Isabella Area

[upnorth]

Thinking of heading to the Isabella/Finland area and wondering what the ice/snow/slush conditions are. It is a 110 mile trip to the area and would like to have an idea of what I am getting myself into. Anyone been out in the area?

[LETSgoFISHIN]

was up there on saturday and the lake we were on had lots of snow and very little slush. and the trout were very hungary too hope this helps, darren

[wippersnpr]

I was up there this weekend and had no trubble with slush. We were on a smaller lake though. there is anywhere from 12" to 16" of snow and alot of it is powdery. The lake we were on had 4" of clear ice and about 8" of slush ice on top of that. all of the slush had been frozen. Parking to access some of the lakes is an issue though since some of the lots were not plowed.

[upnorth]

Thanks for the updates guys. I was hoping to hear the slush wasn't too bad. Gonna have to call the brother in law and see if he can get away for a day of fishing.

[NorthMNdrifter]

I hear all these reports about slush...now how about the trout fishing?

We had a crew of 4 of us on Saturday and we were packing up by 10am with 20 Splake from 14-19"... Hard to beat an opener like that... Nice weather and the fish were snapping...

[NorthMNdrifter]

No Isabella Fishing reports.... Come on...

We were on Divide... not much of a secret lake any more...

How was Echo? Hogback? Scarp? Shoefly? Redskin? Norway? Peanut? Bean? Bear?.....etc...

Talk to me....How was the fishing?

[Hooliganz]

Ya Divide is really not a secret anymore now that you told everyone

[Woodsman]

Has anyone ever fished Divide in the summer? I've fished it a couple times but only been able to catch rainbows in the open water. During winter though the splake seem to be everywhere.

[NorthMNdrifter]

Sorry Hooliganz... but you might have noticed that they had a write up about it a couple years ago in the Duluth paper... The lake went from a couple of us out there to a lake full of people in one year... If you missed the big splake days after the kill off and replant I feel bad for you... it was a couple of years of some of the best splake I've seen... until the write up... the next year I counted over 50 houses out on opener and a lot of people didn't even bring there's out...

This is the game though... stay one step a head of everyone else... I found my next step but I'm sure in a year or two I'll have to find another...

[crappiefisher26]

Ok theres plenty of lakes in Minnesota. Im sure we all have one or two of our secret lakes. But to tell ya the truth it doesnt make a difference. All people have to do is use the DNR Lake Finder, and they are able to find any lake. Its not that hard. I just hate how people have to go out and tell everyone they know about the lake.

[spivak]

What do people feel is an acceptable size splake to keep? I know that they can get bigger but it seems that most I catch are of the 12 inch variety.