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

[troutman72]

nothing in loon died last year and i dont belive it was stocked at all

[Eric_Kruger]

dnr report shows they took 16 pike 20" or longer in 2009 netting survey...was last stocked in 06 with gills and crappies...

This is for loon from the lakefinder.

[Scott M]

Loon in Waseca is loaded with bullheads and a spare crappie or bluegill here or there that beat the odds. It strongly winterkilled in successive winters of 2008-2009 and 2009-2010. It was going to be reclaimed last fall but that didn't work out. It should be reclaimed this October, then restocked the following year. Don't waste your time fishing Loon. In a couple years, that's a different story.

[mnfisherman16]

Fished Washington from about 230-6 tonight graphed fish all night, would look at bait but not much for takers. Only iced about ten crappies and sunnies no luck with any walleyes. Finally seeing enough ice to get the permanent out there.

[Crappielester]

what lake has good clarity and has good number of pike?

[BoneCollector9]

Mille Lacs Not too many clear lakes with pike populations here. Frances has good snakey pike population but is very dirty lake but Pike love the weed lines which is why they like dirty water.

[Morgs]

Hit Washington off of 3rd point tonight from about 3-9. Some small sunnies right away in about 20' of water and fished it about a foot off the bottom. Pretty slow night, but a bit of good news came through at about 7. Fired up the Vex to see what's going on and saw abit of action at the 15' range, so I made the move up and pulled out a real nice crappie. Bites were so light that I had to hold the line with my finger and slow jig to feel for the small amount of extra weight that may have been there. I grabbed about a half dozen that way from 7 til about 9. Wish I sould have known that earlier in the day.

Hope that helps out for anyone who is lookin for some ideas.

[therat]

That front really turned my fish off.

[Matt C]

Anyone been out this week? Work has kept me off the ice. Haven't been out since Monday. I'll be out tomorrow though!

[TruthWalleyes]

With the great weather yesterday, I found myself in a boat catching walleyes

Much better than drilling holes IMO!!!

[PerchSlayer]

I'll be out tomorrow morning before sunrise, probably hit up Mazaska till about 11am. I'll let you know how things go.

[Grainbelter]

Hit Mazaska wed and caught a boat load of perch....and 1 sunfish. The boat does sound like a better deal right now!

[Matt C]

I tossed around Pool 4, but have stuff with the wife tomorrow night, so just gonna ice fish round Farbo.

[no bait nate]

Matt, I fished from 430 until about 6 tonight and should have been out there earlier. Explored a "new to me" area on French and found fish right away in 14-17 FOW. Popped a small walleye right away and set up. Got one more shortly after and then as soon as darkness fell the action slowed. I had plenty of sniffers after that point but couldn't get any more to commit. Hopefully be walking back out there this weekend. Ice was pretty shady, a soft 9-10" at most. not good

[Rippinlip]

Hit Mazaska yesterday, lots of lookers.

The ones that did commit were decent.

Nice mix of Perch, Sunnies and Crappies.

Had to do quite a bit of hole hopping.

Still a fun day, should be back out around sunrise to hit it again.

[FilledLimits]

Went out on Hunt this morning and had good action with gills and perch got some nice perch one about 12" had 3 flags but failed to get a hook in them had one 4lb northern follow my shiner to the bottom of the hole while i was checking the minnow.

[no bait nate]

FilledLimits, welcome to the forum!

[no bait nate]

Found some fish tonight on an inside turn off a bar where it stretched out into a gradual mud flat in about 22'. Marked quite a few fish hugging bottom once it turned to mud. Was able to pull them off a foot or two before they would strike. Ended up with a couple smaller walleyes, and a nice mix of about a dozen crappies and fatty perch. 3/16 oz. green/glow buckshot spoon was the ticket tipped with front half of a larger fathead. Fished from 4-6 pm.

[Brain_Melt]

Hit French today.... west side is dead, drill 25 holes in the same area i pounded them on a week ago and i didnt mark a single fish. FYI open water on the south west side of the lake do to an ice heave by the looks of it.

[TeeWook]

Whats the word on Mazaska these days. Anyone been out there lately. What are you finding? I guess any input at all?

[stoneeyes317]

A buddy and I made it out there sometime after 4 this afternoon. We cut some holes in a spot he had marked 3-4 weeks ago. I was in 23 ft. and he set up near by in 16-17 ft. He caught a crappie (10-11") right away and after i missed about 3 bites I got one about 9". He then caught another the same size as the first one he got so we set up my portable on his spot. By then another buddy showed up, but we only got 3 more. We left the lake about 7:15...

eyes317

[Rippinlip]

Had about an hour to kill this Am, so I headed for a sure bet.

