2020 Alexandria-Miltona area Fishing Reports ( Lake conditions)

[hhguide]

Well guys and gals fishing this past week and weekend of crappie fishing was great. The crappies are definatly up shallow in the pencil reeds but if you back off the shore line out to the mid range depths the big fish came in groves! We were using mop-top tubes under bobbers either tipped with a wax worm, minnow or nothing at all. We didnt have a fish hit the 14 inch mark but we had about 4 that were really close. With many fish surpassing the 12 inch mark. So next time you get out I would suggest backing off the pencil reeds alittle and look in the mid-depths! Good luck! I think this next weekend will be even better!

Here are a few photos from the past week and weekend:

All the big fish over 12 inches were caught, pictured and released for someone else to catch!

[hhguide]

Here is my pre-walleye opener report...

Most of the lakes around the area warmed up real nice early in the year but over the past week or so the water temperatures have dropped between 5 and 10 degrees. Some of the lakes that I have been checking the water temperatures over the past few days include:

Lake Carlos/ Chain: 46 degree (Carlos) to 50 degree (Darling)

Lake Ida: 48 to 49 degrees including bays

lake Miltona: 46 to 48 degrees pretty much everywhere I looked

Reno: 51 degrees (Maybe warmest of the lakes that was on lake wednesday before the cold front)

Lake Mary: 49 to 50 degrees

Lake Osakis: 49 to almost 50 degrees (that was also before the cold front)

These are my temperatures off my my lowerance 104C which could be a little off from others but should be pretty close I compared with a few other boats and we were within a degree.

Anyways for tips or where I would be looking the year:

I would be looking in alot of the same areas as last year, while the water is warmer its not much warmer than last year. Walleyes are going to be spread out all over the map.

I think some of the best depths are going to be between 4 and 20 feet of water on average. I know that sounds like alot but there are so many lakes around the area depending on where you fish. The smaller the lake I would think the shallower the bite could be... the deeper the lake I think I would move alittle deeper but still no deeper than 20 feet.

For structure: I would focus on points, corners and or places with current. Once I located one of these pieces of structure I would look for good cabbage, coontail or other weeds. With the colder water temperatures many of the week beds havent popped up yet and if you can find some good vegatation that will hold bait fish and the walleyes wont be far behind. Make sure to remember to focus on the wind to help find some of these spots. If the wind is hollowing in on some structure such as rocks or weeds make sure to spend some time in that area.

For techniques: I would go with the standard jig -n- minnow, lindy rig or pull cranks. I would start out moving faster than normal to try and find some aggressive fish but once I located some active fish I would slow down and work the area more. If that doesnt work I would then move into pull cranks near and over weed beds to cover some ground.

Overall I think that it should be a good opener, better than last year. If you do have any questions about stuff please feel free to post them or send me an email or give me a call. Good luck to all those heading out! I'm sure I will see some of you out and about.

[firefish_12]

HH thanks for the temps

[CJH]

Great Post HH!!

Wish I was getting up there this weekend!!!

[carpmanjake]

HH covered it for walleyes, but if you want pike. hit the shallow back water bays (if they are open)

or anywhere with current. ive had a few blow up on my bobbers over the past week. so topwaters are worth trying.

sub walks would be a great bet.

with the weather warming up, target shallow weedbeds, maybe bullrushes. shallow bays in general.

areas with deep water close by would be best.

float fishing should be good. jerkbaits, plastics, spinner baits, and lipless cranks are going to my go tos this weekend

[Juan Grande]

I fished Mary, Andrew and Brophy this weekend with little to show for it. Lots of boats on all three, but we saw few fish caught.

We trolled a large section of shoreline (pencil reeds) on Andrew and saw nothing but big carp. No bass, no crappies, nothing in shallow.

[Juan Grande]

BTW, water temps were 51-52 on Saturday morning on Mary and 56 in the evening on Brophy.

[carpmanjake]

i fished the victoria peir opening night. no walleyes what-so-ever

ended up sight fishing for bowfin when they came up on the flat (the light shines down into the water from the access, so i could see)

hooked into 3, missed 2, only landed one.

also caught my first mud puppy. saw it sitting on the ramp, in about 3 FOW and thought it was a small bowfin, so i tied on a small jig and a GULP maggot. they fight pretty good on the super UL!

went out there again on sunday, hooked 3 dogfish, but only landed one. also caught a few more mud puppies.

[carpmanjake]

btw, thanks to walleyeguy (and who ever else was on the peir)

you guys were a great help, and it was nice talking to you!

[Glockophile]

No problem Jake. Nice to put a face to a name! Nice to meet you and hopefully I will catch you out again sometime.

[Glockophile]

I am Corbin (formerly Walleyeguy)

[hhguide]

Well I wanted to give my report for this past weekend but havent had a chance til now. Overall I think it was an "ok" opener for most people around the area. With nice weather and some fish being caught. As for our opener it was I dont want to say unreal but we did pretty well. What I think we were doing different from alot of people is we were finding the thickest and greenest weeds we could find and pitching jigs in the shallows. We could watch some of the walleyes bite the hook, it was awesome. When I mean shallows it was roughly 5 to 14 feet of water. With a fireball jig and a shiner minnow. Color didnt seem to matter much. As for speed it was slow we were hardly hoping the jigs at all we would pitch and let it sit and then we would pick it up and let it sit again. I think that was key in our success. I attached a few photos of a couple of the bigger fish nothing great but a few 22's!I will say though that after catching our slot fish (15 to 19 inches) we did move to deeper water with bigger minnows to catch a few of the bigger fish! I think for all those getting out this week and weekend the fishing should get better and better as the week progresses.

