metro area Metro Area Minnesota Fishing Reports & Ice Conditions

[bigfishy]

you do not need to see perch on your flasher to catch walleye on an evening bite if I find perch on locator I move until I am off of them you have a better chance getting into numbers of walleyes and bigger fish versus 1 or 2 fish a nite. transition areas tight to weed lines 18 ft of water or rocks 35ft of water or more has been work the best this year

[gerding5]

Lake Waconia Fishing Reports-Does anyone have any reports on how the fishing has been out there this weekend?

[mnguy152]

Lake Waconia Fishing Reports-slow tonight just some small perch

[MinnetonkaMan]

Lake Waconia Fishing Reports-Slow Also for me Friday night was spent on a mid lake reef with only one eye showing up early on Sat morning. Zero hits on the rattle wheel. Moved to pilsbury today searching for some crappies Nothing out there yet besides millions of little perch. Walleye was caught along a weedline in about 16 ft. Drilled holes from 20 ft out to the deepest part of wagners bay and never saw a crappie. I will be hitting a lake close to Wac tommorow on my way home with the perm. Headed to St cloud area for next weekend, Nephew has been getting lots of eyes and crappies. Hopefully they are still hungry.

[Glockwinger]

Lake Waconia Fishing Reports-Spent Thursday and Friday night on the lake. Hit the tops of some reefs during the day and the edges at night. Tons of small perch, no walleyes. Couldn't even get the panfish to bite. Watched them swim up to the bait and then swim away on the camera, no intrest. Even guys who were on a good bite last week were getting skunked. The very high pressure probably has a lot to do with it. At one point I think it was 30.53.

The worst part was on Friday night we were out on a reef with only 5 other houses and I swear one of the houses was dealing drugs or something. There were different trucks and suvs coming and going all night long. They would stay for a bit and leave, driving way too fast as they went across the lake. This went on until about 4am. I won't be fishing out there again.

[Whitey97]

That would bug me, really bad!

[mnguy152]

Something like that i would have called the tip line at least. Either it was kids drinking or drugs like you said. Who knows it could have been a methlab?.

[jholland]

Go2Fish - I live on Minnetonka and couldn't have described it any better. It's a really good lake for beginners, although it's a really bad lake for beginners. Finding consistent fish isn't an issue, finding consistent fish of decent size is a whole nother story. Some great advice you have though. Weedlines weedlines weedlines. Gauranteed to put you on SOME fish.

As for myself, I made it out at about 5:30 hitting Minnetonka in search of crappies. Started in Wayzata with little luck. Don't think I saw one fish in less then 20' of water, although, I didn't do much searching deeper then that.

Moved onto a smaller bay and noticed a few shacks broken into. No good, sorry if this was anyones. If it weren't for seeing these I would've probably brought the wheeler out there ASAP because the fishing was great given I didn't setup there until about 10am. 10-1:30 and I got a tons of small sunnies, 6 nice ~8" keepers, and a handful of crappies with the biggest being just under 12.

My advice? 30+ fow, along a weedline or a break. Deeper seems to be doin better.

[Whitey97]

call the cops because of some kids drinking? haven't we all done that? a little harsh to ruin a kids future just to get a minor while drinking in the ice house isn't it? to each their own I guess....

[mnguy152]

Well if it is mess up his fishing? Be the same if they were next to your set up.

[acman2u]

call the cops because of some kids drinking? haven't we all done that? a little harsh to ruin a kids future just to get a minor while drinking in the ice house isn't it? to each their own I guess....

Easy words to preach until he or she is your son/daughter. Or worst yet, he/she "accidentally" kills your son/daughter/mother/friend because hey, "we all did it". Where is the kids "future" now? Big difference between having fun responsibly and being stupid or intrusive.

[Rhino32]

Fished Prior today from 10am-2pm. Put 10 gills and 2 crappies on the ice. 22 FOW. Fish were finicky. It took me an hour to figure it out. Had to get them to chase. The fish were found from 22' to 18'. When I would drop my jig to the fishes level, they would not bite. When I jigged at 15' they would race up and take it (most of the time). If they didn't take it they would just sit there, then more would crowd around my jig and they wouldn't bite (It was kind of like, "I'm not going to eat it, you eat it"). I would reel up, the fish would leave, and I would start the process all over again.

[Scandibohemian]

I had the same thing happening on Minnetonka yesterday. Finicky fish are frustrating. At least a few northerns took interest in my crappie lure!

Did you find them on a weed line or were they sitting on a break?

[Rhino32]

I was fishing on long basin in a hole that was 2-3' deeper than the basin. In the past few weeks the fish are moving to deeper water. Tried fishing in 15 FOW last week, with little success, they seemed more abundant at 22 FOW. I was happy to see a few crappies come up.

[Carl J.]

I have a perm out there sitting in 19fow the crappie bite has been there i found out what works best is orange and white glow jigs with smaller crappie minnows i had the same problem i was moving to the fish on the graph and they didnt want nothing to do with it so i just let em sit and they started biting

[bigfish24]

I've been have all my crappies come in anywhere from 18ft to about 25ft. My bait

that i been using are waxes put two or three on.does anyone know what the eyes are hitting on and at what depht?

