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Nice job Nate! I've tried the changing it up routine too, but I need to add to my arsenal of things to change to!! I had my tackle box and several years of aquired jigs, etc. walk away from a landing that I set it down on a few years back and have been slowly building back my supplies!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Local Faribault lake yesterday. Hunted until 25 fow. Had lots of action , especially midday. Crappies and a number of jumbo perch. The interesting thing was the bite was best 11:00-2:00. This year is stranger and stranger!

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Finally got out for the first time this ice season. Took my daughter out for panfish. Tried from 7ft out to 27ft with not a thing to show for our efforts. Not even a marked fish. Decided to make a move even shallower and was able to find real good bluegill action in about 5.5-6ft of water. Iced one nice crappie, daughter fought a 10lb +\- pike for about 10 minutes before it broke off. Snapped off on a couple sumo bass too. All in all a beauty of a day on the ice!! Did all of our catching from 2:00 - 4:00pm, then it shut off like a light switch.

Hope others got out and enjoyed the day!

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Nice job searching out the fish eyepatrol! I got out a couple times but didn't have your success. Caught a few nice Crappies last night but missed at least 6-7 that were taking my bobber line down nice and slow at least a foot and when I'd set the hook I'd pull up a jig with out a minnow. Frustrating!

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Yeah, wish we would have found the fish a little earlier, but glad we found them. Funny thing is, when we tried in 7ft of water, we were only a couple hundred feet from where we actually got into them. I'm guessing our move in to that 5.5-6 foot depth range got us in closer to some weeds. Getting in that shallow, it's fun being able to look down the hole & watch the fish hit! Hard on the 'ol back, but fun!

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Another awesome day out on the ice with my daughter! Got out around 2:30 this afternoon (different lake this time) and started fishing for 'eyes in 7fow, but only saw 1 pike for the 1.5hrs we tried this spot. So, decided to move out deeper to 10fow and almost immediately lost a nice fish at the bottom of the ice. Shortly after, we iced a nice crappie. And for the next 1.5 hours we had small schools of crappies move through & were able to pick one off on each flurry.

In the end we ended up with 10 dandies ranging from just over 10" to just over 12". All caught on fatheads that we bought for walleyes. Half came on a set line & the other half on a 1/8oz red glow buckshot rattle spoon tipped with a head. The fish were SUPER aggressive & absolutely crushed it! Even the whole fatheads on the set line ended up well down the crappie's mouths!

Great weather & great time with my daughter! Even though we didn't get a keeper 'eye, we got on my daughter's favorite specie of fish!

As always, hope others made it out & enjoyed the day!

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  • 3 months later...

I was out last Thursday morning the 23rd on Cedar in Rice County. Lake temps were 44 to 46 when I first got on the lake. It was up to 49 in the shallow bays by the afternoon when I left. Caught a few eaters but nothing fantastic yet. I didn't expect much though after the 5 days of cold windy weather before that though.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well how did everyone do?  Seemed like a lot of boats out and about. I fished Saturday and managed a limit of 15-19" walleyes and threw back 5 smaller ones.  The day started slow but once the water warmed a few degrees the bite turned on and I caught walleyes, as well as several other species. Best bite for me was 11 am til 1 pm with #4 shad raps.

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thought we did alright went to a small lake  and trolled #4 shad raps had 20+ eyes most 12 to14 but a few bigger ones.5 pike 3 bowfin 2 crappies and a sunnie.   we got on the lake at 4:30 and left at 8. 

lake got way to busy than

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My opener was terrible.  Fished a lake in Meeker county with my dad bro in law and young nephew (who complained endlessly).  Pulled spinners for a while, tried pulling cranks for a while.  Not a single bite.  I wasn't the only one on this lake having tough luck though.  Talked to guys in 3 other boats coming off.  No walleye between all of us.  So much for the "fantastic opener" that was predicted 

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My opener was terrible.  Fished a lake in Meeker county with my dad bro in law and young nephew (who complained endlessly).  Pulled spinners for a while, tried pulling cranks for a while.  Not a single bite.  I wasn't the only one on this lake having tough luck though.  Talked to guys in 3 other boats coming off.  No walleye between all of us.  So much for the "fantastic opener" that was predicted 

Hmm, maybe that was me you talked to! (Probably not, tho). I met two friends up in meeker county and we had tough luck as well. 

We ended upgetting two pike on spoons over some sand flats in the afternoon

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  • 3 weeks later...

I have found success in deeper water vertical jigging, I think the eyes were out there resting up for a big time binge once the shallow weeds take off.

