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St Cloud Fishing Reports


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+1 on braided line. I do like to put a 3 foot leader of fluorocarbon though in some cases, but the beauty of braid (I use power pro) is there is no stretch so you feel everything.

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Went out to Rice on Sunday. Picked up a couple of northern, a few crappies and a few bass. Water temp was at 83.8 degrees. Very green. There were guys keeping crappies that they were catching. My buddy and I looked at each other and just shook our heads. The fish felt warm and mushy, I can only imagine what they taste like.

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Made it out to the Chain for a few hours this afternoon/evening. The water is real green and the weeds are as thick as I have ever seen them out there.

With the well defined weed edge we opted to pull some crankbaits around. I started with the no7 shad rap in firetiger while my partner tied on a no5 Lindy Shadling in natural perch. Within 30min of fishing I could tell the difference between the two baits. While I was still skunked my partner had a walleye, two catfish and a decent smallie to show for his effort. I switched over to one of the Shadlings in the golden shiner color. Before long I was getting bit too grin. The only bad thing about the Shadlings is the northerns seem to like them a little too much wink Around 5pm we decided to try and locate some active catfish, it didn't take long wink. We anchored up on the first break coming out of a shallow bay in 18ft and bobber fished. Must have caught 20cats in 2hrs, all but one was under 20in.

All in all it wasn't too bad of a day for action, might have to try it again tomorrow.

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  • 1 month later...

Went out to the Horseshoe chain for a few hours for the fullish moon bite. Started well after dark pulling no 5 shad raps over the tops of the weeds along a fast breaking shoreline. Ditched this idea after a couple runs due to all the dead weeds fouling up our baits. Plan b was running cranks over the tops of some of the shallow rocky spots on Cedar, this turned out to be a better option. We were getting one or two fish on just about every pass on one certain shallow bar when we droped into deeper water. My partner sugested we use the trolling motor and throw crank baits to the edge of the bar we were working, this was a great idea grin. We got quite a few walleyes, though most were on the tiny side, a few late night smallies and about a dozen smaller catfish.

While the Aug full moon bite can be good I am sure looking forward to the Sep, Oct and Nov. full moon wink

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

I was out last night as well fishing Koronis for the first time in a long time. Found the weeds to be very thick which eliminated some of our favorite trolling runs. But we found some good areas that held fish in 4-7 fow. We run #5 shallow shada raps 50-60 feet back to run over most of the weed growth. Caught several walleyes from 7-22" as well as crappies from 10-12". I was a good night to be out. Can't wait for the weeds to start laying down a bit. Water temps are still in the upeer 70 range.

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Went to the western lakes on the Chain yesterday. I figured with the holiday weekend appon us the lake would be busy, and sure it was crazy. Weekends like this you can expect to see some intresting stuff, this one didn't dissapoint. We saw quite a few boats hit the marked rock bars,numorous pontoons and boats get hung up this one small sand bar on Cedar, A family looking for the Coldspring access on CI and didn't know witch way to go. But the best is when a boat with three middle aged women and one lone guy came roaring past us while the women showed their goods grin. One heck of a day it was.

I almost forgot about the fishing, it was fair/good. Started out looking for walleyes but it became evident that with the boat traffic zooming by it would be tough. Plan b was to find some panfish, this also was going to be a little bit of a challenge with all the boats. We did find some good size sunfish holding on top of the rock bars and points but numbers weren't too hot. I decided that we should find some crappies, quite a few of the shallow flats are loaded with them right now. The trick is to find soft bottom areas in the 6-12ft range that doesn't have thick weeds. After we had our fill of crappie action it was just about prime time for walleyes, spent the last two hours jigging with minnows them running raps for a few passes. All we could pick up were smaller fish so we decided to head in a bit early.

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Went out to Rice Lake this past Saturday and fished from about 3 pm - 7 pm. The public access ramps on the south-west side of the lake were horrible probably due to the low water levels. The ramp to the right of the dock (when looking at the lake) was completely unusable because it dropped off to a giant hole right after the concrete. I didn't use that ramp because I had heard that someone had bent up their trailer pretty bad earlier that day trying to use that ramp. The other ramp to the left of the dock was very uneven. I was thankful I had rollers on the trailer so I could load the boat in the shallow water.

Fishing was ok considering all of the boat and jet ski traffic. Caught 8 small walleyes and 2 northerns trolling rattle traps in 8-9 foot depth range. Then we started casting for bass and boated about 10 or so largemouth bass casting plastic worms.

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Back on the Chain today. Water temps are starting to dip, found 66-69 on the main lakes and low 70s in the shallow bays that the sun had warmed.

Fish are still holding in their late summer locations this week. Plenty of crappies on the shallow flats and first breaks on the outside of the weedy bays. Walleyes can be found in pretty mutch the same locations as the crappies, they are both taking advantage of the huge schools of baitfaish that can be found around just about every shallow weedbed that remains green. The cats also have been active, but the bulk have been on the small side frown.

Bite should only get better from now till ice up grin

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Made it out on the chain tonight after work and thought I would try trolling some cranks for walleyes and to my surprise ended up boating this 11" crappie on a flicker shad. Must have been hungry, went back to target the school with minnows with no success but I only fished an hour.

