st cloud St Cloud Fishing Reports

[Rick G]

31 minutes ago, IceHawk said:

There was one Big Santa in Red and Black and Three little blue smurfs following all  kneeling with backs in the wind all day

Lol, I think I know who the Big santa was

[YB_Bassin]

Would it be okay to park by the 22 bridge on horseshoe and access the lake from there? Since I've always parked there during open water fishing. Looking to get out later tonight. 

[Borch]

Ice is awfully sketchy there even during normal midwinter ice.  As far as parking goes I'm not sure.

[LucasMN]

Went out last night and caught this bad boy in the first pic. Gives me the heebee jeebes.

Went out this morning near Avon and caught a couple limits of crappies. First time in 3 years we've limited!! Found numbers but not all takers, tight lipped for the most part. Wish I could say a certain bait or jig but I used everything from grubs and minnows to trigger x plastic. Pretty much if they were hungry they came up for it, it not they didn't. Temps were nice so lots of hole hopping. 

Found ice from 9" to 15". I drove but my truck isn't worth much $. If I had a new one I would have walked out, too much inconsistenty.

Edited January 24, 2016 by LucasMN

[THE_Cable_Guy]

Headed out to Schneider this morning for a couple hours. Started out sight fishing in about 10'. Saw several largemouth bass and some smaller gills. Very very tight lipped. I then moved out to 30' and found the crappies all within 5-7' of the bottom. Most were very willing to bite. Had to do quite a bit of sorting to bring the 5 home that I did. The smallest of the 5 was 10 3/4" however. A tungsten Custom Jigs and Spoons jig was the weapon of choice. White bottom with a black top, tipped with wax worms worked very well. Crappies seemed uninterested in anything plastic to go along with the jig. Seemed interesting to me. 

On a side note, fell in love with the Eskimo Evo 2 crossover shelter. Fishing space is really nice!

[IceHawk]

Great Report cable guy! I have been looking  hard at the crossover evo 2. It looks like eskimo came up with a winner hear love the room with the compaction of a trap. Plus side the seats are real comfortable. Little curious how it handles the wind.?

Lucas  another great Report! Wow nice batch of Pies looks like some good eats.

[PiNkSiNkO]

I finally did some fishing in the St.Cloud area again this weekend (it's not that I haven't been fishing).  Saturday morning I fished a lake south of St.Cloud and was on top of fish right away and caught 20-30 crappies and a half dozen bluegills before noon.  Some fish were fairly aggressive but most were in a very negative mood.  At one point I dropped the camera down and watch bluegills basically hold the waxie or platic against their mouth for 10 seconds before swimming away. That explained why I missed so many up-hits.  

After grabbing some lunch the GF and I went to Koronis and set up camp on one of my Walleye spots.  Unfortunately only a few fish swam under the hole and nothing bit...oh well.

Today I made a trip to the Mankato/Waterville area.  Hit 4 different lakes and drilled 150+ holes with not much to show for it.  We stumbled into a descent school of crappies on the first lake, but left hoping to find an even better bite.

Now I'm watching some football and eating jumbo perch from my trip to SD last weekend :).

Looking forward to the get together next weekend.

[THE_Cable_Guy]

1 hour ago, PiNkSiNkO said:

I finally did some fishing in the St.Cloud area again this weekend (it's not that I haven't been fishing).  Saturday morning I fished a lake south of St.Cloud and was on top of fish right away and caught 20-30 crappies and a half dozen bluegills before noon.  Some fish were fairly aggressive but most were in a very negative mood.  At one point I dropped the camera down and watch bluegills basically hold the waxie or platic against their mouth for 10 seconds before swimming away. That explained why I missed so many up-hits.  

After grabbing some lunch the GF and I went to Koronis and set up camp on one of my Walleye spots.  Unfortunately only a few fish swam under the hole and nothing bit...oh well.

Today I made a trip to the Mankato/Waterville area.  Hit 4 different lakes and drilled 150+ holes with not much to show for it.  We stumbled into a descent school of crappies on the first lake, but left hoping to find an even better bite.

Now I'm watching some football and eating jumbo perch from my trip to SD last weekend :).

Looking forward to the get together next weekend.

May I ask where in SD? I fish SW MN and SD a lot. Wouldn't happen to be Lake Poinsett would it?

[PiNkSiNkO]

PM sent Cable Guy.

[ClamITup]

Anyone know ice thickness of pleasant

[BuckmasterG]

8 minutes ago, ClamITup said:

Anyone know ice thickness of pleasant

12-14"
There were some cars, vans and a couple trucks on it yesterday.

Edited January 25, 2016 by BuckmasterG

[Rick G]

Looks like there were ups and downs for most of us who fishedthis weekend.  I met up with a few old friends yesterday. We fished Clearwater lake, started off in a old "can't miss" spot....or atleast it has been for a lot of yrs.... Only one medium sized gill and a bunch of tiny perch here. Spot no2 was much the same, few panfish and lots of small perch. It was story of the day.... few gills, tons of perch. Many  holes drilled, from morning till dusk at least one of us was busy drilling while the rest fished and followed.   Points, humps, weed flats, breaklines and isolated weedbeds, we fished it all. The only thing we didn't do was join in where the crowd was..... maybe should have just fished with the other 100 people on the lake...lol. It was one of the toughest days I have had in sometime. To say we got our butt whooped is an understatment 

Might head out for a couple hrs this afternoon if everything works in my favor.  Hoping for a much better outcome this time.

 

[eyeguy 54]

yer just paying yer dues Ricky   better luck today! 

