Scotch Lake.....

[harvey lee]

Drove by Scotch on my way home from German and not a soul on the lake.

[Marcus Taplin]

Buddy and I fished it early ice for 3 days straight and not one fish. Drilled over 200 holes all over the lake and nothing.

[tj417]

I fished it once early ice & got 1 big perch. Was it good for walleyes & perch last year at this time? I have heard conflicting reports.

[BehindtheHead]

theres about 10 houses out there today. any reports?

[delta hunter]

are they driving out there with trucks?

[delta hunter]

anything going on out there lately?

[Chris Barlage]

Did anyone do any good out there this year. Fished it a few times and only mannaged one walleye.

[therat]

Did ok on perch and heard the same from others.

[Scott M]

Word is the carp are coming on a little strong.

[therat]

Has anyone fished it recently? Can we have electrics out there right now? I don't know hunting rules.

[Scott M]

Migratory Waterfowl Feeding and Resting Area. No motors allowed. Ya gotta row and push pole. Other MWFRAs sometimes allow 12v electric motors. The full list is here.

[Willy]

Migratory Waterfowl Feeding and Resting Area. No motors allowed. Ya gotta row and push pole. Other MWFRAs sometimes allow 12v electric motors. The full list is here.

Curious if you know why there are so many of these in LeSueur County? In my opinion, you are sitting on some bodies of water that with a little work could rival some of the productive prairie lakes south and west of this area. Just seems these lakes could be more productive and useful for the entire public if they were geared to walleye fisheries. Martin, Jackson and Murray counties are great examples of this. Tons of good, productive eye lakes/sloughs in those areas.

[Scott K]

I know this may not be the popular answer, but not everyone cares about walleyes, and whether they are in every lake or pothole.

[Scott M]

Curious if you know why there are so many of these [MWFRAs] in LeSueur County? In my opinion, you are sitting on some bodies of water that with a little work could rival some of the productive prairie lakes south and west of this area. Just seems these lakes could be more productive and useful for the entire public if they were geared to walleye fisheries. Martin, Jackson and Murray counties are great examples of this. Tons of good, productive eye lakes/sloughs in those areas.

Dora gets nearly 2 million walleye fry 3/4 years, following Cannon Chain synchronization.

Scotch gets half a million walleye fry in even years.

Henry gets nearly 2 million walleye fry annually, at a heavier per acre basis because it is used as a walleye rearing pond.

Diamond, Sanborn, and Rice don't have the depth of the aforementioned lakes. They would be subject to summerkills, and in the case of Rice and Sanborn, it would take constant battling with carp and bullheads to generate anything for walleye rearing or angling.

There are some shallow lakes in this area (Le Sueur and neighboring counties) that get walleye hits occasionally, or in some cases provide consistent fishing. Occasional hits are the nature of such 'boom and bust' fisheries. Savidge, Sprague, Pepin, Toners, Armstrong, Wita, Fox, Circle....all have had a boom within the last 15 years. The trouble is those booms are getting harder to come by because of a lack of periodic hard winterkills.

[SunfishToGo]

I am unsure what happened to Scotch Lake in the last few years. I’ve been reading your posts regarding what fish was caught before and during the year 2011. It’s 2021 now and all I’ve seen are carp.. they swim in groups and often times will do circles at the surface of the lake. The water is pretty green as well, and some nasty looking sludge is washing up on the shorelines. I’ve tried all sorts of different methods of fishing, and there’s just absolutely nothing anymore. What happened to this lake in recent years, does anyone know?

[leech~~]

11 hours ago, SunfishToGo said:

I am unsure what happened to Scotch Lake in the last few years. I’ve been reading your posts regarding what fish was caught before and during the year 2011. It’s 2021 now and all I’ve seen are carp.. they swim in groups and often times will do circles at the surface of the lake. The water is pretty green as well, and some nasty looking sludge is washing up on the shorelines. I’ve tried all sorts of different methods of fishing, and there’s just absolutely nothing anymore. What happened to this lake in recent years, does anyone know?

Welcome to the forum.

Why does a small lake with a Maximum Depth of 11 feet surrounded by farm fields turn green and not have many fish left in it?  

[papadarv]

Back in the mid 90's to 2007, Barber lake near Hutchinson MN, a simular farm lake was used by the DNR to raise walleye to fingerling size. My brother-in-law family owned 80% of the farmland lakeshore. Each winter the DNR along with the land owners would air and water aireate the lake to keep it from freezing. Due to the continued use of high phosphate, round-up and other chemicals along with many farmland drainage ditches the lake turned green with algie. In 2005 the DNR abandoned the walleye rearing and did not harvest the walleye. The family continued aeration until about 2011 when my brother-in-law took ill and the aireation stopped. Walleye fishing was awesome many in the 25 t0 27" range, until 1the freeze out of 2013 killed the walleye population and the hard freeze of 2014 took out most carp and other rough fish. Bullhead seemed to survive. Picture of the 2014 kill. So basically change in farming chemical use and winter freeze out took out most fish.

[leech~~]

11 minutes ago, papadarv said:

Back in the mid 90's to 2007, Barber lake near Hutchinson MN, a simular farm lake was used by the DNR to raise walleye to fingerling size. My brother-in-law family owned 80% of the farmland lakeshore. Each winter the DNR along with the land owners would air and water aireate the lake to keep it from freezing. Due to the continued use of high phosphate, round-up and other chemicals along with many farmland drainage ditches the lake turned green with algie. In 2005 the DNR abandoned the walleye rearing and did not harvest the walleye. The family continued aeration until about 2011 when my brother-in-law took ill and the aireation stopped. Walleye fishing was awesome many in the 25 t0 27" range, until 1the freeze out of 2013 killed the walleye population and the hard freeze of 2014 took out most carp and other rough fish. Bullhead seemed to survive. Picture of the 2014 kill. So basically change in farming chemical use and winter freeze out took out most fish.

 

Your brother should have mixed them in and spread them with the manure spreader.  Free fertilizer!  

[papadarv]

Not particle or cost effective. Nephews run a bit over 3,000 acres. Fall harvest yields are recorded on 40 ft. X 40 ft. sections (size of picker head) GPS guided at <10". Spring planting with fertilizer applied on the 40' x 40' harvest yield section based on yield results. Much of the ground gets 0 fertilizer other sections fertilizer applied based on harvest yield. Harvest equipment are large and GPS guided. Guy in the cab only there for emergencies and dumping grain into 1 of 3 semi trucks. Only manure spreder on the farm is one on a raised concrete slab paying tribute to there Father the dairy farmer.