metro area Metro Area Minnesota Fishing Reports & Ice Conditions

[lilwalter]

hey is anyone been out on grays, and if so whats biting.

[fishin4fun85]

similarities in most of the posts I've been reading is they haven't moved deep yet

[mrfish1991]

Was out on crystal in burnsville a few days ago. Fished in 22fow and caught all the dink sunnies I could ever want to. flasher was lit up like a christmas tree for the entire 3 hours I was out there. Not a crappie to be caught, but this was more of a "lets get the feel of ice fishing back" trip so I didnt mind.

[Slab_Supper]

went out again last night. Hit the same spot(8 ft close to weed edge). It was still producing the crappies! 8 to 10 inchers...

[scott b]

Slabsupper can I ask if you were fishing during the day or night? Any certain color patterns you found more effective than others?

[rcatcherman]

Stopped by Wayzata bait to [PoorWordUsage] with Bob and spend some money and he made it sound like nobody is fishing hardley at all right now!! Is the ice that bad or is fishing just slow

[eurolarva]

Moving around is tough with the slush. You walk ten feet and you drop into the slush. Keeps a lot of people off the ice because you cant drive up to your spot.

[ihc1]

I think alot of guys don't want to deal with the snow and slush we have had. You would not get far with a atv, mine stays at home and the snowmobile is big and heavy so for now I walk out. Every time I have been out, which is 4 times, I have the lake to myself or am sharing it with less then 5 people. I have had fairly good luck so far so the fish are there.

[Slab_Supper]

hotime: the fish have been following the typical evening bite pattern about half hour before sunset till about 6:30. Red glow jigs have been key!

[blackdog1101]

I was out on Spring Park Bay for about 5 hours this afternoon/evening. I caught a bunch of sunnies and crappies. A few of the sunnies were good sized, but none of the crappies were over 10". As the poster above said, a glow red jig, a Gil Pill in my case, worked best after dark. The ice was cruddy, 6" of frozen slush over several inches of soupy slush, over 8" of good ice. There were a few people out by Goose Island, but otherwise I didn't see anyone else.

[Hendo1589]

Fished Setten Lake last night around 5:30 last night for an hour with my brother, my vex was lit up from 10 to 20 feet the whole time we were there, couldnt even see where my jig was there were so many fish. caught somewhere around 50 fish, 35 or so being crappies, kept 7 that were around 12 inches for a nice fish fry. The fish were looking for a horizontal presentation, marmooska jig worked the best for us.

[boilerup]

Anyone been on Carson Bay or Grays bay in a couple days? Wondering how the ice is out there and if you're so kind maybe how the fishing has been too?

[archeral566]

was out there 2 days ago on grays and the ice was pry about 9 inches of good ice with a few more white ones on top. found a bunch of decent sunnies and crappies in 7fow but you had to move around.there was pry 4-6 inches of snow on ice then and wasnt slushie, my dad drove by there today though and told me the north end looked like lake though

[WALLEYEGUY28]

gill and crappie bite has been good on prior. was out last weekend with a friend bringing limits both days of big gills. but you would catch 4-6 fish for every keeper. fished in the bay off the sandy point beach access, the one in between the two homes. on friday last week we watched a truck break thru the ice. just the wheels broke thru. but still be carfull cuz of all the snow that is still on the ice. every year 2-3 cars/ trucks go thru the ice right in front of that access.

[fish-a-man]

was out on greys today, after the rain there is a nice new (very slippery) layer of ice on top. we were sitting on 10" of good ice with 4-5" of white ice on top of it. set up on a school of sunfish. constant action for 3-4 hours

[fishin4fun85]

went out to Seton Bay today....don't know what Hendo was doin to catch 12 inch crappies....we could've had almost two limits of 6 inch crappies...only caught one that was 9 inches.....took home 22 sunfish.....all in all caught probably 60-70 fish....same ice situation out there as what fish-a-man was seein on grays.....that rain did wonders for our ice situation

[blackdog1101]

I was out on Seton Bay today for about 5 hours. I set up in 22 FOW, and caught a bunch of sunfish that were suspended from about 10 - 15 feet. I also caught one crappie about 9 inches. It was colder than a well digger's hiney. I'm glad the lake is making ice again.

[Chad Peterson]

You are correct on being cold! Glad to see thou, ice making time!

Sniffer

[Hendo1589]

Fishin4Fun, what time were you out there at? also, what were you using to get those fish? i had to change jigs a few times to get the bigger crappies and sunnies instead of the little dinks you can find out there during the day.

[fishin4fun85]

i was just using ur basic panfish teardrop jig the whole time....tipped with waxies....did get them to bite on smaller crappie minnows too....I tried a few bigger jigs but they didn't seem to wanna bite that....I think if you just find 20-25 feet of water out there you ill find the fish.....although there were a few houses set up in shallower water (maybe they were catchin the larger crappies??)

anyone catch anything last night on wayzata...someone tell me I was fishing too deep...I caught a bunch of dink perch and two dink eyes....anyone else have better luck?

[Hendo1589]

well like i said in my post above, the fish i was catching were looking for a horizontal presentation, and you were fishing in the right depth, maybe you just needed to move around until you found the bigger fish.

[tevans720]

Was out on Carl's lake in Prior Lake. New years day the ice was 12in. On the 2nd ice was 15in. Starting to make real good ice. Drove out in a 3/4 ton Ford on the 2nd with out problems. Saw a couple 1ton Chevy dullies out on the 2nd as well.

Crappies are hitting small glo-jigs tipped with minnows in about 15 fow. Small pencil Northern are hitting suckers in the same depth.

Sunfish hitting small horizontal jigs with waxies.

How is the ice and fishing on Prior Lake and Fish lake?

[mobyep]

Finally made it out on the ice for the first time in a couple weeks on Sunday! I needed to stay close to home so I headed over to Staring Lake in Eden Prairie for a couple hours with my nephew. We walked from the outdoor center out to the middle and set up in what was the deepest water we could find...about 12 feet. I hadn't fished out there in a few years but I used to get alotta fair size pike (4 and 5 lb range) in the summer casting from the shallows. So, we thought we'd give it a quick try for old time sake. We sat for what was probably 45 minutes or an hour with no action then at about 9am WHAM! I picked up a pike on my heavy ice rod outfitted with a plain #4 hook and small sucker. that pike was close to 24". I was sorta surprised because people had mentioned that the lake either froze out or something else happend a little while back and made the fishing turn belly up! After that first one, my nephew and I set up two tip ups rigged with suckers and by noon we had had thrown back 7 more pike! All were longer than 20! and the biggest measured 31"! My brother also stopped out later and caught a couple nice 10 inch crappies on some minnows that night. Not a bad trip for being sort of a shot in the dark!!! One lake to keep an eye on I guess!

[fishin4fun85]

nice work!

[JBMasterAngler]

Are people driving on minnetonka out of the spring park bay access?

[MN_BEEF]

Yes, plenty of trucks, houses and traffic. A buddy said he found consistent 14-16" in that area.

[Acemac]

any one making the trek to big island yet?

[chillfishin]

Anyone been out on Riley lately? Thinking about going tomorrow and have never fish it. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[boilerup]

I was out at Carsons bay last weekend and didn't see anyone out at big island except for a guy on a four wheeler.

[scott b]

Is anybody driving on the main lake yet? Can I get from Wayzata to Browns?