2020 Detroit Lakes-Pelican Rapids Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions

[A.W.Wolfram]

Had a great trip to the area 4-22 to 4-25. The bay water temps went from 51.4 on Sunday to 57.6 on Wednesday. The crappies transitioned from 8’ to 10’ on Sunday to 3’ and in the dock and timber by Wednesday afternoon. It had been 20 years since I had fished the area. Lot has changed. The bull Bluegills were in full effect, many past to 10” mark and put a nice bend in the ultra light. A few Crappies in the 15” range with a strong 11” and 12” year class.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Wow, nice report Andy! Glad to see you got on the fish!

[paceman]

awesome report!

[orangefeetdown]

Gonna be in the area fishing memorial day weekend and was wondering if we are gonna miss the crappie spawn this year??? We go this time every year and hit it about perfect this year i think were gonna be late! We fish big sugarbush

[dairyman]

I was out Sunday and the water temp was 55 degrees and the outside temperature has not been the greatest since then---its only 52 here right now. I'm hoping that they start to head up for the beds------SOON!!!!

[paceman]

I know of a few guys that are doing very well sight fishing crappies in the shallows........

[Guest]

We got our limit last evening in 8-12', they certainly have not moved in to the shallows on this lake...very soon though, very soon.

Pic of a couple of them.

[Paul]

The Lake I fished 2 weeks ago, the crappies were in 10-22 feet of water on the breaks. water was 52 that day and the air temp was probably 52 but felt like 22 on the water. I would suspect that this weekend should be some good crappie action in the afternoon as the sun heats things up, since we should see close to 70 for the next few days as a high. Pretty sad, when I am packing crappie rods and gear to bring with on walleye opener, but what the heck need something to do, after I land my 6 walleyes by 12:15AM saturday. Dont I wish.

[Cicada]

Nice fish, bbfenatic, but what happened to your head?

Could be one of those buffet type openers. Little of this, little of that.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

I've seen them in the shallows on a few lakes up my way

You can tell that those have been testing the shallow waters at some point during the day, look at how black they are

[Cicada]

Excellent opener. On the water Saturday morning by 8:00, limit of nice walleyes by 9:30, ran out of minnows by 10:30, fish cleaned by 12:30, and as old guys tend to do, napping at 1:30. I found fish anywhere from 18-35 feet on steep breaks. Shiner minnows with plain red hook and slip sinker. Sunday was more of the same. Caught ten walleyes, five over 20 inches. Wind came up about noon and made if difficult to stay on those sharp breaks. Fish seemed to be in 19-23 feet this time.

[paceman]

Buddy and I fished OtterTail Sat. Afternoon. Pretty solid. Caught 14 eyes, kept 11 good eaters. My son and I went to pickeral sunday afternoon. Small northerns were on fire. Caught about 20 of them little stinkers. Fun for my son though. He is getting pretty good at jigging. Got check on both lakes by county sheriff. Just checking for safety (life jackets, cushions, horns...) really nice guys.

[Paul]

Pace Man, I met you on Sunday and didnt even know it. I was in the Lund Pro-V that stopped by just as you guys were calling it a day on Pickeral. I probablly toss back about 40 hammer handles yesterday. Those things are really a pain in the but. At what point do we finally come up with a way to make those things grow better? Maybe special regs, who knows, but just wanted to say that I Met you paceman

[paceman]

Glad to have met you Paul. After you left my son said that you were a nice guy. I don't now about pike regs. I fish sallie quite a bit and the pike regs have really worked there but I have not seen the same results in the floyds. They are still full of little bait stealers. Interesting that we did not catch any Rock Bass on pickerel on sunday. We caught a ton last year but that was a bit later in the year fishing crawlers/leeches. I suppose the shiner was a bit of a mouth full for them.

[RiverFish]

Report from 5-18-12. Becker county lake. Water temp 61 degrees. Fish were biting well. We ended up catching 40 or so crappies from 9-13 inches. All crappies taken on jig and fathead. Most of the crappies were taken suspended off of sunken islands. Crappies bit all day. The crappies were very active.

Fished walleyes off/in the cabbage. Caught 10 or so, 25 1/2 inches being the biggest. All walleyes were taken on a rig and leech.

Great day to be fishing.

[paceman]

Great report Riverfish. Sounds like you had a great day over here! I only made it out friday mid-day for a few hours. I was just tossing a little jig up into the shallows looking for crappies. I found a few but it was not fast and furious. I would catch one and the little northerns would drive me nuts. I caught a bunch that were like 10". I would move onto the next spot and the pattern would repeat. catch a crappie and then northerns. Lots of action anyways. Did tie into a 37" northern. that was fun on lite tackle. She got the last laugh with a face full of water as she splashed me as I put her back.

[RiverFish]

We caught a ton of northerns as well, lost a lot of jigs to them too.

