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

[dan z]

Was one big Jeff again with the same results just not as fast as previous 2 outings. Had a parade route today. Prolly caught upwards of 70 northerns the last 2 days and over 100 the past 3 outings. Lost 4 crank baits in the 3 outings so that isn't to bad. Water temp last week was 77° and yesterday was 81° and today was 79°. Had luck in shallower water than normal 15' and up to 9'. Tried running open water deeper today with a few rips and connected with a sheep head and a pike. Off to work for the weekend good luck guys!

[TruthWalleyes]

Dang!

Hard to catch that many Nord's without getting at least 1 treble in a hand.

Nice work!

[Vulture]

Hey everyone, very new to this board and the area. I will be coming out early next week with my wife as she is seeing some people in Rochester and was looking to take her out for a day or two to fish. Are there any lakes (in the Cedar, Shields, French area) that have public boat rental by the day or is shore fishing decent. I was hoping for some good walleye and maybe northern fishing, something to take her mind off of things for a few hours. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[Scott M]

Hi vulture, welcome to hotspotoutdoors.

Check out this Boat Rental Thread; I'd also include Roberds Lake Resort or Winjums for boat rentals. Roberds has had some good fishing lately.

Try calling the local bait shops for rental advice as well. Lake Country Convenience might know a few places, or Nagels in Faribault.

Good luck and enjoy your trip...reading between the lines here, Rochester = Mayo?, take her mind off things = some health issues? Good luck and best wishes either way.

[Vulture]

Thanks Scott, I will be sure to check that thread. Your perception is right on, thank you for the well wishes.

[Comit 2]

I made a mad dash out to the lake this morning to try a spot before the wind changed. I just made it. The wind had been blowing out of the SSW for most of the heat wave so I thought the lake would be setup nicely for a good bite. I know a lake that had some nice sized Crappies last year so off I went.

The wind had made a change to the WNW and blowing white caps by 8am so it was a short bite. I did find the Crappies before the change. I was using a #5 Hornet deep diver (11-19 runner I think) at 2.5 mph on the NE side of the lake.

Yea there are some nice sized Crappies in that there lake.

[bigsam]

Trolling cranks fast for the big crappos!

Gotta love it!

Keep up the good work!

[Comit 2]

Back trolling the small flicker shad in 10-15 fow works well too. The schools of Crappies move a lot so after you find the school you can cast a jig or a kastmaster spoon to pick up one or two (most likely smaller ones) more. Then back to trolling. Most of the time 1.5-2 mph works best. I use a drift sock at the bow and back troll for this, most of the time. Yesterday I didn't have time to do this before things fell apart.

[JosMN]

Landed this one today along with a ton of pike, 2 other eyes, and a bunch of crappies. 8-12 feet of water. Hornets #4s and 5's

Almost 27 and just under 7 lbs.

[jmg]

NICE!

[JosMN]

All of those fish were released

[Comit 2]

Ditto.

[CamR]

I am new to this website and first thoughts are it's a nice site. Was out fishing today with the new Lowrance Elite 7 HDI depth finder I just installed and found some nice spots but man did the fish have lock jaw today. Not a good day on the lake but sure beat being at work!

[no bait nate]

Welcome CamR, glad someone got to do some fishing today, it was perfect out. Sounds like you still had fun with some new equipment!

[Matt C]

Finally got out today with my buddy! Sad to admit, but only my 3rd time on the open water in a boat this year!

Anyways, stuck to trolling #3 and #4 Hornets from 6 to 12 FOW. Changing speeds and course very often.

We went directly after the storm was clear of mid Rice County.

Crappies hit well, had a few in the 8" range, but I hooked up with a nice 10" and 12". Both swimming again, and of course a bunch of the fun SUMO Sheeps.

Buddy caught a 3" walleye, and I got a 1" perch.

I did miss a fish...that spooled my power pro darn near off my reel! Was down to seeing brass. Locked up my drag, gave it too much slack and lost it! We are 100% certain it was a very large northern or a good sized musky.

I will say, I miss my open water therepy sessions.

Great time!

[luckycrank]

welcome aboard Cam

[swmnbmw]

Duck Lake (near Madison Lake) sure is a sleeper lake for Pike. Last night casting spinner baits and Mepps Inline Spinner, me and by brother both hooked some Northerns on the east side of the lake near shore in about 2-4 feet of water. Mine was 32, his 27 so both solid fish. Last year earlier in the season I got a 36 inch pike on the west side underneath a fallen willow tree on a Mepps spinner. Water temp on duck was 74, fish were biting as the sun went down.

