Lake Gervais Fishing Reports

[jBohmer]

I was out Monday and drove under the bridge with my Chevy 1500. Never fished the lake before but I did not get too nervous going under the bridge.

[dinomak]

Heard some stories of cars stuck bad out there yesterday. They say snow is 2 ft deep in places. Safe to say, I'll be hiking it out today.

[mosquitoman]

walked out by the fishing dock today and fished from 9-noon...... marked a few and saw a couple perch on my camera when i dropped it down but after 10am there was nothing. had a few small bites from the perch and lost one at the hole when my vexilar got in the way but it was a small one anyway. i will have to go out again next week later in the day.....

[mosquitoman]

oh, and the snow was about 6-12" where i was

[Buckslayer08]

I'll be out there Monday morning, but have not figured out where I am going to enter from yet. How much clearence is there for trucks under that bridge? I may drive my silverado out there since I don't have a wheeler or sled.

I'll have the Team Wild shack by otter and a blue'ish truck.

Anyone else going out Monday morning?

[MidCoast]

Was out there for a hour very early in the morning. Caught a lot of crappies but they were very small. All were released. Fished in about 20 feet of water.

[jwmiller33]

was out on the lake this afternoon for 3 hrs... walked out from the southern access... used the h2o with the lakemaster chip so find some nice break and structure areas... drilled a bunch of holes at depths ranging from 8ft-22ft... couldnt find anything but a couple small perch... the perch were very aggressive when they came in on the graph... i thought about moving to the 40ft basin area that was .15 mile from where i was fishing (according to my h2o), but i didnt want to spend the time and effort in dragging the sled there as i had to get off the lake at 4 for a hockey game tonight.

are there a lot of panfish in this lake? i wanted to move out to that deep basin in hope/search of some panfish. i figured they would be easier to seek out then some eyes

[dinomak]

Still getting some small eyes but putting more time in and catching less. My buddy got a 17" after being out 2 days in a row. Perch are hitting hard now. Caught a few true jumbo's. I had my fun on this lake this season but I think I'm moving on to finding them 2 pound crappie in the St. Croix. Best of luck everyone.

[MidCoast]

I drove around Gervais yesterday. There seems to be more people fishing on that lake now. How is everybody doing out there? I might try it out later.

[Meyer8043]

Huh wonder why there are more people out there fishing?

[jwmiller33]

i was out there on gervais tonight from about 2 pm - 6 pm. i walked out of the southern access, but i saw that there were about 10-15 vehicles that had driven out from the access where you have to go under the bridge. a couple weeks ago it seemed about 90% of the people fishing out there were fishing the north end of the lake. there was only 1 or 2 people up there today and the majority of the people were on the east side of the lake. i found a nice spot with a huge drop off and lots of structure and i drilled 5 holes... 10ft, 15 ft, 16ft, 18ft, and 22 ft. i caught fish out of every hole. i ended up with 5 eyes and 5 perch. the perch hit earlier in the day and the eyes didnt come until later... i was marking a ton of fish but it was hard to get them to bite. the majority of the eyes were deeper, but i got one out of the 10ft hole too.

id be careful driving out there... there is only about 4 inches of snow on the ice, but spots can be deceiving. i was watching 3 guys try to push and dig their trailblazer (which was 4WD) out for about 30 minutes.. they were having a heck of a time trying to get her out.. wheels were just spinning.. no slush or anything.

[mosquitoman]

hey jw, i think i saw you pulling your sled across the lake. that was quite a hike! i was straight across from the dock (white SUV and blue portable)....... i didnt have the luck you did fishing though. i managed only about small 6 perch and that was it. saw a few walleye swiming on my camera earlier in the afternoon but they just cruised by and never came back.

[jwmiller33]

mosquitoman-yes that was me pullin the sled across the lake! it was a heck of a hike but it was some good exercise at the same time.. i'm young and i figured i should take advantage of my youth while i still can. i was going to drive out but there was a guy plowing the southern access parking lot when i got there and i chatted with him for a while and he said he didnt recommend it. last time i drove out there i didnt like going under that bridge and the temp was in the mid 30s all day so i decided to just walk.

i would like to go back this weekend and search out some bigger eyes... its hard to not catch perch when your out there. but i have been pulling perch and eyes thru the same holes so i guess they go hand in hand.

what depth were you fishing at mosquitoman? are you planning on getting on the lake again this weekend? i noticed the fish were very finicky all day.. too much/aggresive jigging and they would high tail it outta there.. i was pretty much deadsticking a lindy rattlin flyer with a minnow head about 1 ft off the bottom and fish would come and check it out. like i said, jig too much, and they were gone. then twitch your jig a couple times very lightly and they would smack it! no missed hooksets at all today as all the fish that were biting, did so very aggressively

[mosquitoman]

yeah i am going to "try" and get out saturday - depends on the wife though......