My 21 1/2 incher

Let the bigger fish go!

Dad's 22 incher

Cousin's hair over 30 inch slimer!

[CJH]

Nice fish and a good post!!

[carpmanjake]

No problem Jake. Nice to put a face to a name! Nice to meet you and hopefully I will catch you out again sometime.

im always willing to share info with people. so if you ever want more info let me know.

i have plenty of spots that produce bass, and panfish, througout the summer

[fishingman12345]

Drake- What lake did you fish in Alex for the opener? Nice to see some Pics of Walleyes!

[muskiefisher05]

opener night was on victoria no crappies couple good sun fish but a lot of bass. next day went down to jessie caught a few crappies and one good sunny.neither of the times did we keep any not enough.

[hhguide]

WEll the fishing has really picked up in the Alexandria Area. My dad and I had a tournament over the weekend on Friday and Saturday up on ottertail where we took 7th out of 65. So that wasnt bad. But for fishing around the area we got out Sunday and Monday and did very well around the area. The best bite is still in the shallows if you ask me in that 5 to 15 foot range. Our best bite has been on either minnows or cralwers depending on the day. lindy rig or jigs, some people are reporting an ok trolling bite also on some lakes. The key is to find good weed growth and keep fishing the area until you find where they are. Many of the clients over the past few days have learned that with good numbers of fish coming between 15 and 19 inches with a few big fish also. Here are a few pictures of the bigger fish.

Tony with a nice 22 1/2 inch walleye.

My 24 and a half.

My Dad with a 25 and a half beat me by one inch! for some reason the other photo we took didnt show up so this is all I got is letting it go!

[muskiefisher05]

nice pic. those are some big walleyes.

[muskiefisher05]

has any one been night fishing around alexandria. I am thinking about going out and night fishing some weekend.

[carpmanjake]

has any one been night fishing around alexandria. I am thinking about going out and night fishing some weekend.

was out on osakis last night. i was float fishing with leeches. the fishing was fast! couldnt have my line out for more than a couple minutes. granted 90% of the fish i caught were not in the slot limit, so they had to be released. but it was alot of fun!

[muskiefisher05]

thanks

[carpmanjake]

yesterday i went fishing on osakis. started by fishing from shore.

just a bunch of pics. the bass were hitting like crazy! i hooked into a few pike. but only landed the one. and strangely i caught a crappie on a 4" GULP! alive minnow!

and as stated before, then i went for walleye. this is the first one. forgot to take a pic of the total catch because i was so tired when i got home.

but i kept 4

[muskiefisher05]

Nice pictures I am going out to winne for the weekend hope to catch some good walleye.

[Ruegs23]

Sweet catch Jake. My wife and I are heading up to Osakis for the weekend. Hopefully the fish are biting.

[carpmanjake]

Sweet catch Jake. My wife and I are heading up to Osakis for the weekend. Hopefully the fish are biting.

the walleyes were biting very well where we were. i can only imagine that if you would slowly troll lindy rigs, you would have a night FULL of fish.

start in 18 feet when the sun sets over the trees. then slowly work your way shallower

here was last nights catch on a local lake, private property. was just setting the depth of my float. i always set it so it sits on the bottom first, then i move the stop down a foot. and when i was doing that, BAM!

pure dumb luck, all the fish for the rest off the night were bullheads

sorry for the crappie picture. forgot my camera. and only had my phone and a LED cap light.

exactly 18"

[carpmanjake]

got this little beauty at a "secret" spot. before the sun even began to set (around 4pm)

[carpmanjake]

a couple bass and a beautiful crappie i got today

[1eyeReD]

Thinking of putting the boat on Carlos for an evening this week... Any pointers for eyes would be much appreciated. Not looking for any spots in particular, but a tip in depth and presentation will do.

Thanks,

1ER

- BTW -

A report (giving back to this site).. Checked out Miltona this weekend for a couple hours during mid day on Sat. Found an underwater hump which was somewhat like a flat thanks to some awesome maps we purchased at the bait shop in Alexandria. Anyway, drifted across this area that went up and down between 13' and 20'.. Caught a 10" perch, a 15" eye and my very first muskie (30") which I promptly returned to the waters, all on a 1/4 oz Rattlin Rapala in black & chrome flavor.. The first two were back to back hookups in about 14' and missed like 2 other hits a lil further down. Attempted to go back and drift across that very same spot to no avail (wished I had a GPS). The "ski" I caught by accident drifting aimlessly past the flat while fiddling with my feeble boat control attempts (new foot control trolling motor) with this same lipless crank over 30 ft of water using 6lb flouro so I don't even know where the lure was when it hit.. But man was that a rush when I saw that it wasn't a northern... Miltona is by far one of the clearest lakes I've dropped the boat on here in MN.. Wonderful lake, wonderful friendly Alexandria peeps..

I'll post a crappy cell phone pic of the "ski" later when I FIND my phone..

Happy Memorial Day!!

1ER

[carpmanjake]

seems like the crappies are starting to bed down on the chain. bass are actively patrolling the shallows. and walleyes are biting as well.

[00rowe]

Miltona was good to us on Saturday night, we trolled cranks from 9pm-1am and brought home 8 for the 3 of us, they were still biting, but working all day Sat, Sunday and today, that was late enough. The ramp was overflowing when we got there and was empty when we left, not sure how everyone else was doing.

Mike