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Bald Eagle Lake Fishing Reports


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  • Tom7227

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so because nobody went through its not crazy??

Pretty much, the ice was clearly strong enough to hold them. I am not one of the 95% on this forum that hold the erroneous belief that you need 18 inches of ice to drive on. Furthermore I laugh at everyone that jumps on posts saying "Everyone out there driving is a f***ing moron." I'll make decisions about my life and property and you can do the same.

Drove my 1/2 ton out on 12 inches 4 of the last 5 days on different lakes around the north metro. I was in good company, with many other full size trucks on the ice, many of the lakes already have clear roads. The MNDNR states 12'' minimum to drive a truck on the ice, and they have to be overly cautious. I know for a fact less than 12'' can hold a full size truck.

I'll take the flak that's sure to come, but my group is willing to drive, so I drive.

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We all drive out at our own discretion.... some are full go now, while others can wait another 10 days. #darwanism

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speeding vehicles on ice ARE foolish and/or uneducated about the effects on the ice. Even 30 mph can cause problems elsewhere on the lake.

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+1 fish system. but in all reality guys lets get this thread back on track and post updates on ice conditions and fishing. if you want to argue about that start a thread dedicated for it. im goin out there in a few hours ill post an update when i get back.

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good call. I haven't fished on B.E. yet, too busy in N.metro. How is the bite? are they aggressive at all or mostly negitive?

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was out on bald eagle last night from 2:30 till 8:30. helped my buddy move his shack we moved it to just out from the reeds and only caught 1 crappie. around dark i started markin fish but they didnt seem to totaly interested. i saw 13" of solid black ice where we were.

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Just drove around the late at 10 am today, Friday, and there is a lot of water on top of the ice. With the predicted cold front coming in the guys with the perms might want to block them up or something so they don't freeze in.

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We all drive out at our own discretion.... some are full go now, while others can wait another 10 days. #darwanism

I agree, and it's Darwin blush

I also agree about driving too fast, I never drive fast, and pretty much idle around the first week or so.

I was planning on fishing today but I don't want to have to swim out haha...and yea I think I'll need my cleats again tomorrow!

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If your fishing today watch your step. Fished last night and there was 1" or more of standing water on the ice in places. We had a constant flow of water into our holes through out the night. We came across some old holes that had water running into them all day and had grown to 12"+ diameter by the time we left.

Full size trucks all over but we opted to walk.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hows the ice look? Haven't been out there this yr but assume tucks can drive from the public access to cigar island safely?

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Tom, did you catch anything? Don't keep telling us that you're just driving around the lake tourist'in!??

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I live out here and have to drive around it to get any place. Most of the time that I go fishing I don't even use bait, just want to be outside and in the winter see them on the camera.

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I hear some good things come out of this lake as far as walleye and crappie, but was wondering about the northern pike situation. Do they cruise the shorelines or suspend with the crappies?

Looking for some jigging holes on this lake too . . . Is there any weak ice around the inlets or outlets?

Bringing the kids and hope to get one in the boat . . .err . . . car!

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A buddy and I went out Monday morning (1/28) from 0730 to 1230. We hit six different spots. The good new is we caught crappies at every spot. The bad news, they were all small i.e. no keepers.

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Were you using minnows or grubs to catch the crappies? And about how deep? If I can get my boys to pull some fish through the ice they would be extatic.

With this many small crappies on the lake, much of larger fish will be well fed. Do you recommend hanging near others or branching off?

Thanks any help would be appreciated, this is the first time I've fished the hard water on BE!

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HuskyMusky - the ice is fine. No need to go anywhere near the inlets or outlets. But I would not expect to catch any large crappie. I haven't had much luck with walleye either but I don't work very hard at them. Waxies will work fine and are easy to hook up when you're trying to keep the kids going.

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Crappies were biting south of the island. They were scattered and had to move a lot to find active fish. Biggest was 9" on a fathead minnow and jig. I probably could have caught more with lighter line.

Was there some sort of fire on the lake around 2pm? I saw a bunch of black smoke somewhere on the north side.

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The locals have a party every year and burn a bunch of christmass trees. Party was Saturday night and they may have been cleaning things up a bit on Sunday afternoon.

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Hey everyone, I'm new on this site, I've been on this site countless times this year using the reports that have been posted and thought it's only fair I get an account and contribute. This is my first winter fishing in the metro area, great way to use down time in between class.

