2020 Detroit Lakes-Pelican Rapids Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions

[Jim Panfish Uran]

I cruised around Tulaby lake tonight looking for some hot pannie action but all I could find were some tiny bluegills, a few scraggly perch, and a couple of those awesome rock bass. The temp was 43 main lake, and 45-46 in close to the bay on the south west side. Still a bit cold for anything to move in shallow IMO. I'm going to hit Little Elbow sometime this week, the crappies don't run too big but a guy can catch quite a few of 'em.

[fisherdog19]

I got out with a buddy today as well, water was up to 53.4. Started fising around noon and water temp was 51.2 and we were getting sporadic fish in 5-7 fow as the day progress and the wind was blowing relentlessly from the West we moved into a little shallower and to the far east side of the bay. The water was over 53 and the crappies moved in. As we got closer to 5pm the crappies went nuts and we were catching them on every cast. We caught close to 50 in about 5 hours of fishing with about 30 of them coming in the last hour we fished. We were still catching them when we left but I had both my kids with me and they were getting hungry and tired. The great thing was that there wasn't another boat on the lake at the time. A few boats came earlier in the afternoon but they were fishing on the calmer side of the bay an in shallow, thus they caught no fish and left!! It's amazing how people know they should fish the windy side and don't; sure we had to run 2 anchors but it was well worth the trouble.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

The windy side is the place to be, I mean 60% of the time it works everytime !! That is where I do most of my fishing though, Opening weekend if we got a stiff north wind, I know a few lakes that will be putting out the walleyes hard in 4-6 fow. 5 more days and it's on!!!!!!!

[Skitterpop]

Fished Lida/Crystal today. A TON of bass and 5 crappie. Too bad it wasn't bass season. Biggest largemouth was 19 inches. Fun to catch on light tackle but after awhile I was doubting any crappies were in the shallows. All crappies were 11-12 inches and males (they were dark already). Still swimming around too.

[mooneye]

Leech,

Let me know how things look at Little Elbow-I used to live on Tulaby and L. Elbow is my favorite lake of all time-I am coming up on Fri. and was thinking about hitting it Sat. morn...

[Scoot]

Well... how'd it go, folks? I am in Fargo kid-watching during the marathon and can't fish this weekend. Give me the good news- where'd you find fish?

[GBPackerNut]

Dont worry Scoot, I am sitting at the marathon right now, thankfully I have the internet...

Might go out tomorrow afternoon / evening.

[slick2526]

no reports yet or is everyone doing that bad lol? Im sitting in the cities right now at a relatives that is moving to alaska and giving me all of his fishing equipment.

[madbomber10]

Went to Lida bright and early and it was COLD, and so was the fishing. Caught a couple Perch and Northerns. Talked to a bunch of guys and only heard of one walleye being caught. It was tough going out there. Water temp was right around 49ish on the East side of N. Lida.

[Bran32]

A big fat zero for me!!!!

[Skitterpop]

Brutal! I was also on Lida. Typical cold opener and even had a friendly visit from the Game Warden. Nice to see them out enforcing the slots. Moved over to Crystal for a few hours and only got bass and a nice 30 inch pike. I didn't think pike that size even remaind in Crystal. BTW, it is still swimming in Crystal . If you didn't make it out today then IMO you didn't miss much. (Unless you enjoy the racing around at the public accesses and the fisherman who haven't started their motors since last fall trying to start it at the ramp)

[Josher]

Only got 2 but they were really nice. 27.5 and 25 inch walleyes.

[Cicada]

One small northern and four missed bites. Got checked by the game warden twice on Lida. Second time I was retying and didn't hear him coming. Scared the devil out of me in broad daylight. Went back into Bass Harbor and even got zeroed there. Saw a bunch of largemouth caught, but no crappies. Talked to three guys that grew up in Pelican, they had caught two walleyes, one too small and one too big. They were still looking for the ones that were "just right."

[ranger20]

i got 2 1 19 and 1 that was 26 but very cold o yea and a 15 #crappige got it trolling

[Jim Panfish Uran]

I caught a TON of northerns, a TON of crappies, and 7 walleyes total for the day, but the biggest walleye was only 16". Caught quite a few keeper crappies in the 10 -12" range though.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Oh by the way, I still haven't thawed out yet, it was a cold cold cold day on the water. I found the walleyes weren't too cooperative on the body of water I was fishing, I caught only 1 walleye for my efforts this morning. 8 fow, I was side tracked by a decent crappie bite this morning, I found temps in the low 50's. But air temps in the mid to low 30's this morning made for some cold fingers. This evening the eyes moved in not too long before dark, that's when we did the best, just trolling the south shore in 6-10 fow with a jig and a minnow. Tomorrow I think I'm banned from being on the lake since it's mothers day, oh well I'll need a day to thaw anyhow. Hope everyone did well this weekend.

