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Grindstone Lake Fishing Reports


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Hey Waterbound...gonna have to cancel this week. The seal on one my car's shocks must have busted, because everytime I go over a bump at speed, the right tire just bounces down the road. Very startling when it happened the first time. I'm dropping it off tomorrow at the Jeep dealer in Burnsville. What a pain! Doesn't it know there's fishing to be done?! Hopefully it'll be done by Tuesday evening.

Last time I went up, I left first thing in the morning and got back sometime around 3 or 4. I guess I'll put this out there: I'll bum a ride off you if you want to go and I'll pitch in for gas and bait! smile

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It'd be great to head up there but I don't have a ton of confidence in my car and this snow could make traffic stand still and I really can't be late for my meeting. Sorry to hear about the car trouble, I know how that can be. Maybe sometime soon, though.

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Sounds good! Keep next Tuesday in mind. I may also be able to do a quick Monday afternoon trip. Let me know what you'd be interested in!

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Sweet! Got my car back this evening, so I'm planning on going. I have a Jeep that I put my shack (1-man Kenai) into with the seats down in back. Let me know what you have for a shelter. I bet we could stack another sled/shack on top of mine and still fit it all in the back. You have much experience out there?

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I have a pop-up shelter that I just put in my sled along with the auger, rods, bait etc. It fit's in the backseat of my car (Volvo 850) pretty well, so it should fit in a Jeep. I've only been to Grindstone once and I spent half my time trying for lakers and half my time spearing. I didn't catch any fish, but I did have a rainbow swimming just outside the spear hole.

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can anyone tell me where grindstone is? For the life of me it doesn't come up on dnr page and can't finf it on mapquest.

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Grindstone Lake, located in Pine County 6 miles west of Sandstone, is one of the deepest lake basins in Minnesota.... --

I just Googled Grindstone Lake Minnesota - a whole bunch of information.

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I went out on Sunday to do a little scouting. Drilled a few holes and didn't mark anything. Anyone willing to mark up a map for me on where to fish on this lake in the winter? Would like to know the depths for lakers and rainbows also where the crappies usually can be found. Thanks Much!

[email protected]

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I went out on Sunday to do a little scouting. Drilled a few holes and didn't mark anything. Anyone willing to mark up a map for me on where to fish on this lake in the winter? Would like to know the depths for lakers and rainbows also where the crappies usually can be found. Thanks Much!

[email protected]

"mark up a map for me" you're kidding, right?

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I went out on Sunday to do a little scouting. Drilled a few holes and didn't mark anything. Anyone willing to mark up a map for me on where to fish on this lake in the winter? Would like to know the depths for lakers and rainbows also where the crappies usually can be found. Thanks Much!

[email protected]

I hear a jig and bait work great!

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Thanks for the tip. If I get into them this week I will be sure to keep a tight lip. (I applogize for such a stupid post earlier) I should have known better.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Thanks for the tip. If I get into them this week I will be sure to keep a tight lip. (I applogize for such a stupid post earlier) I should have known better.

Hey who cares, we're all fisherman. We lie, cheat, and smell bad! The Crappy bite on G/S can be hard to find. I have been there a few times each winter and have only ever found one when I was in about 80'feet of water and it was down about 40' deep, but I was jigging for Lakers not Crappies. As far as the Rainbows, fish the outside edges in about 6-12 feet, but I have heard others say they get them deeper about 6 feet under the ice? As far as Lakers go, it's anyones guess day to day where they will be. I've got them in 15'to 75' feet. So, yes you have to drill some holes and put in some elbow grease. Good luck! wink

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Thank You!! I have no problem drilling holes and puting in some elbow grease, just wanted to work smarter instead of harder. It's a long walk to the south end if it's not as productive as the north end.

Thanks Again!

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Builders

Thank You!! I have no problem drilling holes and puting in some elbow grease, just wanted to work smarter instead of harder. It's a long walk to the south end if it's not as productive as the north end.

Thanks Again!

Don't walk, drive around the road. If you want to try the south end park on the side of the road by the church camp, if you want to fish the north end drive the road over to the Red barn or boat access and walk out from there. Good luck, and yes please post back on how you did, just don't tell us where your new hot spots are! smile

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luap,

Er, uh, welcome to HSO! grin

So, now you have 'question asking' 101 down. wink

It sounds like you did the right thing and went back to read the information that has already been posted. Good start!

