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St Cloud Fishing Reports


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Anyone been fishing the Briggs Chain recently? I'm thinking of heading up that way in the morning to try for eyes or crappie.

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I have found the overall size of the crappies on Briggs and Julia to be on the small side this year with a few quality ones mixed in. Walleyes have been biting on Briggs but for the most part they too have been on the smaller side latley. Elk is still giving up a decent fish here and there after dark, some nights you might get 1-2 and others you will get a few but they have been a little nicer fish. If your fishing any of theese lakes be prepaired for some company, lots of houses out there again this year.

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Hey Rick, if you ever have a Thursday afternoon open and need a fishing partner let me know. Thursday's are my most open day of the week.

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ive been running around briggs and elk not doing that great, but Im not fishing that much after dark . Trying to stay away from the villages. There's a lot of houses but not that many people in them.

I was going to go hit up some pike today east of town

IM having issues finding shiners anyone in st. cloud have them ??

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WOW!! Nice fish LP. I'd love to get into a few of those bad boys. and just so you know...I can keep a secret and I just cleared out my inbox wink

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IM having issues finding shiners anyone in st. cloud have them ??

The BP station in SR had some nice ones last weekend when i bought them...could try that if you can't find any in SC.

JP

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Haven't checked in a while but the Holiday off from golden spike had some to...don't quote me on them still having them.

JP

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

After plans to head north a bit fell through at the last moment due to things beyond my control, we decided to make the best of the weekend anyway. Sat I met up with some old friends and we hit a couple spots on the Chain. Action was pretty slow in the first spot we tried, couple ok size gills and some smaller crappies. The second spot was better, it's close to where I have been most of the winter. There is still a respectable amount of fish in this area, just located shallower than they were a month ago. we didn't set the world on fire but we caught enough fish to be entertained.

Today the plan was to hit a few spots I haven't tried yet this winter. Schneider was the first stop, not much here except small gills and a crappie here and there. Next stop the Shoe, found a couple other close friends right at the access. We talked a bit about where to try and headed out across the lake. Found the gills and crappies in one of the bays a couple other HSO members recomended wink they were pretty nice too grin It was a little work to get the active ones but worth the effort. Found fish from 10-22ft of water, some suspended, some on the bottom and some right under the ice. I got my two biggest crappies less than 3ft under my transducer, they aren't real easy to see when they ride that high in the water colom wink. At this time of year more than any, pay attention to those marks that are high in the water. Raise your bait and see what they are, never know, it might be something good.

I got most of my better fish this weekend on Frostee spoons with Gulp minnow heads and the Impulse rigged minni smelt. Quite a few of my bigger fish came on the Impulse, it is becoming on of my favorite baits this winter for crappies and bigger gills.

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I was wondering about Schneider.I pass it all the time.Thanks for the bait info tactics too.

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  • Official Fishing Report Team - MN

Rick talked to my buddy with the nills said he ran into you guys in that spot. With the projected snow could be a little hard to get to. Glad you got some they are nice in there and it will only get better in time.

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Icehawk/Rick: did you happen to try a spot on Horseshoe that I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago? that point produced well for me over the years. Sounds like you pretty well had em figured out where you were at though. this snow is going to make for tougher going and probably a fairly good amount of slush as well. Talking 40's by Sunday

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Icehawk/Rick: did you happen to try a spot on Horseshoe that I mentioned in a post a couple of weeks ago? that point produced well for me over the years. Sounds like you pretty well had em figured out where you were at though. this snow is going to make for tougher going and probably a fairly good amount of slush as well. Talking 40's by Sunday

I'm always looking to get on someone elses hot bite winkgrin

Might want to refresh my failing memory.

I hope we don't get dumped on like they are talking. It was just starting to get to where you could get around on the lakes again....now this frown

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Rick: hammers point on the shoe, northnside ofbthe point. Straight out from the house with the nice deck. I've caught some nice cats there as well. Snow is probably going to be a little tough until the warmer temps settle things down. There are usually houses set up in the area during the bigbish season, now that they off the ice you should have it pretty much to yourself. Let me if you get out there.

