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Grindstone Lake Fishing Reports


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well it looks like grindstone and the lakes around them got plenty of rain this spring and water levels will be normal or a bit higher. hopefully the weather will be more stable soon. this wind is crazy. a good breeze is nice any day but these gusts makes boat control on my favorite spots difficult. good luck.

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well i was on the grind yesterday pretty much all day. overall it was slow. there was debrie on the water most likely from a storm the day before. i tried for crappies first and they were all males that i cought along with some small sunnies. there were three of us out there and most crappie and all sunnies were realeased. it was hard to get to the panfish in my favorite spot due to all the surface clutter sticking to our baits on nearly every cast.

for the panfish the small red and white tube jig was the bait that worked the best. when the crappies were cleaned late last night it showed that they were all males. so as i thought in the case of this lake the panfish are yet to spawn, and not beds were spotted.

we trolled for rainbows and tried various spoons and some small rappalas with not even a bump until about 3 pm. then surface activity was noticed with the breeze picking up some. we trolled the east side with the wind comming from the west. while the action was still slow we started to get more hits and landed three rainbows in the 12 in. size. the meat was a lite orange color. grilling them today.

so all in all it was a beautifull day with a meal of fish to take home and good company to be with. first time in 40 years that i seen a pine county sheriff on the water on the lake, or any CO for that matter. on the ice yes but a first on the water. good to see. look forward to be there again in a week. good luck.

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Thanks for the report, I look forward to trying some crappie fishing on Grindstone in the coming weeks. I am glad to hear that there was a deputy out there, the new sheriff to Pine Co. in my opinion has done a lot of good things. The neat thing about the truck they haul the boat with is that if you look on the rear passenger doors and rear fenders (rocker panels) It says, "This vehicle was donated by a drunk driver." I've always thought that was a good reminder for some. The CO in the area is easily obtainable to get a hold of, you can just contact Pine CO. dispatch and they will give him your number and he calls back very promptly.

I was out on Oak lake Friday night, chasing walleyes, ended up with a small crappie, small bluegill, small large-mouth and a 9'' walleye, so not much of a report. Hope to chase after some eyes this week. Hopefully get on a 2 day a week 24 hr shift schedule soon and fish 3-5 days a week, that will be the life :-)

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thanks for the pine county sheriff information. yes, i am always happy to see law enforcement and honor their service. my brother is a retired police officer and his son now is in the police force and has been for a few years.

i believe the panfish action will be good through june and off the deeper weedlines all around the lake through the summer. i will be there next week again with my family for a couple of days. thanks for the report. good luck.

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I'm still trying to find time to get out. I would love to get some panfish action.

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i'll be there next week a couple of times as well. hope you do well. good luck.

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Hit the lake yesterday from 8-2. Nothing to get too excited about, 1 ugly Brownie, 1 hammer handle Northern, a couple decent Smallies and some small sunnies. Couldn't find the Crappies or Rainbows to save my life, tried deep, shallow and every where in between. The sunnies were all up on the sand in 2 foot of water but they were mostly dink males..not sure if the mommas have showed up to do their thing yet..still, better then sitting in the cube..

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that cold front in my opinion had a lot to do with the fishing. that's were i found the sunnies and the smaller male crappies on my last outing as well. the grind is not the typical lake with the normal patterns of spawning. last year i missed the larger crappies by one week. a person i know that lives on the lake gave me one of those "should of been here last week" stories and she was right.

rainbows and browns will still be there near the surface through this month. this has been a cold spring with only a few warm days. so the usual normal patterns just dont apply. i have fished this lake for over 40 years, ice and open water and still have got to get it right. i dont know if i ever will but it's fun trying. good luck.

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Out on Grind today, boater beware the launch is significantly lower than it was two weeks ago (last time I was out). Very windy today, only was out for 3 hrs. the little boat got blown all over. No trout but took a coworker of mine out he hasn't fished in nearly 20 years! Got him hooked into a pike today on a spoon, he was pretty excited, so that made the trip worthwhile. Maybe thur of fri next outing for me. Good luck fishing for all that are going this week!

