Lake Phalen

[nofishfisherman]

Wondering if anyone has info on Lake Phalen in St.Paul.

I was thinking about giving it a shot this weekend but have never been on it in the winter. Just had a couple question.

Any known bad ice spots?

Any kind of night bite? I can rarely make it out before 7pm so I'll be fishing in the dark.

[nofishfisherman]

I'm going to take the lack of response as a sign that the bite is so hot on Phalen that no one wants to even talk about the lake, either that or its a dead sea that no one fishes.

Either way I'll be out there tonight seeing what I can find.

[nofishfisherman]

No wonder no one has had anything to say. Doesn't look like many people have been out there lately. Only saw a few tracks where people had pulled out shelters. We ended up having the entire lake to ourselves from 7-11pm.

Didn't catch a thing but it sure was nice hanging out with a friend and enjoying a nice quiet night on the lake.

[BoxMN]

I know I mentioned it previously (last year), but if you park at Phalen, make sure to not leave ANYTHING of value (a phone charger is valuable... go figure... ugh) in your cab/car that is visible, you have good chance to return to smashed glass. Summer or winter. Sorry to be a bummer, but it is the unfortunate truth.

[BDiss]

I fished phalen a couple of weekends ago and didn't get anything. Had a couple of little masks come off the bottom but didn't even get them. Did pretty well if the fall a couple of years ago, but not much lately.

[nofishfisherman]

I know I mentioned it previously (last year), but if you park at Phalen, make sure to not leave ANYTHING of value (a phone charger is valuable... go figure... ugh) in your cab/car that is visible, you have good chance to return to smashed glass. Summer or winter. Sorry to be a bummer, but it is the unfortunate truth.

The sad thing is that this is probably true for almost every lake in the metro area now days. I try to be careful no matter where I am at.

[monger]

Sleeper lake for big eyes if you can find them.

[nofishfisherman]

That's what I've heard as well. Not sure what kind of numbers are in there though. I'll try to get out there a few more times to see what I can scare out of the hole. Fished rather deep the other day. Might try up shallower next time.

[Live4Fishing]

I might give Phalen another try this Friday after work, tried a couple times 2 years ago with no luck but I cant give up on it yet. Where about on the lake did you try?

[nofishfisherman]

I fished just off the south east side of the saddle in the middle of the lake. I fished the base of one of the steeper drop offs.

[tip_upclyma]

Can you use a gas auger out there? I know it is a motor free lake, but not sure if that counts for augers or not.

[nofishfisherman]

Gas augers are fine. Just can't drive any sort of vehicle out there.

[BigFish82]

How was it your second time? I have been wanting to fish it for a while. Long walk to spots? Have a sled but just wondering. Would like to find a decent spot in metro. I know probably impossible. Want to try como too.

[RuKiddingMe]

You can get to the mid lake saddle area fairly quickly by parking in the second lot of the park - I tried out there a couple weeks back for eyes, stuck out in the short time I was there. You can also get to the beach area in with a short walk from the first lot in the park, that is another spot to try for eyes. When I was a kid (25 years ago) my buddies and I used to do real well for eyes on the east side of the lake real close to shore in the area where Arlington runs in to the lake just park on English street and it's a short walk to the area. I have heard round lake on the northwest end of phalen is a decent crappie and eye lake, I have yet to try on my own but it has my interest peaked.

[nofishfisherman]

The 2nd lot on the west side does offer the shortest walk. I parked there but ended up walking across the lake to fish a spot on the west side. Maybe 200 yards, so not far but the snow added some resistance. I made it out with my flip over but was a little tired when I got there.

There are spots much closer along the east shoreline if you don't want to walk that far. I'm guessing its going to take a fair amount of drilling and moving around to located the fish. The surveys don't show much for quantity but the size is there.

I haven't made it back out yet since last weekend.

Never have fished Como but it never really interested me. Haven't heard of much other than stunted gills and some small pike coming out of there. Also I've heard water quality is fairly bad as its a catch all for the entire como neighborhood.

Another small lake I've wanted to look at closer is Loeb lake in Marydale park. I fished it once last year with little luck but its a deep little lake that might have potential. Its known for bad ice though with a couple springs so if you are tempted to go out bring the spud bar. I fished it late last January and thankfully I had my spud with and was using it to test the ice. I was walking on 14-16 inches of ice and then suddenly the spud broke through a good sized spot of only 1-2 inches of ice where a spring was.

[Ctrl_Alt_Dlt]

A friend of mine pulled out a 27 inch walleye from the dock by the pavilion last year. This was during the summer fishing with a leech on a bobber.

Seen 10lb channel cats, huge muskies, 5-6lb largemouths etc... ALL during summer months.

Lots of pressure, but every once in a while, a monster sized fish will be pulled out.

[Maximum12]

Be really careful if you go out on Loeb. Used to live just up the block & fished it a few times, there are a couple of springs along the western edge of that little lake. I, too, have seen people put their foot through the ice in mid-January when the rest of the lake has a foot of ice. Between that, the aerator, & the fact that I never caught anything bigger than 6 inches, & my interest waned pretty quickly.

I know there are a few bigger fish in there (buddy hooked one once, lost it at the hole), but unless something's changed, not worth the time & risk.