Lake Independence Fishing Reports

[Bogie04]

Have caught plenty of dink walleyes the last couple times out. Not finding anything of size for me yet.

Same story here. Fishersofmen where are the big ones!?

[fishersofmen]

Lol.

[DuckBlind]

Is it safe to pull out a perm shack on Indy?

[daylate]

Duckblind, whats your E-mail? I may be ablr to help you out.

[DuckBlind]

daylate I appreciate it but you are a daylate, we got it out today on Indy. There was about 20 inches... Think we are on a good spot.

Thanks though...

[daylate]

Thats why they call me daylate.

[Darrell Larson]

Remember Markham's Sports on Hwy 55? If you do, you can remember some very big Walleyes coming out of Indy. Jim Markham and I had a "no tell" location for fishing on the lake, his Father Gary was a very nice man, and very generous with minnows. I fished that lake for more than 25 years while I lived in Plymouth. I now live on Lake Vermilion. I have some very fond memories of fishing Indy, and someday will publish a book in regards to all of the nice people I have met fishing in Minnesota.

Regards to all;

Darrell Larson, aka (Walleye Al, a name Jim Markham gave me)

[chickeywing]

Loved Markham's! I used to catch frogs on the farm and 'sell' them for store credit there when I was about 10. Great guys! There are decent fish in there but you have to put the time in. Tough fishing weekends...

TC

[ratherbefishin]

Was out on indy last sunday from 12pm-6pm and the crappie bight was very slow...talked to others they said the same thing, no good!!!

[nate larson]

How deep were you fishing? Any size to the crappies you did catch? I was out a few weeks in 35 or so feet of water and all I caught were dinks.

[ratherbefishin]

36' we only got 10 in 7 hours with 5 lines down all 9" and under, did get a 10" couple weeks ago

[DuckBlind]

Moved our house 5 times in the past 8 days... nothing. Trying to find a few walleyes. Been catching a lot of crappies, most guys would probably just stay put but a guy can only catch so many 8 inch crappies before he goes mad.

Any ideas? We set up by the 38 ft hole on the N end, pretty quiet over there. Nothing on the vex, not a bite...

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Not looking for a map w/ an X on it, just a general idea for us to check out.

[Bogie04]

Moved our house 5 times in the past 8 days... nothing. Trying to find a few walleyes. Been catching a lot of crappies, most guys would probably just stay put but a guy can only catch so many 8 inch crappies before he goes mad.

Any ideas? We set up by the 38 ft hole on the N end, pretty quiet over there. Nothing on the vex, not a bite...

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Not looking for a map w/ an X on it, just a general idea for us to check out.

Most people are having this problem on Independence this year. My opinion is your fishing tooo deep! If your in search of eyes go shallow...no such thing as fishing to shallow for eyes! You will find them at very odd depths in that lake. Give some shallow water a shot anywhere out there and hope the best! Hope this helps you out some

[Fisherman45]

I agree with Mike shallower works here. You need to try area's between 8-15 feet with some structure or weed edges.

[DuckBlind]

Anybody have any luck near the 38 ft hole? Seems to be a lot of drop offs around there. It is a long haul out that way, there is one house sitting directly on the 38 ft hole.

You would think that part of the lake would hold some fish...?

[Bogie04]

Anybody have any luck near the 38 ft hole? Seems to be a lot of drop offs around there. It is a long haul out that way, there is one house sitting directly on the 38 ft hole.

You would think that part of the lake would hold some fish...?

I've fished breaks out there on the north end this year with no luck. The eyes that I did find where small...9-11 inches. You should try that 38 ft hole and let us know how it goes! But if your looking for a nice eater get close to those weedlines

[DuckBlind]

Tried the 38 ft hole for two days, set up as close to the house out there without getting TOO close. Nothing. Nothing on the vex either. And that is [PoorWordUsage] trying to keep you fellas away from there either. Now I just worry that i drug my house all the way out there and it might be an adventure getting it off the lake with this warm up!

