Lake Melissa

[Schleichenator]

Drove out on Lake Melissa today. Ice was a little over a foot thick. I would have walked, but saw a few other big trucks out and plenty of permanents.

Fished out from launch in about 14 FoW. The ledge dropped down to 34 pretty quickly. Saw plenty on the Vex. Only fished from 10-2. Caught a few small perch (5 in) and a couple pike. Got slammed another time and lost it. I put a leader on and stopped getting action. I had meant to put out some tip-ups but it was too cold: -24 "real feel."

I just moved from Western North Dakota. Anyone have advice on other lakes to hit in the area?

G/L and merry Christmas!

[Cicada]

Welcome to the site and the area. Thanks for posting a report. I was a newbee to the area many years ago and just loved to explore new, to me, lakes. There are a lot of great fishing lakes in this area. Closer to Pelican Rapids, Lida, Lizzie, Franklin are some of the larger lakes, but there are a ton of smaller, lesser known lakes that are worth your time. Closer to DL, you have the Cormorant Lakes, Melissa, Sallie, Big Detroit/ LIttle Detroit, ect. Same thing here, lots of smaller lakes. North of DL you can find White Earth, Many Point, Juggler, Bad Medicine. Spend some time on the Minnesota DNR website, particlularly use the Lake Finder feature. Lots of info on most of the lakes in the area.

Where in western Noprth Dakota were you from? I went to University of Mary (when it was just plain old Mary College) and got ot know a lot of people from other parts of the state.

[lawnbuilder]

You picked a good lake to start with. A lot of people get a little touchy about talking about where to fish. I feel talk about it if fishermen can't be stewards of this resource and the DNR can't control them then maybe tougher fishing is the way it has to be. Sorry about getting on my soapbox. My nephew has been out on cormorant doing well. Meadow has been fun in the past really clear. Leaf has always been good for me as well as labelle, pearl, Franklin. Make sure you fallow the slots and other regs (two lines and closed season) a couple of the big changes from ND. Welcome to the site and good luck.

[Schleichenator]

I'm a Minnesota native. Originally from the cities. Went to UND and then taught in Minot for last four years.

Actually, I had wanted to try Pelican but they didn't have a place for my buddy to buy a license on Christmas Eve so we ended up driving all the way to D.L. to get some bait so we hit the closest lake. My wife's family has a cabin there so I know the area a little, but this is my first winter fishing it.

@Lawnbuilder: I've been licensed in both states for all the years I've lived in them. The two pike we took were within slot (even for the specific regs on pike @ Melissa). I'll try to post a report for the outings when I go. Fishing community is just like any imo (It's pretty darn friendly, but it also has a few criminals). Think the DNR checks these things out?

[lawnbuilder]

I did not mean you were doing anything wrong just that there are differences in the rules and wanted to make sure you were aware. I know most people are good just a few bad apples.

[Schleichenator]

I gotcha.

[lawnbuilder]

Fishing slowed for me and the daughters today. But first time down for my youngest and she got a walleye before I was even ready to start.

[lawnbuilder]

Out yesterday caught perch during the day some slightly bigger. About 4:30 started getting a few walleyes until about 5:45 in 30 feet. Fathead and perch buckshot and red hook and fathead under a boober about a foot off the bottom.

[cylinder]

"fathead under a boober"

Ha. No other comment

[lawnbuilder]

Ya bobber fingers are fat too

[Schleichenator]

Fished the emergent vegetation along the shore next to the landing last weekend [img:center] . Picked up quite a few nice bass on the opener. Tried lots of different set-ups: shallow running cranks and spinners were working nicely. Hope to get out again this weekend if the rain will let up.

[paceman]

Nice fish and picture!