[mosquitoman]

oh and i was in 11-20 fow and was using a deadstick with fatheads and crappie minnows and bascially everything else in my boxes. i noticed the same finicky behavior that you had. when i tried a chubby darter they shot up off the bottom after it and would come up nearly three feet but would when shoot back down just as fast as they came up....

[jwmiller33]

i was out on the lake wednesday, friday, and saturday... i almost lost my bobber rod down the hole on friday... was jigging one hole and had my deadstick sitting about 10 feet away and my buddy yelled "your pole! grab your pole!"... i looked and my pole was getting yanked down the hole. ran over there as fast as i could and grabbed it just as it was going down the hole. this little guy put up a nice fight

was able to get my old golden out there fishing with me. it was sure nice to bring her out

[dinomak]

Aaawwwwwww, she looks nice and comfy out there. I'm gonna try Gervais one more time for the season today. Not seeing any reports on the eyes, must be slowin down big time.

[mosquitoman]

hey jw, did you walk out again or drive this time? i never made it out this weekend. wife let me do house work instead which was nice of her...... i am planning on going out thursday afternoon but i dont think i am going to be walking too far - just in front of the dock (where i have never caught a fish)

[jwmiller33]

i drove out each of the last 3 times i went out. that ice is pretty good underneath that bridge, or at least it was last weekend. i wont be doing it for much longer, thats for sure

[dinomak]

I tried down by the Kohlman bridge yesterday from about noon to 6. No bites till 5:00 when the 11" eyes started biting. Ended up catching a few no bigger and no smaller than 11" on the dot. If all these little guys survive it's going to be a darn good walleye lake in a few years.

[mattkimk]

Isnt walleye season over?

[jwmiller33]

no its over on the 28th of this month i believe. along with walleye the season for bass and northern also closes

[Mr. Pike1]

Nice pics from a day on the ice. Now one of the many things I have found odd about Gervais is the Pike population. I do not target pike for the most part but as most veterans of water can testify that usually does not stop them from finding your lure. White Bear and other metro bodies seem to be pike factories. On Gervais I rarely seem to catch pike. I have however found a very strong Tiger musky population present. Do others who fish this body of water find pike here?

[Monkster]

My father had fished Gervais for at least 5 to 6 years, 2 to 3 times a week with a friend of his, up to two years ago when his friend died. The mostly fished musky, but I rarely heard of any northerns. Maybe because of the tiger muskies, the northern population stays in check.

[shizzy]

I have never pulled a sizeable northern out of Gervais. I have caught a few, but they were all fairly small. I have seen plenty of monster carp on the west side of the lake during open water.

[Monkster]

When the Ramsey County Watershed contracted to trap the carp earlier this winter, the commercial fishermen trapped 30,000 pounds of carp in Gervais. They did not take any out, rather just gather data from the tramsmitters planted in the carp years earlier. It sounds like the plan may be to take some out next year. I saw some pictures of carp that were 3+ feet long.

[shizzy]

they are that big.....

[CarpKing921]

Yeah, A guy can have a blast catching carp there in the summer if you can get on them before the weeds take over the shore line. I have caught pike there can't recall any memorable one though.

Muskies what Muskies theres no Muskies in them there waters.

Does anyone know why they killed the winter access a few years back. Seems to me it would be safer then going under the bridge. Maybe it will take a car to drop through before they realize the issue.

[MidCoast]

YEAH, GERVAIS, KELLER, AND PHALEN HAVE EXCELLENT CARP POPULATIONS WITH SIZE...

[jwmiller33]

Does anyone know why they killed the winter access a few years back. Seems to me it would be safer then going under the bridge. Maybe it will take a car to drop through before they realize the issue.

I was talking with a local on Gervais last time was out and asked him the same question. He said that a few years ago there was like some $25,000 worth of damage down to the access on the south shore from people using it in the winter, so they no longer let people use that access with vehicles anymore