 

Good luck out there, and SHARE your success stories with us on here!

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I can second your observations.  I went fishing the other day and the only bites I had were in 28-33 feet of water,

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I haven't caught a walleye in anything deeper than about 12', but I haven't put an effort into the deeper water and have not even tried live bait. I've been catching a lot of fish on shad raps in 3-8' on the shallower, dirtier lakes with better weed growth. The shallow bite has been tougher on the deeper clearer lakes, but that should change once the water warms a few more degrees. 

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I have been pounding on the sheephead in 5-12 foot with a nightcrawler. They are smoking up nicely. thats about all i have caught.

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I wish I had something better to report after the weekend but the walleye bite was tough for me. On Saturday I tried a few different lakes and fished shallow to deep with mostly sheephead to show for it. Sunday afternoon I put a lot of walleyes in the boat casting shad raps shallow but they were all pretty small except one 17".

The water temps are low to mid 60's and weed growth seems to vary a lot from lake to lake.

I've heard a few good reports of sunnies very close to spawning areas but did not target them first hand. 

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Lexington is putting out numbers of crappies and sunfish.

Edited by Rick
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Been getting afew walleyes, sheepshead, northern. Fishing in less than 10 feet. Sunnies and crappies biting in 4 feet I was catching.

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  • 4 weeks later...

The walleye bite is slowing down some but I'm still finding enough fish to keep me busy.  4-8 feet of water has been best with shad raps in the mornings this weekend.  I marked some fish in the 16-20' range and pulled raps through them with leadcore and picked up some big sunnies, crappies, and sheephead. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Are the little raps still working and how are the weeds and water clarity looking?

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  • 1 month later...

Fishing from the pier on German lake this past weekend, I was catching 12" Crappie and 9" Bluegills using crappie minnows.

Hang the minnow about 2-3 feet down and drop the bobber between the clump of weeds.

 

Also, I am new to the area and am looking for some other shore fishing spots to check out, any advice?

 

Edited by Mitch K
p.s.
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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Cannon river bridge between Cannon and Wells can be pretty good. The Mill pond is a fun little spot, An under-utilized fishery is the Straight and Cannon rivers. Get some waders and fish it. I've caught everything from Walleyes, to huge pike, smallies, crappies, gills, bullheads and even nice perch believe it or not.

There are other spots and I will let the others from the Faribault area fill you in on their recommendations.

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Rick pointed out the river spots in the areas.  I would also add that there is a fishing pier near the confluence of the Cannon and Straight rivers in case you don't want to go the route of waders.

I would avoid any of the boat launches on the weekend because they are busy and it just isn't going to be fun for you.  However, each of them is a potential spot if you can try them Monday to Friday. 

There are other fishing piers that I know of at:

  • McCullough Park on Shields Lake
  • Fox Lake, near the public launch
  • Shager Park on Cannon Lake 

I can't give you a fishing report on any of these, but it should be picking up as the days grow shorter.

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Thanks for the advice.

Late update on German lake. I got out there again just before the weather cooled off. A friend took me out in his boat and from around 9-11:30am was non stop action. We kept 14 crappies inthe 10-13" range and a couple big Bluegill's. Also I nabbed a 30" pike on a crappie minnow and my buddy got a 23" pike as well. 

Also I've tried Fox lake twice now with only a small perch to show for it. But I'm not giving up as it looks good on the DNR lake finder.

And I took the girls(8yo twins) out to the Cannon lake pier to try out their new poles. They each got a small walleye 10-12" and I got a 9" perch but I let it go as I didn't plan to dirty a knife for 1 perch.

All 3 were from Tues-Thur last week. I'll be at it again later this week.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

 

All 3 were from Tues-Thur last week. I'll be at it again later this week.

Please keep us updated and Thank you for the reports.

Edited by Rick
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Found a couple of 10" eye's on Washington friday along with a few sheephead and perch in 10'. Only found sheephead and perch on Sunday.

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I'm in Austin for work for a bit & have heard some vague stuff about smallies in the Cedar River. Does anyone have any access points I could try in the Austin area? Happy to fish the shore or do some wading, but would love to wet a line while I'm down here. Thanks.

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Fishing has been very slow for me all weekend. A lot of soft strikes and stolen minnows.

I've been trying Cannon lake in the morning and evening (morning is definitely better action) and I've caught a few decent sized perch and 1 walleye worth keeping after a lot of sorting.

And I've taken the girls out to German lake again but all we found was small bluegills.

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