Forest Lake

[tunrevir]

The shack I saw was on the NW side of first but there is a large spear hole with a spearshack nearby on the south side of first that is 4x6 that was slightly skimmed over yesterday evening. Definately not ready for car travel at this point.

Tunrevir~

[elusivecrappiecatcher]

Saw where they put orange cones around the thin ice in the middle of the north end of lake 1. I assume thats where the shack fell in?

[big pike dude]

Has anyone else had any break ins on Forest? Last night someone thought it was a good idea to smash the windows of my house, even though the door was not locked and nothing of value was inside(all they got was a bent up old ice scoop). I know it goes without saying, but be careful what you leave out there.

[tunrevir]

Sorry to hear that BPD, there are some knucklheads that seem to get joy out of vandalism. Each year brings a new crop. I have found that houses in the community areas tend to get broke into more often then those off the beaten path, I suppose due to access and numbers. At one point I had a shack that they broke the window out of 3 times, last 2 were pieces of plexiglass but then they left it alone. Did you report it to the police? They do snowmobile patrols out there once there is snow:)

Tunrevir~

[STP Fisherman]

Is there a public access to get out on Lake 3?

[mncountryboy92]

are the fishing biting im head down from st.cloud soon just was woundering if i should go to forest or chisago tonight

[rosspj59]

Is there a public access to get out on Lake 3?

Yes, on the southeast corner at the boat launch.

[tunrevir]

There are a few but the best known ones are on the east side of third or the access on the North side at Willow point. 8-12 inches of ice in most areas right now. Saw a car travelling across first tonight but ......please be careful! All spots aren't uniform throughout the lake. I'm still travelling by wheler for a bit.

Tunrevir~

[STP Fisherman]

Thanks for the info. Do you guys ever catch nice crappies, like 10"+, or is there just thousands of the dinks? We've been catching lots of crappies, but the biggest we caught was 9". Just curious, walleyes definitely have good size on the lake, just not very experienced with the crappies on FL.

[Fuzzbient]

Thanks for the info. Do you guys ever catch nice crappies, like 10"+, or is there just thousands of the dinks? We've been catching lots of crappies, but the biggest we caught was 9". Just curious, walleyes definitely have good size on the lake, just not very experienced with the crappies on FL.

There are some bigger crappies but they tend to be away from the big holes that get the heavy fishing pressure. It's not always easy to find a pattern for them, you have to explore a bit.

[tunrevir]

There are some large fish in the system when it comes to crappies and Fuzzbient was right on about getting off the beaten path and looking for fish in other places. I tend to catch most of my bigger crappies when targeting walleyes, either off a rattle reel, tipup or while jigging. Some of my personal best crappies have come out of Forest and my best couple to date have been 16.5" fish. I have friends that have caught them up to 18 inches. Don't expect this to happen regularly and if you catch one a year amongst the little tykes your doing well. There are some large fish in the system but you typically won't find them in numbers.

Tunrevir~

[DRH1175]

I am still looking for Crappies and Walleyes off the beaten path. Last night I fished lake 3 in 15 feet. All I managed was 6 dink perch. The wind sure was beating me up in my fishtrap.

[STP Fisherman]

Thanks for the info and pictures, but I guess I was asking if there's schools of big fish, at least schools of ten inch crappies. I can imagine any lake of that size will have some big rogue crappies, I just wasn't sure if you could ever find schools of bigger ones. Those were some pig crappies though, bigger than my best. Thanks again for the info...

[tunrevir]

There are schools of larger crappies in the 9-10 inch range but they are usually in and around some of the smaller fish and take some searching to find. In my opinion, there are better crappie lakes nearby where the average size is better.

Tunrevir~

[skidoo171]

Was out on sunday the 22nd near willow point in 25ft of water and hit the crappies! LOTS of small ones and a couple decent in the mix. Either way was nice to be out without getting blown off the lake

now on to some disturbing news...my dad and I filled an entire empty "bait bag" full of 7 beer cans, whiskey bottle, mini propane tank, pop bottle, and a bungie cord all from one spot. Now I know its just a couple a "bad eggs" and probably nobody on here, its just frustrating to see people leave a mess out on OUR lake. Please clean up after yourself and if you see garbage out there pick it up on your way in!

