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Metro Area Minnesota Fishing Reports & Ice Conditions


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Hey Choco,

One of the times I was referring to I had a night crawler on a lindy rig and I pulled it through a large school of bait fish at 20 feet. I caught a small sunfish and when I got it near the boat I had a very large Muskie followed the sunfish up to the boat then turn and left, it was very large. This summer I have seen 4 very large Muskies in Minnetonka. Minnetonka is a great fishing lake for just about every kind of fish...

This spring we pounded the crappies, sunfish and bass. Summer we caught lots of Bass and Walleyes and then fall came and we did not do well. Bring on the winter and we will be back at it.

Chris

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I have been having the best luck on the Minnesota river, the walleyes don't seemed AS concerned about time of day. They also keep getting bigger as it gets later in the year. I am ready to put the big boat away, never did get another Musky though.

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thanks for the info, swimbaits are one thing I have been thinking about latley but just too big of a women to try em, Ill have to pick some up though, ill let you know what happens

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Trying the 5" castaic swimbaits down in Red Wing this weekend. I know I can do better than the 28.5 in that I got out of tonka last week. Not tryin to sound pretencious...Just sayin.

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The MPLS Park Board pulled the fishing docks on the Chain of Lakes yesterday. Shoreline crappie bite has been pretty good in some places on plastics, since the rains started and raised the lake levels, but will be much harder to find now until after ice up. Time to scout some other waters for the next few weeks. Muskies were going pretty good on dead suckers on the bottom, but have slackened off the past week or so. Shoreline musky parties have shown up again in a couple of places again like they do every year. There are only a few weeks left until musky season closes again.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The MPLS Park Board pulled the fishing docks on the Chain of Lakes yesterday. Shoreline crappie bite has been pretty good in some places on plastics, since the rains started and raised the lake levels, but will be much harder to find now until after ice up. Time to scout some other waters for the next few weeks. Muskies were going pretty good on dead suckers on the bottom, but have slackened off the past week or so. Shoreline musky parties have shown up again in a couple of places again like they do every year. There are only a few weeks left until musky season closes again.

I just moved to the area and as yet have only hit the river. How are the panfish for size in the city lakes? I already have an early-ice walleye spot picked out.

The few times I got on the river this summer were productive and fun, but very variable in the size department. Walleyes mostly 13" or less, with the exception of one 30" that was caught from my boat (as much as I'd like to take credit for that, I'll settle for credit by proxy). Lots of small channels. Zillions of small smallies. I might give this a shore fishing shot if the ice makes me wait too much longer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I did see one guy on a bucket on Lake Marion right off 35 in Lakeville. a report of several guys in portables on Elysian buthaven't really heard a whole lot with south metro lakes. I think the smaller, shallower lakes are locked up strong but some of the deeper lakes are still waiting for the cold - cold to get enough to lock them up. this wind will be interesting to see what happens. if anyone has any reliable intel on any local (south metro) lakes I would be interested in hearing the thoughts.

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Any ice forming on Spring or Prior? I noticed Orchard was more than half ice-covered on Monday, would be interested to know if this wind opened it up. I'm assuming the wind is keeping Spring and Prior open.....

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I live on Harrisons Bay on Minnetonka and she froze over last Saturday ... I haven't seen anybody out there yet but I expect it soon. Some of the bigger bays on Minntonka are still wide open

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I was fortunate enough to have the day off today and nothing to do...

I drove around the majority of the east side and part of the west, wherever HWY 15 went and CR 51. The main lake, Crystal, Spring Park, all the big water was open, with some snow covered poor ice I could only guess around the edges. The bays, Black, Seton, etc. had ice, but I stayed warm from my car and just looked.

Question. Is there easy access to Harrison Bay to walk out and fish?? Kinda want to tr the early ice there, but there is "No Parking" all over the place...

Thanks!

Phil

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JHall 555

I don't often drive by Cook's Bay but if I pass by it in the next few days I'll make note of it and let you know what the ice looks like...

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I did see one guy on a bucket on Lake Marion right off 35 in Lakeville. a report of several guys in portables on Elysian buthaven't really heard a whole lot with south metro lakes. I think the smaller, shallower lakes are locked up strong but some of the deeper lakes are still waiting for the cold - cold to get enough to lock them up. this wind will be interesting to see what happens. if anyone has any reliable intel on any local (south metro) lakes I would be interested in hearing the thoughts.

Ive been fishing lake marion the last 4 days in a row. we have been like 150 yards off shore catch millions of panfish. there is like 4-5" of ice out there

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Not much ice on Cooks as of yesterday it had been freezing 100yds out and then it would melt a couple times now. Priests was about 90% covered yesterday and I expect it is frozen now.

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Not much ice on Cooks as of yesterday it had been freezing 100yds out and then it would melt a couple times now. Priests was about 90% covered yesterday and I expect it is frozen now.

Thanks for the report.

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Hey everyone, this is Jimmy from the In Towne Marina. Thought I'd give everyone a report of ice conditions that my brother Ben and I found a little bit ago.

We walked out from our marina to Waconia Bay and found a lot of variance. Where the clear black ice was we measured around 6 inches. Mixed areas all over the bay had ice that was white (cloudy), not as strong ice that measured around 7.5 to 8.5 inches.

We then headed toward the sand point (SW side) of Coney Island, where we found as little as 4 inches in a large area near there.

We continued east toward Cemetery Reef and found ice that was between 4.5 and 5.5 inches. As we headed back toward the marina from Cemetery, we crossed over a large stretch of ice that was frozen together chunky ice (froze weird from the wind) that measured from 7 to 9 inches.

The thinnest ice we found in front of the marina was as little as 3 inches, due to a small snow drift. Those areas are few and far between.

Having said all of that, we caution everyone to use common sense, as we are unable to cover every square inch of ice.

We HAVE NOT checked any further than Waconia Bay or Cemetery Reef as of yet. We hope to give a further updates in the coming days.

It's great to see the ice grow so fast for once. Hope to see you all soon! Thanks.

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Thanks for the report guys. I'm the guy that stopped by on Thursday. Glad the area we talked about healed up! I'll be there next week to buy my road pass and start fishin'!

Glockwinger

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Thank You for the report Jimmy! Just have a few ends to tie up and will be heading out there. Amazing how fast that ice can form with below zero weather and calm winds after that storm went through. I thought I heard that the lake was open before the storm. A vary good report for the start of the ice fishing season. Hope to hear more reports of great fishing fun in the up coming season.

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Drove by yesterday. Thickness notwithstanding, the ice in the bay looks like millions of upended arrowheads from the wind pushing chunks up against the shore. That stuff is no fun to walk on, let alone fall on. Walk carefully folks.

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Fished Waconia with my boy tonight...more of a quality time than hard core fishing. We worked and worked baits, moved a bunch to try to find the little finned feins, and only caught one crappie and two perch. Oh well, we were fishin'! Good news is that there is a solid 7 inches of ice.

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