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Hi guys, I'll be hitting Fountain & Albert Lea lake for the first time in a couple of weeks. Never been Walleye fishing. What are some kind of baits & colors will I need on these to lakes? Any advice would be great. I normally fish bass here in the south.

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  • CrappiesNCats

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  • norwall

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  • morefishplease

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  • wanger29

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Welcome to HSO MMEL. Walleye fishing can be tough on Fountain/A.L. Not because they aren't there but because the fish are so well fed. I've heard some reports of walleyes caught at New York Point, but little else. I don't see a lot of boats out there at any given time. Lots of perch, mostly 6-7 inches. Plenty of walleyes, but there is plethora of perch, bullheads, and shiners in the lake.

Maybe try and get the walleyes attention with something loud and rattling, or with a fast moving blade.

Wish I could give you a great report but anybody bragging up Albert Lea walleye fishing may not have complete devotion to truthfulness...fishing green hypereutrophic waters is not easy. Trouble is when the walleye get a good pop so do the perch. I know Bob Jensen was down at Albert Lea shooting a show a few weeks back; I'd love to know how many fish he actually caught on camera.

Fountain has some nice walleyes, channel catfish and crappies. If you put in your time at either lake, you'll catch fish.

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On Albert Lea lake the water is a lot clearer then it has been allowing for pretty much of the lake to be covered in weeds, last time i was out there you couldnt even troll anything or even hit the shore throwing cranks gobs of duck saego, too bad! good for the ducks though , we need to dredge the lake now, not later so their could be some fishable spots, skip dredging fountain lake , it would be nice to get some boat traffic off of fountain and more to AL lake you could try leech and bobber rig but like the post above the lake has a lot of baitfish! if you do catch a couple they will be good size my personal best out on Al is 27 "-28" and fountain 30" at the hatch snap jigging it was a fat pig! and the next fish was a crappie the size of a red lake crappie , too bad it was 3 days before 09 opener, its still swimmin, both these lakes are best fished in the spring. good luck!

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  • 6 months later...

Got into the eyes and crappies last nite out by the interstate 35 bridge last nite! Lots of small perch during daylight hours til around 6 or so then it was on! The bite was fast and furious after that in all 11 eyes biggest was 18" and 10 crappies. can't wait to get back out their soon

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I know Bob Jensen was down at Albert Lea shooting a show a few weeks back; I'd love to know how many fish he actually caught on camera.

I guess the show aired a couple weeks ago and they caught some largemouth on Fountain Lake. Anybody else see it?

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Just your standard white(with silver glitter on back) and green glow in the dark tear drop jigs worked best! But don't get to excited,went down to same spot the other day and caught some perch and one small crappie! Nobody said fishing was easy i guess!

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I saw the show. They bass fished. Everything was caught on jigs & spinner baits. They did also catch a nice canal cat on a jig too.

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Saw some very nice pictures of perch caught over the weekend at Albert Lea. Looks like a nice perch bite is happening if you can sort a little bit and hit the right spots.

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Saw some very nice pictures of perch caught over the weekend at Albert Lea. Looks like a nice perch bite is happening if you can sort a little bit and hit the right spots.

sort.sort.sort. took me 5 hours to get 11 that had any meat on them. its a great bite, but the size........

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  • 3 weeks later...

holy smokes got into a few gills and some crappies yesterday morning down at the channel the crappies where the size of my face, good greif it was some hot action. We got a real gem of a lake right here in our own backyards!

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for sure norwall, theres a select few in the area that know about that hotspot! Caught a few beauty pike down there in the spring some topping the scales in the 10lbs range! Thought about maybe heading out there today with a bucket of sucker minnows and a few tip ups? Might as well give it a shot!

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  • 8 months later...

I know the hard water season has not even begun but im thinking down the road. With the low water levels and reports of a colder winter coming what are your thoughts on Albert lea lake freezing out this winter?

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I know I'm getting worried about some of the smaller non aerated water around here. Prolly have gotten less than 2 inches of rain since July. Pits are down feet instead of inches not looking the best. Maybe some people should get together and petition MNDNR for emergency aeration of the lake? Just a thought.

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There is already a permit in place that allows water to be released from the dam between Fountain and Albert Lea for emergency aeration of Albert Lea. Plus there are already a couple aerators permitted, we'll just have to see how nasty this winter is.

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How are they going to release the water from the dam on fountain into Albert lea lake. It's not a water level controling dam. Would they put pumps in and pump it over the dam? Going off of what I have seen around Albert Lea Lake I think it will fish kill. The water is extremly low, and I have not seen much for water running over the dam for some time now. When I pulled a dock out on AL lake this fall, the tires weren't even wet. When we put it in this spring, the tires were submerged. So I just don't know if any amount of aeriation will save that lake this winter. I hope it doesn't fish kill, cause I saw the DNR on walleye opener stocking it with a couple million more walleye fry this past year, but it just doesn't look good. Watch for large numbers of fish to congregate in the channel up to the dam.

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You are correct, it's a fixed structure dam. They would siphon water over the top. Shell Rock River Watershed District did the legwork to get this permit by getting landowner signatures a year or two ago.

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That's great to know. Thanks for the info. They sure have done a great job keeping track of the oxygen levels the last couple years. Thumbs up to the Shell rock water shed program!

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Same story every year! These are the problems you are going to have every year with a 5 foot deep lake. Is there anything to kill anyway?

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Iowa would get mad if their bullheads died laugh ... Aint no walleye in AL. :P .. none.

Just admit it bundt you like those things more!!!! I seen a picture with you with one of them and you had a smile from ear to ear like you won the lottery!! grin

Keep us posted on oxygen levels and such as it would be a shame for all those fish to go to waste if there is a fish kill.

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Iowa would get mad if their bullheads died laugh ... Aint no walleye in AL. :P .. none.

How do you like the bullhead in my avatar grin

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  • 1 month later...

Any update on how well the lake is doing. I know we don't have the ice thickness or the snow cover, but just curious. Is the water still open by the I35 bridge?

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5 full size pickups drove out on saturday night towards the point from the landing with a couple of them pulling 16ft wheelhouses behind. i had about 10inches, definately was pushing water up the holes with all the extra weight on it.

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