The guys that fish this lake are willing to help out on the forums so just blend in and start sharing your experiences and read around some. You'll find what you need. smile

Glad to see you joined.

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I usually have Tuesdays off, hopefully next week can work!

Hey Waterbound...and anyone else interested:

I'm heading up to GS from the twin cities tomorrow, and if you want to come along, shoot me an email: sethclayton "AT" me "DOT com.

I have a one man Kenai shack and a 4-door Jeep Wrangler that I put it in the back of with the seats down. So unfortunately I only have room for one other person and their shack. It would be sweet if you had a larger shack than mine so I could leave mine home. I'll be stopping at the bait shop in Harris on the way up. Planning on leaving sometime early in the morning and staying all day. It's about a 2 hour drive to the lake from the cities, so we'd be home around 7ish unless we needed to leave earlier for some reason. I can pick you up where ever it's convenient for you! Let me know! I'm looking forward to chasing some more lakers!

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So "Waterbound" and I headed up to GS yesterday and gave it a pretty good effort!

We made it up to the lake by about 9 o'clock (after we stopped at McD's, bait shop, and o'Reilly's), and started fishing the two humps just southwest of the red barn. Put out two tip-ups, one with a rainbow chub and one with some preserved smelt, and then jigged around the humps with basically everything in the tackle box: jigging raps, lindy darters, tube jigs, you name it. Finally caught a couple SMALL perch on a little silver diamond jig with a waxie. We eased our way west from there into deeper water with the same procedure and didn't mark/catch a thing!

From there we hiked to the point just south of the Audubon Center, where there is a little saddle just off the point that drops into some pretty deep water. We set one tip-up right in the middle of the saddle with a rainbow chub on, and the other one on the break into the deeper water, and were jigging in the area in between. Again, we threw the whole tackle box at them and weren't able to produce anything! There were a couple marks on the flashers, but they were all slow movers, so we don't think that they were lakers. Kind of an interesting observation at this part of the lake though...someone had cut a HUGE (hockey rink size) rectangle out of the ice with a small "pathway" leading to it from the shore cut out of the ice as well. It was marked with stakes, and was beginning to freeze up again. We had seen some people around it earlier in the day, and another friendly gentleman had said that he was closer to them and they were all dressed identically. I'm assuming they were from the Audubon Center doing some sort of study, or from the DNR. My only other guess could be some sort of SCUBA training. In hindsight, we should have taken a picture of it, but were too interested in hunting for some trout. Anyone have any info on this? Another interesting note was that the water was quite stained in this area of the lake. It kind of surprised us, since it's so clear in the areas further north. There is a stream that comes into the lake just north of the Audubon buildings where we headed to next, that looked to be pretty brown. We're assuming that this was the cause of the stained water.

So we moved up to the mouth of the stream to see if we could get any more action, and noticed the water coming from the stream was very rusty looking. We drilled some holes anyway, and set one tipup directly out from the mouth of the stream, and set to jig some holes on the south side of it. I finally marked a bunch of smelt and was pulling them up one after another on the silver diamond jig with a waxie. Waterbound switched to a whole dead smelt on his tip-up by the mouth of the stream, and didn't even get it to the bottom before "something" grabbed ahold! He pulled it up, and it was a mudpuppy firmly latched on to the bait's belly. It let go once he got it out of the hole, but talk about strange! Only it got stranger from there! We jigged for the smelt for a while longer to pass the time and feel like we caught SOMETHING out there, and then decided to pack it up as the sun was getting ready to dip behind the trees. Waterbound is reeling up his tipup and, lo and behold, there's ANOTHER mud puppy, this time with the dead smelt's head firmly in its mouth!

By the end of the day, we had hiked close to two miles, and had two perch, a bunch of smelt, and two mud puppies to show for our efforts. Unfortunately there were no lakers to bring home, but maybe next time! There was lots of ice everywhere we drilled, including just out from the small creek by the Audubon place. Everywhere we drilled it was 18' - 24". In the end, we were treated with this sunset as we were hauling our gear off the lake. The weather was very nice, albeit a little windy, with temperatures in the upper 20s. The thermometer in my car when we hit the road read 32 degrees.

