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Grindstone Lake Fishing Reports


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This doesn't surprise me in the least. I never believed for one second, that the access was going to be dredged this spring...I don't think it will be dredged this year, period!

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I talked to the guy last year in July sometime about this.  He told me that Grindstone was the No. 1 priority in landing repair.  That they had the study done [that costs money], the environmental approval,  the contractor approved and price set, in other words everything was approved.  Except they didn't have the money yet and now we are in the second year of "we don't have the money yet".  So we are not spending any money on any landing this year in that area?  They have dredged this landing before so why do they even need a study?  It's been done before and nothing has changed there except the build up leading out to the lake and in the landing area itself.  I'm going to call this guy again and ask some questions regarding where this money is supposed to come from.  Lot of waste in spending in my opinion and I can't believe $16,000 can't be found for this.  good luck.

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Launches are going to turn into pay parking lots monitored by camera, just you watch.

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10 hours ago, DrJuice1980 said:

Launches are going to turn into pay parking lots monitored by camera, just you watch.

I'm not sure I follow this. 

So they'll turn this landing into a pay parking lot with cameras? After they spend $16k on dredging it? And another $40k for the new lot, cameras and hiring people to watch them and empty the pay boxes?

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This landing has been dredged before, it's just way overdue this time around, and that was many years ago.  Don't know anything about paying at this landing or any other landing.  We are already paying for this upkeep with various fees and taxes.  This landing was priority no.1 as of last year.  This is just typical government slow walk doing the exact opposite in my opinion.  Get the funds and then get the various ok's and contractor and get it done instead of getting all the ok's, contractor and then waiting for the funds.  good luck.

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  • 4 months later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Drove all the way up to grindstone this morning from Forest Lake. As I'm driving along the shoreline, I can't stop admiring how beautiful of a day it is, and how great it will be to be on the water. Was totally amped up to fish for some trout! Then I pull up to the boat launch...and it's closed down! :mad: This dredging project has been pushed back for years, then they finally decide to do it on a beautiful sunny day, that I picked to come here...on the last day of the lake trout season nonetheless! Needless to say, I was very upset! 

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
2 hours ago, JBMasterAngler said:

Drove all the way up to grindstone this morning from Forest Lake. As I'm driving along the shoreline, I can't stop admiring how beautiful of a day it is, and how great it will be to be on the water. Was totally amped up to fish for some trout! Then I pull up to the boat launch...and it's closed down! :mad: This dredging project has been pushed back for years, then they finally decide to do it on a beautiful sunny day, that I picked to come here...on the last day of the lake trout season nonetheless! Needless to say, I was very upset! 

Could have throw a line off the south shore since you were all the way up there. :(

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It's going to be filled back in with sand by next spring. I probably should have stopped and fished along the south shore, but I was in a hurry to make it to plan B. Had to go all the way to plan E before I finally found a place to fish :crazy:

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I doubt it will be filled back in next spring. It will hopefully be a 3 or 4 years until it happens.  Not much they can really do except keep pulling the muck out of it.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Gave grindstone a try yesterday. I guess the dredging made a difference, but had I not known it happened, I wouldn't have noticed. Was a bad day for my outboard to have carburetor issues, as the wind was blowing much harder than the predicted 7 MPH. Battery got drained pretty quick trying to troll with the electric motor in that wind. Regardless, was still a nice day. Caught 1 little smallie, a 28 inch pike (which was a blast to catch on ultra light tackle), and a nice 17 inch rainbow trout.

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I fished Grindstone Lake on Friday. I was fly fishing out of my kickboat. It was my second time fishing there and landed a real fat 20" smallmouth, and a fat 12" crappie. The wind was a blowing quite a bit more than was forecast so I tucked in behind a point. I'm going to have to fish this lake more often, some interesting structure and nice sized fish.

 

smallie20.jpg

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 weeks later...

The lake is covered and there are some small shacks out on the south west end of the lake.  No idea as far as thickness goes though.  Hoping there is enough for opener though.

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My buddy went yesterday for opener. Got some rainbows. Had a couple hits out deep mid day for lakers, no takers.  He said 12" ice, but its probably spotty because of the lake.

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This topic being boycotted?? Usually there's a bunch of reports...I plan on heading down Saturday morning...My brother was there Sunday saw a lot but only got a couple...

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Was a very late start, but got up there today. Was surprised that there weren't that many people out. But then again, most of them had probably already left :blush: talked to a guy who was coming in, he had a very nice lake trout, a brown trout that looked to be about 16 inches, and also a rainbow trout. Red barn access was still in pretty good shape. I walked across lake to fish, measured 10 inches of ice. Caught 1 little rainbow. Marked some fish that I assume were perch. Got a couple nibbles from them, but they weren't too active. Went deep for lakers late in the day. A few schools of smelt moved through, and even got a few nibbles from them. My dad stayed by the access and didn't catch anything. I'm hoping to get back up there next week at sun up.

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I was up last weekend, 15" of ice, and i caught two rainbows in 8ft, one in the am, and one in the afternoon... got toyed with with no takers,  but marked big fish in 75 ft of water during the day. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Well, got out there this morning. Wind really made things miserable. Ice was about 12 inches. Was still in pretty good shape along the shorelines, although the top few inches were "milky". Ice was really popping and cracking the whole time. Everyone was traveling by foot (which I recommend). Tried for rainbows in the shallows, but couldn't avoid the perch, so I went deep for lakers. Marked one right off the bottom in 115 ft, but other than that, just a couple pods of smelt moved through. Pretty disappointing end to a very forgettable ice season :(

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  • 2 months later...
  • 4 months later...

Went out for 1 last crack at a lake trout today. Wind blowing from the south made for tough fishing. No lakers or streamers. Didn't even mark any smelt! Caught 3 little smallies, a largemouth, and a little pike. 

 

On a totally unrelated note, does anyone know what was going on on highway 35 in the NE metro this morning? Police/sheriff had the northbound on ramps closed off in Wyoming, Stacy, county 17, etc. I had to take 61 all the way to Rush City to finally get on the highway. The bridge crossings had a ton of people standing and waving at the northbound traffic also. They didn't appear to be protesters, as they didn't have any signs, or flags. 

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders
11 hours ago, JBMasterAngler said:

Went out for 1 last crack at a lake trout today. Wind blowing from the south made for tough fishing. No lakers or streamers. Didn't even mark any smelt! Caught 3 little smallies, a largemouth, and a little pike. 

 

On a totally unrelated note, does anyone know what was going on on highway 35 in the NE metro this morning? Police/sheriff had the northbound on ramps closed off in Wyoming, Stacy, county 17, etc. I had to take 61 all the way to Rush City to finally get on the highway. The bridge crossings had a ton of people standing and waving at the northbound traffic also. They didn't appear to be protesters, as they didn't have any signs, or flags. 

Sounds like you disappointed a bunch of JBMasterAngler fans but not catching any fish that day! :(  :D

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  • 3 months later...

Anyone go out on the opener? I usually wait a week before heading up there, so curious to hear some ice/fishing reports.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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