Red Sand Lake

[dah79]

I am looking at some property on Red Sand Lake. Does anyone have any information on this lake, either hard water open water fishing. Any input would be appreciated.

[realtower]

It is not that great of a lake fo much of anything IMO. to shallow and weedy for recreation and not that great for fishing.

Sorry for the bad news!!

[Lunger]

dah79- It's not as bad as others make it out to be.

[D_BOONE]

I have a friend who fishes it a lot. It is pretty weedy, but he seems to do ok catching panfish. A lot of small ones but if you do some sorting its not bad.

[MNUser]

Stocking Report

2001 Walleye Fry 360,000

2003 Walleye Fry 400,000

2004 Walleye Fry 400,000

Can't be too bad......not sure if they have survived or not. I live near it and see a couple boats out there once and a while.

[Hopper]

I lived on the lake from 1984-1993. The lake would freeze out every couple of years. There is a lots of small panfish(sometimes a nice one), average bass and an occassional walleye. I know people spear northerns on the lake, with a 5-8lber once in a while. Bullhead galore.

I still fish it a couple of times a year. It is a good place to get away from the crowds. During open water months it gets real weeedy. There are 2 holes 15-25ft In the fall be carefull of the duck hunters, half of the lake can be hunted. It is not a swimming lake very mucky, limited boating with all the weeds. I would say it's more of a wildlife lake with geese, ducks and huge snapping turtles.

Hope this helps

Hopper

[dah79]

Thanks for all the good info. Can`t say that I`m not dissappointed. Still going to check out the property though. After all, MN is the land of 10,000 lakes. Thanks again.

[DTB84]

dah79, I have lived on the lake since 1984 and still do. The lake has gotten much better. I know that it used to be subject to winter kill but I dont believe that it has winterkilled to badly in the last 8-10 years. The lake is actually a pretty good lake for Largemouth bass. There are a lot of 2-3 pounders. A couple of winters ago I caught one that was 6 pounds while panfishing. Like hopper said there used to be a ton of bullheads, but honestly I dont think there are that many anymore. They used to wash up on shore a lot but I havent seen one now for about 5 years. The pike population isnt to bad either and there are some decent sized ones as well. There are crappies out there as well but havent caught one over 10 inches the last couple of years. Tons of sunfish mostly small but every now and then you can catch a decent one. I know that they have stocked the lake with Walleyes, but I have never caught one. I think I may try to find some this summer. As Hopper said it is weedy pretty much everywhere so I dont really know the best way to go about fishing the walleyes. There are also dogfish which can be a fun bonus fish when you get one. Not a good swimming lake though.

[late night]

You will never lose money on lake shore propety. So I have been told.

[dah79]

Thanks DTB84, looked the property over Saturday, while the rest of the world was fishing Gull. There was quite a few houses out there. I really liked the land, but the house was a little small and dated for my taste. Thanks again.

[Fuzzbient]

I remember once back in the 80's it was freezing out and the fish had grouped into a single hole and openned the ice. I went down there with a 5 gallon bucket and was able to scoop out a huge harvest of minnows. My Dad got a bit too close to the edge of the ice one day and it gave way dumping him in the cold water. I pulled him back out onto the ice but that was one cold swim for him!

[DTB84]

Was out on the lake tonight in one of the 2 deep holes the lake has. Drilled some holes and started my search for crappies by dropping the aquaview down. I got about 6 inches below the ice and there was a smorgasboard of fish as far as the eye could see on both sides. Crappies, sunfish, perch, Pike, Bullheads, and even a few dogfish were up that high. They all seemed pretty dormant when I had the aquaview down. So I started fishing just below the ice and could not buy a bite. Saw a few fish come through the hole only to look at the bait but not bite. I again put the aquaview down and they were still there. I then dropped it down to the bottom and the bottom was littered with hundreds of dead fish. seemed like mostly panfish and bass from what I could tell, as most of them were ghostly white. Later another gentleman came out and joined us. He said that fishing had been good up until about 2 weeks ago. He said the DNR came out and took a water sample and had mentioned that the fish probably wouldnt live much longer than 10 more days. Must have been the reason they were so shut off when I was fishing. I may still go try it in a few weeks. I hope that the lake makes it through this winterkill because it was finally starting to turn into a decent lake again.

[MNUser]

That is too bad. For years it has been labeled an environmental lake which usually means it does not have the depth or resources to sustain a fishable population of game fish. If the lake association wants to see the lake prosper, they should look at putting an aeration system into the lake. We had one in the little lake we fished on in ND when I was a kid. It saved the lake many years. Back in the days of frequent snowfalls and cold temps.

[dah79]

DTB84

Keep me posted on the out come of this lake. It is sad to think that it was this lake was on a come back. This could definetly effect my decision to buy property on this lake. Thanks again for all the info!

[JP Z]

Dah79,

Lake froze out this year........

[dah79]

Thanks jpz for the update.

[JP Z]

Your welcome, sorry it isn't good news.

[harley1]

Hi DTB84,

Do you have any updates on the fishing status on Red Sand? Was the winterkill severe?

[artedii]

The DNR sampled for pike this spring and just recently followed up with bass electrofishing. There were still some number of pike in the system. Earlier this spring there were lots of dead bass, sunfish, and bluegill along the SW banks and maybe not surprisingly not to many of these types/sizes of fish were found in the survey. Walleye fry were stocked some weeks ago - should be interesting to see how it rebounds. Bowfin galore and a good year for turtles.

[harley1]

Any idea how many walleye fry were stocked?