st cloud St Cloud Fishing Reports

[Mike89]

24 minutes ago, Wanderer said:

 

You got that right!  Just checked radar and the incoming precip is turning almost hurricane like.  

yup it's going to get ugly I'm thinking....

[smurfy]

i'm venturing to guess there's  a lot of big drifts on the lakes. but i'm not going to go look!!!!!!!!!

[IceHawk]

You are right smurfy she's nasty out there. Serious drifting going on and once the colds set in this week those drifts will become concrete barriers.  There is going to be a lot of frustrated guys trying to get at there houses. I'm sure glad mines off and sitting in storage for the season. Talked to Borch not to long ago and he was on cedar island scouting for cool cats sounded like the makeshift rd aka goat trail was drifting in real fast.  Horsehoe winter access is really drifted in bad.  Joes resort on Big lake is blown shut.  Not looking very promiseing for fishing locally unless you have a track vehicle or snowmobile and even those may be tricky with slush pockets. 

[Borch]

Went on a mission to see if I could get to any of the kitties spots today.   Was really pumped when I saw a nice plowed road on Cedar Island.

 

Well that didn't last long as I buried my 1 ton diesel in 2+ feet of drifted snow.  Got stuck twice and off roading wasn't and option. Couldn't get within 1/2 of the kittie spots.  The Horseshoe winter access was drifted shut and not much of the trail left.  Gonna be tough going for a long time.

[smurfy]

wow. someone really plowed that out wide since I took my tour around the lakes yesterday. I'm sure that wind filled any low spot with snow around that point. i'm staying home and doing something real exciting...…..like getting my tax stuff in order to bring in!!!!!!! 

[smurfy]

there were 3 vehicles out on schnieder lake and 3 on cedar island this morning when I drove by. the rest was deserted.

[Coleman]

On 3/9/2019 at 11:35 AM, smurfy said:

there were 3 vehicles out on schnieder lake and 3 on cedar island this morning when I drove by. the rest was deserted.

I saw the same situation, I took the sled for a ride around the chain.  Saw a few guys fishing northwest of the big island on Cedar.  And a few guys fishing the narrows going into Schneider.  Otherwise, nothing going on.  There wasn't a soul on Horseshoe.  I also cruised over on Becker, same situation..no one.  But, I d id find some pizza.   I brought them to a buddy's house in Richmond.  

[smurfy]

nice sled.............i'm a can am guy myself!!!!!!!!!! live in cold spring i see????? so do i. born and raised in richmond.

[leech~~]

30 minutes ago, Coleman said:

I saw the same situation, I took the sled for a ride around the chain.  Saw a few guys fishing northwest of the big island on Cedar.  And a few guys fishing the narrows going into Schneider.  Otherwise, nothing going on.  There wasn't a soul on Horseshoe.  I also cruised over on Becker, same situation..no one.  But, I d id find some pizza.   I brought them to a buddy's house in Richmond.  

 

What, why would anyone leave $8 bucks worth of pizza's on the ice?   

[smurfy]

maybe they were to doped up to remember they had them!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Coleman]

 

On 3/11/2019 at 11:20 AM, smurfy said:

nice sled.............i'm a can am guy myself!!!!!!!!!! live in cold spring i see????? so do i. born and raised in richmond.

Yeah, recently purchased a house north of the Richspring Golf course.  My parent's have a place on Elkview Cir, they've been there since 87.  Before that they stayed at Island View when Walt ran it.  Wife and I lived in Sartell, and decided it was time to get out of town.  Plus, we're closer to her parent's, and mine. 

 

On 3/11/2019 at 11:38 AM, leech~~ said:

 

What, why would anyone leave $8 bucks worth of pizza's on the ice?   

HAHA, $8 is normal price, on sale they're $2 each.    Looked like they struggled to get the house off the ice, based on the snow conditions, so they probably were out there a lot longer then they thought they would be.  

On 3/11/2019 at 12:02 PM, smurfy said:

maybe they were to doped up to remember they had them!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If they were Totinos, then I would have no doubt about that.  

 

[leech~~]

On 3/11/2019 at 12:02 PM, smurfy said:

maybe they were to doped up to remember they had them!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Couldn't be. Only alcohol makes you forget. Pot makes you a Genius, repairs brain cells and makes your hair grow long again!  I just read that somewhere around here? 

[smurfy]

the hwy 22 access had 44 vehicles and rigs parked there at 9;15 this morning. cold spring access was packed full too!!!!!!

thought it be safe to run into st cloud, fleet farm, but yea that place was an absolute zoo also!!!!!!!

[Huntin&Fishin]

Boat landings were packed around the area. Any good reports without lakes being named? I let the opener weekend warriors have there two days, then get out when the crowds die down.

[fishingstar]

fished rice last two days. Didn't see a keeper size walleye out of any boats out there.

[smurfy]

today you almost could of had the whole chain by yourself. this afternoon anyway!!!!!!

[DonkeyHodey]

Water just isn't warming up!

Spent a good portion of the last three days chasing panfish on a few lakes just north of St. Cloud.  One particular lake I fished the last weekend of April and water temp was ~50-52 degrees (depending on the side of the lake.)

