st cloud St Cloud Fishing Reports

[Brad B]

Pushbutton,

Nice fish. Hope to get out sometime and get into them. But that is on hold for a little bit for now as you know. Thanks again for the replys to my thread on the forum.

Brad B

[catfreak]

Nice fish. I'm jealous. I've been out on the Sauk 3 times with no luck so far. Anybody know if anyone's got crawlers yet?

[crazybasser]

The Bait Den has had them for two weeks now, and also big suckers for cut bait.They are working great for cats above the scsu dam.My biggest so far is just under 6 lbs great fight for this early.

[pushbutton]

i have talked the place i get bait from into saving their dead suckers. i buy them frozen and 1 bag gets me between 30 and 50 fish. after you thaw them out, they are rotten, stinky, and hard to wash the smell off your hands.....but convinced the scent trail is better..... just some food for thought

[catfreak]

crazybasser, are you fishing out of a boat above the dam or just shore fishing?

[mrklean]

pushbutton are you fishing near campus by chance? Lookin at the pics it kinda looked like where i use ot fish when i was up there

[crazybasser]

I was shore fishing above the dam till this weekend, then time to hit the

bridge footings by boat for crops.If the weather is nice.

[maddowg1192000]

we went on the chain today and picked up 30 missed 10 to 15. the biggest was 6lbs. the ones we brought home are going on the smoker

[matt320]

went to my favorite panfish lake today and their were 25boats in one small bay and 15 people on shore. I stayed away from the crowds and did really good on sunfish and (slab) crappies. the sunfish were all caught on small ice jigs and euro larva in 3to6fow and the craps were caught on red glow hooks and minnows in 10to14fow. took a limit of 10" to 12.5" craps got 2 that were 14" that i put back. just wondering if anyone else is having luck? i seen alot of people on cedar island on the shore and some ppl on the shoe

[Rick G]

Having bout the same luck as you as of late. The fish are active on pretty much all the lakes right now. Water temp has has been in the mid to upper sixtys on most of the smaller channels and bays. I was finding mostly male crappies last week but the last couple days the bigger female fish have moved in to feed. Minnows on a plain no 8 hook have been turning more fish for me than plastics or hair jigs as of late. Big thanks to the one and only guy that stoped on sun and offered assistance while my buddie and myself were off off co rd 43 and hwy 23. with a flat and no spare on hand but enrout.

[pushbutton]

i just got out over the weekend in the boat for the first time and must have caught a couple hundred crappies. in a few spots it was that fish every cast action. most fish were small though, like RFM said the bigger girls have not really started to stage, at least where i was.....i fish a shallow channel/bay that has a 10 ft hole and usually they are stacked in it with the current water temps. would suspect they will be there in a week or so. i kept three 10 inchers for dinner. plenty of fish to be had the next couple of months. tried a new plastic, cant remember the name...it has a double paddle tail on it. found most of the fish in 2 to 5 ft, so was using a 1/32 and 1/48 without any float.

[nater]

We made it out on Sun and found water temps between 56-59. The sunfish were up shallow and the crappies were deeper around 8fow. You know the fish are going when get a fish every other cast or 5. Some nice crappies over 11 inches, but didn't keep any. Just enjoying a nice spring day with my wife until muskie opens. Good Luck

[trappingaddiction]

went to my favorite panfish lake today and their were 25boats in one small bay and 15 people on shore. I stayed away from the crowds and did really good on sunfish and (slab) crappies. the sunfish were all caught on small ice jigs and euro larva in 3to6fow and the craps were caught on red glow hooks and minnows in 10to14fow. took a limit of 10" to 12.5" craps got 2 that were 14" that i put back. just wondering if anyone else is having luck? i seen alot of people on cedar island on the shore and some ppl on the shoe

If you would be interested in giving the name of the lake out out, I would love to go to catch and keep a couple for a meal, and release some others. Send me an email at [email protected]. Also, if anyone else has any good lakes this time of year I would be interested in hearing your success about them.

[Rick G]

Rice and Kronis are producing in the usaual spots and about half the smaller bays on the western lakes on the Horseshoe chain are also holding fish.

[NELS-BELLS]

How is the water clarity on Horseshoe L? Are you able to see the panfish in the shallows when its calm and sunny?

Nels

[rattleL]

glad to see everyone about remember CPR is the future of our fisheries. Koronis and Rice get hit so hard. Glad everyone is having a good time though, have to love pitching small plastics for big crappies.

[Rick G]

Nels, no the water is pretty dirty and even a day like today I couldnt see the fish even when they were right below the surface. I will second rattleL on cpr. There is nothing wrong with taking a few fish home for the pan but please show some restraint when the fish are easy to catch. I have been out pretty much every day since April 1 and have only kept 15 or 20 crappies to eat and all those were in the 10in range.

[terrible_fisherman]

Yes please do. I was on the shore of the lake I live near the other night with my pup introducing it to water and a boat out there was catching craps and sunfish like crazy. Had a few guys in the boat and I don't think I saw one fish go back. Remember that the bigger females are the ones laying the eggs....don't clean the spawning beds out of all the bigger fish.

[BrdHunter01]

I don't like crowds so I opted for a lake that was already hit very hard and it seemed the craps were all spawned out.... I just had the itch to catch some fish. There was another group that was keeping every 8 in crappie they could catch... I'm not criticizing them for keeping a meal, but I didn't even know there was any meat on an 8in crappie? A couple I saw would have only reached 8 inches with maginfying glass! Its amazes me what some people do to fill there bucket....

[MinDak Hunter]

I would rather they keep two 8" fish than one 12"-14"... eat the little ones and let the big gals go.

[whitetail_freak]

i've never seen an 8ft crappie before!!!

[MrCrappie]

It's not worth the time cleaning 10, 8" crappies. I prefer beef.

[tcumd]

Some crappies me and my bro-in-law caught friday on a local lake. 10 fow with tube jigs and crappie minnows. water was 58.5 degrees. Good luck to all

Casey

[ozzie]

wow you caught some nice black crappies there tcumd!!! All males out of 10' is wild!!! I have been only able to find the males in shallow and the females tend to run on the first break on the lakes I have been fishing....I really want to find some bigger black headed crappies but I have to keep on searching!! Congrats on the nice catch.....what is the biggest one measure out to?

[catfreak]

Hey guys. Don't do much trout fishing so I just realized that the stream trout opener was April 17th. Just wondering if anybody is having any luck around St. Cloud lately. I know of a few fishable streams in the area, so I'm not looking for any specific spots. Just curious if anybody is finding any action. Any pics would be cool to see as well.

[osok]

Catfreak,

I am fairly new to the St. Cloud area and would love to get some more insight to where some fish-able trout streams are.

Would you mind emailing me with some?

harju.d at gmail dot com

[trappingaddiction]

How many total streams are there in the area? I have never fished the area for trout before, and have only heard of one or so different streams, and dont know anything about it. Would you mind sending me an email also at [email protected]? Thanks!

[flyfisher03]

Here is a link to a map of the trout streams.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fishing/trout_streams/south_mn_maps.html

[osok]

Thanks for the link flyfisher, this is awesome.

[Borch]

Most of these trout streams run through private property but as yo can see there is some public access areas. Don't be afraid to ask for permission to fish. You just never know.