metro area Metro Area Minnesota Fishing Reports & Ice Conditions

[rippin_lips_09]

Can anyone share some hot tactics for waconia bass? I'm going out there this afternoon and want to get on some bass. I know a few spots but they don't always produce. So any help would be great.

[Mike Wallace]

Was out this morning on Waconia from 6:30-10:00 and got two decent (3lb) bass muskie fishing. Nothing on spinnerbaits (regular or bass sized). One came from 5 FOW on a 10" Suick and the other from 8 FOW on a jointed Swim Whizz.

Couple follows and watched a boat come flying in, I swear cast less than four times, catch a muskie, and then leave again without throwing another cast. Looked like a low to mid 40 and thick.

[rippin_lips_09]

I was out today just before the storm on the rock pile out there and caught four bass ranging from 3lbs to 5lbs. The biggest i weighed on my scale was 5lbs 6oz. I also scene a guy up in the smae vicinity over the weed tops catch a musky. Couldn't get the best look at it but it looked to be atleast 42" or better. Then the storm came in and i got off the lake.

[JohnWayne]

I've heard of the musky production on Waconia, but I've never fished for them in my life. Is it fairly easy to catch them on Waconia? Do you have to throw the big $15 lures, or is there something else that typically works for them? Not that I'll be taking anyones tricks or spots, I'm just curious as I've never caught one and would like to sometime.

[PerchJerker]

I've heard of the musky production on Waconia, but I've never fished for them in my life. Is it fairly easy to catch them on Waconia? Do you have to throw the big $15 lures, or is there something else that typically works for them? Not that I'll be taking anyones tricks or spots, I'm just curious as I've never caught one and would like to sometime.

I would never say it's easy to catch a muskie. And you don't have to throw big lures, you can catch muskies on literally anything you put in front of them. But if I was going to try for a muskie and didn't have big muskie lures, I'd try "big" bass or pike baits like spinnerbaits or bucktails or shallow cranks, and I'd try to get them moving to get the muskie's attention and get him to commit.

[hart0670]

Fished tonka last night after the rain storm for northerns, only caught one, about 24" so not much to talk about. Not that I usually catch a whole lot, but it got me thinking about the effect of storms on the fish. Anyone have any opinions? Have you noticed whether fishing tends to pick up or slow down after a storm? If you see it slowing down, any tricks that get them biting again? I have never really thought it changed things too much, but I have also seen reports of some people going deeper, some saying to go right up against shore, so I'd be interested to see what others think.

[hunterjoe]

I've seen it do both. One of my best days of fishing was right after a storm. On the other hand, I've seen it absolutely shut the fish down.

[jeff127]

I was on tonka last night and it was dead after the storm for me--No pike in 2 hours of trolling---unusual to say the least.

Anybody know whats working for bass right now on tonka---I struck out on bass last night too(2-12 inchers on T-rig)2 of my best spots are seriously choked with weeds now and am curious on what I should be trying. I have a few buddies coming into town to fish friday morning and want to at least up my odds on getting on some bass.

jeff

[PerchJerker]

I've fished Tonka quite a bit the last few days, primarily for pike and muskies. The pike seem scattered from 6-8 fow all the way out to 18 feet, and we've caught them casting crankbaits (sometimes spinnerbaits) along the weed edges, and trolling (and pumping) big spinnerbaits out deeper. There seems to be windows of activity where you'll get a lot of bites, and stretches where you don't get bit no matter what you do or where you go. Trolling was definately better than casting today.

For bass we've been picking up lots of smaller fish (and a few nicer ones) on the crankbaits --- but again, our focus has been on pike the last few days. DT10s and similiar have been good.

The fish seemed a lot more aggressive today than the last few days -- we had panfish following and hitting cranks and spinnerbaits today

[Fever]

Last summer I hooked into a huge sheep head about 9-10 lbs on Waconia. I was tossing a Lake fork Majic shad using a 6'6 MH Baitcasting set up on a shallow break line about 5-8feet of water. I thought for the first 5-10 seconds of the fight that I had the largest Bass of my life.... Needless to say I was a bit dissapointed. They do make good garden firtilizer though.