[fisherdog19]

A little late on my opener report but it's a good one. Fished most of the day Saturday, only a couple 1 hour breaks for food during the day back at the cabin. I got about 14 of them myself and our 2 boats with 6 adults and a 13 year old boated near 60 walleyes. Most fish between 17-22 inches with a handful up to 25.5 and only 2 around 14". All caught pitching shiners on 1/8-3/8 oz jig. Got them in the morning in 12-22 fow, started shallow and followed them out deeper and went in for breakfast at 10:30. Went back after breakfast with not a ton of action so we tried a few different places until 4pm when we went in for lunch. One spot on the windy side of the lake produced 3 fish in about 15 minutes right before we headed in; casting in a patch of murky water in 7-10 fow. Went back out around 5:30 and our patch of murky water moved about 100 yards, got to it and it was game on for a good hour. Got a dozen and missed a bunch, it slowed some but we ended up with 10 more and about 15 misses until we headed in at 9pm or so. In all it was great 5 day trip, 3 full days of panfishing and 1 really good day of walleye fishing. Until July when I'm up in DL again.

[Cicada]

High school classmate came up for fishing Saturday and Sunday. I had to work until noon Saturday, so we got a late start. Hit a smallmouth lake and got 16. His best was 17 inches, mine was 18.5. Most on buzzbaits, a few on spinnerbaits. We did catch some other rough fish, you know, northerns, rock bass, and a walleye (not on a artificial). Sunday we hit two lakes for largemouth. Not exactly hot, but we did finish with 28 fish, the biggest being a 20 inch, 5.25 lb critter. Also got some northerns up to 6lbs.

[paceman]

Went out a couple times this weekend. It was cloudy, cold, windy but the fish are still biting. Crappies were easy to catch tossing a 1/16 jig with powerbait in 8-12'next to weeds. My son and I kept 10 good eaters each outing. Caught way more than that. Biggest was a 13.5" that we put back. Lots of 10 to 12". walleyes were a bit more finicky but we caught a few each time. rigging and jigging crawlers/leeches in 13-15'. Biggest was a 21".

[Jim Panfish Uran]

The fishing was great this weekend, we did well tossing cmall cranks up shallow. Anywhere from 6-12 feet we caught walleyes, bass, pike, and a lot of crappies and sunnies.

The weather was just plain crazy but the fishing was too!

[Cicada]

Got out after work last night. Tried smallmouth first. Got only two, the biggest being 17inches, the other about 15-16. White spinnerbaits on the rocks. Went to one of the community holes and got 7 walleyes, most bigger than I would keep, but nothing huge (20-22 inches). One on a crawler, the rest on small leeches. They were absolutely hammering the leeches. Every time I thought it was going to be a northern.

[paceman]

I love it when they crush leeches.....Man I need to get out. Hopefully tonight or tommorrow night....

[paceman]

Made it out Friday Night, Man was it gorgeous out. I worked the shallow weedline breaks for a few hours catching oodles of small northerns, rock bass and sunnies. I kept working deeper until I finally found the eyes. Lindy rigging crawlers in 25'. Caught 8 , kept 4 good eaters plus had 3 come unbuttoned at the boat. I was trying to horse them in to quickly. I should not do that when fishing with a small number 8 hook.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Looking to hit South Twin tonight! Hit the edge of the cabbage for some slab crappies!

[eyedawg]

Jim theres no crappies on south twin,heard its fished out. Haha

[Cicada]

Got the folks out yesterday. Tried Lizzie, pretty much an all dayer. Got enough walleyes for them to have a couple of meals. Nothing too spectacular, but mostly nice eater size fish. Most came on crawlers, but some on leeches. The zebra mussels are getting bigger and I'm not sure if it's related, but the water was ultra clear. Can they have that effect in only a summer or two? Use to be, you could only see five or six feet down, but yesterday you could see the bottom clear as a bell in 11 to 12 feet. Two float planes spent about an hour or more landing and taking off on the lake. Mom finally has to ask, "What are they doing that for?" I told her that they will often do that to see what lake has the softest water for easier landing. You don't want to land on a lake with hard water. Only thing I got to take hook, line, AND sinker all day.

[paceman]

The fish are still biting very well. 3 different lakes this past 3 days and 3 livewells full of fish. Walleyes were caught lindy rigging crawlers and leeches with a gum-drop float as well as numerous bass/northens/sunnies along Mid-lake weedlines. Crappies were caught tossing 1/16 oz jig and powerbait along shoreline weedlines. Took out relatives that don't fish much. The weather has been just plain awesome and it looks like this coming week should be the same.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Went out on South Twin Friday night and we caught 17 crappies, everything at right about the foot long mark.

The fish were caught anywhere from 6' to 12' with light jigs and minnows, or slipbobbers and minnows.

Move along the edges of the deeper cabbage until you hook up!

[Cicada]

Took my brother out tonight and started out lindy rigging. Nothing but a perch attack. Switched to cranks and got three nice walleyes and a few northerns. At least he got to take a few home. Silver and Blue Hot'n Tots running in 22-26 feet of water.