D3604A82-9E12-40C3-B96C-AB59F30F5944-151

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Went to Big Birch on Sunday. Caught a lot of bass around the long grass island. Finally found scattered crappies along a reef in 14 ft of water. Average size 11". Switched from minnows to waxies and caught a handful of real dandy sunnies!! First time ever fishing the lake and I will be back again.

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Great report sartellangler, there are some real nice size panfish and bas in Birch. I have no problem finding numbers of walleyes, smallies and bluegills but the mid to late season crappies have always stumped me. I can find 1 heare and a couple there but puting a good pattern togther on this lake has always been a challange for me.

You wouldn't by chance want to help a clueless fisherman out such as myself as to where you found them? crazy.

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Stay within a foot or two of 14 ft. Also, if anyone snags a pan fish combo of the bottom of the lake let me know. Cardinal reel and abu garcia rod. Thanks smile

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I had a pretty good day on the Chain this Friday. I ended up leaving St. Cloud around 5am to hit the lake for the day. Started out trolling for walleyes, but that got old pretty quick. Wasn't much action...but I couldn't believe how many catfish were surfacing on bugs. It was just nuts...couldn't look without seeing one hitting the surface.

Once the sun came up I hit the bass in a particular bay near our cabin and really had some decent success. Ended up catching 6 bass, 4 catfish, dogfish and I broke off on a pike...I believe. Largest bass was 19". All caught on Havoc. Gotta believe in the stuff I sell. smile I also trolled a bit more later in the day and had one fish on that I'm sure was a walleye but he unbuttoned himself.

Anyways, pictures are more fun to look at....

photo23.jpg

photo31.jpg

photo22.jpg

photo1-2.jpg

Gave my old man the finger in this shot. smile

photo32.jpg

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Hey fellas, been reading a lot of your guys' reports and are quite interesting. It's nice to see. Anyone been on the walleye hunt recently on Big Birch?

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Welcome to HSO Jaron_K. I myself haven't been on Birch yet for the early fall bite. I would think the walleyes have already started to put the feed bag out there, they have most of the area lakes that have a good fall bite wink I wont be out there for atleast the next two weeks but plan on getting there a couple times before ice up. Some of my best outings on Birch have been when the guides on my rod are freezing up.

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I have always had real good luck in the fall also. It's ust a matter of finding what depth they are at. I'm planning on heading out this Friday so I will keep everyone posted.

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Went out on big birch last weekend for a couple hours chasing walleyes. Water temp was a 62 degrees and the fish were definatly out deep. Marked most of the fish around 26-34 fow. Came out with only two 10" walleyes off the sharp break on the grassy island(34fow) so i wasnt impressed with the size. Also caught a few smallies out that deep and about a 4-5 lb northern tossing a rapala from boredom. It seemed the 'eyes were hovering that edge of where the rocks met the mud out deep. I ended up giving up on the early morning walleyes to catch some crappies on a surrounding lake and did pretty well. Any one else had any luck?

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Great report Jaron_K. Birch can be tricky at times. Keep after those sharp breaks, the bigger walleyes will start to show up soon. Grassy can be good at times but don't spend too much time on one spot, Birch is loaded with some great traditional walleye stucture. Just keep mobile till you find 'em wink

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Had one of the best nights on the water all year earlier tonight...went out to a local lake to chase some largies, and they didn't disappoint. Caught twelve fish--all decent--but two of them were absolute mamas.

Best part: Half of the fish came on topwater frogs, while being the only boat on the lake. Add in fall colors and a beautiful sunset, and I would've been happy if I hadn't caught any. Well, maybe that's not true. smile

May Allah/God/Jehovah/Flying Spaghetti Monster bless autumn!!!

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Back out to the Chain again this afternoon/evening for a few hours.Water temp has been falling nicley, Sun it was 64, today 59-61. The bite for just about everything that swims is going well. The last few times out I have been getting plenty of walleyes and mixed panfish on the tops and just off the sides of the two bigger shallow flats in the western system. Nothing fancy, just a good old jig/fathead combo worked either verticaly or casted and retreived depending on wind. If it's calm I would rather cast jigs, I can cover way more ground this way and jet my jig out away from the boat where the fish are less likley to spook. Days like today there is only vertical, thats ok though because the fish are less likely to spook with the wave action breaking up the outline of the boat.

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I was out on the Chain yesterday as well, for the mid-afternoon early evening bite. I wasn't really looking for eyes, just wanted to catch some bass. Just trolled the shoreline tossing plastics again, ended up getting another nice LM. It was about 15-16" fish, so I was happy with that. Also, lost one cat that was the perfect release..it was about 5-6lbs. Ended up catching 4 bass and lost the cat. That was good enough for me, as it was absolutely beautiful out yesterday.

I was alone, so it was hard to get a picture of the fish.

photo1-3.jpg

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Nice report once again, Coleman.

You sure that bass is "only" 15-16''??? On the ruler, it sure looks like it's pushing 20! smile

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Walleyes were smoking today! Easily a 30-35 fish day. Sat in one spot all day which seemed to have an endless supply of 14-18" fish. Still finding them in the 22-25' range near rocks. Water temp was 50.5. Mississippi is all I'll say.

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Good report gixxer01, You must have found the honey hole. I was just about to report the same thing, only about the bass wink I tried for walleyes for a bit at prime time but could only manage three, two dinky ones and one decent one. I wasn't in the boat today, was stuck on shore so that limited my access to deeper water frown

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