[Paul]

i saw some nice eyes taken off pelican at midnight.

[Dahitman44]

At the last minute we hit Big C and that was more than slow for the eyes.

Nobody we talked to or saw boated an eye.

We did get into some NICE smallies so that was kinda fun.

[FMSmitty]

I fished Tulaby in the afternoon. I boated a few nice perch but no eyes. I saw two eyes caught by other boats. Only 8 or so boats on the lake. Water temp was 48 degrees

[Flick]

First time fishing the area for opener. Went pretty good, 3 of us caught 25 fish Sat evening. Nothing big, all fish were 13-20".

[pan man]

opeaner was really slow. i got one eye 20" and five suckers and a beaver ran up my leg in the creek last night scared the hell out of me turned the head lamp on it fraked ran right at me and hit my leg then was trying to get through my leg thought he was going to bite me. just unreal. that will be one to remember. everyone else i talked to arround battle lake said it was real slow everywhere

[ranger20]

that would freak me out too that is unheard of at least he didnt think your leg was a tree

[bak2MN]

That would scare the [PoorWordUsage] out of anyone. Well I didnt go on Sat but got out today after the Mothers Day grill out I had to do. The wife and kids and my father inlaw and I went out to Sallie around 3:30 and I only caught one walleye but it sure was a dandy at 24 1/2". My father inlaw caught two 30+" northerns. And holy [PoorWordUsage] did we catch bass must have caught 20 25 large mouth. The biggest went at least 4 to 5 pounds. We anchored up along the weed edge with bobbers and a shiner and they hit one after another. The kids and my father inlaw had a blast. It was great to get the kids into some fish. Would have caught more but ran out of minnows. Well at least they didn't go to waste.

[Ole Marble Eyes]

Went out Turkey hunting around Frazee this morning. Not a peep. Went fishing, caught 17, 19,21" 'eyes in the middle of the afternoon and then went back turkey hunting and not a peep again. Least we have fish to eat. Last three days therewas about 12 turkeys and 2 big toms were in the same place and the same time, today when we were there, nothing.

[GBPackerNut]

Was down on Lida this evening, only on the water for about 3 hours, not a single fish in the boat...

Oh well there's always next week.

[BrianLucky13]

Hit Pelican saturday morning from 6-10. Got 5 walleyes and about 12 northerens. Missed about 5 walleyes bites. Not very many people out there!!!

[paceman]

Fished walker lake. Our boat caught 5 good eaters, a few bass, northerns. Slowest opener in years. All the boats we talked to had the same (2-3 fish/person). Water temp was 52-54. It felt awesome to be dragging a rig again....

[Dahitman44]

Hit Pelican last night and we pretty much had the lake to ourselves. It was very slow but a nice day.

Got our first real eye hits around 8 p.m. and just when we were going to leave I nailed a NICE 21.5-incher. That made the whole day worth it. It bit VERY light -- on jig and minnow in 14 LOW.

Heard White Earth was slow too, but did give up some fish deep - -18-24 fow. Hard to believe.

Hit

[Paul]

I fished Buck lake on Sunday from 11am to 11pm. Pretty slow in the hole during the day, some small slimers, and smallies, but when the sun went low it was a different story. 3 boats in same spot, saw several milk filled walleyes released that were probably 24"+ every one. Caught 4 of those big pigs, myself that were released immediatly and kept 2 16" eyes for the fryin pan. Was a bit disapointing for the keeper ratio to throw back ratio but seeing all those big beauties coming out of 2.5' of water was really neat.

I also thank the other 2 parties out there for practicing some good sportsmanship by throwing back those big pigs.

[kingr]

We caught our fair share of northerns on on Round on Saturday. Fished from 8-25 ft of water and didn't find much of anything. The water temp was only 49 degrees so a little cold I think. I only heard of one walleye caught on Saturday.

Hopefully I'll be able to sneek out on my parents lake this weekend after turkey hunting.