The last 2 days I fished the same lake (~almost 4 weeks later) and it's running a temperature of 53-54 degrees!--4 weeks and only 2 degrees difference in temp is fairly insane for May.

 

The lake bottom and reeds around it still look just like after ice-out...

While we located quite a few sunnies/crappies/bass in the shallow water (like 1-3 feet), they showed very little interest in biting.  Lure/bait options (flu flus, tube jugs, nightcrawlers) didn't seem to make any difference...

I usually find the panfish bite is HOT around memorial day but I'm not predicting much improvement with the continuing cloudy/cool weather forecast. 

I'll be fishin' in the Bemidji area over the weekend and the last few years for me Memorial day means Fish Fry; this year it might mean pizza.

[Borch]

I was up in that general area last weekend.  Both walleyes and panfish were pretty cooperative despite the cruddy weather and cold water temps.

[DonkeyHodey]

Back again fishing a few of the same little lakes in central MN I fished earlier in the year:  (Southern Tood/Morrison--North and West of Big Birch.)

I think we're in the Golden late spring/early summer fishing Hot time!!!  (let your lawn go this week... get on the lake!)

 

Water temp:   we're now at 66-68 in the body of the lake!--(two weeks later and we’re up 10+ degrees; those 80 degree days seem to have woke everything up.)

 

Vegitation:  2 weeks ago it was all brown/dried bulrushes—now there’s lots of green!  Lilly pads are just emerging everywhere, Green bullrushes and the underwater vegitation is such that while it's all green and growing, it's not thick enough to tangle things much.--I can still easily trolling through the shallows without my trolling motor getting hung up.

The fish are sitting on top the vegitation!—I can’t stress enough; if you are looking for the panfish in the shallows, LOOK—ya don’t need fish finders/etc…  Go out on a calm, sunny day (If you are boating, approach the shallows very slowly and quietly—if you stand up, you’ll know where the fish are (?were) because you’ll see the fish scattering by the hundreds when you get close to a spot; Kayakers can have a blast!!!)   (course it's sad when your little fishing buddy snags the tree on the shore, you pull in through the hot-spot to grab the lure and watch a monster bass swim away...)

 

Fishing bite:   targeting pans.  I use a pink/white flu-flu, wife uses pink tube-jig, daughter using yellow flu-flu (all occasionally using little bits of nightcrawler for a little flavor and with bobbers set at only ~1-1.5 feet); son was casting a plastic beetle crawler—sunnies/bass/perch/crappies all biting.  The bobbers are pretty much a fish every cast!

The shallows aren’t yet infested with the tiny sunnies that seem to happen in mid summer; big bellied females showing up along with the nest-guarding males.  If the sunnies aren't already on the spawn, that will be happening this week.  Be selective if you’re harvesting.

[E. Hofmann]

I was on Big Birch Lake about a week ago. Lake is in great condition. Water temp was slightly higher than I expected it to be, the water level was also much higher than it usually is for this time of year. Bass were very active. I was using a Texas rig with a pit boss plastic using a Palomar Knot with braided line. Surprisingly, during the early evening hours very nice size crappies were hitting too. I was targeting Bass throughout the weekend on Big Birch. Weed Lines along the Western bank were doing well.

[Team Bobberdown]

Happy 4th of July holiday. Got a chance to get out with the wife and put a few walleye in the boat. And enjoy the lake. Be blessed everyone

[Team Bobberdown]

Not to shabby for the "dog days of summer"  they say. Not having that much trouble finding the eyes.

[eyeguy 54]

nice!

[jskatt21]

Well I just don’t know what else to try or do.  Been out about 4-5 times over the last few weeks and cannot seem to catch anything.  Time to sell my boat?

 

Truly would love to find some bass but cannot seem to locate them when I go out.  Bad lakes perhaps but man what a long few days in the boat. 

[Huntin&Fishin]

9 hours ago, jskatt21 said:

Well I just don’t know what else to try or do.  Been out about 4-5 times over the last few weeks and cannot seem to catch anything.  Time to sell my boat?

 

Truly would love to find some bass but cannot seem to locate them when I go out.  Bad lakes perhaps but man what a long few days in the boat. 

Your not alone

[Coleman]

Anyone been on the chain lately? I've been hitting it the last couple Fridays with some decent success. Mainly it mapping the lake for ice fishing then dropping a line when I see fish. Water temp was 37° last Friday, and I'm sure it's dropped even more since then. Most impressive thing was the stacked up cats in the honey hole on the river. 

[Horseshoe_Don]

Chain was about 75% covered this morning and I expect 100% by tuesday with fishable ice in places within a week maybe

 

[Rick G]

Thanks for the update, Don!

[Coleman]

Cripes, I better get the boat out one last time this week.  Although I'm sure the river will be open for a few more weeks.  

 

 

[Wanderer]

4 hours ago, Coleman said:

Cripes, I better get the boat out one last time this week.  Although I'm sure the river will be open for a few more weeks.  

 

 

Its icing up pretty good from LF to Fort already.  Big change overnight last night.