[hunterjoe]

We were salmon fishing one weekend and around midday we took a break from trolling and went in off the big lake bass fishing on lake Muskegon. My brother was throwing an X-rap on medium spinning gear. He set the hook and we looked back and saw a huge swirl and his drag start ripping out. Thought he had hooked a salmon only to pull up a 13 lb sheephead. Good fight, but dissapointing.

[Wish-I-Were-Fishn]

Waconia today was a nada, as in nada bite could be had.

[Troy Smutka]

Guided two guys in a corporate "paper bass tourney" on Minnetonka yesterday, 1:30 to 4 pm. Warm, calm, sunny, mid-day fishing was a bit slow, but we caught several largemouth up to 18", a couple of pike, a couple of sunnies, and a nice crappie on crankbaits. We were casting DT 6's, DT 10's, DTF 7's, #7 jointed Shad Raps, and #7 Frenzy Flicker Shads along weed edges on reefs ranging from 8 to 14 feet of water. All the spots we found bass and pike active had bluegills or crappies or both suspended. The bass and pike came up from under our cranks and hammered them. As agressive as the panfish were hitting and following our cranks, we could have switched baits and caught a lot of them as well. My guess is our latest July cold front could make the weekend fishing tough. Good luck and stay safe!

[Matt Johnson]

Spent a good chunk of the day out on Tonka yesterday guiding... TOUGH would be the word to use!

The water temps were back down in the low 70's and the fish vacated the outside weed lines. We punished the weed lines in three different bays along spots where they should be... when the water temps are normal So... we had to look elsewhere, which meant shallow if looking to actually hook anything... (although we did manage a 34-inch muskie on a 1/2oz jig )

We ended up finding just about all of our fish inside the weed line in 1-3 feet of water. We worked the pads as well as the scum and hooked several fish in there, but mostly small. Slugs, jigs and worms took all of the fish. Frogs didn't even stirr anything. Seemed like a lot of the fish were concentrated as we nabbed several from one spot on different occasions.

I had the chance to talk to several other boats and the results were unanimous... a lot of small fish and nothing out deep.

If the weather holds I would imagine we'll see our fish respond out deep again... let's hope

[hart0670]

Got out on tonka for a few hours last night. Fished for bass, nothing too great to report but did find them both in the shallows and out a bit deeper. In shallow the best bait seemed to be a texas rigged black power bait, out deeper (8-12 fow) they were hitting shad raps. Also picked up a decent northern on the power bait in shallow. Top water frogs didn't produce anything, didn't seem to be hitting on spinners either.

[scott b]

Hit tonka last night from 9:00pm till 2:00am. Tough going on the eyes for the first two hrs. Switched to a lighted bobber and glow crappie jig/crappie minnow and managed 10, 7-9" crappies in 5 fow all released. Cant seem to put the large crappie puzzle together. any tips?

[Basseyes]

Fished Minnetonka for the first time this year on Wednesday July 22nd.

Took my nephew and a friend of his out. First dock we hit the nephew lost a 3# smallie right next to the boat. They lost a couple off the first stretch of docks we worked and I caught one trying to get them in the best spots. 1/2 hour into it the rain came for only about 20 minutes and it's like everything shut down. We found a fish here and there with little to no pattern. Spots that have been very consistent for numbers were only giving up 1 or 2 fish. Rocks that give up fish were void of anything. Island points with great weed, sand rock transition areas were void of all but a single fish. Nothing on a spinner bait, crank bait or lipless crank. Most all fish came off of the inside edge like Matt Johnson was talking about on weight less plastics the smaller the better. Launching a guy had been out since early morning and said it was brutally slow on the deep weed lines. Pulling out some guys came over and asked how we did. First time on the lake they'd been skunked. Have never seen the lake so busy on a weekday for fishermen and recreational traffic. A spot I've never had any competition for had 6 boats on it and none of them were bass boats. My nephew and his friend felt very fortunate we caught the fish we did and was a fun time on a big lake they'd never been to before.

