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

[hawkeye43]

I was out Sunday, didn't do well, but I am going tomorrow afternoon late for the second to the last time before the rain Sunday.

[Matt C]

Fished Mazaska for a couple hours today. Was not all that bad getting onto the lake at Bull Rush Bay.

Started in 10 to 14 FOW, lots of little gills biting on Black, and Red tipped with Waxies. They were right off the bottom.

Moved to a little deeper water and right off the bat Morneau132 nailed a FAT 11.5" crappie. Then they shut down.

Still 6 to 10 inches of black ice out there with a few inches of slush. It was nice to get out for that one last time?

[therat]

Had a stellar day on washington. Really aggressive fish! Some big gills couple nice crappie and one ill sheephead. About 15ft of water. Wore my waders to get out to the good ice. Didn't need an auger. Probably my last day out...especially if this rains keeps going.

[Carp-fisher]

I'll be in my boat on an area lake in 7 days.....

[hardwaterguy08]

I'll be in my boat on an area lake in 7 days.....

yeah right lol

[TruthWalleyes]

Found the fish stacked on deep drop offs on Madison yesterday, but couldn't convince one to bite. Great day to be on the water!

[Scott M]

Lots of guys lining up near Buckmasters. Gotta be one of the first ones there to get close to the culvert.

[griffdus]

mostly 8-9 in males in there at culvert by buckmasters when i was there otherday. But in the crick on west side of elysian pulled a few out that were around 12 in

[trappingaddiction]

mostly 8-9 in males in there at culvert by buckmasters when i was there otherday. But in the crick on west side of elysian pulled a few out that were around 12 in

What species of fish are they catching there?

[Scott M]

Elysian is getting some nice crappies coming along. Folks around Janesville should hit the outlet or cast a line in front of the cattails by the park on the south side.

[griffdus]

i was talking bout crappies they were hitting pretty good other day never tried east side just the west

[Comit 2]

I went out this morning looking for Crappies and found that the bite is on. Small jigs with wax worms seem to work best.

I didn't take the water temp but sunnies, Crappies, small Northers and LgM Bass were landed. Crappies were also biteing at Madison lake in the shallows. So if you know of a shallow muck bottom bay that has Crappies in the spring, the time is now.

[kudabear]

Hello guys and girls, I am new to Mankato and am looking for some areas that I can walk to and fish. I really enjoy river fishing but anything will work to get started. I'm not much into panfishing but prefer smallies, walleye, pike, musky and I would actually like to catch the sucker run if anyone knows when that is and what rivers. The DNR website is great in Minnesota but almost too great. There are many spots on their map for peir and shore fishing and I would like to narrow it down a bit. Any suggestions would be great.

[Scott M]

Welcome to HSO kudabear. You might try some of the smaller streams at road crossing for suckers, they will be finishing up their spawning run shortly if you haven't started on them yet.

Can you tell us a little about yourself? A MN transplant, new to the area? It sounds like you want some action from shore, the Minnesota River is a great place to start. You could really do well on numbers and size with catfish.

On area lakes it's a little tougher on being able to work a small area over if you want to target predators (pike, bass, walleyes, etc.). There are places to try from shore or piers at Madison, Elysian, Jefferson, and Lake Crystal if walleyes and pike are your thing. For smallies you'll have to cut east towards the Cannon or Straight Rivers. Real good smallie fishing on both rivers in the Faribault area.

[ted4887]

Around opener, it's worth checking out the Rapidan Dam area as well. I've caught plenty of walleye, pike, and catfish down there, and it can really be a blast. Can be hit or miss depending on the water levels though.

[kudabear]

Thanks for the info guys, it is really appreciated. One other question I have is the pollution levels of the Minnesota river. I always catch and release and don't plan on eating thing caught from it but can people swim in it? Does it get disgusting? In the summers I love floating rivers on a tube and the Minnesota river is the closest for me but people have told me that it gets pretty icky. Does anyone ever swim in it?

As for me I am a Minnesota transplant, originally from Chippewa Falls, WI but moved from Webster, WI where I lived for the past couple of years. I decided to go to graduate school and MNSU was the closest University with my program so I started class this past fall and got moved in by January.

Besides driving out to lake Washington a couple of times this winter I haven't found anyone with good info on local lakes... I can't believe the amount of people that don't fish that attend MNSU. I have talked to people that have never been fishing ever! So I really appreciate you guys sharing your experiences. It has been very helpful. I probably won't be able to get a line wet for about two weeks yet but when I get a chance I will be sure to post. Thanks again.

[Comit 2]

The Mn river is much cleaner then it was ten years ago but it still has a ways to go. If you were a young girl I would advise eating very little from the river.

The Blue Earth or Le Sueur river would be the better rivers to float. They move a little faster.

[Boker001]

The MN is more than clean enough not to worry about getting sick but due to all the woody debris which could be dangerous on a tube and that it is a slow moving river I would definitely hit up the Blue Earth river instead. The BE has multiple cool features like waterfalls and a sweet gorge to stop at and check out. For kayaking try the Big Cobb in the spring or after big rainfalls along with the BE and LeSueur river.

