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2020 Detroit Lakes-Pelican Rapids Fishing Reports - Lake Conditions


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I'm not really lying I just thought other people should know about this lake. I have seen a few other lakes like this around. There is one up becker 1 that had a big beaver lodge on it that I trapped in the fall. When I stepped in the weeds next to the lodge a bunch of little fish came squirting up on top of them. I picked some up and they were little crappies about 2 inches long. I also got permission to fish this lake but haven't gotten the chance yet. You would be surprised how many lakes around here I have seen fish in.

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As was mentioned in the Silver Lake thread:

Fishing Minnesota's purpose is to SHARE information and have fun. If you don't like sharing information on lakes, particularly smaller lakes, then don't post info about them. If others post info on smaller lakes, let it ride.

Posts Intimidating those who share info will not be tolerated!

If you want to debate the benefits or costs of sharing info you can do it in the Outdoor Discussion forum.

Let's have fun!

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Thanks Deadhead. Hey, make that temporary full time job at the DNR into a full timer. I need employment.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

This is a Thread to post fishing reports and thats it! If you dont feel the need to name lakes thats fine, lets hear what depth, color, time of day, or bait to use.

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The boy and I went out before the Super Bowl and had a great go of it. Fished from 2:00 to 5:00 and had a banner night. Just one crappie(small) and several dozen(close to 100) Bluegill. It was not-stop for 3 hours. My hands are cut up from handling all the fish. My son's are cut too. It was probably the most fun I've ever had on the ice. I will try to post a pic.

Son's largest BG. My hand is 8" from tip of finger to the bottom of hand.

3245675573

3245674869

Hope this works....

Kept 10. We had a talk about putting fish back to keep a healthy and larger population.

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Took my son (4 year old) out to the house on sallie last night. Caught only 3 small eyes. I am going to try to move the house out to new spot. Didn't mark many on the Vex. Still fun to have the little dude out there.

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  • 1 month later...

Went out on Long Lake down by Vergas Saturday afternoon. We fished from about 4 to 8. We were in 14ft and the 3 of us kept 18 sunnies and 6 crappies.

The ice was fine to drive out on Saturday but when we left the the lake the access was in real bad shape.

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Anyone ever fish strawberry lake? A buddy and I went there on monday in the rain, caught some of the biggest sunfish ive seen for a long time, lots of 10 plus. couple were close to 12, let them go. wont tell u where on the lake tho, took us a long time to find them. we were using ratso jigs, better with the black and purple. I'll be back.

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Fished a couple smaller area lakes and found the pannies to be more towards the shallow structure. I drilled like 25 holes last night and went hole hopping started out deep and worked my way in shallow. I ended up catching about 25 crappies and some small gills and perch out of the shallowest hole, too bad they were all about 8inches with a couple 10 inchers mixed in. I found the fish in about 12 FOW, I started out fishing in 19, in a lake that only get about 24 feet.

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I'll be out through out the weekend checking some lakes for pannies!!! There are many lakes out in the "hills" east of my place that are pretty much untouched throughout the winter. This might just be the last weekend of ice fishing for the season for me. I hope not though.

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Leech, congrats on the little "M" there under your name. Nice work, you deserve it.

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Leechbait I was up in your neck of the woods last weekend and we nailed the crappies didn't keep anything under 11" all in all between Friday and Saturday we kept 9 friday and then 41 on Saturday night the fish were still biting, when I finally got tired and had to head in around midnight. The bite was light I was running a ultra light rod with no bobber and a red glow jig it didnt seem to matter what the bait was between crappie minnow or fatheads, as soon as you felt a tap you had to set the hook they would not take a bobber down for anything. We fished in 28 FOW and all the fish were suspended half way up. I wish I was going again tonight but the shore ice was in very bad shape last weekend I can only imagine what this snow did to it.

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Leech, congrats on the little "M" there under your name. Nice work, you deserve it.

Yeah, cnogratulations Leechbait. I was wondering when somebody would take notice of your wealth of fishing knowlege. Congrats...you deserve it.

