2020 Detroit Lakes-Pelican Rapids Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions

[Bass Whacker]

I lived my whole life in the south metro of the twin cities and I could never really get into panfishing. But since I moved up here for school it's all I do. You guys are so lucky thats all I have to say. The numbers of fish and big fish at that is crazy.

One thing to watch for is bug hatches thats what I was following around sunday and monday. I thought the little green bars rising from the bottow was just my flasher messing up, but I ended up haveing a few bugs rise up into my hole. When you found the bugs you found the nicer fish.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Yes, so many people mistake that for a screwy flasher or something. I run into bug hatches from time to time.

What kind of lures/baits are you having your best luck on?

[Bass Whacker]

Almost every fish I've caught this year have been on one of these two combos. A red and green lindy toad with a bro bug body usually in black but I have had luck with red, and a pink and chartrous northland gill getter with 2 or 3 waxies.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

We need to get out on the lake together and shoot a video for HSO one of these days!

[Bass Whacker]

Sadly I wont be able to get out for a while with school and work and the temps today. Hopefully I can get back on them when I finally get out again. It would be fun to meet up and fish a lake sometime this winter.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

No problem, we have until the end of the ice season to get out!

[northyman3]

anybody been to sallie, hows the ice, and is the fishing decent or slow

[muskymaniac4ever]

went to sallie yesterday-ice is getting thick with this recent cold weather there is about 16-17 inches of ice where we were, just have to make it over ice heave at the access, fishing was a lil slow for the most part no nice fish, about a dozen walleyes all in that 12-13 inches though, no keepers.

[northyman3]

thanks for the report

[Guest]

Went out to Lida and fished in the most brutal wind conditions I have ever ventured out in with my porty, not the smartest decision I have made. Was surpirsed to see that my "hotspot" had about 25-30 perms crushed in real tight around the spot so I ventured elsewhere. The fishing was not the best but I did manage 5 crappies, 3 were over the 11" minimum, I missed a few too of course! For the first time this year they wanted waxies vs a minnow, caught them all on the new Lindy Red/Gold glitter Frosty. I was in 27 ft but caught everything up at about 20 ft. I did drive my little SUV over the "crack" at Clay Point and the ice was 15" and the crack is frozen solid now so no problem IMO, and there was one larger truck past the crack as well.

[spinnerboy]

BB, you should have tried your "hotspot". I was in my permanent in 20fow and did good. 3 guys got 35 total,with 18 over the 11in slot. Small hooks and small minnow under a small bobber on the rattle reels. Good times!

[Guest]

Appreciate the input Spinner, and way to go; 18 over the slot in one sitting is excellent fishing! You are right I should have stuck to Plan A but when I saw all the perms and people built up over only 1 week's time in that small area I decided on Plan B. Plan C is to head toward the S end of the lake to one other good remote spot; so that is what I will do next time out. GL!

[spinnerboy]

I hear you BB. I too,hate the crowds. Atleast they are not as bad as last year! Good luck to all!

[Bass Whacker]

Made it out this morning and caught a nice sunnie right off the bat. So I started hole hopeing in the area and found a school of crappies with a few gills mixed in that bit pretty good for about a half hour. They were suspended about 6 feet off the bottom in 16 feet of water. Then something big brabbed my bait and it ended up being a pig of a largmouth. He almost completely emptied my spool twice before I got him in. After That the wind started to pick up and the bite died. I only caught one more small sunnie for the next couple hours.

First fish of the day.

[tsande00]

Nice bass! I bet that was a blast to catch through the ice on a little rod.

[Bass Whacker]

It was fun to catch one of the largest bass of of my life it was dead on 22" with the mouth closed and tail pinched. I wish I could have got some more pics of it to show how thick it really was, but I wanted to get it swimming as soon as possible.

[Bass Whacker]

I went for a drive last night and found a couple small lakes people are fishing one was Sands just north of DL and the other is Moe lake west of town. There were people fishing both lakes I'm just wondering were people park. I have a 2 wheel drive ranger so I cant drive onto the lakes. So I'm wondering if I'll get hasseled for parking on the road? Also has anyone else fished these lakes? What would I be catching if I give them a shot? Thanks for the help.

