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

[Matt C]

Originally Posted By: bunt2k

Hit Mazaska tonight from 7pm till 9:45pm.

Right off the bat nailed a piggy 8" sunny. He was FAT. Weedline 10FOW. (plastics) Hit a few more in the 6" range.

Made a move to 1.5 to 2.5 FOW. Demolished the crappies with leeches. They hit aggressive! Mostly male in the 8-10" range. Also a boat load of sunny's that were smallish.

Had a 3~ 4 lb green carp. I will admit was fun on my ultra light and 4lb mono.

Lost a very large fish (northern) in the shallows also. It took a good 50 yards of my line before it broke off.

I will be back out there Monday all day, and have room for 2 or 3 ( i am flying solo) if anyone cares to catch dinner for their family!

where on Mazaska were you? I fished for 6 hours in the shallows and couldnt get a crappie off a jig minnow combo.

welcome to FM!

East bay produced the crappies.

[Muddog]

This is a pic, I posted last year as White Bass chop. When ever I see the water like this I keep an eye out for ripples and stuff breaking the surface. A small floating Rap will do the trick too!

[local laker]

I took the wife out yesterday,her fav,the sunnies were biting like crazy!I cleaned a limit of nice male's,no females.Threw back just as many.I parked in a thick weed bed & we fished the inside of it.It was a toss up between waxies & angle worms.Only fished 1.5 hours,non stop action.Fun time on my favorite lake.Some of you know which one that is.Go get'em!

[french_lake_kid]

Put the bass gear down and picked up the fireballs and leaches this a.m., besides a sunfish and some tanker sheephead, this lone 24"er came in 9FOW on a weed point, swam to see anohter day, also did my cell phone

[Matt C]

Nice fish! Wonder if that cell phone is next to one of mine...seems to be a fish magnet

[french_lake_kid]

Mine wasn't a blackberry though!!! also it went swimming in my livewell w/ mr. walter, not the lake thankfully, still got my sim-card

[cbohn]

good morning, I'm new to the site but like it a lot!! wondering if i could get some good advice, going out this weekend with a coulple of guy's that don't fish very often and would really like to get some eye's!!! i've tried a few lakes in the last coulpe of weeks and not much luck of any kind. any advice would be great! thanks much

[MMS3rd]

I went out to a local lake yesterday around 5PM with my wife. We did a little trolling (big news there) along the weed lines and had a few strikes but no fish. So we changed things up and drifed along the weed line and threw our lures to them. This was a perfect time to try out some of my newer big stuff. So I started throwing a Big Game Woodchopper/"Amazon Ripper" (a top water lure). I guess it's a hybrid of the two. Well it was getting late so there wasn't alot of time. After a few cast I had a Northern Pike strike the lure from below, blowing the lure and the fish 2 feet out of the water. I didn't get a hook into it. A few cast later I had a much larger one come in from behind, making a wake and over taking the lure. After a short fight it throw the lure.

Now that is fun fishing! I have replaced the hooks with ones with a wider gap and I am now waiting to go back out to do it again. It's fun stuff.

I do a lot of topwater for northerns in MN and in Canada...a lot of times tend to catch smaller ones, but also can catch big ones in early morning bays/shallow weeds...unlike bass, northerns might take 2, 3 even 4 tries to actually hit the lure (usually some form of spook...4 inches). I love watching the fish hit. Some will come out like a dolphin and some come out horizontal....have no idea how they make their bodies do that. Would make a great picture.

Just add that we have brought northerns up from 6 feet deep or more to hit a topwater...they are just so mean....

[Morneau132]

Mine wasn't a blackberry though!!! also it went swimming in my livewell w/ mr. walter, not the lake thankfully, still got my sim-card

Try sticking your phone in a bag of dry white rice for 24 hours... It works to suck out all the moisture!

[french_lake_kid]

Morneau, tried that, so far no go...

cbohn, email me

[Team Otter]

good morning, I'm new to the site but like it a lot!! wondering if i could get some good advice, going out this weekend with a coulple of guy's that don't fish very often and would really like to get some eye's!!! i've tried a few lakes in the last coulpe of weeks and not much luck of any kind. any advice would be great! thanks much

Have a look at the post titled "It's Starting".

[Team Otter]

South Central MN Weekly Fishing Report, 6-5-09

The spring winds we were darn near started getting accustomed to gave us a bit of break this past week but we need rain badly! All that aside, though, if you spent any time walleye fishing in shallow water this past week, you know as much as I that the fish are settling into their typical summer pattern even a touch earlier than normal. Water clarity has reduced to less than a foot and vegetation is emerging on specific areas of our local lakes and this is where your focus should start. Pitching and casting crankbaits and beetle spins to 1 - 4' of water has been most productive but don't rule out the water right near those areas but a touch deeper; say 5 - 9' of water. When fishing out away from the shallow,cloudier water and/or vegetation, troll rather than pitch or cast. The deeper bite slowed to a crawl this last week but it's still worth a look if things aren't working in the skinny water. When deeper (i.e. 12+'), focus along the outside edges of both emergent and submergent vegetation. Also, if there are deep rocks available, give a spot like that some of your time too. 18 - 24' of water, over rocks, is a good depth range to work. Continue using as light a jig as possible and tip with a leech or night crawler but be prepared to catch more than just walleyes (i.e. pan fish and rough fish). If you'd like to sort through these other species, pick up your speed a little and fish with a bottom-bouncer (or 3-way) and spinner/night crawler combination. Main lake water temperatures are now fairly steady in the mid to high 60's.