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Thanks fellas,

cbek, the lakes actually didn't deteriorate to much over the past week with the cold temps. A couple very well timed jumps will get you over the bad shore ice wink. Well as I said I hit a few small lakes out east of my place in the hills with very mixed results. Two of the three lakes I fished I didn't catch anything but small perch and small blue gills. They were small out of the way lakes with moderate depth, 20 foot max. The other lake I hit is 3 times as big, probably a few hundred acres and the fish were more active along shoreline structure. I caught crappies throughout the day yesterday. It seemed wherever a point came out and I could find a flat spot in 12-16 fow I'd find a few on bottom with waxies and small jigs. Towards evening they were in the same spot but up high and hitting anything you'd throw at them. Hopefully I can get out a few times this week, the weather looks like it will be nice.

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Thanks fellas,

cbek, the lakes actually didn't deteriorate to much over the past week with the cold temps. A couple very well timed jumps will get you over the bad shore ice wink.

NICE....just keep an eye on it so that you can still make that jump when it's time to leave the ice with a bucket full of Crappies..

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HAHA no doubt, but actually it wasn't that bad, in some spots especially on the NORTH side of a lake, that's what gets bad first. I hope to make it out on South Twin either tonight or tomorrow night, just depending on what Mrs. Leechbait has planned. Hopefully I can get out!!

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Found some more crappies last night, Went out not too far from shore and there still was just over a foot of good ice. Fished from 7:30 until nine and found them suspended over the first area of deep water, it was 18 feet and they were coming through not more than 7 or 8 feet down and they were actively biting. We must have caught 20 or more in the 10-11" range, I brought 5 home and my partner brought 4 home for the pan. Also c&r'd a nice 5 pound northern, what a fight he put up on 4lb test. It looks like I'll have on more weekend of ice fishing. Also take it easy along any shore you go out on now, they are getting pretty bad in spots.

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Took the sled out today and fished most of the day with good results. Our group iced around 60 crappies and also got a bunch of nice gills, up to 9.5". The ice was in good condition, probably 18-24 inches of ice left. Some good shoreline areas are still available to access if you want to get out. Found most of our fish in 12-15 fow water on the weed edge or just in the weeds.

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Fished Upper Cormorant on the 5th. Caught a mixed bag of 3 bass, 2 pike and over 50 gills. It was nice to catch some large gills compared to the metro fish I've grown used to catching. We were on a little saddle in 14 FOW. We caught all but 1 fish on our jigging sticks with a Ratso and waxies.

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Got out one last time for the year, it was a good finally. Fished for about 3 hours and got about 20 crappies. We ran out of gas in the auger so we could only drill 8 holes and we didn't want to walk an additional 300 yards to the are we fished last week that has about 150 open holes. Could probably get out a couple more times but I figure enough is enough. Time to check out a couple river inlets for panfish, and to get the boat out and ready.

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Yup fisherdog.....went out one last time yesterday as well.Did pretty well on bluegills.With rain forcast the next few days,I think it is about over.Don't remember ice fishing this late in april before.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Went out last night. The wind went down before I got there, so I wasn't happy about that. Caught a rock bass as the sun went down and a crappie about the eighth inning of the Twins game. Had two other bites, but I whiffed on them.

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Hauled the boat to Big C tonight only to find the majority of the northern 1/2 of the lake ice covered. Ice was out 100 yards or so from the landing but there was no way to go south around the point because of ice. Soooo... we went and shore fished the bay across from swannies. I am guessing we were a week early. No bites at all. Oh well, it was good to wet a line.

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I went out to one of my favorite haunts last night for crappies and gills, but no luck. It was pretty windy for my little jigs so I threw a crappies minnow under a bobber and just sat on shore and watched the loons. No bites, a little too early for that spot but it's a nice peaceful lake out in the hills and it was relaxing. This weekend me and my bro will be bouncing around on a couple of those lakes seeing what we can find.

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Got out yesterday and caught around 30 crappies with a buddy up to 13.5" from a shore spot. Today's beautiful weather will push them back until we get another 2 days of nice weather. Still haven't gotten the boat out, need to get it out before opener to make sure everything works ok.

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Nice Job Peter, The weather is horrible for fishing now, did you see the cool nights coming up? I imagine Satrday I'll find them somewhere!!!

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Well I got water temps in the mid to high 40's. Got into a bunch of crappies in a muddy bay that read close to 50 on the finder. I found them in 4-8 FOW. C&R'd a couple pike and a waldo too, it was a good trip. Good to be out in the boat again.

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