st cloud St Cloud Fishing Reports

[Joe]

2020 St Cloud Area Fishing Reports - Click Here.

 

Please post only fishing reports for the St. Cloud area here. evryone jump in!!!

[Genofish]

Hey Joe, I am normally out on the Avon area lakes daily but I have been traveling with my new position since October so i havent been out much. My brother has been using my Perm out on Upper Spunk and has been getting a few decent sunnies and crappies each time he is out. Other than that i havent heard too much around the area.

[IceHawk]

Been fishing fairly hard the last 2 weeks and here is what I have found locally.

Rice- A fairly consistent crappie bite but size has been a issue alot of 6-8 inch fish with some occasional bigger fish mixed in. Depth 20-22 ft. Fish are hitting Bros bloodworms and plastics during the day and minnows at nightfall.

Koronis is the best option locally for eyes. I prefer to fish relatively shallow on both Rice and Koronis for eyes say 15 ft or less. Jigging is bringing them in with a occasional fish but most of the time dead-stick rods are produceing the fish.

Alot of different options on the chain- A few crappies comeing off of Long, Cedar-Island and Horseshoe. Depths have been varying 15-19 ft has been the best for the crappies. Red glow hooks are hot right now. Bite is a strong evening bite 5-8 pm with a peak run at 5.30 pm. As far as Bluegills they have been a little tougher most of the lakes are produceing a few fish towards the evening Becker,Schneider and Cedar Island are the best options. Depths have varied they are shallow(6-10ft) and deep (18-24)ft on another. Look for any weeds that are healthy (green).

One of my fav Big gill lakes is Osakis and it has been a hit and miss on panfish. One day you can smack them and the next day you will struggle. Look to 18-20 ft of water on the N end in Mantheys bay. Always bring along some shrimp when ventureing to this lake as alot of times this will be a hot bait.

Minnewaska- kicking out some quality panfish look twoards 14-16 ft on the cabbage beds and you should get a few.

Fishing is a little slower right now as the oxygen is down in alot of lakes. Most of the best bites have been during peak times (sunrise and sunset). Look for things to really pick up in the next couple weeks as the snow starts melting etc and the whole underwater world starts comeing to life!!

[Stick in Mud]

I like your optimism, Icehawk! It's good to hear, even if I may not share it.

It's been hit or miss for me as well, with the only consistent bite being on Rice, though the fish have been quite small. Little Rock has been inconsistent, as has Clearwater. The river has been slow for me as well.

Either way, I'm looking forward to March! (let's be honest...I'm really looking forward to May...

[Dellfin]

Cedar Island Report (Sunday 2/1/09)

Spent the afternoon at the top secret crappie honey hole and got skunked on crappies. I did, however, manage to pull 18 bass (biggest about 13"), 1 perch and a small eye through the ice. First eye for me on the lake...yay me!

[BuckmasterG]

Out on Rice last night. Fish started coming through at around 5, LOTS of fish. The suspended ones were pickier and eyed the bait many times, where as the bottom feeders were smacking it. We were using silver wigglers and minners. Definately was exciting, but out of about 40 fish only were able to take home one limit for the two of us, really had to pick through them.

[poolplayin]

was out on rice last night. caught about 7-8 walleyes, all around 12 inches. had a nicer one on, and saw a few nicer ones other than that. few perch, big norten, about 8 pounds. maybe 10, lol. was sitting in 15 feet water. gotta stay away from people if your targeting walleyes out there, closer to the houses = less fish. just my opinion from what i notice with camera.

[poolplayin]

just to follow up, i did switch my baits several times before getting the one they would attack. caught all jiggin, glow red was the ticket. good luck to the big clump on the bar, lol

[Stick in Mud]

Was out at Little Rock last night...caught a few small crappies but nothing special. I did have the wonderful pleasure to help shovel out two different cars, one trying to get on the lake and the other off, both driven by people who had WAY too much to drink. I laughed delightfully when the fella got out of his truck and then fell over...then I remembered that I was sharing the road with fools like that. If I had known he was hammered, I would've left him there.

[SchloeRide]

Is the ice condition so poor that cars are getting stuck in slush? I haven't been out yet this year but have some days off coming up. I don't have 4WD so condition of the snow pack will dictate where I go. Any info? Thanks.

[The Donk]

Pretty quiet for 3 of us on Big Birch this Saturday evening. Fished from 6-36 FOW and didnt catch a thing... well, maybe a cold but I am not sure about that yet

[Rick G]

Tryed a couple lakes in the grey eagle area today. My target fish was gills. Was on my third lake by 1pm without much luck. Figured I could maybe have better luck on birch over in hunters bay. Well I did get a few fish but the avarage size was around six inches. All in all it was a pretty slow day of fishing but the weather was nice so I didnt realy care if the fishing stunk.

[Ruegs23]

We tried FishTrap near Randall tonight without much luck. Hoping to find a few monster crappies but could only manage small perch. It may be a little early for the pannies to kick in.