60.jpg

Let me know if we were on the right track for this lake, or if there was something we should have been doing differently. It was only the second time for each of us up to Grindstone, and neither of us has much experience laker fishing. Good luck to everyone out there!

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Swimbait summed it up better than I could. I just wish we could have found some of them trout but at least we caught some smelt! 100_1155.jpg

And here's the second mudpuppy...pulled out of 40 feet of water and he wasn't even hooked! 100_1156.jpg

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • mulefarm
      With the early ice out, how is the curlyleaf pondweed doing?
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   The big basin, otherwise known as Big Traverse Bay, is ice free.  Zippel Bay and Four Mile Bay are ice free as well.  Everything is shaping up nicely for the MN Fishing Opener on May 11th. With the walleye / sauger season currently closed, most anglers are targeting sturgeon and pike.  Some sturgeon anglers are fishing at the mouth of the Rainy River, but most sturgeon are targeted in Four Mile Bay or the Rainy River.  Hence, pike are the targeted species on the south shore and various bays currently.   Pike fishing this time of year is a unique opportunity, as LOW is border water with Canada, the pike season is open year round. The limit is 3 pike per day with one being able to be more than 40 inches. All fish 30 - 40 inches must be released. Back bays hold pike as they go through the various stages of the spawn.  Deadbait under a bobber, spinners, spoons and shallow diving crankbaits are all viable options.   Four Mile Bay, Bostic Bay and Zippel Bay are all small water and boats of various sizes work well. On the Rainy River...  Great news this week as we learned sturgeon will not be placed on the endangered species list by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.     The organization had to make a decision by June 30 and listing sturgeon could have ended sturgeon fishing.  Thankfully, after looking at the many success stories across the nation, including LOW and the Rainy River, sturgeon fishing and successful sturgeon management continues.   A good week sturgeon fishing on the Rainy River.  Speaking to some sturgeon aficionados, fishing will actually get even better as water temps rise.     Four Mile Bay at the mouth of the Rainy River near the Wheeler's Point Boat Ramp is still producing good numbers of fish, as are various holes along the 42 miles of navigable Rainy River from the mouth to Birchdale.   The sturgeon season continues through May 15th and resumes again July 1st.   Oct 1 - April 23, Catch and Release April 24 - May 7, Harvest Season May 8 - May 15, Catch and Release May 16 - June 30, Sturgeon Fishing Closed July 1 - Sep 30, Harvest Season If you fish during the sturgeon harvest season and you want to keep a sturgeon, you must purchase a sturgeon tag for $5 prior to fishing.    One sturgeon per calendar year (45 - 50" inclusive, or over 75"). Most sturgeon anglers are either a glob of crawlers or a combo of crawlers and frozen emerald shiners on a sturgeon rig, which is an 18" leader with a 4/0 circle hook combined with a no roll sinker.  Local bait shops have all of the gear and bait. Up at the NW Angle...  A few spots with rotten ice, but as a rule, most of the Angle is showing off open water.  In these parts, most are looking ahead to the MN Fishing Opener.  Based on late ice fishing success, it should be a good one.  
    • leech~~
      Nice fish. I moved to the Sartell area last summer and just thought it was windy like this everyday up here? 🤭
    • Rick G
      Crazy windy again today.... This is has been the norm this spring. Between the wind and the cold fronts, fishing has been more challenging for me than most years.  Panfish have been moving in and out of the shallows quite a bit. One day they are up in the slop, the next they are out relating to cabbage or the newly sprouting lilly pads.  Today eye guy and I found them in 4-5 ft of water, hanging close to any tree branches that happened to be laying in the water.  Bigger fish were liking a 1/32 head and a Bobby Garland baby shad.   Highlight of the day way this healthy 15incher
    • monstermoose78
    • monstermoose78
      As I typed that here came a hen.  IMG_7032.mov   IMG_7032.mov
    • monstermoose78
      So far this morning nothing but non turkeys. 
    • monstermoose78
      Well yesterday I got a little excited and let a turkey get to close and I hit the blind!!
    • smurfy
      good......you?? living the dream..in my basement playing internet thug right now!!!!!! 🤣 working on getting the boat ready.......bought a new cheatmaster locator for the boat so working on that.   waiting for warmer weather to start my garden!!!
    • monstermoose78
      How is everyone doing? Holy moly it’s chilly this morning I stayed in bed and will hunt later today when it warms up.
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