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Just like to say, thank you so much for acturate fishing report. I was at Grindstone other day and caught 3 trout off shore. They very good tasting. Could you please tell me is there place to camp near lake? Thank you

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Su, welcome to HSO! Glad you were able to get into some fish. I do not know the area that well, but do know Banning State Park is about 10 miles away.

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thanks pushbutton, you are correct, that would be the closest place to camp. right on the kettle river also, so a person could take a walk to it and fish the river also.

i was on the grind all day tuesday. as was noted by Kettle the boat landing is shallower and it will be harder to put in a boat such as mine [1850 crestliner] soon unless we get more rain. i have never seen the level drop so much in such a short time.

again as the last time out we caught nothing but male crappies, and they were very close to shore. the majority of the time was spent trolling for trout. our family had two boats going with the grandkids and a young pup also. we caught two browns and 8 rainbows. very windy but still a fun day. the crappies were caught on small plastics with a gulp grub and the trout were all caught on small spoons, bronze being the prefered color of the day. saw a couple of people in a smaller como boat with two downriggers on the back. i think they were following the schools of smelt and going for lakers. good luck.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Meant to get a report on here, but have been busy.

Went out on Grindstone on Sunday, and got into a nice variety of fish. We started trolling for trout deep on the East side (thanks Reinhard) and got 2 nice rainbows and 1 brown on a copper colored spoon. We then started fishing the outside weedlines looking for crappies, and ended up with a handful. My brother also ended up getting a 15 pound northern in the boat while fishing for crappies. We tried moving shallow and ended up getting two smallies about 3 pounds each. Great day of fishing, and a variety of species.

We did not see any crappies in shallow, and did not catch any sunnies (I thought this lake was full of them?)

Going to try to get out this weekend again. Is this lake busy 4th of July weekends?

Is there an easy way to get pictures on here? I don't have a place to host them, wish you could just "upload."

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great to hear you had some luck. the sunnies were in shallow the last time i was up there. it's been a wierd spring this year and it was hard to pinpoint the crappie movement on the grind this year. the fourth of july has the residents of the lake and their friends and families doing some water fun is about it. as you can telll by the landing the bigger boats have a harder time getting on the lake this time of the year.

i'm going up there with my trusty banged up 12 footer and electric motor soon. since i dont go far from the landing in this rig, i verticle jig for trout in the east bay and cast the shorelines for whatever is around. as far as pictures check the photography forum and right on top and it has all the info. my wife just downloaded hundreds of pictures and i will see if i can get some on myself. thanks for the report. good luck.

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Is there an easy way to get pictures on here? I don't have a place to host them, wish you could just "upload."

You can "just upload". When you make a post, or reply to one, on the line of tools above, look for the brown square with the blue arrow pointing up. That lets you upload photos. You could also look to the "photography" forum. Stickied to the top is all you need to know about adding photos and avitars.

It here:

http://www.hotspotoutdoors.com/forum/ubb...s_h#Post1219014

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thinking about trying for trout again this weekend. what is a good tactic to use this time of year when the water is warmer?? i'm thinking of trying to get my spoons or raps down a little deeper maybe to the 15-20 foot level. getting antsy to get my first trout out of grindstone.

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first of all there will be people that live on the lake keeping it busy with water sports. so the deeper parts will be a buzz but no big deal. most of the time things are real quiet. the trout will be deeper now. i would say 20 to 25 feet for rainbows and deeper for others. small deep running cranks or downriggers work. i usualy vertical jig with gulp minnows or real ones. small spoons vertical jigging like castmaster spoons in silver and gold work also.

trout will go up for baits so if you troll the east side [which is the deeper side] a spoon with some weight a couple of feet in front will work also. hard to say now, heck they may even still hit near the surface. it's been a crazy spring. but with the warmer weather and this time of the year the 20 foot deep area from the surface suspended would be a goal to meet.

for lakes now your getting to a point where the normal surface action in lakes becaome less predictable. trolling deep running crankbaits would be my choice if the surface spoon action is just not there. may and june are your best bets for action near the surface for rainbows. from that point whatch the sonar and go from there. the lake trout will be with the smelt along with the big pike. if you dont have a downrigger vertical jigging is the way to go. good luck.