So as for the fishing:

I went out on bald eagle last weekend and this past weekend as well. Last weekend was my first time on bald eagle ever, seemed like a good starter lake so I went to see what I could do. I ended up just fishing the south side of the island all day and caught on avg 7" crappies all day long consistently, but could not get them to bite once dark rolled around, but they were still all over my flasher suspended 18-30'.

This past weekend I got out Friday around 11am and tried a little different spot just adjacent to the island but still in 30 FOW. Same results with the small crappies, I quickly found out it doesn't take much to go catch smaller crappies all day long, but heard the lake doesn't produce much as far as size. The biggest I managed was one 11" and two 10". I had my fun with the crappies by the afternoon and started looking for a walleye spot for the evening and found a 7'-23' drop within 30 yards just guessing off of a map I printed off where it would be. (that was alot of holes with the hand auger and the 19" of ice sure wasn't making that easy!) Caught some perch and sunfish in this spot right at dusk, then at 6:30 caught a nice 17" eye, that was it though. I tried it again saturday and the crappies were not as active but still caught them occasionally. I bounced around maybe 6 spots saturday and found crappies in all depths. Right after the sun went down though they went on fire, it just got hectic. There were three times where I had one hooked on both poles so that made things interesting, but I was able to catch them for a couple hours until I ran out of a half scoop of minnows. Had a great time, I'll probably try Medicine Lake this weekend.

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GREAT post Max Goldman! I live right next to Bald Eagle...and your 17" wally is the biggest one I have heard of coming out of that lake this year. I have caught a lot of cigar sized wallys, and you are right on about being able to catch potato chip crappies all day long. I know that there are quality size fish in there....just from my experience, it is worth it to just drive an extra 5 minute to White Bear...WAY bigger crappies AND wallys

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Thanks tip_upclyma. I was wondering that about white bear thanks for the heads up! I have only stopped at the bait shop that's right off 96 and 61, and was told that b.e. is my best bet for eyes. I was going to venture onto white bear this past weekend but since I caught that nice eye friday evening, I figured I'd try it again and spent a little more time trying to pin point a spot I thought may be more productive, since I knew I was in the general area friday. I was also told at the bait shop also that there are some spots on white bear to watch out for as far as ice? And to just follow the roads, so it just sounded easier going to b.e. again since following roads means following crowds, and I usually try and stay away from crowds, but my first time out that's hard to do, and the spot I was on on b.e. wasn't by anyone! (which shocked me at first) I'd say I'm more interested in finding some bigger crappies though rather than eyes so I may have to start research white bear a little harder! Really this is the first year I am fishing anything BUT walleyes. Usually it's always my dad, brother, and I making trips up to Mille Lacs, Devil's Lake ND, or Red Lake fishing walleye (which I have no reason to complain about ;)), but now that I'm at school I'm at school around all these smaller lakes I'm setting my sights on the panfish! (but if I get word of decent walleye action around that may be too much for me to resist! )

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where is a good spot for crappies? Im not planning on keeping any so i would rather catch more fish than bigger fish. I have heard south of the island is a good spot. does anyone know what depth or coordinates of a good spot? thanks

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where is a good spot for crappies? Im not planning on keeping any so i would rather catch more fish than bigger fish. I have heard south of the island is a good spot. does anyone know what depth or coordinates of a good spot? thanks

Fish around the island, the SE side. I am guessing there will be a lot of people out there when you get there no matter the time. I forget the depth but I think it is around 25 FOW there and endless crappies from 10 feet off the bottom all the way down. I have not been out there this year but every year I have fished BE it is the same thing. Small crappies but all you can catch. I have had my best luck with pink gulp and/or a glow jig.

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Went out President's Day with a friend and his son. From about 330 until 530 we saw fish with the camera but could not entice a bite. Two quick tugs at lines with minnows was all we got. The cold front didn't help and the 8 year old was done just about the time when we could have expected a pickup in the action. But when a kid is done we're all done. Frankly Noah lasted longer than I expected.

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I went out on Otter on the 24th and promptly got stuck with my 2 wheel drive PU. I would like to get out a few more times. Has Bald Eagle had the snow packed down enough in some areas to allow me to get around and not stuck. The roads on otter were fine but there was no place to turn around.

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