I know I was spoiled this summer with the awesome walleye fishing that AL lake had this summer. It would be nice if we could rescue some of these fish if the kill happens.

One thing that I wanted to discuss was the rumor that I have been hearing about how the aerators were turned on too late. Well that simply isnt true. The aerators will help in a normal, or even a marginal year. In some conditions though(very thick ice, heavy snow fall, low water levels from this fall), no amount of aerators can save the lake from killing off. We have done everything we can now we have to hope for the best. If worst comes to worst, we know where to get more walleye fry.

fish that are "rescued" from Albert Lea lake would be stressed to begin with unless they are allowing it to happen before the first fish start to struggle. If it seems like this is whats going to happen the time to act is now, not in a bit. If the fish that are being replanted show any signs of struggle they will die even if moved.

[norwall]

Temps are gonna be in the mid 20's and maybe 30 startin wed, through Sat it looks like. So with that being said hopefully some of the snow will melt.It would be interesting to see if a rescue effort would actually work or if its too late by that point.(I've never heard or read of it,but would like to hope it would work) I too have heard the rumors and complaints of the aerators not being on in a timely fashion. Are both on ? and why not have them going in Dec or were they? Also where are ya'all gonna get more fry? The Dnr pumped alot of funds into stocking AL lake after 2004 and should have known that even with aerators installed that the lake itself remains susceptable to winterkill due to the lack of water depth n adverse conditions yr round .If there were in fact a winterkill would the Dnr go through the restocking process all over again, only to possibly have the same results some yrs down the road.I realize these are worst case scenerioes and concerns we all have in mind and can potentially become reality,But lets stay positive and hope the major artic blasts are behind us and we get a good thaw here in the upcoming wks. Good luck fishing to all. Btw I have heard few reports of fish still being caught. So she's not dead yet,Long live AL Lake!

[Blindsniper]

First post for me on here so I hope I do things correctly. Albert Lea lake maybe isn't dead but it's in a deep coma, at least IMO. I've spent over 20 hours in or near the channel the last few days and have only had one small perch come in a nip the hook. I've thrown everything but dynamite down the hole and nothing seems to work. The guy at the bait shop say "They are starting to get into them in the channel now". Not sure who "They" are, but it's either a sales pitch or I real suck at fishing that lake. lol

[morefishplease]

Blindsniper welcome to FM. Yes deep coma is right as it seems oxygen levels are declining to dangerous levels.