2020 Detroit Lakes-Pelican Rapids Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions

[reinhard1]

those are some nice fish. good luck.

[fishNeggs4brkfst]

Lida (Pelican Rapids) has been hit and miss for me all season. I fish North Lida because I have a couple friends that live on the lake. Crappies have been hard to come by for me around there recently. Last night there were people driving 4wheelers around looking for them. Starting to look like a gopher nation out there. I'm going out there this afternoon and try 3 different spots for some bluegills and crappies.

Spot 1: From the North boat launch just vere to the left (East) as you are coming on the lake until you find about 10ft of water...hard to miss from all the holes drilled around there right now! Bluegills during the day come and go in schools and are hitting very light on #8 Pink Glow Jigs tipped with a couple waxies, but after dark when everyone leaves the lake seems to be when this spot takes off for me. I'll stop here on the way off the lake and fish until about 10pm or so and end up with a couple of 11-12in crappies, 3 or 4 Rock Bass (yes they are good eating!), and a few bluegills. All on a #8 Blue Glow Jig tipped with a crappie minnow.

Spot 2: From Spot 1, go straight West about half-way to shore until you find about 12ft of water, again there are probably a lot of holes in the area right now. Same bluegill deal there, but there aren't many of those pesky little perch that I see everywhere else.

Spot 3: Is just West from Clay Point about halfway beetween the East and West shoreline in about 20ft of water. This is where the permanents setup crappie town early in the season. I haven't fished the area since we had the permanent house out there. So I think I might try that this afternoon and see whats going on out there.

Well after giving out all this info, I'm sure someone out there will complain about me breaking some code of silence that some fisherman feel they have to keep, but how else are you going to find out about something new?

I'm recently retired from the military and have 21 years of fishing to catch up on, so I thank you for any info you would like to share.

Thanks again.

[eyehunter]

I'm sure you're right about someone going to complain, but I wouldn't worry about it too much, some people have nothing better to do but complain. I would just like to say thank you for your 21 years of service, and good luck fishing, with 21 years to catch up on, you've got your work cut out for you.

[reinhard1]

i want to thank you for your service to our country as well. ice fishing is comming to an end very quickly. gave out some good information, people still have to catch the fish plus hurry before the ice melts . we are talking about a lake that is 5,500 acres. good luck.

[fishNeggs4brkfst]

Thanks for thinking of the vets, it was my pleasure serving our country. I fish a lot with the Dad of one of my buddies that is still on active duty serving overseas.

Well I ended up fishing in Spot #1 on Lida. The action was so good we didn't even make it to the other spots. The entire bottom 4ft was red on the vexilar most of the 2-1/2 hours we were there until we caught our limit of bluegills (9-10in). No crappies, but I'm not complaining.

We drove the fourwheeler from his house in the northwest corner of the lake and it was only slushy in a few spots on our way out. On the way back, the slush was getting sloppier in some areas. I saw a fourwheeler and trailer use the landing, and while they did get off ok, it did look like they struggled a little.

I got a tip that Long Lake (west of the Walmart in Detroit Lakes) has a decent crappie and bluegill bite going on. A couple of buddies went up there at about 8:30am yesterday (Thursday) and caught fish between 9am and 11am. They ended up with 36 total fish. They were in the area just south and west of the boat landing area from how he described it.

Not sure where I'm going this weekend, but with the warmup, it may be the last icefish outing this year for me. I might have to start looking for a cheap little boat and start exploring all these great little lakes there are around here!

[curtistodd]

If you go to Lida tomorrow, bring your waders or planks, or get wet. The landing is open for a few feet, then the ice ledge is pretty cracked up.

[JbuZZo]

thanks for sharing!

[curtistodd]

LOL. Yeah, beautiful fishing day out there today i bet! Who knows how bad it will look tomorrow!

[fishNeggs4brkfst]

I haven't been over to the landing to check it out, but I'm sure it's in rough shape. A buddy went out today (Tuesday) from his house and drove his 4wheeler right out without any problems but he said it's getting closer to where we'll have to go on foot soon. He went out to about 18ft of water just before rounding the corner to Bass Harbor. There were a couple of guys from St Cloud fishing there and had their limit of crappies. He fished there but only ended up with 9 nice bluegills. I am looking at getting out there on Thursday.

[fishNeggs4brkfst]

Went out on Lida yesterday (Thursday) and braved the cold wind. Found the crappies in about 20ft of water, and they were pretty aggressive for a small blue jig with two Spikes dangling off it. They came up from the bottom and nailed it at about 5ft from the bottom. The bad part...they were all under 11" so had to release them all. Sunfish were hitting it too, but they were too small to keep. Ended up spending about 3 hours out there until we decided to get out of the wind.

Took the 4wheeler again and had no problems getting on and off in front of my friends house...we laid out a couple of 2x6 planks but didn't really need them to get on or off. The ice was still almost 2 feet thick where we were fishing. There are holes everywhere out there in that area.

With this cold snap the season still goes on!

[Paul]

Anyone have any current water temps on any area lakes?

[dairyman]

I had 45 degrees on a local lake by Frazee

[Cicada]

57 degrees on Lida yesterday. It was kind of slow, but I put in a lot of time and moved around a lot and found a limit of crappies. Pink and shiney jig with a crappie minnow.

[dairyman]

so---where were they?? deep or shallow?

[Cicada]

Shallow bays, 4-6 feet of water, 1.5 to 2 feet down.

[shooter_mcgavin]

Shallow bays, 4-6 feet of water, 1.5 to 2 feet down.

I paddled along quite a bit of shoreline in the bays Friday and didn't see a panfish. Guess I should've tried a little deeper.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

52 degrees on Waboose this weekend, and 46 on Manypoint in a shallow bay.... Second hand reports!

[dairyman]

have you been on the lake we fished this winter Leech?? How they doing??

[orangefeetdown]

going to be up there over memorial day weekend do you guys think the crappie will be goin hard by then???

[dairyman]

I was out yesterday and had to hunt for them---I'm thinking they've hit the peak already------

[orangefeetdown]

what is the best walleye lake in the area?

[paceman]

How big of an area? Lots of really good walleye lakes around. Pelican, Lida, Otter Tail, sallie, melisa, detroit, cormorant....

[auggie78]

what is the best walleye lake in the area?

The one I'm on :p

[MichaelSwan]

Really nice. Good job!

[orangefeetdown]

thanks for the info paceman! Good one auggie!!! were staying at big sugarbush gonna go to winnie a couple days and try ottertail and that area a couple days who knows how it will go!!!

[paceman]

If your going to fish Winnie you are going to be right next to Leech. That lake is awesome as well.

[orangefeetdown]

anyone ever fish battle lake??? and is it good walleye lake??? sorry for all the questions just wanna make it an awesome trip for my bro's and old man!!!

[paceman]

I have fished West Battle once. It is a lot like Otter Tail. Full of structure and is full of them there walleye things...

[orangefeetdown]

Goin to be fishing this sunday to next sunday in the area is the crappie spawn over allready or will i be allright??

[RiverFish]

Goin to be fishing this sunday to next sunday in the area is the crappie spawn over allready or will i be allright??

Water temp was 57-60 on three lakes in the Detroit Lakes area on 5-20-11. That may help. We were walleye fishing though, so I don't know the crappie bite.