Annandale-Buffalo-Hutchinson fishing reports

[fishmounter]

Hey Harvey Lee everytime I see your post I admire your picture of those two big crappies did you mount them or release them? I see you make it up to Rainy Lake alot fishing I suppose you have them crappies pinned down up there. Sounds like you snowmobile travel up there to fish also , just bought a used Bearcat and hope to try it this wnter. Really really nice crappies............

[trappingaddiction]

Fished a couple different area lakes this weekend and had a good 4.5-5.5 inches throughout. Fishing was also decent, with a few crappies, gills, perch, and a decent eater walleye yesterday. The perch were all small, but did catch a couple decent crappies and sunnies and some nice crappies this evening. The best presentation yesterday for the panfish was orange jig tipped with 1 or 2 euros and today was a pretty even split between a bright green jig and a white a pink jig with a medium size crappie minnows. Most of the crappies were in 7-8 FOW and in 16-18 FOW suspended about a foot off the bottom. Good luck out there, have fun, and be safe!

[Avid Angler]

Interesting ice fishing year so far???

My season started out with a bang, but has been pretty tough since. I have been out four times.

The first time out I landed two nice walleyes. A 27 inch and a 28 inch. The 28 inch weighed 9lb 7 oz. Both were released.

The next three times out have been mediocre at best.

I can always seem to scrape up a meal, but I hope we get some colder weather and put on some inches of ice.

I hope others are having better luck.

Avid

[workin4bait]

Well,Avid,you seem to doing a lot better than me. I went out 5 times in the last 3 weeks[spending too much time chasing "invisible" roosters] and today I brought my first fish home. I am planning on hitting a panfish lake in the morning.

[Avid Angler]

Quick reminder about possession rule in Minnesota!!

I would think most guys on this site follow the rules, so I am not trying to preach, but I wanted to remind people what the rules are about keeping fish. If we hear people talk about catching lots of fish and going back many days in a row and hammering the bite, it will remind them they are breaking the law if they are not eating or giving away the fish.

A person cannot keep more than one limit per person in their possession of almost all species of fish, except perch(twice the daily limit can be kept).

Example: If you go out and catch and keep a limit of crappies, which is 10 per person, you cannot go back and keep another limit of crappies unless you have eaten or given away the first limit. If you have more fish in your home than the legal limit per person that have a valid fishing license, you are illegal.

This scenario is the same with walleyes, pike, sunfish and bass.

I am surprised how many guys don't realize this. I still hear people bragging about how many fish they have kept in a week span when they are biting. One guy was bragging about the 200 crappies they have kept out of Star in the last two weeks. Unless you have a darn big family, that is alot of fish to eat or give away. 400 fillets??

My point of all this is remind people of the rules and if you know people that know the rules and continue to break them. Turn them in!!!

These people are stealing from the rest of us and could be hurting the resource.

Avid

[fishingstar]

It is funny the you bring this up. I have sene the same fish houses out here every day for the last 4 weeks

[rattleL]

I agree all the way Avid

[harvey lee]

I believe that if you giv them away, if the person you give them too does not have a fishing license, they are still considered your possesion limit until consumed.

[meathunter]

Glad i have 7 in my house and boy can they eat fish!

[Brownton]

Well if you see the same house out there for the past four weeks, they could not be catching anything, or their like me and release everything they catch. Seeing the same house every day doesn't mean anything, I wouldn't think narrow minded like that. BUT I also agree with you. The same thng goes for bird hunting.

[CMF]

Can anyone recommend a good lake around the area for catching sunnies? I am my kids out on Saturday and I would like to find a lake that will keep the kids busy and interested.

Thanks

[walleyeking19]

Made it out tonight with my dad for some crappie fishing, and it wasnt great fishing but it was still a fun night. We caught about a dozen crappies. 2 were good sized but the majority were under 6 inches. Than as we were about to start packing up, I saw a big red mark on my vex. It ended up biting my hook. The thing was peeling line off. Ended up getting it up on the ice just as my line broke. I've never had a crappie break my line. It's brand new 3 lbs test. After a few pics we let it swim free. It's not the best picture, but I didnt want to keep it out of the water all day. Measured right at 14" which is a personal best.

[BartmanMN]

Very nice crappie. Nice way to end the day. Lucky you got him on the ice or you'd be dreaming about that one for a long time.

[eyesinbox]

Kudos for the C&R!!!

[Parmer]

pelican in monticello

[Parmer]

Anyone driving out on pelican yet?

