metro area Metro Area Minnesota Fishing Reports & Ice Conditions

[pigeonator]

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. [/quote

Not to be rude but wrong thread.... You should be looking under st.croix Topic.. you'll find better info there.

[AsianSensation89]

Yeah, sorry! Found it. Still trying to get the hang of how forums are organized on here. Thanks

[Cheetah]

I just got off the ice on Bennett Lake in Roseville, fished for about 2 hours. Caught a dozen or so mix of small crappies and sunfish, plus one 8 or 9 inch tullibee/cisco. Interestingly the DNR doesn't show that as a fish they caught in their net surveys. I caught them all on a glow teardrop with euro larva.

I was on the smaller section in front of the fishing pier, but closer to the narrow section. 6' according to my vex. Ice was roughly 8" at the holes I drilled. Water is cloudy.

Anyone looking to get the kids out should be able to catch some fish easily enough.

[jay83196]

Looking for a spot to try tip ups for pike on tonka haven't fished lake before taking my son would like him to have good first time, any and all advice be great, depth area of lake, bait etc...

Thanks

[hart0670]

A buddy and I fished the north arm on tonka today from 2:30 until 5:30. Jigged in about 20 fow and set up two tip ups. Caught one 25" northern on a tip up at about 4:50. Last time we were on tonka all we caught were small perch, not a single pan fish. Today we caught a ton of panfish, not a single perch. Caught a few keeper blue gils but they were mostly short, also caught two keeper crappie. Enough for a meal for my girlfriend and I though. Everything came on waxies and the fish were suspended about half way up the water column.

Interestingly enough, we caught one of the keeper crappie came when an ice fishing bobber came floating up into our hole, and when we started pulling in the line we found keeper crappie on the hook (on a macho minnow)! Pretty awesome.

There was about 10 inches of ice, less than I found last week (10.5") on crystal bay, which seems a bit odd. I wouldn't drive out yet.

[Minndakota]

This is my first post, so hello to everyone, I wish I had some monster pics to inaugurate the first one, heck it isn't even a good report. Was out on Nokomis yesterday and today for a couple hours on my lunch breaks and the ice is thin maybe 5-6 inches on the eastern shore with a pressure ridge running right through the middle of the lake. Small crappies dominated the catch 4-5 inches in about 25ft. Red euro lava's all they'd take. Saw one tiger on the camera not very huge. tight lines everyone.

[mrklean]

Welcome to HSO rwilson thanks for the report

[pikeguy2003]

Fished Waconia on Saturday evening during the snowstorm for crappies. We worked hard for the fish we caught. They wouldn't touch a crappie minnow. All fish were caught with velixar, spring bobber, and jig tipped with eurolarvae. Went out on tonka yesterday. First spot we went to was producing tiny sunnies and perch so after an hour and a half of that we went to another spot. In 2 hours we probably caught 120 sunfish. They were biting good on really tiny jigs tipped with a waxie up until about 40 minutes before the sun went down. We took home one limit and fried up fish last night. Always amazed and how great fresh fish are!

[Minndakota]

Ok, well this is my week so far. Started out Saturday morning on Martin lake in Linwood township about eight in the morning. Drilled a few holes in 13 feet of water and caught two whities right off the bat really small though. Then nothing to speak of for three hours. Left Martin had breakfast in Center City, planned on fishing south center in a little 6' flat that i've caught crappies on fishing just below the ice. Like a foot below the ice with a jig. Talked to a few locals that put me on Little Lake just out of town. First time there and wow, small and busy. For good reason though nice sun fish right on the bottom in 18' on grubs. Fun time no real monsters but decent 7-8s. I don't have electronics so i measure depth rather crudely so be advised. I have a lot of faith in Martin lake so I went back, this time at 3 in the morning(best time for this lake i've found over the years) and fished till sun up. Hot bite from 4-6 in 10'-13' on waxies. I work really close and fished a few afternoons after work on Nokomis with little luck using fatheads, tried a few spots but can't find anything. I know where to find the eyes in the spring and summer but I am clueless in the winter. Any Help? Also Ice is sketchy drilled out 5-6" everywhere I went and saw a truck pulling off the ice when I got there yesterday. Crazy!!! With upper thirties and and low forties forcasted for at least two weeks, this season is on its way out Maybe looking at ice out before march?! Crazy. Get your perms off soon. Good luck everyone

[Supercrew]

Walked out on Tonka to one of my old time favorite spots on Weds, 20-25ft. Only had to drill 3 holes before I found the crappies waiting for some lunch. This area has been a popular spot for many years, but the only signs I could see was maybe it has been fished twice this year. Small spoon with a minnow head, Gulp and small jigs, and again..... Gulp Wins.

