2020 Detroit Lakes-Pelican Rapids Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions

[pan man]

I have been finding some nice crappies on some lakes. the bite has been slow so far.The walleye bite has been good tho in 20ft water been 13 plus fish most nights.The big sunnies are biteing good taken home many 11in ers hope everyone is doing as well.

[Guest]

Holy Tomolie Pan Man, quantities of 11" sunnies is like hitting the mother-load, keep up the good work!

[pan man]

was out yesterday got ten 11in gills and two crappies that were 12in sunnies came in 21ft water had fish from 10ft to bottom was really fun

[bwa]

Hello DL fisherpeople. I will be making my annual trip up there the 3rd week in February for some fishing and fun. I've always just fished on Little Detroit. Some years I've caught northerns and bass. Once I got into some nice sunfish. Usually I just get small sunnies. Can anyone tell me where I could get into some more consistent keeper crappies or sunfish? I understand you may not want to advertise your hot spot but maybe a PM?

[muskymaniac4ever]

your keeping 11 inch gills? 7-8 inchers are good keepers, selective harvest buddy

[pan man]

kind of hard not to keep the 11in when that's all I'm catching I haven't seen a small one yet.

[muskymaniac4ever]

then if you want to keep fish, fish another lake where there are small one and use the lake you are fishing on as a trophy bluegill lake not too many lakes with trophy bluegills, that high of number anyway so when you do find of these gems I would keep it hush cause your great panfish lake won't be so good anymore

[Double A]

was out yesterday got ten 11in gills and two crappies that were 12in sunnies came in 21ft water had fish from 10ft to bottom was really fun

Sounds like a great day. 10 nice keepers. Makes for a couple good meals.

[Guest Kyle]

I would also urge you and anyone everyone else to not keep trophy fish like that! It takes a sunfish in MN roughly 20 years to get that big in a lake that can actually produce them. Most lakes cant come close to that, and it doesn't take long to wreck the lakes that can by keeping the trophies. This is why very few lakes in MN have large pike anymore. Better to keep the small ones!

Throw them back!

[bak2MN]

Hey Pan great job!! Jealous!! I have not been out yet! Would love to get into some like that with the kids.

[BrianLucky13]

I would also urge you and anyone everyone else to not keep trophy fish like that! It takes a sunfish in MN roughly 20 years to get that big in a lake that can actually produce them. Most lakes cant come close to that, and it doesn't take long to wreck the lakes that can by keeping the trophies. This is why very few lakes in MN have large pike anymore. Better to keep the small ones!

Throw them back!

+1

Amazes me someone would admit that.

Anyways travel conditions on the lakes are the best all year. Snow is hard as a rock and can be drove over top now. About time!!!! Some big drifts in areas.

[Cicada]

"I would also urge you and anyone everyone else to not keep trophy fish like that! It takes a sunfish in MN roughly 20 years to get that big in a lake that can actually produce them. Most lakes cant come close to that, and it doesn't take long to wreck the lakes that can by keeping the trophies. This is why very few lakes in MN have large pike anymore. Better to keep the small ones!"

Ok, I have gotten to the point where I am good with releasing larger game fish, but I do like to keep larger panfish. One, they are worth the effort to keep and B, I don't target them all the time so I may keep less than 50 crappies and 20 bluegills per year. The problem I have is using half truths to make your point. Ok, some lakes may take 20 years to grow bluegills to that size...or maybe not.

"The average adult bluegill is 6 to 8 inches long, although some reach 10 inches. Sexual maturity occurs at 2 to 3 years for males and 3 to 4 years for females. Average life-span of these fish is 5 to 6 years." Taken from http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,4570,7-153-10364_18958-45644--,00.html This would seem to indicate that your claim is way off base. North Dakota seems to practice the put and take theory of fish with their perch policies. The fertile potholes are stocked with perch and a few years later large fish are "found" by fishermen. The fishery is fished down and refreshed.

The other point I have a problem with is the claim that Minnesota has very few large pike because of overharvest of the larger fish. Going back to my high school environmental studies class, a body of water can sustain only a limited number of pounds of fish. So if Lake Secret can support 1000lbs of fish, you can have 100 10 pound fish or 1000 1 pound fish and of course any combination. The point is that if there is an overpopulation of fish the average size will be much smaller. Most fishermen only target pike in the winter. Do you think that every large pike is harvested every winter? This may be why the DNR put the liberal limit on pike on Melissa near here. The object was to remove the smaller fish to free up more food for larger fish. I have heard that this has been somewhat successful. As prolific a spawners as panfish are, I wonder if size has more to do with fertility of the water and less with harvest rates.

I know of a lake that had 10"-11" bluegills down by Pelican Rapids. Loads of guys from the cities were coming up and taking home bucket loads of them every weekend. Guess what, the next year there were new bunches of 10'-11" bluegills and the same thing happened, and... the same thing the next year. The population was controlled, the fertility was right and it kept on producing. How is it today? I don't know. The DNR created an outlet, the water level was drawn down and there is no longer access to the lake.

Nice work PanMan. Enjoy yourself. I have a feeling you are a responsible person and are treating your resource with respect. If my back would heal, I'd like to get out again and look for that pot of huge fish at the end of the rainbow.

[holmsvc]

kind of hard not to keep the 11in when that's all I'm catching I haven't seen a small one yet.

I can't believe you would post that on here. To these guys that love panfish it's like posting that you are taking home 5 8lb walleyes because you aren't catching small ones.

[Guest]

I have chased crappies and sunnies exclusively for the past 4-5 years in the DL area and the biggest we have caught is ONE 11" gill and I did get a 16" crappie a couple weeks ago. That 11" Sunny was a beast, well over a pound with the big bull nose. Both were released with pics taken. Have caught plenty of 10" gills and some 14" to 15.25" crappies over the past several years that have been released as well. Whatever lake this is putting out quantities of 11" gills...it is the only one like it in the State IMO.