[Carl J.]

Not to sure about the eyes was out last wed night using shiners in 19ft had to bites hooked into one broke my line probley thinking it was a pike On the other note does anyone else have a perm out on prior because my shack got shot by paint balls i swear these kids need to find something better to do maybe they schould try fishing for once instead of wrecking other peoples stuff

[Carl J.]

Not to sure about the eyes was out last wed night using shiners in 19ft had to bites hooked into one broke my line probley thinking it was a pike On the other note does anyone else have a perm out on prior because my shack got shot by paint balls i swear these kids need to find something better to do maybe they schould try fishing for once instead of wrecking other peoples stuff

[Carl J.]

But was out on sat got there about noon me and 2 friends brought home half a pail of blue gills smallest being about 7in and biggest 9 1/2in and some nice crappie i got a perm off the sportsman access its a creamcolered one that says crappie hunter on it stop on out if you see my truck there and have a beer and talk some fishin (green truck chevy my brother also fishes out there)

[SWMuskeye]

Had a good day fishing yesterday on Minnetonka on the southeast side of the lake in the permanent house. Am in 23' of water off a point, and the walleyes were hitting shiners on the rattle reels on a blue glow demon #4 worked best, and on a red buckshot spoon with a minnowhead. Released everything, and ended up with 5 walleyes for the evening.

[stealth3350]

was on waconia friday setup up the perm using my gps.. found what looked like a good spot no one around at all! gave it shot fished 4:30 till morning sat.. caught a 25inch 6.8lbs at 5:30am and lost one that i swear was bigger..no other bites other than 3inch pesky perch.. i dont understand how people put there houses right on top of each other.. some of those groups of houses looks like some people couldnt even move there house if they wanted too!! whatevr anyone heard were the crappies biting

[bigfish24]

cool might have to take u up on that.

[Sealegs]

was on waconia friday setup up the perm using my gps.. found what looked like a good spot no one around at all! gave it shot fished 4:30 till morning sat.. caught a 25inch 6.8lbs at 5:30am and lost one that i swear was bigger..no other bites other than 3inch pesky perch.. i dont understand how people put there houses right on top of each other.. some of those groups of houses looks like some people couldnt even move there house if they wanted too!! whatevr anyone heard were the crappies biting

I moved my house into one of the shanty towns on Waconia last thursday. I went out found a spot not too close to any one else but still marked fish. I was conscious of the fact that I wanted to allow some space between houses. Well when I came out Friday evening someone put their house about 7ft from my front door!!! Well the next day I went out and i brought the kids out for the sundown bite and it was: Door Opened door slammed shut continuously, screams for dad from the outside, kids outside yelling at each other while building a fort, into the truck honking the horn, lights on lights off, kids being kids. The uninvited neighbor may not be around for long.

[hookie]

I brought mine out Saturday evening and had a dickens of a time trying to get mine off the trailer. I apologize for the noise and such trying to get my house off the trailer and my blaze unstuck. I try to be as courteous as possible. What is the rule of thumb as for distance from another house? I try to stay at least 40 feet from another house. I’m sure most people would prefer to see you 100 yards away but we have to be real here and to spread that far out on Pillsbury, Cemetery, and Kegs and so on. That would be impossible. So what’s the happy medium?

[Where's Walter?]

bumping this one up - There's a lot of houses out on Cooks, is there any catching going on?

[Rhino32]

I have never caught a Walleye on Prior, so I couldn't tell you what they are hitting on. I wish I knew because I don't think there are any in there. Just kidding of course....Just sayin.

[eurolarva]

I fished Minnetonka Saturday night. I don't know the lake so I cant say exactly where I was but my navionics chip showed the deepest part of the area I was in was 15 ft. I marked 11 ft according to my flasher. From 4 to 6 pm the crappies hit hard on both Euros with a jig and crappie minnows. I would have had a limit if I had not lost two at the hole. Biggest was almost 12 inches and I think at least one that I lost in the hole was bigger. Was badgered with small sunfish till 4. I have been driving to Lindstrom and Clearwater to get decent fishing. I guess staying in the metro has its benefits.

[blackdog1101]

The guys right off the landing on Cooks are fishing for walleye.

I'm told that years ago Halsteds Bay was a good pannie bay, but that they did some sort of treatment to reduce the amount of muck on the bottom, and that the pannies never came back. I got this from an old timer here in Mound, but I don't know if there's any factualness in this, or if it's just hearsay.

[Whitey97]

nice, I've been getting them in that range on Spring.

[waterbound]

I was out on Gray's Bay on Minnetonka this afternoon for a couple hours. I was in 10 feet of water and I dropped a line down with a crappie minnow and a second one with some wax worms. I had a perch that was maybe 3" taste a wax worm but he didn't touch the hook and then I got a pike that was 8" at best nail my crappie minnow. After releasing the pike I had a small sunny hit my jig with the waxies but he got away without a hook in him too. After that I started packing up and some guys near me got a pike that was about 24" on a tip up. Not a bad way to spend a few hours.