metro area Metro Area Minnesota Fishing Reports & Ice Conditions

[scott b]

Kodiak... I don't know what a bena rig is but if youre catching dink perch.. It's too small for walleyes. This is the time of the year to go BIG! Caught a 5.5 walleye up north last Friday. He hit a Bass Spinner bait (biggest I had) with a 5" white twister for the trailer. I was going for northerns, but this guy decided to make a meal out of it in 2ft of water at noon! Fall=Bigger is better.

[edvedd91]

Anyone have a water temp update? Is it in the 50's yet? Thanks, joe

[Bushwacker7]

60.5 degrees at Smith's Bay, yesterday.

[muskE]

59.5 by Big Island

Raised one ski that kept spinning in circles after the figure 8...flared, but didn't strike. Must have been at the boat for about 5 mins.

Landed one northern and shook off 2 more.

Beautiful day overall but WOW were there bass boats out there! Must have been a tournament?

[Kodiak]

a bena rig is just a walleye harness, it has a colorado blade on it,,,just the guy who makes em is named bena,,it is a iowa reference where they are made.

[Kodiak]

well been hitting tonka every day and i am not having much luck...hit the weeds, hit the humps, hit the channels...i am managing perch, bass, crappies, northerns but no eyes...

i think tonight i am going to drift towards the deep with 3/8 oz lindy with a big fathead or shiner and see if they are out there. probally drift off of a big weedbed reef and let it take me out too 25-32' and see if i mark anything..

anyone else getting frustrated?

[CONDUCT]

I know I am getting frustrated.

[JimBuck]

Your telling me. I've been pretty busy the past few months and the few times I do get out to tonka aren't enough to develop a pattern of any kind. The crowds have thinned out which is nice....now I just need the fish to cooperate.

[Kodiak]

I know I am getting frustrated.

arent you supposed to be in class?

[Kodiak]

i am sure the switch will flip soon, for my sanity i hope it does or i will have to drive down to iowa for walleye fishing.

[hart0670]

Hit tonka Sunday morning from 9-12 for some muskies before taking the boat out for the season. Managed one strike and one follow to the boat and a "semi-strike" but no connections. I was casting a #5 spinner and my buddy was casting a whole mess of different lures, some top water, some large jointed raps, etc. Beautiful morning, not that many boats out.

Anyone else have better luck? We fished in shallow around Big Island and some parts of LaFayette Bay.

[Kodiak]

we hit big island area, diamond reef and some of the west side HARD!!! on friday all day...and not even a follow... i mean we fished it hard and didnt even see a fish..didnt even manage a sh@t shark.

[scott b]

Fished Sunday night. First time skunked all year. Nothing. No bites. Not even a bluegill. Fished 8:30pm-12:30am. I think it's turning.

[Kodiak]

report from last night,,,more of the same.

water 60.5

got there around 5, fished a thick weeded rocky reef with plastics trying to pull something out while the sun was still higher than the trees...bass. pulled shallow runners over the weeds...zero.

ran cranks along the weedline...zero

went deep, lindy rig w/fathead, and jig with fathead...largemouth bass

trolled spinners/wfathead....crappie

jigged the bottom drifting across some points....zero

so i dont know what is going on out there, i know we know how to fish..they just are not responding.

[Kodiak]

not even really marking any fish out there, they are hiding somewhere, i am just going to go to the opposite side of the lake tonight.

[fishn]

Any sizes to bass the you were catching?

[Kodiak]

not really. they are everywhere out there.

i am going deep, deep tonight to see if the eyes are out there.

[double_agents]

Been having decent success for bass on Tonka. Every day is different. Been out there 6 times last 2 weeks, with 2 tournaments the past 2 weekends. Sometimes they're up shallow in sparse weeds caught with senkos and spinnerbaits. On Sat, the dock bite was on. Quite a few fish in the 2.5-3.5 lb range. Plenty of dinkers also around 12-14". Most of our guys were in lilly pads or docks.

[CONDUCT]

i am going deep, deep tonight to see if the eyes are out there.

We went deep last night and seen very little with no action in 30 to 50 fow.

We even hit rocks 25-40 fow and still nothing.

[Kodiak]

yep, ms. tonka is not treating me good. She was sooo good to me this spring and summer but this early fall has me stumped.

[Choco Taco]

Hit Tonka today. Slow day but managed a couple of pike (3-4 lb range) and a bass (2-3 lb range). All on crankbaits. Nothing else seemed to work. Threw buzzbaits, suspending jerkbaits, jig worm, senkos, and spinnerbaits. Only crankbaits worked in 12-14 fow. Water temps in the 57-59 (got as high as 59.8) range. Air temp got as high as 76 degrees.

[mknolls]

Hit Independence last night started just at dark. Hit the small island about dead center of the lake. Marked a ton of fish eighteen to twenty two feet. Couldn't get them to bit though. Fish were jumping all over the surface. Had a ton of tine little like dragon flies flying all around us. After a couple of hours of not getting a bit we moved to the south end of the shore for some lat night musky casting. On the way over in about forty plus feet of water I seen why the flies were there. Major bug hatch my screen was covered from top to bottom all over that side of the lake in forty plus foot. No wonder fish weren't biting. Heading to tonka in morning to try for musky. Had no luck with them last few days.

[KTroller]

Saw 63 degree water temps on the East end of Tonka tonight. Lots of last chance pleasure boaters out (yes, many with bad manners ;-)). Marked some fish but no biters in the short time I was out (6-8PM). Nice evening nonetheless. Gonna head back out tomorrow (west end to avoid the last blast Saturday folks). Open to any species. Planning on throwing the kitchen sink.

KT

[double_agents]

Another fantastic day on Tonka in a bass tournament. My best 5 fish weighed 16 lbs. This nice weather got them under docks again. Plenty of bass also caught in shallow weeds and lilly pads. Caught everything under 3 fow. I continue to catch an avg of 24 bass per outing. Certain stretch of docks and certain weedlines produce more fish. You just have to spend time to find good areas. Many of the islands in Upper Lake were producing fish, but smaller fish around 14" long. Same with the islands south of Spring Park. Pick up one or two, then move along.

[Kodiak]

went ski fishing yesterday with a buddy that was in town visiting (he wanted to try musky fishing) I was like plan on getting skunked... well we went out and had a couple follows and had one shake off at the boat...first time fishermans luck.

we also went bass fishing in the remaining weeds and caught some nice largemouths. I had a nice eye on fishing a hump with a triggerx white grub and he got off too...haha i dont know about that new spiderwire mono, i have lost some fish on that stuff.

[Kodiak]

FYI, halsteds bay launch dock is pulled out, i noticed this on saturday.

[KTroller]

Gray's bay docks are still in. 60.1 temps in main lower lake. Probably not gonna last much longer with the cooler weather coming in. No idea if that is good or bad for fishing but I have to believe that the cool weather and a little wind will turn things over pretty soon.

KT

[T Tackle]

Have hit Waconia twice in the last 3 weeks. Fished all day not much action. Both days at right around 2:30 pm my nephew caught 2 nice Muskies - picture included

[Choco Taco]

T tackle, nice fish. What did lures did you use to catch those muskies?

[T Tackle]

Believe it or not there was fishermen out there casting huge muskie lures. Both fish we caught were

caught using a #2 Mepps spinner