Albert Lea-Austin-Faribault-Mankato-Northfield-Waseca, Fishing Reports

[FishinFools]

Bundt2k...

[Matt C]

Will see ya out there.

[dan z]

Still pounding gills and crappies

in the same spot as a month ago

Its been a great season!

[Matt C]

As well...but they are looking for a much smaller and slow presentation for the lakes I am on.

[Matt C]

Made it out for a few hours tonight. Marked fish like crazy in 25 FOW. SMALL and SLOW seemed to be key. It was very frustrating knocking the jig off their heads and not getting them to commit. Multiple colors and jig types didn't matter.

The pattern I have found is the early morning bite is much more aggressive and better than the evening bite. Then again, I am crappy fishing and not solely intent on walleye. I'd be in 10 to 12 for that..just sayin.

[skip across]

and fish the far northeast s fishing was slow most of the day but then the and it uended up with enough fish to make the trip worthwhil the Fisher finick but if you work hard at it you should be able to get a few to bitr

[dan z]

Since I wasn't on Washington I'll post about my fantastic day on another lesueur cnty lake. Started on an area I have never fished popped a few holes. Ran around checked then after they cooled off and walla Christmas tree of fish 10' off the bottom over 28'. Caught a bunch of crappies till lunch time using a jig that I've Bern using all winter. Went to lunch and returned to holes an hour later and the fish were not there anymore drilled a bugger circle to see if they moved and no dice. Moved up to 8.5' of water and found some more crappies but the sunnies were bothersome. Ended theday with a pretty nice slimmer.

[Magicman1]

Greetings all. A few of my friends and I are going down to the Faribault area in several weeks for Walleyes--a friendly competition with bragging rights to the winners. I have to choose from four lakes and am totally unfamiliar with all of them (Cannon, French, Mazaska & Roberds). I am familiar with the more typicaly up-north clear water lakes and am struggling to figure out a game plan. Based on the DNR data Mazaska seems to have the highest Walleye population, but not sure that always translates into better fishing. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated?

Thanks.

[mosquitoman]

magicman - i would narrow your search to mazaska or french. i have personally had more luck on those two. i have found both to be very hit or miss but french was better for me this winter with walleyes than mazaska, but thats just me. neither lake will be anywhere near your typical up north clear water lakes - i have a permanent green water line on my boat from these lakes.....

[Magicman1]

Thanks for your thoughts! Called local bait shop for advice today & got nadda. Not sure if he didnt want to offer any advice or if he lacked any to share. We are starting at 5:30 am. Any recomendations on what depths to target & any tactics? Guessing fish should be shallow this time of year. Thinking of casting shad raps & jigs shallow early & maybe do some trolling later in the day. Maybe pitch slip bobbers if we find a few. Wish i could do some pre-fishing to gain some insights, but work's gettin in the way! Thanks again for your thoughts.

[highlife4me]

Magicman - don't be too upset with the lack of information just yet. The season is only a couple days old and the weather has not been the best for fishing to say the least. You will be able to get more information in the next couple weeks I am sure.

[Yooperguy]

Caught 3 today, 20 1/2, 19 1/2 and 18. 9 to 13 ft of water and temps were fifty deg. Jigging gulp alive smelt minnows on a 1/4 oz jig. Hope this helps.

[Magicman1]

Thanks for the tips all. I will give you the full rundown after we get done.

M.

[oleWalter]

Thanks for the info Yooper, were you fishing flats, off a point? Time of day? Appreciate any more information you can provide. Glad to hear you got into some quality fish.

[pikerliker]

Hit Hanska for a few hours this morning with my son. Caught one nice 18+ inch walleye. Other than that nothing. Talked to a few other boats who had no walleye's but a few channel catfish were caught. Caught our eye pitching a jig and minnow in about 5 ft of water.

[Yooperguy]

Thanks for the info Yooper, were you fishing flats, off a point? Time of day? Appreciate any more information you can provide. Glad to hear you got into some quality fish.

was about a 200 yard stretch of shore line with a creek running into it. Also it was mid morning, funny thing was all those fish were males with milt oozing out of them. So I'm guessing they are just starting to spawn on that body of water. One eye barfed up two 3 1/2 inch blue gills.

[dan z]

Was on German today trolled midmorning until a slimmer hit then hunkered down with a bobber in 13' and caught 2 perch and missed 2 other bites.

[Scott M]

Bass up on beds at Lura. Crappies moving in shallow on Tetonka. Waters getting warm in a hurry.

[harvey lee]

I would guess with the waters warmimg up fast, the crappie bite should turn on fast.

Find some warmer water and if it is on a wind blown shore, game on with a bobber, smaller jig and a minnow. Next week should be going well.

[Yooperguy]

Had 50 on Monday and 60 on Thursday on one local lake.

[midnight508]

Man!! That's a lot of fish to eat in a couple days.

[Yooperguy]

Who says becouse your walleye fishing you have to keep everyone you catch?

[brian6715]

That's the southern MN walleye fisherman mentality... if you catch an 'eye, you keep it! That is the only reason to fish, dontchya know?

[Scott M]

Upper End of the Blue Earth is putting out the walleyes with all this flow...

[pikerliker]

Hey da_chise is there any place to get a boat in there or do you mainly fish the Blue Earth from shore/wading?

Thanks

[TruthWalleyes]

The only landing I know of (Besides dragging a boat into the Blue Earth river) is the Minnesota river. It's shallow and rocky. I've taken my boat up to the hwy60/169 bridge but won't go any further. There are several spots where you can launch a canoe, or a small jon boat that you can drag. I don't spend much time up at the dam, but there is a good possibility that the sheriffs have a landing somewhere along the river.

[bigsam]

The walleyes are suicidal on Cannon Lake right now.....IF you can find jumbo leeches. The dinky things you get from around here won't cut it. Saw some 6-8lbers caught!

[Scott M]

Hey da_chise is there any place to get a boat in there or do you mainly fish the Blue Earth from shore/wading?

Thanks

Plenty of shorefishing from the Upper End. Road crossings and the outlet at Walnut Lakes.

[Pflueger Guy]

Might as well give a fishing report about last week. Caught 2 eyes, both CPR'ed at Madison, one 27.5"(caught on HJ14 Firetiger A.M hours) and the other 29"(caught on F13 Perch Night hours) both in less than 4 FOW (and thanks to the two gentlemen that took pictures for me on these two separate occasions). Then of the eyes I caught and kept, two 15" from Madison. Four ranging from 17"-20" from Sakatah. Caught plenty of others, but they were released because I already had plenty of fish...The big trophy-like eyes were hitting on big rapalas, most of the other eyes were caught on smaller floating raps, with a few on mimic minnows. Not much success using live bait such as fatheads/suckers/leeches, but that's just me. Now I would give a report on Northerns, but I caught so many of them I don't even remember...They pretty much hit anything and everything if they were there.

P.S - I don't know how to upload images with that whole url thing.

[brian6715]

The DNR was at the Cannon Lake bridge last night, not sure what they found though.