Lake Nokomis Fishing Reports

[Judge Smails]

HuskerBen is right. The lagoon is the only part that might be considered "man-made"- formerly it was a flood area and a while back they claimed it as part of the lake. Rest of the lake is just dug-out or dredged.

[MNfishtrapper]

another explaination to why the ski's are plowing around on the surface reminds me of what happened in an Eden Prairie lake years ago. The DNR used to stock Tigers in Round lake but have since apparently succumbed to time and their fate. The Muskies in Round lake were seen by swimmers and children plowing around on the surface holding their head out of the water with their mouths open. The initial assumption by park goers was that the Muskies were "crazed" and apparently chasing swimmers out of the water as in the movie "Jaws"! Haha. The DNR discovered a parasite that had attacked the fishes gills and the wierd behavior was a result of them attempting to flush the hitch hikers from their mouths. I remember, for us fisherman, it was quite the story in the local news paper! Hopefully the Nokomis Muskies aren't comming down with the same condition!!!

[Lunker]

I figured it was a parasite of sorts. I witnessed this multiplte times, up to about 10 years ago, so it must not kill them off too bad if they are still present.

[tom_w]

Hiawatha is "somewhat" man-made.

[jigginjim]

During the fall I troll shad raps for walleyes. If you work the week edges you should be able to catch a few.

[lekanoff]

Has anyone checked the ice on Nokomis?

[erickol]

I'll swing by in the next day or two. curious myself. I was out on Nokomis pretty early on last seasson

[HuskerBen]

I drove past on Tuesday night. It was dark, and there was snow flying everywhere, so it was tough to tell. But I could see that it was mostly covered at that point.

Be careful on Nokomis. The areas around the culverts don't freeze up too good for a while, and the spots over deep water take longer to freeze as well. The west side seems to freeze up faster than the east.

Eric - let me know what you find, and if you wind up catching anything. I don't know that I'll be able to drill holes much at all this year, what with the baby due just about any day now... I might have to fish vicariously this season.

[kurtc84]

i live near nokomis and have only fished it once, where is the best place to fish on the lake? i assume the west side with all of the structure? the southeast side where i live is too flat.

[HuskerBen]

There is no real "best" place to fish on Nokomis. I've caught fish just about everywhere. It's more of a timing thing. Any structure you can find is a good place to start. If you're fishing on the ice, stay super quiet and fish close to shore. I've caught most of my walleyes within 20 yards of shore, in 8-12 feet of water.

At least, that's how I do it. I get skunked as often as I catch 'em. But there are some nice ones in there, and if you're close, why not fish it?

[erickol]

Ben, I'll for sure keep ya posted. I'll also call before I head out too. I'll drill enough extra holes so you can run down and fish a few minutes if ya can get the time. I'll bet the two of you are very excited. Maybe tonight I'll swing by? Hrriet was still open tis morning

[mosquitoman]

i am going to try out a small lake in the south metro tomorrow and was thinking of going to nokomis on saturday..... has anyone been on the lake to see what the ice is or just drive by? I also drove by on tuesday night and saw that it was locked up but didnt venture out to get a closer look.

[tsande00]

I stopped by on my lunch break today near the access on the West side of the lake. I brought a pick axe and my buddy a piece of rigid conduit. We walked out only 10 yards or so and found the ice to be about 4" thick. Obviously that has no bearing on what the conditions are like out in fishable waters but it's something. I didn't feel like venturing too far out with only tennis shoes, a flannel shirt and no hat or gloves...it was my lunch break after-all.

Not much snow either, looked like the wind did a nice job of keeping the ice exposed.

[MuskieJunkie]

Drove by Calhoun today and most of it is still open. I was suprised to see that.

[The_King48]

I would be interested in fishing this lake... I live close by in Richfield.... I have never fished this lake so if anybody is interested in hooking up let me know.... I have the "itch"

[AuggieDawg11]

I work in Bloomington and would love to try Nokomis on evenings after work. If anyone wouldn't mind a tag a long I would be willing to supply bait at least.

[tsande00]

Stopped out again today. Went out about 100 yards on the West side of the lake before I got nervous and turned back. Ice out 100 yards was at least 4" thick, but was junk. I got all the way through in one swing. Back towards shore there was also 4" but it was good solid ice.

