2020 Detroit Lakes-Pelican Rapids Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions

[Kingfisher]

My wife and I tried White Earth this morning, slow for us, returned a 19" walleye, and that was it, the temp was 55*. We went from there to a warmer lake 58*, and caught 5 nice eaters, threw back one small eye. We quit @ 6:00 PM.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Went to Bad Medicine last night, we pulled raps, and spinners. More bites came on the spinners, we landed one 12" trout. It was fun. Fished the northeast shoreline.

[Dahitman44]

the WE temp went down?

that is odd.

[Pickelfarmer]

Just stayed at Veronens on Bad Medicine for the last 2 nights. I hit most of the spots I know of on the lake for trout. I only got one about 2 pounds. Had a lot of nibbles but couldn't seem to hook em. Water temp was about 57.

[bak2MN]

Hey Pickle we have a site reserved for next weekend there. What is their campground like? So the fishing is kinda slow? What is the walleye fishing on this lake like. We have never been to this lake before. It is going to be a learning weekend. Never have fished for trout, hopefully will get into one or two. Do I need a Trout stamp? Any info from you guys that have fished it before would be great. Not looking for the hotspots just some pointers, unless someone wants to give them out! HAHA. Thanks for any help. Bak.

[plainjane]

Just got back from a great weekend at Tamarac resort on Round. Fished round and Many point between wind changes and gusts. Fish were between 14 - 20 feet right where the weeds begin. Crawlers, leeches, minnow rigs or jigs and gulp worked. Did not catch tons, but the key was being right at the weed line. I imagine in a couple of weeks when the weeds thicken up some lakes will have even shallower walleyes right in the middle of em' in about 12 feet caught accidentally by bass fisherman. Anyhow, if you want a great weekend, the people on round lake are great.

[Pickelfarmer]

bak2MN, Veronens is a great place to stay. Water was to cool for swiming but it might warm up a little for you.

Bad Medicine is very clear so the walleye bite is pretty much a night thing.

As for trout, YES if you are going to fish for Trout you need a trout stamp.

I use powerbait balled around a size 6 or smaller hook.Totally surround the hook and shank.Make kind of pear shape out of it.Run it on a lidy rig style set up with about a 5 foot lead (Longer or shorter You need to play around with that).Use a heavy weight (3/4 to 1 oz) above the swivel to make sure you get all the way down to the bottom. Drag it around at a slow pace. Drift if you can. Small floating Raps work to, just let out alot of line and troll around. Corn,salmon eggs and worms work well while at anchor fishing verticaly. Good luck and have fun.

[paceman]

Saturday morning the air was cool with the N/NW wind but the big girls were hungry. On the water at 5:00 am. Fishing the sw side of the lake. 17-20 weedline. Caught numerous bass/northerns and 2 keeper eyes, 14.75 crappie, plus released a 23,24.5,25,26,26.5,27 walleye. Lindy rig, plain hook. Shiners and leeches. Off the lake by 9:00 am. My best outing ever for quality fish.

[huntnfish]

Water temp on White Earth on Saturday was 55-56. I was told they got a couple decent shots of rain which cooled the lake a little. I was hoping for a temp close to 60 but that didn't happen. Fishing was slow and it was tough to keep the boat in position with the wind.

[Tyler Voss]

Went to South Twin this morning. Originally planned to fish eyes, but bait shops were out of shiners so we fished crappies. Leadheads and twister tails did the trick. We got caught about 25. 15 of them were in the 10-14 inch range.

[Cicada]

Fished Lizzie yesterday morning. Pretty slow. Only one walleye, although it was a nice one, 21.5" and two northerns. I looked for crappies a little bit and still haven't found them on soft water. Went to Prairie and found the crappies. Caught about a dozen, some real nice ones, several largemouth bass, biggest 4lbs fun on 4lb test. Fish fry at the Taco Depot tonight!

[Kingfisher]

Today was the day (not should have been here yesterday). My wife and I hit the lake after 9 AM this morning, had our limit of eye's by 1:00 PM. Threw back a 20+" and several smaller ones, the average length was a little over 15 1/2". They went for a 5' red snell #4 hook with a crawler, on weed edge 15 to 17.5'. The weather conditions made for a perfect day, water surface temp was 58-59*.

[Tyler Voss]

Fished White Earth this evening. 13 eyes between the 2 of us. Kept 7. 10-12ft. of water with shiners

[Cicada]

My brother and I finally found some crappies on Lizzie. Kept eight, one big bluegill, and one walleye. He'll have enough for a fish fry tonight. Found the crappies on the wind blown points.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Fished Little Elbow with the oldest daughter, and my son Jim Jr last night. I pretty much manned the motor and let them cast around. They actually did really well on the bass. The males were up shallow and the females were out off the first weed edge. They must have caught 10 bass or so and Jr. caught a 4 pound Northern which he was very proud of of course. Well so was I . An hour before dark I tied some small jigs on for 'em and we went across from the landing to the point and drifted in about 10-11 fow and caught crappie after crappie for about a 1/2 hour. Some gills were mixed in, boy did they have fun. It was fast and furious but everything went back in the lake. The biggest of the crappies were 9" max and the gills were 6-7"ers. Water temps were around 62 degrees!!!