[Stick in Mud]

Schloe,

The road is very narrow and very icy, so I assume both drivers were going too fast and ended up hitting the bank, though I don't know for sure. When you get off the road, there isn't much of a problem driving around, but I would be careful. I was out there in a junky Oldsmobile and I made it around just fine. I hadn't had 12 beers, however.

[Rick G]

Made it out to becker today. Gills and crappies was what I was after. Found lots of fish in 18-20ft suspended as much as five feet off bottom. This would be a good lake to keep the kids intrested as we pulled lots and lots of 3-5 in gills and a few in the 7-7.5 in class and a few crappies that were also a bit on the small side but lots of action even if most of the fish ran small. Did the best with a size 14 white dimond jig tiped with two or three neo larva. With the warm weather we had today I figured there would be more people out on the lake only saw two groups of people and they didnt stick around long. Maybe the rain was to much for them. When I got out this morning the lake was pretty dry but when I left it was quite the wet slushy mess.

[The Donk]

Nope, definitely caught a cold... a bad one I think I may be getting past it now finally - We'll see if the wife will beat my head with the ol pan for wanting to go fishing tomorrow

[Rick G]

Tryed cedar island for a couple houres this morning for eyes without much luck then moved over to becker for the afternoon-evening crappie bite. Pulled countless 5-7in fish and a few in the 10-11 in range. Had the camera down for a while and saw lots of big gills and crappies but they were not very intrested in my offerings.

[backtroller1]

You certainly didn't miss out on anything on Cedar Island tonight, very slow, not a single fish, marked a few on the vex. but no takers.

[The Donk]

Out on an area lake last night I found the fish to be cooperative, just not up in the shallower water where one might start thinking. I drilled a line of holes I swear halfway across the lake and found the sunfish packed out near the midlake structure yet. Lots of sorting, but managed 9 nicer sunnies and then didnt move around much when the crappies started due to gale force winds and caught prob 8 kept 3 around 10".

[Stick in Mud]

I, too, have found some fairly aggressive panfish recently...and a few chunky pike that seem to like my crappie minnows. And I've also only found them deep...not much up shallow for me.

[The Donk]

The last two nights have been spectacular weather, and pretty good fishing to boot. Went to a smaller sunfish honey hole on Monday night, not much for the sunnies but the bass were ravenous. Made up for the poor panfishing last night, on another lake with my PB for a sunfish hitting a whopping 10 1/4 inches, what a cow. Also many other keeper sized ones and a few crappies. Nonstop action for an hour and a half, didn't even need bait half the time. The people driving on the lake have got to have a screw loose- you could hear the waves under the ice as they went by!

[osok]

Fished yesterday and today on Kraemer and did fairly well. Some keepers both sunnies and croppies, lots of sorting.

The ice is still good enough for wheelers or a light sled. Can't believe it but someone drove out in a miniwagon type vehicle tonight. As I stated the ice is still good.....but I'll continue to walk.

[willyfahey]

I was out in the bayou on Briggs Thursday morning.There wasn't much going on.I got a couple keeper crappie and a lot of small gills.Going to give it another try on Saturday/Sunday.

[catman71]

hit the river in sartell on Saturday. The water is to cold for my big carp spot.

about 52 degrees is what I was reading.

[whitetail_freak]

i tried for crappies on last saturday, maybe a little to early for them in the river, did catch a couple crappies and a few sunnies, but it needs to warm up a bit yet

[Rick G]

I did the opener this year on the horseshoe chain. Got to the access this morning around 10 and saw what must have been 60 truck and trailor rigs parked all over and even a few hunderd yards down co rd22. I opted to try the cedar island access with about the same amount of traffic so off to the access on long where we found a good parking spot. I dont think I ever saw so many people on the chain at one time in my life. Between me and my partner we got five eating sized fish and about a dozen under 12in. Had to serch out a few spots to find active fish and even when we found em it was tough to get them to bite. Got all the keepers out of one spot 8-11 ft water with sand-gravel bottom.

[catfreak]

I didn't get out on any lakes for opener this year, but I did get down to the quarries. Went after some trout. After about 5 hours out there I didn't have any fish, but thankfully my girlfriend got 2 nice ones. I even got a nice pic of one right before I dropped my camera to the bottom of the quarry. Then I proceeded to lose my temper a little about the camera and I threw my rod across a path. That turned out to be a really bad decision since I broke the handle off my favorite reel. All in all, I would consider it a pretty horrible day. Hope everybody else had a better day than me.

[FishHawk11]

So. So. We fished for Northerns in the morning and got a couple, one 25". We headed out at about 530 pm and got 3 eyes, 2 eaters and a 27" right as we were leaving, my wife landed a 30" northern, and even managed a crappie. Not to bad of a day.

[catfreak]

What lake were you fishin fishhawk?

[terrible_fisherman]

I went with a buddy to rice from about 3-6pm. We got two walleyes right around 16 inches in the same spot about 20 minutes a part running with spinner rigs. I also picked up one small pike. Otherwise it was pretty slow.