Lake Minnetonka Fishing Reports

[expl]

I like in the open water season when you are trolling a weedline and a pleasure boater has to drive on his sight seeing tour exactly on the line your trolling of course they are not fishing either.I play chicken with them and i dont break my course,I dont care about a few dents,dings,or scratches like they do...

[Pherris]

3 of us went out yesterday for our first outing of the year. Fished Carsons in about 20' and ended up keeping 28 9"-11". Caught some in the 12"-14" but they went back in the water. The only thing we could get them to bite was a plain red hook with a crappie minnow. They would not have anything to do with small jigs or waxes but the small sunnies liked the wax worms. Ice was 7"-8" in the area we fished. We stayed away from the groups of houses. Was nice to be fishing again.

[Iceboy]

Crappies, Pherris? Nice work! I still haven't gotten out this year, but Minnetonka is where I will head once I get some time. I should hit the panfish more - the walleye bite is too dam short!

[Mons]

Is there a public place to park and walk onto Carson's bay?

[Pherris]

Crappies, Pherris?

[tj417]

Hope you like company...

[Joe West]

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[TrophyEyes]

Does anyone know how much ice is on Browns Bay or Wayzata Bay?

[BassFisherman]

How is the ice shaping up on the small northern bays? Black, seton, etc. looking to get out tomorrow with hopefully a wheeler

[walleyeking]

Was out on Wayzata bay tonight. Ice was in great shape. Solid 8 inches. One small truck out there, but I would wait to drive. With this cold snap next weekend may be a go for driving.

[Pherris]

Was out on Carsons yesterday. The fishing was a bit slow but I was amazed how many people that were driving full sized trucks on the ice. Thickest ice we found was only 7-8 inches. Crazy in my opinion.

[sdsu_jacks]

I fished Carson Bay on Friday night for the first time ever. Fished from 3-7pm. Drilled about 25 holes and marked LOTS of fish, especially in the 17-19' ranges. Hands down the most fish that I have ever marked in a single outing, but.... I did not catch a single fish. Got a couple very very light bites if I let it sit there with a spring bobber, small jig, and waxie or minnow head. Tried everything from aggressive jigging to deadsticking, small-medium spoons, jigging raps, teardrop jigs, glow in the dark, red hooks, treble hooks, single hooks, and a lot lot more, pretty much everything I had with me. Tried crappie minnows, minnow heads, waxies, larva. Nothing was working. Must have just been one of those days?

[Mr Special]

went out of the spring park on the 1st. found 10-11" of ice in most spots. fished off the weedline in the deeper basin in 19-21'fow. had constant action from 330-730, slowed dwn a bit after that and we left at 8pm. for 3 guys we kept 20 crops between 9.5-11" and 10 sunnies 8-9". light bite and sumtimes it would take sum wrk to get them to hit but small jigs tipped with euro's wrked best, bigger crops on minnows.

[LeeY]

Hey sdsu, just a heads up what you're marking are lots of sunnies. Usually from 10 am - 5pm is when sunnies are in town. From there on then crappies slowly shows up. You can tell when they start to single out and starts chasing your lure less. Sometime morning will hit really nice until 9am otherwise If it doesn't hit morning then it already hit the night before until 3am. So in conclusion from my experience is either 5pm-9pm, 11pm-3am, 5am-9am. That's when I catch them the most. Fill free to correct me if I'm wrong but afternoon is a no-go (10am-5pm). I'm not sure if this will be helpful but during the early early morning rush we only managed to pull in the majority of crappies we caught with minnows only and the rest with spikes, otherwise we been getting luck with plastic, spikes and minnows all equally during other hours.

[LeeY]

I'm not making a promise to anyone it'll bite that hour but I did manage to fished from dawn to dawn and that's just my experiences from carson bay.

[Mr Special]

leeY,

im with you

those do seem to be the better times for crops.

just last wk when we started fishing about 330-430 maybe til 5ish. it was sunny after sunner with 2 small crops. my buds wanted to move, stating that its a sunny spot not a crop spot.

i told they could move but im staying put. plus after drilling 2doz holes i was pretty beat lol

i told them it'll be like a Changing of the Guards. sure enough from 5 til the time we left it was mainly crops and the size got nicer as the nite went on. we still caught sum rouge sunnies here n there but they seemed to be nicer size as well.

i have caught crops mid-day as well but not as good as during the primetime.

[DrJuice1980]

Going out for an overnight this weekend. A few questions, and any additional tips are appreciated. Id like to find some eyes being I will be there for a couple of those prime windows.

*Wayzata Bay: How far to the west can I drive?

*Browns Bay: Is there an access for vehicles to drive out?

