st cloud St Cloud Fishing Reports

[silverbulletguy]

Might have bring the little guy out after his nap instead of before.

[Rick G]

Might have bring the little guy out after his nap instead of before.

He will be able to last last longer once he gets older Still, he was holding his own desipe it being as windy as it was. You and silverbullet jr. are welcome to fish with me anytime.

[IceHawk]

Kind of figured they would turn on later butthe curiousity of what kind of bite I could get on the otherside got the best of me!

[bassNspear]

hows ice conditions?

[silverbulletguy]

Plenty where we were. Access is a little rough.

[JeremyCampbell]

Snow is thawing,so if you take a step your feet might go deeper in areas

[IceHawk]

Ice travel has really improved the last couple days. Was out today and moveing around diffreent parts of the lakes with a 4x4 was quite easy.

[Rick G]

I was a bit further West today, found travel to be getting better with each passing day. Some of the access points will go to heck before the lakes are unsafe to drive on by the looks of things.

[silverbulletguy]

Might have to bring the ladder with in case that's needed to get on the ice in a week or so.

[JeremyCampbell]

On April 8th-10th il be painting a house 15 min from Briggs.Never been in that area,Anyone want to meet up around that time and bag up some sunnies? That is if it's safe

[JeremyCampbell]

Avon/St J.ohn's area.....Fishing was good today We caught lots of Sunnies kept most .One in particular was a nice pig.We each caught a little northern too.We were in 8' -12' shallow areas and Sunnies were a foot or two under ice.I moved back and forth between two spots.The ice seemed pretty good and solid.Had a nice fish fry when we were done.

[Rick G]

Made it out for a few hours this afternoon, fishing was slow for most of the day untill prime time. Ended up keeping a few fish for tommorow nights dinner.

On days when the bite is slow, it realy helps to have good people around you to keep you motivated, and if nothing else, they are usaly good company

Had a blast talking with you, I will be back there tomorrow and Sat. Swing on out if you have some more free time.

[JeremyCampbell]

Yeah Rick,It is nice to have company when your out there not catching much.I find when your celebrating someone else's success it makes life better.The two of us went to a lake we only tried once before for some sun fish.Hung out in 10'-14' deep areas.Nice day out for fishing.Caught fish till 5:30.The ice was slushy and access is barely drivable.Walked the sleds instead.I Tried to fish for crappies later on but without a flasher it was hard to locate them.Caught plenty of Sunnies for the two of us.

[Rick G]

Made it out to a few local lakes this weekend. Saturday was spent on a couple of the smaller lakes West of town, on the first bodie of water it was clear there hadn't been much activity in recent days as the access looked good enough to drive out still, we opted to go by foot though. Since I hadn't been on this lake in a half dozen years I wasn't realy sure where to start, so we drilled holes through out the deepest part of the basin up into a shallow weed flat. We didn't mark anything deep, the fish were holding to a well established weedline. It became clear after icing a whole mess of tiny 4-6in crappies this lake needs a few more years to to produce some bigger fish. Off to lake no. 2

Our second lake was a bit Bigger in size . I have been out to this lake a few times this winter, and had a pretty good idea where the fish would be from past years. We found some thick schools of fish locatd midway betwen their winter location and their ice out haunts over 18-26ft of water. We worked this school pretty hard for a hour or so, only getting a handfull of short bites.

Our second location on this same lake was a shallow inside turn in the weeds, theese shallow fish were quite a bit more active than the fish in the first spot. We got a mix of crappies, gills and even a bass now and then. Never got into big numbers, or anything of size large enough to brag about, but it was fun anyway.

Today myself and the gang hit Clearwater, the ice was pretty good when we came out,as the afternoon wore on the ice got real wet and slushy, hit some pretty big holes with the wheeler going from spot to spot. By the time we left the access was in rough shape, I don't think you can get a wheeler out of Bj's anymore, but Bob's bay should be ok for another day or two if we don't get too much rain tonight. As for the bite, it was one for the books, bulls and slabs were shallow, and super hungry .

[Brad B]

Rick,

I may have to take the boat out there once the ice is off and hit up some of those shallow areas. I would imagine they will still be there at ice out. I plan to pull the boat out of the shed tommorrow and put the batteries and other stuff back in it for the year and then sit back and wait for the lakes to open up. any idea when the chain will be ice free and a person could put a boat in at the access on the river going into the shoe.

[JoeMX1825]

from what I have been hearing, the Chain won't be open for 1-2 more weeks...

