Albert Lea-Austin-Faribault-Mankato-Northfield-Waseca, Fishing Reports
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By PSU · Posted
Nice fish! Any rain total updates so far? Getting a bit nervous about our dock boards -
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By LakeofthewoodsMN · Posted
On the south end... The walleyes are biting! A great week of fishing with a combination of jigging and pulling spinners the go to methods. Most walleye fishing is taking place between 21 - 24' of water. When you locate fish on your electronics, either anchor up and jig or simply drift with spinners and crawlers (or troll if there is no wind) through the schools. When jigging, gold combined with a bright color such as glow white, pink, orange or chartreuse is a hard combo to beat. Use a fathead minnow, rainbow or a frozen emerald shiner. When hooking the minnow, it is helpful to hook the minnow through the mouth and out the gills, pushing the minnow all the way up the hook to the jig head. Re-hook the minnow as far back as possible. This will catch the short biting fish. Use a two ounce bottom bouncer with a two or three hook snelled spinner and a nightcrawler. Some good blade colors are gold or gold combined with gold, orange, glow red or pink. As happens most years in June, another good walleye bite fired up in various areas of the south shore in 5 - 10 feet of water. Oftentimes, minnows spawning pulls in hungry walleyes creating some excellent fishing. Some big walleyes over 30 inches being caught, along with the eaters, smalls and slot fish between 19.5 - 28 inches that must be released. Anglers can keep a combined limit of 6 walleyes and saugers. Up to 4 can be walleyes. All walleyes 19.5 - 28.0 inches must be released. One fish over 28 inches may be kept. On the Rainy River... The river is flowing with a strong current. Consequently, fish are being found in areas just out of the current. Jigging with a minnow is effective when you are on fish. Otherwise, pulling spinners and trolling crankbaits along shoreline breaks against the current in 6 - 12' of water is producing a mixed bag of walleyes, saugers, pike, smallmouth bass and an occasional crappie. The Lake Sturgeon season opens July 1st. The river is a great summer option with 42 miles of navigable river and many nice boat ramps. Up at the NW Angle... The fish are snapping up at the Angle. Another great week of fishing amongst the 14,552 islands in these parts. Minnesota waters are producing nice walleyes. Some fish being found off of deeper structure. Some nice opportunities are shallow based on forage, hatches, minnows spawning, etc. Pulling spinners with shiners or crawlers has been effective. When you are on "a spot on a spot", jigging is the best technique. Trolling crankbaits is working well and is a nice way to cover water and put your lure in front of a lot of fish. In addition to walleyes, saugers, pike, jumbo perch, crappies, pike and smallmouth bass are also in the mix. Muskie anglers caught some nice fish this past week. No specific pattern as the cold spring has fish still settling into summer. The lake boasts a healthy population of fish, many in excess of 50 inches. -
By Jetsky · Posted
I'm catching them on bobbers and leeches. Try fishing smaller side bays on the edge of some rocks but not in the rocks. Fish in about 6 - 10 feet of water. The bite starts about 7:30 pm till 9:00 pm. I also noticed a few may flys hatching in the areas I'm getting success. I think they're coming into the bays in the evening to feed on the mayflies. -
By SkunkedAgain · Posted
Generally I agree with your assessment Gimruis. Nobody likes a nanny state, but the harsh reality is that without rules and regulations far too many people take advantage of limited natural resources. There are those that will never follow the rules regardless, as well as those that don't recognize that as more people catch more fish, we all need to keep less. I've eaten a few SM in my life, and they taste just as good as a walleye or northern. However, I would bet that 80% or closer to 90% of all people catching SM practice catch-and-release. Therefore I am not sure what a slot is going to do in this specific situation. Maybe the DNR has some good theories but I doubt the main culprit is the number of large SM being kept for food. I assume that it is a contributing factor but not the main one. -
By gimruis · Posted
Honestly the only way you are going to catch more muskies is to put more time in targeting them. If they aren't willing to bite, you aren't going to catch any. Its not like walleye or bass or panfishing where if a fish is in a neutral mood you can still maybe get one to bite. The bite window is shorter and briefer with muskies and there isn't nearly as many of them either. You could fish for a week straight without a mere sign of one and then when a bite window opens you might catch several quickly. I would focus on weedy areas with good cabbage. Target periods of higher potential like sunrise, sunset, cloudy/rainy days, and at night time if you are able to. I wouldn't use really big lures yet either. Downsize a little until late summer and then you can beef it up with bigger lures. -
By gimruis · Posted
If this theory is accurate, then we've created our own problem here by keeping too many sizable ones and not enough smaller ones. Its no different than the problem we've created with northern pike populations in many lakes that are full of stunted, smaller aggressive ones and lacking sizable ones. Most fish this far north take a significant amount of time to reach larger size. Removing these larger fish takes time to replace. For many years, the regulations in Mille Lacs for smallmouth was only 1 fish over 21 inches. Now, you can only keep fish under 17 inches. I believe the regulations in this lake is what has made it what it is today. Relying on anglers to do the right thing to overall better the status of a fishery rarely works. We tend to rape and pillage for too long until the problem can't be fixed anymore. -
By MikeG3Boat · Posted
Had another tough fishing weekend. No walleyes for me. I don't know what I am doing wrong, I am marking fish around the reefs in the mid 20 ft of water, but nothing is biting. Where are some of these bobber spots people are talking about? Any help would be appreciated, I just can't seem to get this figured out. I am over on the west end of big bay. I willing to drive a ways if it will be worth my time. -
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