[Fish Addictt]

With all the warm sunny days weve had,I havent seen cars or trucks out there yet. But its just a matter of time before someone goes thought out there.The main lake ice is around 12in. Around the reeds is very bad from so much sun and heat!!! BE CAREFULL out there!

[noodlerod]

trappingaddiction i sent a PM but it says your PM limit was full just wondering if you got it

[trappingaddiction]

trappingaddiction i sent a PM but it says your PM limit was full just wondering if you got it

I received the one from around 2:30 from you today. If you send one after that one, I did not receive it.

[BartmanMN]

Drove by Buffalo last night and it appears to be full on for 1/2 tons and wheelhouses. I did not fish the lake, so not sure on ice thickness. I fished a lake not far from there and it only had 12 inches.

[TylerS]

Got sent a pic from a friend last night fishing buffalo. Apparently he caught what appears to be a 20+ inch catfish out there. That that was neat. DNR stock Buffalo with channel cats? I'd never heard of one being caught out there before...

[BartmanMN]

Yes, there are kitties swimming in there.

[tsande00]

I want to move my house and am slightly nervous about taking the 3/4 ton Suburban out there. I'm 99.5% sure I'd be OK but it's that .5% that has me nervous, lol.

[hookie]

Yup it's got cats. FYI I took my pull behind off Tuesday.

[Vizslaman]

The general feedback I have heard about ice fishing in the Hutch area is that the fishing has been terrible. That has been my experience as well. We have fished Belle quite often, moving the house several times trying to locate an active spot. So far, very little luck, with three of us getting our limit of crappie only once back in early January. We have been at 21 feet, 18.5 feet, 17 feet, 14.5 feet, by rock humps, on break lines, etc. What is going on? Anyone have any success suggestions?

It can't possibly be that we are THAT bad!

[eyesinbox]

I don't think you're alone. I've struggled on Belle since mid July this year, and I fished it hard through the fall. One observation I noted was that there were a TON of minnows surfacing along the entire shoreline at the end of the summer and into the fall. Maybe there's just too much forage in the lake right now? Somethings going on, as fishing was pretty steady up until mid summer, then turned completely off.

My 2 cents

[Vizslaman]

While there may be lots of forage, I don't think it is minnows. We caught 7 crappie on Wed. night, (one of the few nights when we caught anything). When they were cleaned, the stomachs of all seven appeared completely empty. I'm thinking they are feeding on zooplankton and photoplankton that is in great supply due to the lack of snow on the ice. The sun shining through permits the photoplankton to thrive. Just a theory, of course.

[Matt S.]

Slow day on the ice, we drove an hour out west to fish a Hutch area lake. Got out on the lake about noon, and fished until sundown. Setup in about 12-13 Fow. Started out well, we were getting our tip ups out, and buddy almost lost his rod down the hole, we thought this was a good sign of things to come. I got a nice crappie, then things died down for a while. I switched over to a jalapeno jig and some red eurolarve, caught another crappie suspended about 4 ft under the ice. An hour later I manged to get this 9" gill.

Lost something on my tip up, I got excited and set the hook too hard, line was cut clean.

Finished off the night with about half a dozen crappies around 10", the gill and two 13" walleyes.

All in all, it was worth the drive out, and I hope we get back out there again knowing what we know now.

[BuckSutherland]

The general feedback I have heard about ice fishing in the Hutch area is that the fishing has been terrible. That has been my experience as well. We have fished Belle quite often, moving the house several times trying to locate an active spot. So far, very little luck, with three of us getting our limit of crappie only once back in early January. We have been at 21 feet, 18.5 feet, 17 feet, 14.5 feet, by rock humps, on break lines, etc. What is going on? Anyone have any success suggestions?

It can't possibly be that we are THAT bad!

You dont know what the problem is? How about 300-500 people every single night for a couple months going out and keeping everything they catch and doing this for two or three years in a row. I tried to count the houses one night on swan lake last year after some [PoorWordUsage] posted that the crappies and walleyes were really going. It was somewhere between 250-300 house on a 340 acre lake 10 feet deep with many WI plates driving around. Figure on average 2 people per house. 10 crappies a piece. 2*10*250= 5000 fish. That doesnt count the ones with overlimits, and double limits. And that is just one day. Drove by yesterday. There is two houses on the lake. Nothing happening. This fish are just plain gone. Thats what the problem is.

[tjoutdoors]

We had lots of staring contests with these fish, but they eventually decided to cooperate and ice a nice supper! Look at those smiling faces? Does it get any better?