This morning I was on German Lake until I was sidelined by some motor issues. Fishing was tough. 72 degree water temps. I trolled at various depths with spoons, cranks and a lazy ike and got nothing. Casting the shallow bar in the middle part of the lake yielded nothing either. A couple of finicky bites on spinners along the reed beds on the northeast corner of the lake. But just one smallish bass (14") on a Mepps spinner near the lilly pads on the southwest corner. I've noticed that there is VERY few healthy looking weed beds on German and this started early in the season - Everything is covered with dead algae and the weeds themselves are brown. Where there were healthy stands in the early summer, there is nothing now. I think this is really impacting how the fish relate on German.

[Matt C]

Nice report! Thank you swmnbmw!

[TruthWalleyes]

With the full moon i headed back to my favorite full moon lake for the 2nd time this week. Found a new way to catch sheephead, trolling crawler spinner harness about 15' down over 26+ fow.

At dark, pulled 3 bass on a custom jig pitching a shallow shelf. 18", 18", 19". Once it got dark I Pitched and trolled until about 11pm and wasn't rewarded. Tough bite. Found fish, just couldn't get them to go.

[JosMN]

Hit Tetonka with my sister in laws husband this past saturday. It was a pretty windy one out there on the north side that day. Fun lake to fish, was only my second time out on it and only had a couple hrs before our wives would start calling. Trolled hornets about 2.25mph in 9-12ft and did well catching a few pike and one nice walleye.

Truthwalleyes - did you get anything burning shallow? Pretty sure you passed us on the north end, did my best to stay out of your way after we landed that walleye.

[TruthWalleyes]

I was trolling for muskies and picked up a few nords and bass

[Comit 2]

I've been fishing the upper Cannon river the last week or two and things have been good. The water level at Gorman Lake is to the point where water will not be flowing over the dam soon if this weather holds up. The water has dropped about a foot in the last week and a half.

The Bowfin bite has slowed with the dropping water at the dam. We were catching 20 Bowfin a day and releasing them others have been leaving them on shore and it now stinks to high heaven at the dam, the smell almost made me puke this morning. Thank you, who ever you are.

Someone told me they didn't stock Northerns in Gorman this year because there were a lot already in the lake. Well, the Cannon river at the Gorman lake dam is full of 9" Northerns at this time, hundreds of them. It was kind of fun watching the larger Northerns, Bass and Bowfin chase them after they jumped the dam into the lake. Maybe they are from Sabre Lake?

Now I'm off to Montana. I am unemployed at this time so I well have to try to put my wifes Business education to work and see if it is financially feasible to move there a grow Hemp for a living. It is legal there so, why not and I'll be looking for a job.

[bigsam]

Now I'm off to Montana. I am unemployed at this time so I well have to try to put my wifes Business education to work and see if it is financially feasible to move there a grow Hemp for a living. It is legal there so, why not and I'll be looking for a job.

You do good enough growing stuff you may not need a job!

[TruthWalleyes]

Slow night on tetonka. One 34" Northern.

Caution:

Both landings at Tetonka SUCK!!!

The North landing is pretty rough. There is a big hole between one of the cement blocks that you can manuveour around, but she's rough if you hit it.

The South landing makes the hole on the north side seem tiny. I dropped my trailer tire in that hole yesterday and thought i was going to rip an axel off trying to tug it out.

I'm just going to off road launch my boat there from now on.

If someone local want to do something really nice, some 1-2" rock would fill those holes nicely!

[therat]

Went to Madison yesterday and couldn't get anything to go...I saw school after school of shad on my vexilar and all over the surface. I tried all kinds of lures in and around them with only one bass. Where are the eyes?!

[JosMN]

Fished a local lake twice this wkend. Pretty slow going all around. Managed around 15-20 small crappies, 3 small eyes and 1 northern. Water temp is down to 65, crankbait bite is non existent. All fish were caught on a mooneye jig with a fathead. Marked a lot of fish between 11-17 ft, didnt get anything shallow. Nice wkend on the water though.

[Rubber Ducky]

Thought that I would give a little feedback on what has been working for us on the local lakes for the start of the fall bite!

Finally found the eyes on Sunday! We ended up catching 21 eyes for the day and some real nice Crappies.

Big Sam kicked my butt that day!

We found the eyes in 13-17 FOW. We were using 1/4 oz jig heads with big fatheads. We were jigging as hard as a guy could jig. Points with rocks were key. We also found them on a couple of saddles in 18 fow as well.

Ii truly love this time of year!

Anyone else out there been doing good on the eyes?

[TruthWalleyes]

No eyes, but i've been the Lord Nord lately, can't catch them under 30"

Using musky baits. Green weeds. 2-4 fow.

[TruthWalleyes]

Crappies. 51°

16'deep wind blown point.

Jig/minnow

Fish taco

[stealth3350]

crappie fishing has been excellent past 2 weeks. went out sat and sund and really slowed, hope picks back up!!i still got 2 weeks before i put the boat away. then up north for early ice