2020 Forest Lake-Hinckley-Lindstrom-Pine City-Rush City Fishing Reports

[tunrevir]

Castinski, You did well targeting the shallow bite for crappies and I think gleaned a bit into the bite on Forest. If you got one there, there will be more but it isn't going to be a limit type event. 1-2 fish each night is pretty good out there and more then that and yu are doing better then most guys! My best night and early morning foray of the year has produced 3 fish, most nights 1 and alot of nights none. Where you are fishing will also produce some of the bigger crappies in the lake as well. The deeper holes turn on for both numbers of fish and a few hawgs in the next couple weeks but the weedline fish tend to run bigger as a rule, then the numbers game of fising in the deeper holes. Congrats on a good outing. Don't give up on a spot because you didn't get the numbers but look to it to produce some of the bigger fish.

Tunrevir~

[Castinski]

Thanks for the insight tunrevir. The size comment is pretty much in line with what I've seen. Plus its more fun to find you're own little spots away from the deep hole crowd. A few times I've been out I've found schooling shiners about 10 ft off the bottom. Anybody else ever catch these? About 5 inches long... good pike bait.

[Fuzzbient]

By the way, anyone have any walleye success stories from forest this year (more than one here one there). Maybe don't tell me so I don't get the itch to target them one last time.

Still hitting a few 15-17 inch eaters but not limiting out and no big pigs. Here's an example from Tonight. Not too hot and they make you put in some work to find them.

[Fishman11]

Hey guys/gals, going to be out in the chisago area this weekend on business in the morning, but was thinking of doing a little fishing in the afternoon. Anyone wanna throw a bone and give any good lakes to try in that area? A place with some good panfish action, oh yeah and I'll be driving back home 2hrs away, so some fish action to make the trip worth it would be nice. Thanks in advance.

[tunrevir]

Chisago and lindstrom both are doing pretty well. South Center bite is good if you know where to go. Green lake id putting out some fish as well. Flake has been somewhat slow but should pick up with the weather change.

Tunrevir~

[Fishman11]

Are the lakes thick enough to drive on?

[fish-two]

Looking for some info on Forest Lake,Can you get around out there. Do you need 4x4. Any info on the northerns, I'm heading to 2nd and 3rd. thanks for the info..what depth ??

[Deitz Dittrich]

Fishman- Ice is never to be considered safe.. But I have been all over with my F150 as of late.. Just becareful around points and narrow areas.

[fish-two]

PLEASE , PLEASE , would like some info on forest lake fishing, thanks...

[Fuzzbient]

PLEASE , PLEASE , would like some info on forest lake fishing, thanks...

If you're looking for pike just take a look at the lake structure maps for all three lakes and set up on one of the weed flats in 6 to 10 feet of water with a few tip-ups and you should hit a few. For some reason this year they've been more active in the afternoon rather than the morning for me. Channels between the lakes and near by deeper holes are always a good start.

I'd recommend a 4x4 to handle the snow drifts or it's easy to get beached and stuck.

[fish-two]

thanks, fuzzbient, i was just looking for a starting point thanks again for the info....

[Castinski]

Hit forest again last night. I found crappies scattered in with gills in 7-10 ft of water all afternoon. I tried out deeper as the sun went down and found little out there. Had to hop from shoreline to get to good ice and still got a wet boot. Ice is melting fast as there is only about a ft of good ice left at best. It's really eerie walking out on it. Don't know if I'll get back out with rain today and high temps the next two days pushing 60 deg. Be careful if you do head out there everyone.

[Castinski]

oh, BTW. I did finally hit a decent walleye out there on a small forage minnow/waxie setup. I think I was more mad than anything as it was in a spot I had targeted them several times during the season. I scolded him as I sent him back in.

[Foreverfish1]

A buddy and I just got off a northern Anoka county lake. Had to wear waders to get from the shore to walkable ice, there was about a 10 ft gap of skim ice. Once we got onto the thicker stuff however we drilled all the way out to our spot and found nothing less than a foot of ice. It wasn't the best ice that's for sure but there was plenty of it.

Anyways, we caught a a fair amount of crappies and sunfish, the weird thing was we could only get one fish in each hole and then they'd all leave and we'd have to move a few yards to a new hole. Then we'd catch another one in a new hole and have to move holes again.

Overall a succesful trip I'd say. I don't know if we'll be able to get out anymore with this weather...

Be careful out there and be sure to wear a life jacket and check the ice early and often!!!

[Castinski]

Did some crappie/gill fishing on Forest yesterday. We found a mixed bag of both species up shallow in 5-8 ft around thick weed growth. We couldn't find any large schools of crappies, only a few mixed in with the gills. We didn't try deep water. Used a variety of small jigs tipped with gulp fry. I couldn't believe the amount of traffic out there already. Jetskies, speedboats, and airplanes already in full force. I hope it's not an omen for the rest of the year.

The huge carp are roaming all over out there. Schools of 10+ would swim by right on the surface. Is it legal to carpshoot out here? If it is, somebody clean those buggers outta there.

[OnAFly]

Were the carp within distance of shore fisherman?

[Castinski]

Some groups were as shallow as 3' and others were out in the 8' weeds but near the surface. Many would be accessable from shore, especially with waders. Many of these carp were pushing 40 lbs, no joke. You can fertilize one heck of a garden with a few of those.

[OnAFly]

I may just have to throw the waders on and get the fly rod out one time this week.

Thanks!

[Jari Razskazoff]

I'm looking for a decent Crappie lake up by Forest lake for Sunday. I don't generally get up that way, and am looking to take a couple, prolly half a limit for the freezer. Any ideas?

[Deitz Dittrich]

Forest is a good bet.. Green isnt all that bad as well.. N.Center not too bad, but the access isnt so good right now.

[gurkster]

Head a little further north and Rush can be good.

[tunrevir]

Forest is a good bet.. Green isnt all that bad as well.. N.Center not too bad, but the access isnt so good right now.

Exactly what I would have said. Crappies on Flake are on the edges of the weeds in 12-14' and over the surface of the emerging weeds to the shallow edges in 5-6'. Bigger ones mixed with smaller ones so you'll have to do some sorting and poking around.

Tunrevir~

[Stringerless!]

Fished Martin this morning. Had one bite. A walleye about 12" never put a tape on him but that was my guess. Only saw one other guy catch a fish. Small crappie. About 8 cars at the ramp at 6 am. Ramp was full when I left. Pretty slow but a gorgeous morning on the water !

[Stringerless!]

Comfort this morning. 5 - 8:30 not a bite !rigging with leeches. Jigging. Dragging raps. Nothing !

[birdswacker]

Dragging Raps on the East side?

[BlueBillStacker]

34 walleyes 13-18 in" jig amd a shiner didnt matter what color ha

[kaine]

about 20 eyes this afternoon all around 12 inches on rush 40 fow 1/4 oz jig with leaches.

[Jari Razskazoff]

I went there and got skunked with everything i threw... even bobber fishing blew that day.

[CJH]

If you saw my post on Big Marine, you weren't the only one who had a rough weekend crappie fishing!

[Deitz Dittrich]

With the high pressure, just about every fish was shut down.. I talked to people all over and it was just a tough weekend for fishing.. Great weekend to be in a boat however!