THANKS.

[DRH1175]

Skidoo, it is terrible that people don't care for our lakes. It really irks me when I see that. I like you, will stop and pick up things to keep them from being in the lake, as will most of us FMers. We all Thank you for keeping our lake clean!!

[tunrevir]

Agreed, thanks Skidoo for picking up the trash. Glad the fish gods smiled on you, maybe there is something to this karma thing

Tunrevir~

[hunter322]

Anyone know of any "bad" spots or pressure ridges on forest. im seeing al kinds of vehivle trafic out there. I havent been out there in 2 weeks.

[tunrevir]

I have been seeing a consistent 12-14 in the areas I have fished. Be careful if travelling between the lakes as there always seems to be pressure ridges in the narrows. I haven't seen any to date. Last night I was out and iced a 14" crappie and a 14" eye and a few pike in 4 hours. I was a bit disheartened to find a trail of trash from a recently moved shack and even more disturbed by that fact there were multiple packages of empty foil cold medicine packs. I spoke with the FLPD and they as well as the Wash county Sheriff are going to start routine patrols out on the lake to help curb some of the ner do wells activities. If you come across littered areas or shacks with an inordinate amount of trash please let the authorities know. I collected a whole bag of trash from just one shack, it was moved since the previous time I was out. We can help both the resource, and hopefully the peeps involved with a simple call. I'm still travelling by wheeler as it is just not thick enough for me to drive yet.

Tunrevir~

[fishing tech]

May I ask at what depth you were fishing? I will be out tomorrow with my father and my son looking for a place to put my dads perm shack. We put it out last night and will be doing a little scouting to try and get him on a decent spot. It is out by Pistol bar now in 12 ft of water.

[tunrevir]

I have been fishing 16-18 feet which puts me slightly onto the outside edge of the weeds. If you can find a spot where deep and shallower water seem to come together you have a good spot. Look to the fingers of deeper water protruding into shallower water. What you will find when working shallower areas for crappies is that they won't become active untill a little after dark but the perch will be active all day and a shot at bluegills and pike are always there depending on the day. If you want a more consistent crappie action poke into the 18-30 foot depths. Walleyes can be found in most of the aforementioned areas but the bite window is short about an hour either side of sunup and sundown with an occassional fish later into the evening.

Tunrevir~

[fishing tech]

Thanks, that is pretty much what we did. We had the house on a spot that they caught perch all day long. but nothing after dark. So we moved the house to 17ft and caught sunnies until dark. then nothing. I did find a sunken boat, it was loaded with fish. Mostly sunnies, a few crappies.

[elusivecrappiecatcher]

Can someone tell me where the Hospital Bar is?

[DRH1175]

Hospital bar is on east side of lake 3 just south of the access.

[DRH1175]

sunken boat? That is kinda cool. How did you find that?

[fishing tech]

Picked a spot on the gps that looked promising, started fishing. I dropped the camera down and could see something in the background. I drilled some more holes around it and checked each 1 with the camera. It was loaded with sunfish. Caught a bunch but none of any size and all covered with black spots.

[Predator721]

Fished 1st lake today and caught a few pike nothing big though. Switch over to walleye setup and ended up catching four crappies on the tipup, two 12, 14,and 16. the 16 is going on the wall!!!

[DRH1175]

Predator wow those are nice crappies and a 16new incurred that for sure would go on my wall too

[Castinski]

Thanks to the classy individuals in the old white car flying by my group at high rates of speed over and over on 1st yesterday. They proceeded to purposely run over my tipup at about 40mph when I was only yards away.

FYI sheriff was called (probably too late though).

[clam up]

I was out on lake one with my sled when they were running around. I stopped and watched them for a bit, then they drove over by me. I told the little pricks to get that [badWordUsage] car off the ice (with some other choice words). I was very close to "escorting" them off the ice one by one myself. I was going to call them in, but then realized I forgot my phone at the house.