The pan fish bite remains pretty darn good in the area even though the amount of reports are down. When targeting crappies and 'gills search near gravel and sand to mud transitions or on inside weedlines. Pre-spawning and spawning fish are being caught, so you may be able to be pretty aggressive with your presentation or slower, depending on how the fish are reacting. Some of the better presentations this past week have been tube jigs and hair jigs. Bait or no bait? It's up to you...

[Muddog]

I hung out under a bridge this morning with my fellow Trolls. Let me tell you the bite was on! Saugers, Catfish, Suckers, Carp and Sturgeon. Thing were a little wet so I didn’t fool around with pics.

[Waters]

Was also out today in the boat we ended up with 7 eyes 14 to 18 inchs and 5 pike 25 to 33 inchs was a fun day

[smalltownboi2008]

Muddog,

What bridge were you under? Was it the one in St.Peter on highway 99? I have seen alot of people have been fishing down there and wondering if you were one of them. I noticed the sandbars are comming out so i think fishing the Minnesota River would be a good idea for come catfish here within the next month or so if it aint already. Once the temperatures get up in the mid to high 80's it should really pick up.

[cbohn]

that's awsome with the weather condition's!! what lake did you hit up?

[riverrat56]

I noticed the sandbars are comming out so i think fishing the Minnesota River would be a good idea for come catfish here within the next month or so if it aint already. Once the temperatures get up in the mid to high 80's it should really pick up.

The flathead bite has been going strong for upwards of three weeks already, if you want to get into a big flat now is the time before the spawn hits.

[Waters]

We got back out today was out the water by 9 am and had a 18 inch eye in the boat by 9:15 we ended up with 9 more eyes 14 to 18 and 3 pike 1 dog fish and alot of sheephead it has been a really cold but good weekend of fishing.We have been working 3 to 10 ft next to the weed lines using live bait. The shallow eye bite is on right now I will post some pics later Also ended up with 3 bass 16 to 19

[smalltownboi2008]

fished madison tonight for a while. fishing was really slow and only managed to catch a couple of panfish and some sheephead. it started to rain but that only lasted for 5 min if that. lots of boats out and the lake was calm tonight. DNR was also out there doing a fish count with the shocker. lots of nice fish of all species. there out there. the trick is to know how to get them to bite. thinking about headed out there early tomorrow morning by myself if weather cooperates.

[KTapper]

I had a decent weekend on the water. Caught 2 bowfin one being 30 1/2" and a few nice yellow bullhead biggest being 15". I found a huge school of sheephead it was fun they hit hard and put up a fight, I was hoping to weed through them to get some walleye but that didn't happen. Also found huge! schools of crappies got tons of them biggest was 13" and was vertical jigging with the vex with a jig and minnow and also a jigging rap. Also trolled a lindy and got a perch. No walleyes pretty much caught everyother species.

[morefishplease]

After spending 4 days on Upper Red lake walleye fishing I decided to try some crappie fishing tonight. Did well finding crappies in shallow by shore, all pretty small but fun to catch and release.

[zepman]

Found a really nice school of white bass the other night which was a blast. Probably caught 7-8 of them in a 10 minute time frame and then they were off. Found them fishing for walleyes but couldn't get any of them to play that night. Water is getting that "weird" color to it now after the rain and with some of the weeds starting to peak and fall off.

[Morneau132]

Nice weekend report Ksnap!

[KTapper]

Nice weekend report Ksnap!

Seems as though the word about Ksnap has gotten around! ha

[PDOGG]

Originally Posted By: Morneau132

Nice weekend report Ksnap!

Seems as though the word about Ksnap has gotten around! ha

Just don't forget the guy's that helped develop KSnap Outdoor's when you hit the bigtime. When are we filming "Vertical Jigging rattle rap's" and "Aluminum cans as Rattle Reels, there not just for beverage's anymore" ?

[smnduck]

Local Mankato lake, casting a jig with gulp leeches,along the outside weedline. Skip the jig through the "thin" out side edge of the weeds using a wiggle action to break it loose. The biggest eye was 20", not huge but lots of 10"-15" fish. Boat control and stealth were more key than color of the jig. If your trolling motor prop was hitting weeds then you had to move out of them and move on down the line. It seemed that it would spook the bite away.

[KTapper]

Just don't forget the guy's that helped develop KSnap Outdoor's when you hit the bigtime. When are we filming "Vertical Jigging rattle rap's" and "Aluminum cans as Rattle Reels, there not just for beverage's anymore" ?

The aluminum can was classic the can would drop and everyone would stop. That was Shaggy's idea right? I can't believe we never caught a fish with the rattle raps!

[PDOGG]

Originally Posted By: PDOGG

Just don't forget the guy's that helped develop KSnap Outdoor's when you hit the bigtime. When are we filming "Vertical Jigging rattle rap's" and "Aluminum cans as Rattle Reels, there not just for beverage's anymore" ?

The aluminum can was classic the can would drop and everyone would stop. That was Shaggy's idea right? I can't believe we never caught a fish with the rattle raps!

I did get one small one and then stopped using them if I remember right.

[Hookey]

Say speaking of 'cans' would a can reel be considered as a suitable rod selection on the upcoming Bass tournament or must we use the Barbie poles ?

If cans will work put me down for a Miller Lite casting can. I need to think a while on the lure selection.

I spose someone should start a new thread. I know Mike and Nick have been working on the ground rules for the outing but I have seen nothing in writing. Is it still in the works ?

[riverrat56]

Shhhh.....This is a covert operation.....

Once my work schedual gets straightend out I'll send you an email with some details Hookey.