[Matt C]

Went out to Lake Mazaska yesterday searching for the crappies.

Fished the entire circumference of the lake from shore to 10 FOW. Didn't mark a thing or catch one. Just one sheephead caught.

I did motor around over all of the winter deep spots and did mark a few fish, but with the size of the arch...they were not crappies..

I am totally puzzled. My buddy and I know that lake like the back of our hands and could just not locate them. Usually with this water temp I find schools and schools and schools of them all bunched up.

Water temps 47.5 on the south and west end, to 48-49.5 on the north and west ends.

I will be hitting Tetonka on Wednesday. I know I can find em in there.

[Ziggysquatch]

I hit Shields last night looking for crappies. I figured I would have excellent luck seeing as the water temps were between 48 and 50 but I didn't get a nibble. I checked from shore out to 8 feet.

I have never fished shields before so I don't really no the spots but I hit the river opening, the grass patch in the middle, and other grassy shores.

[Matt C]

Welcome to HSO Ziggy.

You had the right idea! Looking for the spawn beds.

Is it possible they already spawned on Shields, Mazaska, and French?

I'd troll small Salmos in late spring/summer spots, but I don't want to get nailed for 'walleye' fishing, even though its intentionally crappie fishing .

[TruthWalleyes]

Bundt, Don't know what kind of sonar tech you've got, but i know this time of year the fish can be extremely high in the water column, making it difficult (at least on mine) to spot them on the graph.

But i hear ya...I did the same thing on Madison and Washington about a week ago- tried all the shallows, then went deep and found the fish, just couldn't buy a bite to prove they were crappies.

-And yeah...I pulled some salmos!

[Matt C]

I run a HDS5 on the bow and an HDS7 at the helm. I did zoom in, up and down over the deep water spots. I think they all flew south for the spring until it warms up and we see some sunshine.

Ok, well if you ran Salmos then I will too. Although on Tetonka tomorrow, I don't think I'll need em

[Comit 2]

Quote:

Is it possible they already spawned on Shields, Mazaska, and French?

Wait for the full moon. The Crappie/Sunfish/Bass spawn is around opener to the Bass opener.

Set up just outside of shallow mud bays at sunset. The Crappies are finding shallow warm water where the bugs are hatching but at sunset they will head to deep water. If you find a neck down point and are ready you could have 10-15mins of catch them as fast as get your line back in the water. Culverts ect.

[stoneeyes317]

A friend and I hit a shallow water area yesterday in the Faribault area. My friend heard from someone else that the sunfish and crappies were hitting so we decided to try it out. Got out about 4 pm and caught a small bass, some small sunfish and some silver shiners. WE saw a guy catching some perch and after copying what he was doing proceeded to catch a couple about 8". WE were rigged up with small jigs with plastics and angleworms.

Not long after that a father and son showed up and the son quickly put us all to shame catching crappie after crappie with a white flu-flu that he just tossed out and swam about a foot or so under the surface. His jig would just disappear and then he'd set the hook. Most of the crappies were small but there were a few 8"+. I didn't have any white flu-flus so I tried a Bro bug in the waxworm color and after imitating the son's retrieve I began catching crappies too. When the crappies stopped biting the sunfish would hit. My buddy added a few with a Cubby mini mite in glow before the combined wind and rain chased us after 7:30 pm. All in all a great 1st open water time with 10-15 mixed panfish for a nice meal or 2. White was definitely the hot color but I saw others using mixed colors with white as well as one young guy using an orange head and black body with some success.

eyes317

[Matt C]

Excellent report stoneeyes317. Thank you!

[TruthWalleyes]

The bite on saturday was nothing special, but pleasantly interrupted by a phone call from Big C letting me know my 898 has arrived. Hustled to pick it up and install saturday night. Sunday was all rain, Cold, and blowing, but the fish were biting. Had to put the pole down for a little while just so i could play around with the side imaging. 9" gills were common with a monster 10" gill to lead the pack. All gills caught in 5-9 fow, on small crankbaits. Hard to keep the northers off the line with that presentation as well. Couple of small perch, crappies and bass were also caught.

Only a few days away from season opener!

[griffdus]

The leech bite for gills is on . tetonkap

[Andy136]

Hi all, this is my first post on here. I tried my luck on an area lake today. I was blessed with a mix bag of fish. Caught a lot of gills and perch. The gills were not huge, but you could sort them to get a decent limit. The perch were all around the 8 inch range. I was only able to convince one crappie to bite. All the fish caught were next to shore, in 4 ft of water or less. A white jig under a float tipped with either a waxy or minnow, didn't seam to matter, worked the best. I also found a slow retrieve worked the best. Good luck.

[Morneau132]

Welcome to HSO Andy136! Thanks for the report... I wish I could have been out there trying my luck with ya. See you out there