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Posted

Hello St Cloud area!

Gonna test my skills at Grand tomorrow maybe with a friend. This will be my 1st time at Grand.

How are the driving conditions on this lake right now? Is there somewhat of an established road? Slush? Any spots to stay away from?

And what can a guy expect for fish? I don't care about your spots, just the general consensus for the current stats of the lake. Hoping to find a few crappies and some northern as my friend wants to teach me the ropes on tip ups and we thought this lake looked good for that. Will probably try to fish the whole day, but if not, we'll be there early for sure. Shoot me a PM if anything.

Thanks in advance.

1ER

Posted

I havent been out there in a while so I dont know the snow condition, but all the lakes around here have had excellent ice conditions for some time. Really no spots to stay away from on Grand.... You should get some tip up action during the day, and the crappies on the lake are nice sized, but not very populated. You can fish hard for 4 hours and get 2-4 of them, generally. Good population of bait stealing perch in there to keep you busy....

Posted

Northerns shouldn't be a problem.

Finding pan fish is very tough. When you do find them, they are small.

Typical lake traffic so there are paths.

Posted

Thanks guys. Any eyes to be had?

Posted

If you find the right spot walleyes can be had, sunset is best. Pike should be easy to find wink

Posted

Any chance of needing an auger extension on Grand this weekend? Just making sure so we don't have any issues as I have not been out in a few weeks.

Posted

Reporting back:

Arrived bright and early Sat morning. Got stuck at launch LOL! Luckily my nephew met us on the highway and followed us there. He was in a larger pickup and got through the deep part on the launch and the lake itself was easy going the rest of the way with a few sketchy drift spots. We stopped in a spot bout 1/4 mil to the right of the launch on a nice tapering slope with depth that went from about mid teens to 20's. We drilled from 22' to 12' in an oval shape with about 6 or 7 holes every 10 yds or so. Didn't mark nothin. We said "forget the shallows" and our original plan to set tip ups and headed for deep hoping to find the 'nice Grand crappies' I've heard about.

We arrived at what looked like the deepest spot on the lake, a hole of about 30+ FOW. Probably didn't need a map as a nice community of perms was out there. We got to the southeastern edge of the community. Saw one truck by its house and it was about 8:00am by now. Trying not to be too close to those houses, we popped a few holes on the outskirts of the community. Dropped the ducer, bam, suspended fish. Popped a few more within a 40 yd radius and had a mark or two in every other hole. In this cold and wind, that's good enough. We set up.

Set up two Eskimo 6 mans between 4 guys for some leg room. Bam, each tent caught two nice crappies right away (not me of course).. And then...... Slowness.. Was slow the rest of the morning, well into noon. However, I was the daddy of 4" perch though. Must've caught over 10 to myself so at least I can have that as I was the only one who didn't catch a crappie (and none of the other guys caught perch. Coincidence?). I even caught a hammerhandle from a few ft off the bottom. Majority of fish were caught on crappie minnows under slip floats while my nephew caught his last two crappies on a 1" gulp minnow tipped on a Lindy Toad, totaling 4 crappies for his tent and 2 in ours.

We packed up around noon thirty when my nephew had to head back for work.. We gave him ours so his truck went home with 6 nice crappies so not bad. Just wish there was more action besides perch fingerlings LOL! Coulda been the weather or they're just not as thick in there like some have said. I'll be honest, I'll look elsewhere next time. Thought the fish are nice, the action's too slow for my blood. Especially when I have a harder time trying to catch crappie than others that I fish with. Several trucks arriving when we left. Sounded like someone was stuck in the distance revving their truck continuously, but I couldn't make out which truck it was.

Be careful out there guys, snow was deep in some places. Just stay on fresh tracks and you should be ok on Grand. As others have said, bring a shovel. Also, make sure you've got good ground clearance. A lower sitting SUV might not cut it as I found out. Not sure about other lakes. Thanks to those who shared their insight.

Posted

Sounds like a pretty typical Grand Lake experience.... You passed my 4 for 4 hours prediction, but you had more guys than I expected. whistle

Your original spot likely would have panned out if you went back there in the afternoon, but whaddya do.

Thanks for the report

Posted

Any chance of needing an auger extension on Grand this weekend? Just making sure so we don't have any issues as I have not been out in a few weeks.

No auger extension required yet.. But it is certainly thick. I didn't get an exact measurement, but my Strikemaster Lite I had about about a foot and some change left before needing one.

Posted

Your original spot likely would have panned out if you went back there in the afternoon, but whaddya do.

Thanks for the report

I hope by that you mean walts grin

Either way, it's not like the wife will be issuing a free pass to St. Cloud area again anytime soon. I was already late coming home this weekend.

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