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thanks for the advice. did some research and might give a 3 way swivel with large weighta try.

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my wife and i are heading to grindstone tommorow in my trusty 12 footer and electric motor. doing my thing for green grin. may do some vertical jigging in the north east bay for rainbows. maby down to 20 feet or so. mostly going after some panfish and bass. just a nice day to be out. i'll be out there thinking about our veterans who gave us the freedom to enjoy even a simple outing such as this one. good luck.

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reinhard1 I'm jealous, let me know how you do, I'm working in Hinckley on the ambulance tomorrow, I feel fortunate to be able to live the life I have and have a job I enjoy, very fortunate for our veterans! Good luck fishing and be safe.

Kettle

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getting to the landing was a big surprise. the water was up. there was a guy who put his 1950 lund in there with a 225 merc. no problem. i judge the landing by the water level on the tires on the dnr dock. they were under the water and the current was flowing.

i brought the 12 footer along because i was thinking no way could i have put in my 1850 crestliner. must have had a lot of rain with the last storm.

lot's of water activity out there today. many people having fun on the water, which i suspected all along. caught a few sunnies and some crappies. kept none. the crappies were along the weedline drop offs. with all the activity on the water i said no to going out deeper and vertical jigging with my 12 footer. so my wife and i casted crankbaits to shore and got a few smallmouths.

there were a couple of young guy's out there casting muskie jerk baits. i met a guy with a very friendly dog at the landing who cought nothing. he was going after lakers. it's tough out there to do that with the lake traffic as ther was.

anyway, we had a good time just being out there. would have been better without all the lake activity but people were having a good time with their families and you have to expect that on a holliday. good luck.

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Glad to hear the landing is up again... there must be some large fluctuations based on weather? Is it something that they dredge occasionally? I normally fish the northern lakes this time of the year into hunting season, but I wouldn't mind heading back down there for one last swing before ice. Does the lake still produce fish through July?

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as of july 4th the level of the landing was the highest i have seen since opener. that can change quickly if a normal rain pattern is not maintained. there is no dredging of any kind on the landing although there was in the past years ago. i would suspect this weekend the level at the landing went down a little but not enough to have a problem with.

trout will be deeper including rainbow and browns. rainbows will be at the 20 foot level in my opinion. brown trout bite best in low light conditions as far as the bigger ones that are veterans of the lake. one of those veterans are my goal. lake trout will be with the smelt as will the big pike. find the swarm of smelt you will get an operturnity at those.

smallmouth are active in the shallows as well as a few largemouth. but soon the smallies will be in the 20 foot level off shore. the east side and especialy the north east half give you some rocky areas. the south west side up from where the river leaves the lake to the first point is also a great area. gravel mixed with weeds and a large shallow flat in that area are a great place for smallies and some pike. any other info just let me know. good luck.

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Water should be high, Rutlegde got 4 inches of rain last friday in that storm. It poured for over an hour. Most rain i ever see in an hour.

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i went there at the time with my 12 foot boat with my wife expecting something different. i remember telling my wife how surprised i was. one week earlier we were there with my chrestliner and it was at the level where it was just enough to make it out. so with the many years i have fished this lake nothing will surprise me. but i will still go there one way or another. good luck.

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  • 4 weeks later...

ok, it's a little early but i would say that this year i would like another Grindstone Lake get together. it probably wont happen until January but this is a little nudge to think about it. i realy enjoyed the last one, even if the the fishing results where not anything to talk about. however i will be there and hopefully others as well. i realy enjoyed meeting some of the guys who post on HSO.

i will bring some venison sausage to do on the grill [leech provided the grill last time and did a great job grilling them]. so i hope some of you think about it and when the time comes closer come on out to the lake. good luck.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • LakeofthewoodsMN
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