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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.

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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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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Jetsky
      I'm catching them on bobbers and leeches.  Try fishing smaller side bays on the edge of some rocks but not in the rocks.  Fish in about 6 - 10 feet of water.  The bite starts about 7:30 pm till 9:00 pm.  I also noticed a few may flys hatching in the areas I'm getting success.  I think they're coming into the bays in the evening to feed on the mayflies.
    • SkunkedAgain
      Generally I agree with your assessment Gimruis. Nobody likes a nanny state, but the harsh reality is that without rules and regulations far too many people take advantage of limited natural resources. There are those that will never follow the rules regardless, as well as those that don't recognize that as more people catch more fish, we all need to keep less.   I've eaten a few SM in my life, and they taste just as good as a walleye or northern. However, I would bet that 80% or closer to 90% of all people catching SM practice catch-and-release. Therefore I am not sure what a slot is going to do in this specific situation. Maybe the DNR has some good theories but I doubt the main culprit is the number of large SM being kept for food. I assume that it is a contributing factor but not the main one.
    • gimruis
      Honestly the only way you are going to catch more muskies is to put more time in targeting them.  If they aren't willing to bite, you aren't going to catch any.  Its not like walleye or bass or panfishing where if a fish is in a neutral mood you can still maybe get one to bite.  The bite window is shorter and briefer with muskies and there isn't nearly as many of them either.  You could fish for a week straight without a mere sign of one and then when a bite window opens you might catch several quickly.   I would focus on weedy areas with good cabbage.  Target periods of higher potential like sunrise, sunset, cloudy/rainy days, and at night time if you are able to.  I wouldn't use really big lures yet either.  Downsize a little until late summer and then you can beef it up with bigger lures.
    • gimruis
      If this theory is accurate, then we've created our own problem here by keeping too many sizable ones and not enough smaller ones.  Its no different than the problem we've created with northern pike populations in many lakes that are full of stunted, smaller aggressive ones and lacking sizable ones.   Most fish this far north take a significant amount of time to reach larger size.  Removing these larger fish takes time to replace.  For many years, the regulations in Mille Lacs for smallmouth was only 1 fish over 21 inches.  Now, you can only keep fish under 17 inches.  I believe the regulations in this lake is what has made it what it is today.  Relying on anglers to do the right thing to overall better the status of a fishery rarely works.  We tend to rape and pillage for too long until the problem can't be fixed anymore.
    • MikeG3Boat
      Had another tough fishing weekend.  No walleyes for me.  I don't know what I am doing wrong, I am marking fish around the reefs in the mid 20 ft of water, but nothing is biting.   Where are some of these bobber spots people are talking about?  Any help would be appreciated, I just can't seem to get this figured out.  I am over on the west end of big bay.  I willing to drive a ways if it will be worth my time.  
    • smurfy
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    • Jetsky
      LOL Skunked, I believe you're probably right.   No Muskies but they caught their limit of eaters and one of them caught a 26 incher.  So a successful trip for them.
    • knoppers
      when I was guiding for Dan Gapen on the river, we kept the smaller smallmouth for shore lunch. they taste like any other fish.
    • leech~~
      Church is tomorrow, you may want to go get that mind cleaned out!🤭
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