Long story short, decided it best to wait awhile longer. If anybody does venture out on this lake in the coming days, bring a buddy and a rope.

[rcatcherman]

Back in the 90's we used lake calhoun as a reference. Once it froze over you could actually drive a car onto Lake Minnetonka. Now remember this is almost 2010 but we use to think back then how werid it was that it took so long for it to freeze over back then also....

[mosquitoman]

i went out today and agree with "tsande"......i also walked out from the boat landing with my ice pick. i was planning on going out tomorrow with my brother but i may hold off until next weekend before i feel comfortable sitting sholder to sholder with him in my portable.

i did fish a small neighborhood lake in apple valley and got a 4" sunny. it was nice to just get the gear out and watch marks on the vexilar again. (and dont worry, i did throw the sunny back so someone else can fight that beast again!)

[erickol]

I got out on the North side of nokomis tonight for about 45mins. 4-5" of ice, went out 100yds or so max, caught dink perch.

lake harriet was unfishable as of 6pm, didn't bother with calhoiun, but will check Isles this weekend

[bobbymalone]

I drive over Nokomis twice a day on my commute. The east side is clear from snow, but the ice doesn't look good from the road.

I haven't seen anybody out there yet.

[sanka]

Drove by Calhoun today and most of it is still open. I was suprised to see that.

Calhoun is literally the last lake to freeze every year. I was on 10 inches of ice on Medicine last year before Calhoun even froze over. Don't trust that lake till late. Last year it froze over then snowed, and there was only an inch of ice. Looked like any other, but really wasn't.

[bobbymalone]

I saw a couple guys out on Nokomis this afternoon around 3:30. Went walking out towards one guy about 75 yards off the beach on the north eastern side. I got about halfway to him and asked if he was catching anything... He said no and to not come any closer because the ice was too thin... He said it was about 2 inches.

The other guy was around the north side and the closest way to his position involved walking past a few signs saying it was a thin ice area.

I drove back by on my way home about 5 or so and saw a lantern glowing out there pretty close to shore around the bend and a little north of the bridge.

I dunno... either I don't like ice fishing enough to go this early or I like it too much to die on my first trip this year. I'll give it at least another week. You guys have fun out there and be safe.

[life=outdoors92]

bobbymalone:

i am in complete agreement with you. i don't understand how these fisherman can go out fully knowing its not very safe. i am a huge ice fisherman, i get out at least 3 to 4 times a week, but right now, not a chance. i wait till i know there is at least 8-10 inches of SOLID ice

[BassFisherman]

How about Lake of the Isles? Hows the ice?? And is it good fishing?

[erickol]

I was on Isles and Nokomis today, and had very good ice where I fished (4-6")

west side of isles poked holes all the way out to the 30ft holes, 6" of clear black ice, I did not fish, just checked ice conditions.

also fished nokomis tonight (last night too), north side. Ice was great and I even had some decent crappie fishing to make it worth my while.

I have no intention of fishing recklessly, and I do not enjoy fishing unsafe ice. that said, I do get out early on the lakes. I carefully and thouroghly probe the ice, drill many holes and use common sense. common sense. common sense. Even when I saw 5-6" of clear black ice on isles, I did not cross one patch of snow covered ice without testing it, not once, even though it 99.9% should have been safe..... I still test. fishing early is not stupid if you are careful and pay attention.

[bobbymalone]

fishing early is not stupid if you are careful and pay attention.

it may not be stupid, but it's not the smartest thing either.

all it takes is one soft spot and everybody on the forum will be talking about the dummy that went out too early that they are talking about on the news.

good luck and stay safe (and dry).

[lekanoff]

was out Sat. mid morn on the south end. Tip-up w/ fathead. 4-5" of so-so cloudy ice and 2-3" of clear new ice out in 10 ft. Definetly not ready!

[PierBridge]

Can anyone confirm the water clarity is vastly improved from last Winter? I didnt fish today but I drilled a few holes and thought the water looked much better than last years.

I found anywhere from 2-6"s in my limited test samples today. All within 40 yards of shore. The 6" spots had about 4"s of good ice with the top 2" a bit slushy looking.

Be careful if you venture out it still looked like there was open water farther out from what I could tell!

[Loon18]

I walked out to some of the clear ice over the weekend and it did seam as if the weeds you could see were much more visable than in the past.