Traveled light with a sled and bare essentials, Ice Armor, and auger. The limit of crappies I kept all ran 9" plus with a few decent sunnies. They are there for the taking, and just need to be teased. Good luck.

[Minndakota]

How do you post picture s on here I don't understand the URL on my phone do you guys know how to do it thanks

[tjoutdoors]

A far west metro lake with lots of traffic. Fishing in 20 feet of water with very small jigs and either 2 euros or a waxie. Tried a little plastic and they wanted none of that. All fish on the bottom and would come up a couple feet and stare at it. Hold it perfectly still for a minute or more and they would just suck it in, hardly even moving the spring bobber. But the boy got the hang of it and out-fished his old man (according to him). But just look at those smiling faces? Does it get any better?

[pikeguy2003]

Didn't make it out on Friday night because the 4 wheeler wouldn't start. Have never had a single issue with this one, but I filled it up with non-oxy gas from that place in Excelsior by Christmas Lake Road. After that I couldn't get it to run unless the choke was on half way. Friday night it didn't want to run. When I finally got it running Saturday afternoon it was running like %%^(_&% and backfiring like crazy. Drained the tank, and filled it up with fresh gas. Ran horrible for the first 150 yards and then it cleared out. Drove it around Saturday evening pulling the kids on the sled and it worked great. Not a single issue on Sunday either. For those of you running non-oxy figured you might want to know. Beware of bad gas at that place. Fished Tonka on Saturday morning from 7:00 am til 12:30 pm. Went on a nice walk with a friend and pulled the portable and gear to one of my favorite spots to get away from the crowds. Sunfish were slow and bite was light. Really had to work hard for the 21 fish we kept. Bite was a little better on Sunday morning. Right at sunrise they were pretty agressive. Had 10 nice fish in the first half an hour, and then they proceeded to slow down as the morning went on. We called it a done deal at 10:30 am and went home with 22. White genz worms with the blue dot #12 tipped with a waxie worked well, #12 black jig worked as well tipped with a waxie or red euro, also had luck with the #12 yellow and green genz worm with a waxie or red euro. The white-blue genz was definitely the hot jig, but I let my friend who had never ice fished before in his life up until last weekend use that one because it worked so well the previous weekend. Should have bought more of that color? We were also fishing right on the weedline! We were literally within 2 feet of the weedline. Camera showed that they were not in the weeds or out from the weeds but were stacked up tight right against it. Hopefully this helps someone? Sunday night was fabulous! Had a nice fish fry with friends and family and the team led by Manning pulled it off! Couldn't have asked for a much better weekend!

[pikeguy2003]

Crappies were hitting pretty good on White Bear last night. I didn't keep any fish but my buddy and his daughter took home 12 nice ones for a meal. We easily could have kept 30 if we wanted to keep the 8-9 inchers.

[pikeguy2003]

Hit tonka this morning with a few friends. Sunfish still had to be coaxed to bite but we didn't have to work as hard for them as we did the past two weekends. Same jigs/colors/presentations are still working for us that have for the past two weekends. Finding fish in about 9 feet of water anywhere from 5 feet down all the way to the bottom. We are still in one of my favorite spots and they are still holding tight to the weedline. Really looking forward to the next weeks of ice fishing between now and ice out. My favorite time of the hardwater season. Good luck everyone, and be as safe as you can.

[hart0670]

Fished tonka with some buddies today from 10-5. Set up tip ups in 8-12 fow and also jigged out deeper. We could catch endless small perch,biggest were about 7 inches. The perch were super aggressive, ended up tripping our tip ups numerous times, and we even caught a few of them on 3-4 inch shiners. Only caught two northerns though. Still had ten inches of ice. Dnr checked us and said our story was similar to the rest of the lake.

[Cheetah]

I went out on Josephine in Roseville for a couple hours. Caught a whole bunch of tiny perch in every hole I drilled from 5ft near shore out to 20ft in the middle.