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Made it out to the local panfish pond for a few hours this afternoon.

Started our serch well away for the group of people that were there before us. The first set of holes we hit were in 3-4 ft of water on the shallow edge of a good size flat. We picked up one fish here and one fish there, size wasn't real good so we moved out a little deeper. We set up and drilled more holes in 5-7ft close to where the flat drops into the basin. This is where we found a few better size fish, jumping from hole to hole was almost a necessity to keep on bigger fish. Most of the time we would pick out the biggest fish right away, then it was mostly smaller fish if you hung around the same hole too long.

We had minnows with but the fish realy didn't want anything to do with them. Today the Gulp alive minnow fry rigged on a 1/80oz head was rigged on one of my lines all day, and it worked well. My second rod was rigged up with the Lindy Frostee spoon, to this I gobbed on the waxies, this didn't get a lot of hits but ones I did get were nice.

It was almost too nice for words today, I didn't were a coat at all. My IceArmor bibs and a light swatshirt was plenty to keep me warm. Theese are some of my favorite days on the ice coming up in the next couple weeks...Warm weather, bright sunshine and active fish grin

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Got out yesterday to chase some sunfish on a local lake. There was a ton of slush underneath the snow so we just walked out. Found the fish in 10-15 ft of water. Had to keep hole hopping as you would catch 1-2 nice ones than just little ones after. Fish weren't real active yet but didn't mange to catch quite a few nicer ones with 3 at 9 inches. Can't wait for that water to start running down the holes to really get them going.

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Yeah the slush it frozen solid where I was today.Stoped at a small lake after doing a estimate for painting and I got on and the wind was very cold .Caught a sunny and got the heck out of there.

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There is about 6 inches if snow on top of about 4 inches of slush and water underneath the snow. Ice by the landings are still okay but I would defienatly be tough driving out if the snow isn't already packed. Saw a four wheeler try to drive out and got stuck so he turned around and left.

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I made it out to a local lake yesterday....fishing was NOT very good, but I could barely get the hand auger through the ice, so after six or seven holes, I was ready to set up the shack. I did end up catching a few very nice crappies and a few dandy sunnies, but the highlight of the day was a 19'' largemouth.

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Yes....I got him almost immediately when I put the first line down the hole, which was almost immediately after finishing drilling all those holes. It's an even BETTER fight when your arms are already jello. smile

Speaking of arms, maybe I should hire Arms to drill some holes for me?!? wink

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Stopped at spunk,and my ford4x4 truck got barried in the parking lot.My shovel wasn't getting me anywhere,I ended up calling Andy's towing.I didn't even get to fish there.Stopped at another small lake10 min away in st John's.I started our at 14' then moved torwards 8'.cought mostly perchand some eater sunfish.Tried three more holes and it seemed to all stop at5:15pm

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Had a ok afternoon on the lake today. Fish were a litle tight liped but we pulled enough bulls and slabs to keep things intresting. Found all our fish on a sharp break close to a large shallow flat. Moving from hole to hole picking off the first couple active fish proved to be a better option than sitting and waiting again today. Tried a few presentations and we were getting a few bites on just about everything we tried. Most of my bigger fish came off the Lindy Bugs rigged with the gulp minnow fry. Durring the last two ice seasons the Lindy Bugs and Toads have become some of my favorite jigs for rigging plastics.

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Where do you guys buy plastics for ice fishing?Do they get jigged like live bait?

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Gander, Scheels, FF and many bait shops sell various types of plastics. I almost always try to keep mine moving so as the fish not to get too good of a look at my offering. Try using an underwater camera, look at how the insect life moves, try to mimic this..

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All I can say is you guys should have stayed till prime time wink At 4pm the bite started again, by 5 it was going strong, and the last hour was lights out grin

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