[Guest]

There is a little bit of everything in both Sands and Moe. No problem parking on the shoulder of the road and walking on right off the road. Sands was a good walleye lake several years past as the DNR used it for a rearing pond and then left-overs grew. Walleyes fished out pretty well now but there are some decent gills in there.

[MN_Jay]

If its the sands on 230th then there is pretty much everything - walleye, northerns, bass, sunnies, not sure about crappies though. Just park on the side of the road there since there is nowhere else to park - people do it all summer long, I can't imagine people getting mad at doing it in the winter since they are used to it anyway.

I've actually been meaning to try that lake myself sometime.

[Bass Whacker]

yeah thats the sands I'm talking about. Thanks for the help. I'll be giving it a try the next time its to windy to be out on the big lakes

[eyedawg]

Well after a late start made it to the lake around 345 drilled a few holes and marked some fish rite away. We setup in 18 ft and started catching some small perch, then it was a 4 lb pike. After a bunch more perch caught another pike bout the same size and also broke a line. About 515 caught the first eye and we ended up catching 8 total and missed two others. Nothing big but they were all nice eaters. Let everything go to catch another day. The new otter thermal is one heck of a nice house worth every dollar!!!

[Cicada]

Fished Lida this afternoon. Wanted to try Lizzie, but the guy that used to have the coffee can you could put a few bucks in is gone and the access is roped off. Went out to one of Fisherdogs secret spots. Set up in 22 feet of water. Marked a bunch of perch most of the afternoon. About 4:00 I had a better fish (mind you, better than a dink perch), northern, I think, break me off. Got checked by the CO. Visited for a while. I think he got he idea that I was a little bored. Got one 13in crappie at dark, marked a few more, and missed one other bite.

[eyedawg]

Made it out to the perm house last nite and moved to some new ground. Ended up goin even shallower and it paid off. Caught 6 nice crappies all of them between 10-12" and 10 decent bluegills in about an hr biggest was 10". Didn't seem to matter what I used wax worms and a minnow head both caught fish. If I could have made it out earlier I could have caught a lot more the vex was lit up as soon as I drilled my first hole. Hoping to make it back out this wknd. Now if I could only figure out how to upload pics from my phone??

[muskymaniac4ever]

so where does a guy get on lizzie then?, does the campground on the north side still let people through?

[Cicada]

No the campground does not let anyone through. They haven't for years. I saw a four wheel drive go down the access hill and manouver around the heaved up boat ramp.

[coombia21]

Is Lizzie safe to drive around on, if you can get onto the lake?

[Cicada]

Wanted to try something different yesterday. Went rainbow trout fishing on Long Lake up north. A guy I work with and I each got one rainbow and I missed another one at the hole. We saw quite a few more, but they would just take swipes at the baits and move on. Plan B was to hit Juggler for panfish. We tried three spots and only got one little northern. Did start to see a couple of bluegills about the time we had to leave, but they didn't seem interested in biting either.

[eyedawg]

Made it out yesterday for a few hrs in the mornin, and did pretty good. I ended up catching a total of 17 nice crappies, 12 gills, 4 pike, and 7 bass. The red lindy rattlin flyer was the ticket only caught one on the bobber. I ended up gettin broke off and after that couldn't catch a thing. Oh and I was fishing in about 11 ft in the weeds with both waxies and crappie minnows. Fished from 9-1

[Guest]

Couple of the bigger Crappies caught this evening. 28 fow, all the crappies were suspended up at 18' this evening. All of them caught on Red Glow jig tipped with waxies, not one bit a minnow today.

[Bass Whacker]

I made it out today for a while. The bite was tough but everyonce in a while one would come chargeing up of the bottom and smack your jig. Ended up catching around 20 decent perch. One thing I thought was odd was all the nicer ones had eggs(right in front of my pinky), is this normal for this time of year? I also lost a big northren, I just got its head up the hole and it decided it didnt want to get caught today and it snapped my line.