[Darrell Larson]

chickeywing, I put my time in on that lake, like others have mentioned, weed lines were critical to cathching fish, if they had a hump or bump or inside turn to the shoreline in the area, that is where I fished. Most of my big Walleyes came in the summer after a heavy rain, I would anchor on a run off area and sit with a slip bobber and crawler, had to feed a lot of perch, but the Walleyes were looking for that crawler, I can remember many people trolling by and I can imagine they were thinking I was fishing "pannies" wrong, I was fishing Walleye. Never kept the big ones but many dinners taken out of that lake. My favorite spot was, as mentioned above, an inside turn to shore on the weed edge. Things may have changed, but I doubt it, they are creatures of habit. I am talking 7 to 8 fow. Never fished the weekends after 0800 or Holidays. Ice fishing now thats another topic

[Huntin&Fishin]

Any crappie reports?

[dougr1969]

Vexilarman,

I was out a Independence on Wednesday evening with a friend and we did ok on the crappies. We fished a point leading out into deeper water and found fish on the bottom and slightly suspended in 26 fow. We got out there around 5:30pm and fished until 7pm. Bite was a little slow but found aggresive fish in all the holes we drilled. We were using 100th ounce hair jigs in yellow and pink. Average fish caught was around 8 inches but my buddy did catch a 8 1/2 incher . Good luck if you make it out there.

[Vlasin]

Looking for an Ice update for independence.

Heading out with my dad for one last day of ice fishing for the year - prob need an extention ladder to get out. This will be my first time on the lake ...and tips were to start? Keep hearing about a sunken island on the lake. I would guess we'll start there unless there is a better crappie bite location.

Thanks for any help!

[unotrouble2]

Can't tell you about the ice - i can tell you that i have not seen anyone fishing it this week - i drive by it on the way to/from work.

I drove by the Lake Sarah landing and there's about 8-9 guys fishing across from the landing today - no wheelers this time - i checked it out a couple days ago and saw 1 wheeler and about a dozen guys out there across to the far shore from the landing.

I fished over there 2 weeks ago and caught all the small sunnies you could want. Maybe could have kept 7 if i was desperate, but i wasn't!

[Vlasin]

Can't tell you about the ice - i can tell you that i have not seen anyone fishing it this week - i drive by it on the way to/from work.

I drove by the Lake Sarah landing and there's about 8-9 guys fishing across from the landing today - no wheelers this time - i checked it out a couple days ago and saw 1 wheeler and about a dozen guys out there across to the far shore from the landing.

I fished over there 2 weeks ago and caught all the small sunnies you could want. Maybe could have kept 7 if i was desperate, but i wasn't!

Thanks!

[workin4bait]

You must not be looking too hard or my brother has a good hiding spot out there.

He was out Monday,Wednesday and Thursday evening.

[unotrouble2]

I do not drive by the lake during late afternoons or evenings - so totally possible he was out there after i went by

[Vlasin]

Ended up fishing Lake Sarah - was on the ice from ~noon -7pm. Fished straight out from the access to the far shore. Didn't get a sniff till ~4:30 then the panfish turned on pretty good in about 8-12 ft of water. Went home with 15 nice slightly larger than hand size panfish and threw another 20 easy...all in all good last day on the Ice for me.

FYI - there was a good 10-12inches of solid clear ice under the white stuff...one 4 wheeler and sled on the ice on 4/2.

[BassFisherman]

Was out today for a good 5 hrs and didn't catch anythinggggg. where the efff are the fish? they just wernt biting. There was a decent amount of boats out there today.

[hardwaterguy08]

3 of us got 9 walleyes sat. night 4 were keepers it was a good opener for us this year despite the rain all day on sat.

[18 inch Crappie]

Hardwaterguy, what kind of presentation were you using?

[hardwaterguy08]

slip bobber red hook with a fat head 15 fow 1 foot of the bottom best opener I ever had going out again fri. night look for a blue and white older (78) crestliner and a bass boat that will be us stop and say Hi good luck fishing