[Fred3]

Pan man, would love to see photos of these big gills. I have never caught one that big. Hope your luck continues.

[Uncle Rico]

I remember pan man making some pretty outlandish claims a few years ago. Can't remember the specifics but it seems to me it involved him catching a bunch of 35 pound catfish on the river near fargo or something. He must have some different measuring tools than most. But hey, it makes for interesting reading.

[Fred3]

Pictures are worth 1000 words.

[Guest]

Was out on an Area Lake yesterday; crappies were biting earlier than normal at this spot. Started getting them at 4pm, mostly smaller ones off the bottom but did get 7 from 10-12" all suspended at around 15-20' using large presentation, 1/4 oz jig head tipped with a 2.5" Gulp Minnow shiner. Fishing in 30'. Nothing showing up at all on the Marcum after 6pm so packed up and was home by 6:30pm.

[Teebones1977]

I have fished with bbfenatic and his crew a couple times last winter. These guys are die hard pan fishing guys. While on outings we did get into some 9 1/2 10" Gills and some nice slabs. I am just going to say it because no one else on this post has said it. I personally have a hard time believing pan man was pulling in 10 or more 11" gills? Yet I have heard from old timers around the Lake Park area in small ponds of big gills. Any pics Pan man?

Fishing report.

Made it out yesterday afternoon for a couple hours on Tamarack. No traffic what so ever. Had a hard time getting to my normal spot. So I fished a close by crappie hole and have gotten some nice gills there also. Not one bite. I try to fish the lake 1 time a week. Over all I have gotten into some crappie and a few gills. Was out about three weeks ago and a friend pulled a 29" walleye up pan fishing. Thought that was cool! Over all Tamarack just has a lot of snow and drifts. Making it tuff for a guy to get around. If you have a set of snow shoes it would make it much easier. Plan on going out this weekend to some area lakes around D.L. this weekend

[pan man]

I don't know theres alot of lakes i fish that have big pike in them just for the fact that verry few people keep them. Thats why the dnr made the limit bigger.

[pan man]

i have pictures but like my post about getting an avatar to load same problem with picture guess computers and me are like me and smart phones don't belong together.

[dairyman]

thanks for the report on tamarac---------won't be heading that way. That lake was "HAMMERED" really hard a few years ago,there were people coming from the st cloud area and brainard on the weekends. Very sad

[Teebones1977]

I agree dairyman. At the end of the season all kinds of people from St.Cloud and Cities area out there. Still lots of the season left. I crushed the gills out there last season. Its been a slow run this season

LIDA REPORT TODAY

I hit up Lida for a couple hours this afternoon. This was another hot lake in its day. I normally do great out there 1st ice. Did fish it in Dec and did ok. Some 8 inch. Today I was all over out there. 1st hit up some gill spots and found some small ones. Lots of little perch. Decided to hit the crappie hole. This was my second time crappie fishing out there. Not one slab. I ended the day with lots of small gills and perch. Was using some of Northland tackle by Bro. Larva and some of Clams new plastics. Someone gave me a different brand last season to try. and wow did I have some great success with these VS live bait. I'll try some lakes north of d.l. this weekend. Dying to get into a good pan fish bite.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

When I've been out I've been finding them. Nothing fast and furious or huge, but we did have a pretty good run a couple weeks ago of solid bluegills. One of those bites where you can't get your bait down fast enough.... I've been working the edges of basins over soft bottom when I have been going out. Plenty of winter left folks, keep those rods bent!

[pan man]

Well yesterday was good outing took a buddy out that grew up in Florida. We get out on the lake and he follows me in his vehicle we get out and says thats the first time he had drove on a lake. He then states he had his window opean and serious pucker factor and says how much ice is there. I told him kinda late to ask that. Just fun to see people experience new things was also the first time he had ice fished was interesting to help him figure out what to use to catch fish. All and all a fun time

[Jim Panfish Uran]

I made it out two times this week after work, it was cold, so we just fished in my uncles hardhouse and had fun talk'ing... the fishing was slow, we ended up with a couple small crappies and couple surprise northerns after 8pm. You know, this winter is just relentless! Looks like some warmer weather this week so hopefully I'll be able to get out more. The days are getting longer, and I love that!

[Cicada]

Finally got out for only the second time this winter due to the cold (I'm a panzi sometimes) and a bad back.

Hit Lida this afternoon. Getting on the lake is great. It help when they put a bar out on the ice. The bar makes sure there is a good road leading right to them and then radiates to other areas from there. I picked one of the community holes and set up in 28 feet of water. That was slightly deeper than I wanted, but the auger didn't like the cold either. Got two walleyes, two crappies, and two perch. Surprised that only one crappie would come in at a time. Never had a group come through.

[Guest]

Snuck out late afternoon to an area Lake, was a little later than I normally like to get out so switched my normal tactics and went out of the 40' basin to a 27' shelf hoping they were going to move out of the basin looking for bait fish and it paid off. Nothing till after dark but lights out after that. This year it has been all about the weather for me, warm days and steady barometer and I do great, severe cold snaps not so good. Got a limit and left them stacked on the Vex when I quit. Pic of a couple....released one just under 14" and one just over 14". These bad boys are 13.5" and 12.25" and nice thick fish. First time on this lake and can't wait to go back!

[Jim Panfish Uran]

went out a few times this week and the action was steady, nothing fast and furious and nothing huge, the biggest ones were just over 12" but it was, and probably is still a decent bite. Might make it out tomorrow to try it again. 25' soft bottom basin

[BTL]

Beautiful crappies guys!