*Am I wrong to be thinking about these 2 bays and should head further west?

*Weed edges, rock piles, flats, edges of flats/drops, what should I be looking for? I plan to drill baby drill but any help would be nice.

*Depths? I've seen reports from 5'-35'+

*If you know of areas to stay away from or pressure ridges please inform (other than channels and under bridges, I at least know that)

Pretty much looking for everything but GPS coordinates and baiting my hook. PM me if you'd like and I am sure I can share tips with you as well just not on Tonka. But I will let you know how I did.

Thank you

[Mr Special]

sounds like you'll be in for a fun wkend =D

i personally know the Westside better but i do think you can drive onto Browns bay right off of Hwy15 . there are usually quite a few cars parked there on the shoulder as well.

usually when i chase wallys on tonka i like to fish 18-20fow near the weedline. if you can find the transition onto hard bottom such as rocks, i think that would be primo. i also like inside turns.

pressure ridges change from year to year but most of the local bait shops should have the latest info on spots to stay away from.

as for baits i like shiners "if u can find them" or fatheads in the 3-4" range. seems to keep the lil guys away, esp the millions of small perch.

i usually will jig with one rod. using jigging spoons tipped with minnow head and dead stik the other. sumtimes i'll have tip ups or rattle wheels dwn

if you find perch dont be scared off. often as soon as the perch go away the wallys move in .

good luck and hope this helps

[DrJuice1980]

Thanks Mr. Special

I do have shiners, I've kept them alive in my bucket for over a month! I even have kept a few small suckers alive that long as well.

[mjk]

Hit Crystal Bay this afternoon. 12-13" of ice. Targeted pike, ended up getting a 34" and a 24" towards dusk.

Very little traffic out that way.

[mjk]

Robinson Bay sunset today....

[rosspj59]

Nice picture. Would be even better with the flag up.

[nenzlick]

Caught a few of these babies yesterday in one of the bays of Tonka. Not going to say which one though as i've been fairly irate all winter long that the area I have fished for the past 3-4 years has been FULL of people all winter. Previous to this year there was probably 1/3 as many people fishing it...clearly somebody(s) have extremely big mouths and ruined it for all of us. So, i've been off finding areas where nobody fishes all winter because of it.

[Avid Angler]

Hi everyone!

What is water clarity like on Minnetonka this winter??

I am a very avid pan fish fisherman and I am surprised there doesn't seem to be much talk of the pan fish in Minnetonka. What are the average size for bluegills and crappies people are finding on the lake this winter?? With all that water out there, there has to be some unexplored areas to try and am guessing a guy can find some 8 inch gills and 10 inch crappies??

I am sure there are areas of high traffic and pressure, but has to be plenty of untapped spots too.

Just looking for some general insight on the lake.

Thanks.

Avid

[rosspj59]

Water clarity is good. Lots of 7-8 inch bluegills and 8-10 inch crappies. The tough part is finding bigger fish than that. Most people are crowding into a few bays with easier access points. There is a lot of Tonka that never gets fished every winter. Some areas are hard to get to with a vehicle and others just don't get fished. The big part of the lake sees the least pressure. I am guessing there are bigger fish in little spots there that never see a lure all winter. Looking with a camera for nice fish will serve you well.

[Avid Angler]

Thanks for the info. That is exactly what I was looking for. I get a kick out of people flocking to some of these small lakes to catch 7-8 inch gills and 8-10 inch crappies. The lakes get pounded. I thought of maybe going to Tonka because I think there is probably plenty of areas to get away from the crowd and can get just as nice of fish, maybe nicer.

Avid

[Avid Angler]

Another question.

Do people tend to fish deeper suspended fish on Tonka or is it better to target the shallow weed bite?

[Avid Angler]

Anybody pounding pan fish on Tonka??

[Squirtis]

I wouldn't say pounding the panfish, but it has been consistent and the northerns are always around to hit a sucker minnow. I have been in Carson's bay in about 20 feet and yesterday I was in the south bay off Big Island. There are alway fish around, mostly 7-8 inch sunnies. Have not seen more than one crappie. A few bass and a couple that are interested.

I'm really interested to see if the crappie bite will turn on and if anyone has any ideas for me, send me a PM. It has been a fun winter though. I really enjoy the lake.

Curtis

[Avid Angler]

There has to be some crappies to be had. If the water is really clear, it probably mainly a prime time bite or tight to green weeds. I haven't fished the lake much, but it intrigues me. I don't seem to hear much about the lake. Lots of bays and deep holes to look for the crappies. I won't give up much more than that for ideas unless we cant chat on the PM side of things. I am willing to share thoughts to those who share back.