Great Lakes for Shore Fishing

[ShoreGuy1984]

Where are some good open water shore fishing lakes in the south metro ? Its kinda hard to fish when you dont have a boat. The only lakes with good access that I know of is Bush in Bloomington, Crystal in Burnsville, and O'dowd in Shakopee.

[metrofisher7]

You could also try Hyland lake in bloomington right next to bush, you can catch all the sunnies you could want and get an occasional bass or nice crappie. Last year i caught 8 crappie's 9+ shore fishing out of Hyland and caught a couple 14+ bass.

[JBMasterAngler]

If you want to put in a few extra miles you can drive down to cannon falls and fish the cannon river. Slip on a pair of sandles and catch smallies, silver bass, carp, sheephead, even some brown and rainbow trout.

Or go to hastings and fish the vermillion river. Nightcrawlers will mostly get you sheephead, but spinners and/or minnows can get you nice silver bass and crappies...but you'll also get carp, catfish, dogfish, snapping turtle, even sturgeon!

[ShoreGuy1984]

Ill have to check out Hyland this open water season. I have never fished it, although I drive by it all the time, since I am a pizza delivery driver in Bloomington. I never thought it would be a good fishing lake !

I have heard the Cannon River is a great place to fish, although I am not much of a river fisher. I use to fish the Minnesota River in Chaska under the Hiway 41 Bridge. Ill have to take a trip there too this open water season !

Thanks for the info Metro and JB !

[MnMike58]

Think this link will help you alot.

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fishing/fin/7_county.html

[PerchJerker]

You could try Lake Marion and Lac La Von, they are both in your area and have places to fish from shore. Not sure how good they are though.

It's not the south metro but Minnetonka has tons of spots to fish from shore, inlcuding many boat channels where you're within easy reach of 5-8 fow.

And check out the Fishing Minnesota Shore Fishing Forum

[BuckKiller]

steiger in victoria is suppose to be really good

[Flaco651]

The Minneapolis lakes have all sorts of shore access and fishing piers.

[HossFisher]

Steiger used to be really good but now it gets a lot of pressure off of the pier. My personal best came off that pier.

[Jagsballar19]

Ok lets clear it up hyland in bloomington basically sucks....tiny sunnies and not many good sized bass. There are few walleye but pretty hard to target....can catch the walleye from shore

[pikehunter78]

Riley Lake in Chaska/Eden Prairie has a great fishing pier until mid-summer when the milfoil chokes the area off. Great panfish and bass, and there's a good weedline within casting distance if you want to hang a sucker for Pike.

[JBMasterAngler]

I don't know much about the minnesota river, but I'm sure there's a few spots to fish from shore. Plenty of stuff to catch out of there. I think shorefishing lakes in the summer is waste of time...go with the rivers. I'd rather catch a handful of 2 to 5 pound suckers, sheephead, and carp, with the chance of some walleye, catfish, or bass, than catching a 100 tiny potato chip sunnies.

[fishersofmen]

I agree JB, alot more opportunity out of a river from shore.

[Maximum12]

And let's not forget all those little ponds we all drive by every day & never take a second glance at. There are 10 acre or less potholes all over the metro with sunnies, crappies, bass, & sometimes other fun surprises. These are generally more work, but when you find one with fish in it, well worth the extra effort.

[ShoreGuy1984]

I only target bass though, which wouldnt work well at the river. I just need to get a boat. I am so restricted, i hate it lol.

[fishersofmen]

I pounded some really nice small mouth bass shore fishing from a river a few years back. On the same rapala caught a couple nice walleye and a monster cat......

[Urbanflyguy]

actually i am almost soley a river guy and i target smallmouth in the river and in my opinion the large mouth cant hold a candle to a river smallmouth. not to mention there is white bass south of the ford dam in the mississippi and they are mean little things too i even pop largemouth around the coon rapids dam . so if your stuck on bass ( i am too just smallies) they river is a good shore option and very wadeable in some areas

[ShoreGuy1984]

what about Lake Rebecca in hastings

[JBMasterAngler]

I've never caught anything from there...of course the only times I've fished (1st week of april) I think the water is still a bit too cold for anything to bite.

Shoreguy, buy a canoe. Pretty cheap, and with an electric motor you'll be able to fish the cannon, zumbro, vermillion, mississippi backwaters, even some spots on the st. croix with ease. All those places are excellent bass waters (largemouths on the vermillion).

[ShoreGuy1984]

I've never caught anything from there...of course the only times I've fished (1st week of april) I think the water is still a bit too cold for anything to bite.

Shoreguy, buy a canoe. Pretty cheap, and with an electric motor you'll be able to fish the cannon, zumbro, vermillion, mississippi backwaters, even some spots on the st. croix with ease. All those places are excellent bass waters (largemouths on the vermillion).

I canoe would be awesome. My tax money that is coming soon, would pay for one too ! The only things stoping me would be storage and tranportion. I live in a one bedroom apartment with my girlfriend so storing it would be kinda hard. tranportion would be hard, since I have a tiny 4 door Saturn. I think a canoe might fit on the roof, might be dangerous though lol. I also wonder if Gander Mountain would store it ?

[Roman_K]

Hey JBMasterAngler,

I had a hard time finding access to the vermillion river last year. Can you tell me where there is a launch or access point for the vermillion?

thanks in advance

[OnAFly]

ShoreGuy - I had the same problem, live in an apartment and drive a Volkswagen. I found you can get a really nice roof rack that holds a canoe as well as anything. I do have the luxury of being able to store it under my parents deck, but driving a small car is actually really nice for a canoe. It makes it really easy to put on and take off and takes all of 30 seconds. I've taken it up north many times and never have had a problem on my car. I went with a Yakima rack and it was a little spendy, but I figured it was a lot less spendy than roof damage or a lost canoe. Getting pulled around by a big northern in the BWCA is a lot of fun in a canoe!

[JBMasterAngler]

Roman...if you drive into hastings from the north on hwy 61, take a left at 10th st (county road 54), drive down that a few miles and you'll get to the dushane's access on the right side of the road. That's the most popular access point...if you can get upstream to the overflow dam (hard to do in summer with all the fallen trees) there is some great silver bass, largemouth bass, and crappie fishing back there. If you head down county road 54 a few more miles you'll hit the etter access at the intersection with county road 68 (road that goes to the casino). I've never fished that spot in a boat, but I've caught lot's of sheephead and carp from shore there.

[Roman_K]

Awesome! I will give that a shot. Thanks again!