I headed out to Kelly/Dudley to have some fun.

And fun I had, caught a bunch of little sunnies with a few keepers, all of which are back swimming.

Ice was solid at about 10".

Thinking of doing a few longer days this Friday/Saturday.

Plan on chasing some Crappies and hoping for a few eyes to swim by.

[therat]

Was all alone on Madison with little to show for it. One small eye and a decent northern. Saw a lot of fish and big ones but they were just looking today. They would chase whatever I had down there and leave as soon as they got close to it...really frustrating day out there. But not really because I was fishing!!!

[Matt C]

Rippin, next time you hit KD...lemme know! I'll walk out n meet ya iffin I am not working.

[Rippinlip]

Rippin, next time you hit KD...lemme know! I'll walk out n meet ya iffin I am not working.

Sounds good to me, sorry I didn't do it this time.

I, like you have been consumed with work and family lately.

I literally had an hour the other day.

Hoping tomorrow and Saturday are all mine.

Just sucks now I think I am coming down with a cold.

[no bait nate]

Got out again yesterday afternoon from 4-7 pm. Started by hopping holes around 17-18 FOW. Caught numerous small crappies before we decided to head a bit deeper. Found some more fish out in 20' where it had turned from sand to mud. Set up with a jigging spoon and front portion of fathead on my rod, and my buddy set up with a small Mudbug type bait tipped with gulp and some spikes. He outfished me from that point on with mostly small fish again. I missed one good fish off of my spoon right after dark and then we decided to call it a night and head home. We ended up sending 5 crappies in the 10"+ range home with him for dinner so it was a decent night considering the bite. Not fast but we didn't get skunked at least, and I'm sure he looked like a hero to the girlfriend and kids with those fish... Hope to be out again this afternoon and find something a little more interesting

[no bait nate]

Hit Shields Lake this afternoon for only my second time this year. Was greeted by water on the ice in many areas, a huge ice heave that stretched across the entire lake with many spots of open water around it, and a spot open on the southeast side big enough to get my boat up on plane.... Pretty dicey to say the least but all holes I had drilled had about 10" of ice there.

Fished over 7 areas on the lake drilling about 11-12 holes each location and found almost no fish. Tried from 25' up to 10' in different spots and wasn't finding anything. Finally found some weed growth and was able to pick fish out of the weeds on the LX5 which was good enough to ice a few perch but none of any size.

Finally set up on a slow break off a sand bar into mud and figured I would give it until sunset. Had a tip up out with flouro and walleye tackle on it that I had one swing and miss...don't know what happened there. Then moved out to the mud as the sun went down and was jigging in 24'. Got robbed of bait once, then twice, before I iced a nice 14" walleye. Quickly threw him back and got back down there, and just a few minutes later I landed a nice 17" eye out of the same hole. Pitched him in the Ice well and went down for another try. Within a few short minutes I got rocked again and landed another eye going close if not more than 20". She was too big for the pan so she went back also. Turned out to be a great night of fishing after the last 20 minute flurry. Green buckshot spoon was my lure of choice again with front portion of a fathead. Glowing the lure often seemed to be the key also. Turns out I should have maybe kept the 14 after my girlfriend who doesn't like fish ate half my broiled walleye tonight...

[IceEyes]

No bait, those deeper flats on French with fish being marked but not biting was the same as I found earlier in the season. I was fishing deep flats/transitions looking for walleyes. What I found was there were more crappies and bluegills using that real estate than walleye. My son was using bait and started catching gills and crappies near primetime. Then I began to hook a few of the same on jigging spoons. Wandering on those deeper 20-30' flats sometimes gets you into some nice unpressured fish that are willing to hit spoons and jiggin raps, but it's work and alot of hole hoppin'. Otherdays it's hop, hop, hop around a seemingly dead sea until you give up and hit the hole. Today would be a good day temp wise for hole hopping, but I'm floatin' the river later instead.

[TruthWalleyes]

I got a PB this weekend. 15" CPR

Also tied into a muskie that day, reeling in a small crappie (like 4" small) and then a few feet from the hole it was just dead weight, like i had snagged a suspended cement block! I figured it was a muskie since a giant fish had been terrorizing me all afternoon, would buzz under the marcum and turn a good chunk of the screen red....anyway, he held onto the crappie for 5 minutes and eventually let it go. Pretty fun fight, i think i would have been there an hour if i had actually hooked it.

Here's the crappie.

I've got coon eyes from the hot sun this weekend!! I'll take some more of that, and a little less ice!

I should add, i also caught a dang sheephead on washington lake saturday...

[Matt C]

A sheepie through the ice hole? That would be a blast!

Nice Crappie!!!