[Thorzzhammerz]

My son has the day off from school and we would like to fish for crappie and sunfish. We have never ice fished Upper Spunk and would like to know if it is safe to drive my 1/4 ton 2wd truck out there today. I do have a 1/2 ton 4wd but i assume it too early for that yet.  Any tips would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Thor

[kunzi26]

Went out to Rock just east of Platte Lake on Saturday. Plenty of ice so we were able to drive out (14-15"). Hit a decent pocket for crappies on the north side, started biting around 10am. Nothing to write home about but had a few 10-12" ones each. Started to get a busy on the little lake around 1:00 right when we left. 

[Rick G]

Got a little redemption for the beating I took Sun. Went to one of the smaller lakes close to town. Worked over a 6-8ft weed flat, found plenty of fish. Nothing real great as for size untill just before dark. Got all my bigger ones on a 4mm tunsten and a white finness plastic. As usual, everything got released

[Borch]

Nice ones Rick!

[Rick]

On 1/24/2016 at 4:03 PM, LucasMN said:

Went out last night and caught this bad boy in the first pic. Gives me the heebee jeebes.

 

Bullheads are great eating when caught ice fishing. Their skin peals right off.  

[LucasMN]

5 hours ago, Rick said:

Bullheads are great eating when caught ice fishing. Their skin peals right off.  

I'll send it your way next time. Lol. Bull heads are on my list of things I will never eat. 

[Roscoe010]

I went to Cedar Island with a friend on Saturday (1/23) and we fished from 12-8:30.  I marked several fish near the bottom, they would chase our lures and then take off.  I thought they might be small perch.  The lure style and size did not matter for those ones.  We drilled many holes and checked depths from 8-32 feet off one of the islands.  As the sun went down, we headed into the shack and ended up with one 7 inch 'eye that for sure was released.  I saw around 12 other shacks set up on similar structure as we were and was wondering if anyone else was catching.  Some of those drops seem like they might be to sharp to hold many fish?  I will have to keep trying as I've been up there a few times with little success, but still had fun hanging out with my friends and exploring a new lake. 

[Radio21]

Anyone know of a lake that would support a 21 ft. ice castle?  Suggested ice is 15".  Looking to take my NY brother in-law on the ice for a real MN experience.  

Went out to Grand on Sunday morning for Walleyes, 12" of ice.  Marked about a half dozen fish that appeared to be walleyes, tried three different presentations and couldn't get them to bite.  

[NELS-BELLS]

5 hours ago, Radio21 said:

Anyone know of a lake that would support a 21 ft. ice castle?  Suggested ice is 15".  Looking to take my NY brother in-law on the ice for a real MN experience.  

Went out to Grand on Sunday morning for Walleyes, 12" of ice.  Marked about a half dozen fish that appeared to be walleyes, tried three different presentations and couldn't get them to bite.  

I would think Upper Spunk near Avon or Little Rock, near Rice, would both have at least 15" by now, although I haven't been on either in a few weeks.  I've seen sleeper houses on both.  Hopefully you're not pulling it with a heavy diesel truck.   Maybe someone else will chime in with a more recent ice report.

You should be able to catch some fish on both lakes, but Little Rock would be my first choice, just because the perch should give you plenty of action and you should catch an occasional walleye, northern or crappie.  I wouldn't go exploring off of the beaten path too far because the ice thickness can vary.  Good luck and give us a report.

Nels

[Radio21]

Thanks for the response Nels.  I did hear that Upper Spunk had a solid 14 inches as of today.  I've never fished Upper Spunk or Little Rock but might have to look at them if they are our safest options with the house.  We'll be pulling it out with a 1/2 ton pickup so that part should be OK.  I'll be sure to report back my ice findings and of course if we get into any fish. 

 

[Barefoot]

I was on Long again today and found 16" over most of the traveled areas.  I would definitely break out the auger if you decide to venture off the main paths and stay away from the narrows on the far NE end.  Found closer to 13-14" in the shallows near islands.  Good thing is if it will ever turn cold again we should make ice quickly as most of the snow has melted off.

[Rick G]

Welcome Barefoot and Radio21 to Fishing Minnesota  looking forward to hearing some reports from you guys.

[Borch]

Radio, 

Minnewaska has a solid 18" from everyone I've talked to this week.

[GeluNumber1]

How's the catfish bite been lately? I'd like to get a couple tomorrow at the get-together.

[DogBowl]

Hoping to get out to Horseshoe tomorrow myself... I'll figure out how to add pics if I have any luck. Time got away from me and I never made it out last weekend. Hopefully not soupy with the warm weather. 

[DogBowl]

Well I made it out to the Meth hole area right at dark. Seen a few on the flasher but nothing would bite. 27 F.O.W. fish would smell the liver and swim off. I couldn't even get one to get close to the minnow head. I was using a glow red Frostee or a glow red Buckshot. I tried green as well and nothing. Sounds like there was a lot of luck and fun earlier in the day out there. 

Good luck and stay safe. 

[Rick G]

Made it to one of the lakes within 15 min of town today. It had to be one of the nicest days I have had on the ice in sometime. Almost no wind and plenty of sunshine made for perfect hole hoping conditions. We hit a small shallow flat that had plenty of live green weeds left.  We drilled holes until we found signs of life. Our first few fish were pretty small but soon the larger fish were located. Would like to say we got plenty of quality along with the quantity, but the truth is we caught about 10 tiny ones to every decent one, and 10 decent ones for every  big one Still, it was one of those days I was just happy to be on the lake.