[pikeguy2003]

Hit Tonka Saturday morning with three friends. We were on the lake and all set up by 6:30 am. Me and one of my friend left with out limit of sunnies at about 12:30 pm. My other two friends stuck it out until late afternoon and had a limit of sunnies and a few northerns and bass to boot. Fun day on the ice but it was a tough bite. Spring bobbers were the key to success!

[hart0670]

Fished the north arm on tonka yesterday from 2:30-5:45. Fished on two sides of an underwater point. On one side all I caught were perch. 75 yards away on the other side I found the sunnies and a few crappies. The sunnies were biting aggressively, it would have taken a lot of sorting but I probably could have gotten close to a limit had I been keeping them, but I was hoping for crappies instead. Right as prime time approached I got a call from the fiance that her car had a flat tire and she needed me to change it. Oh well, still enjoyed a beautiful day outside!

[AsianSensation89]

How's the crappie bite on White Bear Lake lately?

[hart0670]

well, another Saturday and another day on tonka. Hit Black Lake this time searchign for pannies and the occasion crappie. Two of us fished in about 13 FOW for 5 hours and caught a ton of fish, but only about 15 keepers between us. We did catch a largemouth though on a waxie and ultralight pole and watched a nice northern swim by on the camera, so that was fun. Away from show the ice was in decent shape, still 12" or so, and the slush had froze solid, so not too bad to walk out. Be careful though, as walking in we saw where it looked like an ATV had put a tire through about 3 feet from shore. Along these lines, I figure yesterday was my last time out in the metro as the 50+ degree days they are forecasting will likely take out the shore ice.

[Matt S.]

Went out fishing for an hour or two on saturday. We hit Riley lake for a little bit. Mostly to see how the boat ran.

Didn't mark a thing. Caught a few small sunnies and a dinky perch.

Lake was covered in floating gunk.

Not sure what the deal was, early algae blooms?

Water temp was reading at 56F. Is that possible already?

Today we hit a different lake west of the cities.

Water was way better, but the wind was worse than we thought it would be.

We were really slow, and hardly marked a fish. Just before we were about to leave, we thought for the hell of it, to try fishing next to the floating public fishing pier. Maybe catch a few sunnies.

We managed to catch about half dozen 12" crappies hanging out under the dock.

It was kind of strange to think that Ice fishing the other weekend was warmer than fishing open water today.

[abcnerdd]

Hit a metro lake with my little brothers; 7 and 8, caught and released over 50 crappies ranging from 6"-9". They were stealing our crawlers and waxes, so we went to the plastic, they went crazies over pink and orange tiny worm.

[sunny_smuggler]

kings point road was not to bad for sunnys crappies and some jumping carp

[sunny_smuggler]

has anybody been on whaletail? waconia bay has been catching alot of crappies 13 inches long!

:8

[pikeguy2003]

Crappies on tonka on Saturday were in 12-14 fow about a foot to a foot and a half off the bottom. They were not biting fast and furious but managed to C&R about 15 of them in the last hour before sundown on Saturday night. Looks like they have moved back to deeper water with the cool down in temps over the past week and a half. It will be interesting to see what they do with the upcoming weather this week.

[SlabCrappieSlayer07]

I agree,crappies biting on lake minnetonka, but crappies were biting in 3 feet of water around a boat dock saturday in seton lake, a lot of people had there limits in 1 hour, but for me and the wife we manage only 7 7"-10" crappies before they stop biting at around 6 p.m.

[WallyGader]

I was fishing a small lake sunday and crappies were non stop in 3-5 fow started with live minnows and ended with gulp 1 1/2" minnows on as rebaiting every min. got old. average was 9" but got about 25 or so that were 11 - 12", (all released but 5 for dinner) sure seemed like the storm front had them in a feeding frenzy.

[pikeguy2003]

Wondering if the water was warmer in the channel system. I was in Halstead's and the surface temp was 53.4. I tried the shallows and had no luck and then went to a spot I used to ice fish as a kid and marked fish, and thru down the bait and got a couple right off the bat. It was a pleasant surprise. Just wish I had found them sooner. I was not expecting them to be there.

[catchnothing]

Wow even the little lakes were crowded....

My son and I came home with 9 in the box. Caught all our fish in 8 to 10 feet of water. The bite was hard and fast..