[bak2MN]

Well we braved the weather and went camping at Veronens on Bad Medicine. Never fished for trout but that is what we went for and boy did we have fun. Went out at 7:30 am and started fishing caught a 18" trout in the first ten minutes. That was the only fish we caught that morning. Went out afternoon and changed lures and started catching them. We ended up keeping 10, two were small 10 to 11 inches, but the rest were 16 to 21 inchers. And we threw back 6 small ones and missed several others. I dont know much about the trout in that lake but ervryone there were really impressed with out catch. This is the first time ever on someones brag board. Pretty exciteing for the kids they had a ball. Today we went out for a couple of hours and caught and released 6 and missed several others. Miserable weather but awesome fishing.

We were useing a small shallow running rap with all the line on our spool out trolling with the electric. Started on the North end of the lake and trolled to the south end. Anything with orange did the best but the biggest one came on a blue rap.

[Jim Panfish Uran]

Nice report Bak2MN sounds like a pretty good time, you did way better than I did out there last weekend. I went out tonight on a small little lake east of my place for the first time in open water, I was planning on hittin Pickeral next to Hoot Owl but I didn't know the landing road was flooded out, bummer. I almost went home but on my way home I decided to take a right on the strawberry mountain road and try this lake I hit this winter. Wasn't even sure I could get my boat into it, but I got 'er done. Water temp was just below 60, I started out trollin with the electric motor with a 1/8 max gap jig and a white 3" minnow grub and caught a few nice crappies, the biggest was almost 14". I caught a nice sunny that was a hair over 9". A few more passes and than nothing, So I went out a little deeper, probably 13 feet or so and started catching the walleyes, I ended up catching 7 eyes, the biggest was 19". I brought home 3 walleyes and 2 foot long crappies!!!! What a night, and what a lake. Too bad I didn't get out there until 8:30 and it's sounds like rain for a couple of days. Can't wait to get out again.

[fisherdog19]

Did some pre fishing on Big D for the tournament on Saturday. Caught some eyes but all small males. Water temp was 58 so I think that had something to do with it. Marked lots of fish but not many takers. Ended up with about 9 that were all under 15". Need to find some big girls for the tourney, we'll see what we can find Wednesday and Friday.

[pan man]

nice to hear the trout coopeated for you those are some nice fish. always fun to see the kids have fun fishing.

[SJMyers32]

I managed to escape my normal lakes last weekend and ended up on cotton. Fishing was great, aside from the cold weather and rain, I had the lake to myself. Caught a few walleyes in 18 feet of water, and had a rock bass problem similiar to Big Cormorant? Fish were easy to find here I seemed to catch a little bit of everything.

[paceman]

Went out for a few hours tuesday night while the kids were at VBS. Using lindy rigs/leeches running along the edge of weeds 13-14' caught a 16,18,22 and a 25. Put them all back. Missed a few other light bites. Talked to another boat at the landing that did really well on crawlers...

[Cicada]

Fished Lida yesterday. Caught seven walleyes that were either too big or too small to keep. The real reason I went there though was to chase smallmouth. That was a blast. Used a double buzzbait in the rocks and got a bunch of them up to 18 inches.

[copterjohn]

That is fantastic. Topwaters in 60 degree water!

[Dahitman44]

Is that a tasty bass? ... mmmm yummy.

Just joshin' ya nice smallie. They are FUN -- the guys that worry me are the ones from Iowa that fish rock bass and bullheads ...

[ibfishen1962]

Nice smallie - Just out of curiousity, have you ever tried and had success on South Lida for smallies? I can think of one area over there that this pattern might work. Of course, I am sitting here in Illinois day dreaming about fishing on Lida.

[Cicada]

I have never caught a smallie on South Lida. Truth be told, I have not tried it though.

[Kingfisher]

Walleye are still very active even in midday, Tuesday they were in 16.5 to 19 fow, yesterday in 19 to 23 fow. We were using 5' snell's with # 4 and # 6 hooks, baited with large crawlers. Average size ran around 16".

[paceman]

Hit a little lake saturday morning with my Father-in-law and brother-in-law. Did pretty well. Caught 17 eyes kept 15, tossed back a 22 and 23. Also caught some dandy sunnies in the 9-10" range and a few snakes and bullheads. Caught a few on small sucker minnows, leeches but the majority was on crawlers. Simple lindy rig, colored hook with a bead, 4-5 foot snell. The magic depth was 9-10 feet just outside the weedline.

[paceman]

Hit a little lake saturday morning with my Father-in-law and brother-in-law. Did pretty well. Caught 17 eyes kept 15, tossed back a 22 and 23. Also caught some dandy sunnies in the 9-10" range and a few snakes and bullheads. Caught a few on small sucker minnows, leeches but the majority was on crawlers. Simple lindy rig, colored hook with a bead, 4-5 foot snell. The magic depth was 9-10 feet just outside the weedline.

[SJMyers32]

Fished everywhere from Carlos to Cotton last weekend. The highlight of the trip were the smallies at the Orwell Dam. Cotton is still good in 18-21 feet. It was fun watching the gentleman on Big Detroit pull out the 46" on 8lb test fishing walleyes. I couldnt figure out how it took an hour to get the fish in, until they mentioned the line!