That cold of water temperature is a bit unusual for this time of year

[rangerforme]

Had a bass club fun tourney on Prior Lake last night, we took first with 5 fish for about 13lbs, but the funny part is we ended up with 3 nice walleyes too.

Caught the walleyes on roller jigs on the weed/rock.

[Riverratpete]

Whats the current water temp out on Tonka?

[RickyBobby]

I'll be fishing Prior for the first time and was wondering how the bass bite has been lately and what general patterns have been successful this time of year(i.e. docks, rocks, deep weeds, slop)?

Thanks in advance

[Iceman73]

Was out on Waconia last night and it was pretty slow. Managed only a few sunnies. My buddy in the boat was reeling in his leech and a northern or muskie hammered his jig about 4 feet from the boat. He managed to keep it on the line for about 15 seconds, got to see the fish come up to the side of the boat and then bite off his line. It was a nice sized fish.

[B K'S DAD]

Me and Bk was out last night before the rain, and we had 1 bass about 16" and the northern 31" long in about 2 hours of fishing.

[jloomis]

how's the bass been hittin with this crazy weather on tonka? looking to go out there sometime this week.

[Go2fish]

Little inconsistent on the bass, been getting them on outside weedlines. Jigs and carolinas have been working best.

[Gary Crichton]

Got into work on Monday and heard a story from Tonka that happened over the weekend. I am sure it was not an FMer who pulled this act.

A boat working the docks in a bay, ( i will not name the bay) decided it was OK to throw his lure towards the docks and bang them off the boats in those docks. He got his lure stuck on the dock 1 time and proceeded to pull up and climb onto the dock to retrieve his lure. The female owner saw him on there dock and asked him what he was doing, and did not appreciate him banging his lure off there boats. He said to the lady with her neighbor also listening to F off. He retrieved his lure and my neighbor politely said that was not a very nice thing to say to a lady. The fisherman than said I have a 50000.00 bass boat I can fish anywhere I like. Well that started the homeowner up and decided this person was NOT going to fish in this bay today. 1 whistle to the neighbors kids and 3 jet skis were fired up and they bothered this person right out of the bay.

This story is the homeowners version of the incident.

Be sure to have a little respect for the owners of those boats.

[mrfish1991]

fished orchard for an hour and a half this afternoon, 4 smaller bass and i lost 2 over 2lbs. lake is very clear right now and there is a weed harvester that has taken a lot of the weeds out.

probably headed out again sometime next week or this weekend

[scott b]

Is there anyone that fishes Orchard at night? If so, I would like to hear your experiences.

[Troy Smutka]

Fished Tonka this morning preparing for four guide trips out there in the the next ten days. Sunny, calm, and really busy for a Wednesday morning. Caught seven largemouth up to 18" and five pike from 27 to 32" along the weed edge of a reef not far off shore. They were cruising beneath suspended sunfish and crappies, and I caught four nice crappies and two big sunnies on my crankbaits as well. Had a nice smallie jump and throw the bait in the same place. Good luck and stay safe!

[Troy Smutka]

Fish are working the outside weed edges on reefs and points not too far from shore on Tonka. In the past couple of trips, we have caught around thirty largemouth up to 19 inches, although most have been 14 1/2 to 16 1/2 inches. We have caught fifteen or twenty pike 26 to 33 inches, and one 47 inch musky. All caught casting DT 6's, DT 10's, #7 Flicker Shads, and #7 Jointed Shad Raps along the reefs and under the suspended gills. Have even caght several nice crappies in one spot that hit the cranks as well. Water temp. in the low 70's and climbing a bit this week. Good luck!

[cupper]

If anyone happens to snag a rod/reel on the north side of the island on Waconia, let me know. Thanks. Shimano intrepide rod, pflueger trion reel.