[Rick G]

Rick,

I may have to take the boat out there once the ice is off and hit up some of those shallow areas. I would imagine they will still be there at ice out. I plan to pull the boat out of the shed tommorrow and put the batteries and other stuff back in it for the year and then sit back and wait for the lakes to open up. any idea when the chain will be ice free and a person could put a boat in at the access on the river going into the shoe.

I thought you had been sitting back waiting for the ice to thaw for the last month

I have no clue as to when the ice will be off the Chain enough to get a boat in, but I will take a guess, and say sometime between April 8 - May 11 .

I figure this rain we are to get in the next few days will help things along

[silverbulletguy]

Rain or snow? I just heard we are in a weather advisory that stated we could get 6+ inches of snow between tonight and Thursday. I would be ok if they were wrong and we got nothing but rain.

[Brad B]

Rick,

Your right I have been waiting for the open water. I just took the boat of the shed tonight and will be putting everything back in it tommorrow once I get home from work. I think hitting the river for now from shore will help me get over my open water withdrawl. I just hope it doesn't rain for both of the G2G's. the first 2 years I went to this it rain that morning and was colder then heck.

[Rick G]

Made it out to the Chain for a few hours this afternoon. The shoreline ice has realy taken a beating, finding a area to access the lakes can still be done though. Once on the lake the ice is still in pretty decent shape except for slush pockets here and there. We still have well over 2ft of ice yet, the top 6-8in was soft but the rest is still pretty hard, auger made shavings, not ice cubes so I'm guessing that if the heavy snow stays away we should still be able to get out this weekend.

Fishing wasn't the greatest, couldn't fish the areas I realy wanted due to the nasty wind we had. I tried to picked an area I knew would provide me some cover but yet held some fish, this was easier said than done wind was still pretty bad where I fished, glad I brought my Ice Armor with today Ended up getting on a school of mixed panfish around 5PM, most everything was small, but did get enough quality fish to keep me intrested untill dark.

[Quetico]

Any current ice reports? We are planning on heading up to the chain in the morning. How did everything fair with this storm?

We just don't want to get up there and find the ice too far off shore.

Thanks

[Rick G]

I have to say that I was wondering the same thing. Have had to work the last few days just haven't had enough time to make it back out.

I was there early in the week, shore lines were still holding up pretty well, Just not the access points. The things I would be woried about would be old holes that are now covered and water on top the ice from the heavy wet snow we got.

[IceHawk]

2 guys out on horseshoe this morning out in mertens bay right off hwy 22.

[Rick G]

2 guys out on horseshoe this morning out in mertens bay right off hwy 22.

Thanks for the update Makes my decision easy for tomorrow Might hit some of the smaller lakes around and hit the Chain around primetime.

[Rick G]

Made it out to the Chain today, shoreline ice is starting to go pretty quick, saw a guy fall in up to his waist . The ice is starting to get pretty soft aswell, auger went through pretty fast. River by the summer access is almost wide open when we left tonight, 22 bridge area is also opening pretty quick.

As for fishing, the first couple hours was pretty much non stop action, then the fish moved, to where I never did find out. We picked off one here and one there almost all day, size was pretty good but numbers were low. Got some bonus fish though, seems the bass, walleyes and even a few catfish were hanging in the same area the panfish had been

I think I might make one more outing in this area for the year and one more in the PR area then I'm done till ice out. It's been a looooong winter

[Rick G]

Julia was my destination for the day. Needed the 15ft ladder to make it out to good ice, shorelines have pulled away pretty far now but it's tough to tell with all the snow. I would advise anyone else from trying this lake till ice out. There was still about 2ft of ice yet, but the remaning ice is saturated with water from top to bottom. Have some pretty big slush pockets out there too, fell in one that was over a foot deep .

It was one of the most uncomfortable days I have had this year, with the freezing rain, blizard like conditions and the 25-30mph wind it made for one cold day

[Borch]

Sounds like a lot of fun Rick!

Head north as there is still plenty of good ice if you want to extend your season. Reports of nearly 3 feet of pretty good ice yet with a foot or so of snow on top.

[Rick G]

Head north as there is still plenty of good ice if you want to extend your season. Reports of nearly 3 feet of pretty good ice yet with a foot or so of snow on top.

Got one more day around here, either Sugar or Clearwater, then heading North as of next weekend as you suggested

[Stick in Mud]

I made it out on the ice for ANOTHER "last trip of the year." I didn't feel like driving far, so we headed down to Beaver Lake just south of St Cloud. Caught what you'd expect in that lake--small sunfish, a few small crappies, and a "bonus" largemouth and pike, all on 2 lb test and an assortment of plastics.

I also got a little sunburned.

[eyeguy 54]

no complaining about sunburns with all the clouds we've had!! lol