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Metro Area Minnesota Fishing Reports & Ice Conditions


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Got out this weekend and fished the Prior Lake area instead of Pool 4. Made the right choice this time as the Crappies were on fire. Was catching most in 18' of water with a pink flu-flu tipped with a minnow. Also caught a half dozen Walleyes, largest being 18" and 2 16" Largemouth Bass. Total Crappies at the end of the day was around 50-60 with most in the 10-12" range. Best day of fishing for me and my son in years. Quite breezy but a great day of fishing.

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Great post Tony. I have seen that same thing happen now til early nov, and i fish this area also. So don't put the boats away yet boys!

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Finally was able to get out this past Saturday.. The crappies were stacked up and both walleyes were aggressive. If hit mostly the sandbars adjacent to mud,ancored in 7FT and casted up to 4ft to get the eyes. And across the transition. Picked up a few nice crappies too. I did see the crappies stacked up in suspended at16ft in 20fow staged close to the sandbar. I was able to get a few off that stack b4 i had to go..get that boat out one more time.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Anybody been fishing at the St. Croix lately? I've been hpoing to target some walleyes off the shore but have not been having any luck. Please do share if you have any intel. Thanks!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Anybody been out yet on the locked up bays on tonka? I am itching to go and maybe try one of the bays that been locked up for a week... like Harrison's.

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fished a small west metro lake yesterday. found 7-9", most i've found yet. drilled 3 holes & my auger broke so i wasn't able to search like i wanted to but i was able to scrounge up 5 nice crappies, a 12" perch and 5...carp! first time i've got them through the ice. they were only 1-3lbs but they sure were fun on the crappie stick!

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fished a small west metro lake yesterday. found 7-9", most i've found yet. drilled 3 holes & my auger broke so i wasn't able to search like i wanted to but i was able to scrounge up 5 nice crappies, a 12" perch and 5...carp! first time i've got them through the ice. they were only 1-3lbs but they sure were fun on the crappie stick!

Wow, a 12" perch from a Metro Lake? Can't say I've heard of that!

I got out on Gray's this morning. Good news is we've got a good deal of ice. Went out at about 9:30am and stayed till about 11:30, so not too long, due to some really noisy ice.

I'll most likely be back out there real soon, I just had a good deal of new gear and my dog with me and didn't want to test my luck too much.

Saw about 6-8" of ice all the way from the landing to the hole. Some good clear black ice too. Makes it nice and easy to find the hole in the middle as you can see when the weeds stop just by looking down.

Managed a few small sunnies and a small crappie. Nothing too unexpected from Minnetonka at noon. I'd like to get out tomorrow evening, but we'll see how it goes.

Saw a guy on Wayzata Bay too, and the whole bay has been ice locked for about a week now, so I'm hoping to check ice from the landing (near the yacht club) tomorrow.

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Hit Carson's bay for pannies or whatever bites and the wee perch and sunnies were hungry. Most of them hitting plastics and tiny buckshot w/o bait. Cool to sight fish, but some if not most were minnow size. Hoped a walleye would show up but nope. 6" of ice were we were.

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89-

I stopped by wb today and walked out of bellaire to look at the ice. There were 3-4 shacks out from the park. They were closer to the opp. shore than the beach. It looked like about 6 inches of ice about 250 yards out.

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Finally got out and fished for real yesterday. The sunfish and crappie bites were slow. My dad and I managed 1 crappie and 4 bluegill (the bluegills were 8" on the tape) on a little south metro lake. However, perch were biting okay. I brought home nine modestly-sized fish and one 10-incher. Great to be on the ice again!

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Got out on Wayzata Bay today. Got onto the lake from the Gray's bay causeway landing, but I also saw two portables come out from the Yacht club landing. I was told by more then one source that the ice over there wasn't safe, so be weary if you try that, but it was pretty solid where I was. I saw people venturing out over the vast majority of the southern half of the bay.

Managed one nice ~30" northern around 1:00 in about 12 feet of water. Other than that the day was slow, marked some fish but no takers, and had another smaller northern sit right underneath me for a solid 10 minutes without even thinking about biting.

F4qTi.jpg

Also got out yesterday, forgot to post about it, but there's a blog post here

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was out for a little bit today on a small lake. The combination of gale force wind and colder temps was creating I guess what could be best described as "seismic events". One rumbling was so severe that the ice surface actually shot ice chips over the front of my marcum. I almost soiled myself...bite was nonexistant...so I left.

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I got out on lake Elmo yesterday for some tip up fishing.The ice was about 8' thick I ended up with one musky that measured 24' and two missed flags .

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I went out to Bush Lake today, and unfortunately I didn't get any bites with the wax worms I was using on a small panfish jig. I was out on 8 inches of ice in about 15 feet of water, and still no results. I'll try again tomorrow.

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I was out for a little bit today on a small lake. The combination of gale force wind and colder temps was creating I guess what could be best described as "seismic events". One rumbling was so severe that the ice surface actually shot ice chips over the front of my marcum. I almost soiled myself...bite was nonexistant...so I left.

Nothing like icequakes to raise the pucker factor quickly to 100... shocked

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Hit Marion yesterday evening. Went straight out from the boatlaunch 8 FOW with panfish jigs and waxies. Also tried a jigging rap in perch color. Didnt get a single bite. Dont have the vexilar set up yet so cant say if there was anything there. Was my first trip of the year so didnt stay too long. Fished from about 445 to 600. Ice looked nice and solid, had 7 inches of ice, but the point is still open water.

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A buddy and I Went out on tonka yesterday and set up for jigging and a two tip ups on a weed line. Fished from 9-2. We jigged in about 11 fow and set one tip up in about 7 fow and another in 10 fow, both had smaller shiners on them. Didn't get a single bit on the tip ups all day. Jigged with waxies and all we could get were small perch. Switched to minnow heads and caught a few larger perch (4 "keepers") and did get a 20" northern on the jigging rod, which was fun, but we didn't get a single pan fish. Tried moving around to different depths, from in to 5 all the way out to 20, but the only spot we caught fish in was 11 fow. Some other guys by us caught a few small northerns on tip ups, so they were biting, just not for us. There was just under 10" of ice. Nice to get out though!

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Fished last night again on Marion. 8-9 fow, small pannies down about 8 on waxies and jigs. Hope to try a different lake tonight but not sure where yet.

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TroutYammer, did you really catch those at Mill Pond? I thought they were draining it to kill the weeds? and i certainly didn't think there were trout in there. I am confused....Nothing new for me, I usually am confused. Thanks

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Anybody been over to Bayport yet? I'm curious about how the ice conditions are on the St. Croix in that area. Been itching to fish that area for a while now due to this weird weather this season.

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  • The title was changed to Metro Area Minnesota Fishing Reports & Ice Conditions

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