2020 Alexandria-Miltona area Fishing Reports ( Lake conditions)

[koonie]

That picture looks like some I've got hanging on my fridge.

[goose89]

Drake, if fishing skills are inversely proportional to art skills, you are one heck of a fisherman!! That's funny, I don't care who you are! lol.

I fished with a guide that would always say -"If I were a fish, I'd live there." or "If I was a fish, I'd eat that."

Gotta say, if I were a fish, I would NOT eat that!

I was curious about "mop tops" also. It's all clear now. I'll give my collection of mop tops some more time this coming week. Thanks for the reports, advice, and "drawring".

[Muskeyes]

wow herd... thats embarassing. could have found one on google in 2 seconds.

crappies were biting on small lakes last weekend...

[Wayne Ek]

Roy K. and I chased crappies for a couple of days. The bite was great one day and slow the next. Water temps are creeping up into the mid-60's in the back bays we fished. It seems that the crappies are moving into the bays faster than the "gills" are. Yesterday was the first day that I have seen any bass around our dock. My guess is that walleye opener will be ok on the small shallow lakes in our area.

[hhguide]

Well I thought I would give everyone some last tips for the weekend. I would stick to small to medium sized lakes. But fish are going to be caught on them all. I would look in the shallows this time of year 8 to 15 feet of water and go from there. Large flats or break lines work up and down them until you find a depth that they are laying at. Dont be affraid to move up real shallow too on wind blown points. If you can find some good cabbage beds you be in some business. Jig and Minnow either fat head or shiners, or lindy rigs will be working best. Pulling or casting crankbaits could be very effective too. Let me know if you have any questions. I will be hit and miss this weekend. Good luck to everyone.

[Wayne Ek]

Well one more walleye opener has come and gone. We started out in that 11 to 14 foot range... noda thing. Just kept working shallower. The magic depth turned out to be between 2 and 4 feet. One small pencil reed clumps jutting out of long runs of cattails. We caught walleyes,norhtern,bass,crappies and a couple big "gills". After dinner we caught crappies off the dock, which surprised me as they have been missing for the past week.

[carpmanjake]

here is a pig 12" male crappie from today. this boy had huge shoulders! C&R

kept fish

as for opener... i was fishing for crappie in 3 feet of water. and caught this 7lb norhtern.

and after the sun set and the streetlights turned on, there were walleyes everywhere! people were using rapalas and catching them like crazy. and i left all my raps at home! =[

i did end up hooking up and loosing one. between 4-5 lbs

[Evinrude6.5]

Evinrude Shoot me an email Or put your email on here and we can talk about those dates. email is [email protected] As for hooking it for a Minnow here is my best drawing. I know i'm not going to win any Awards for this one! Thats my Crappie go getter though!

Found some tubes and am ready for the chain! Can't wait until June 4, Baby!

[hhguide]

Finally just getting a chance to write my fishing opener report. Heres what I think. Fishing was slow for many but still was an OK opener. Many of the smaller lakes were producing or where their was current flowing into or out of a lake. Many of the walleyes are really on the move right now. We did catch some walleyes that were still spawning and will be making big moves the next few days here. I would continue to tell people to look shallow near spawning areas. MOVE SLOOOOOOOOW or REALLY FAST I saw some guys trolling cranks at around 2 to 3 miles per hour getting the aggressive ones to bit. I personally moved really slow anchoring in a few sistautions. If you can find some green Cabbage this time of year you should be good, we looked and looked but only found a few strands were we did catch some fish. Good luck. If anyone has questions about certain lakes feel free to email me I can help you to the best of my knowledge on the report for that lake.

[XXLbass]

Hit several lakes this past weekend for opener chasing eyes' and also found it to be pretty slow but still and OK opener. Finally ran across some walleyes in 10-13 feet. Towards sunset they had moved up to 7-9 feet, and after dark they moved right up on top in 2-4 feet. Caught my fish on a 1/16th ounce fireball jig worked very slow. Caught some fish on both fatheads and golden shiners, but the bigger fish preferred the shiner. The fish were biting pretty short. I missed 9 bites in a row (no matter how much time I gave them) before I finally rigged up a stinger hook. Definitely be sure to bring some with you as there isn't much for weeds yet and they can turn what would have been a one walleye day into a 7 or 8 walleye day . Water temps on the lakes I was on ranged from 53-57 degrees. Ran into quite a few crappies as well anywhere we found the temps in the higher end of that range. They had just moved up to the outside edge of some pencil weeds in 2-3 feet of water in some areas where there was a large flat with access to deep water close by. Should only get better as the water warms up this week. GOOD LUCK!

29 incher from the past weekend. Sorry about the horrible quality, only had a cell phone-camera on me.

[Prairiefire]

You've got me beat Brett.

We had a little slower opener than normal but did manage plenty of fish for a fish fry and this nice 27" on Saturday night. Most of the males we caught were still milking so it will be a week or two before the best bite is here. Our best fishing was at night pitching shiners in the current.

[goose89]

First (non-P4) walleye of 09 season. 26" Nice way to start out. Nice Job, Dad.

[carpmanjake]

nice fish guys!

prairie- were you fishing the chain to get that? i want to get some walleyes this week/ next week. i will be fishing from shore. and i can only fish the chain. so i need to find some good shore fishing for eyes right now.

[XXLbass]

Haha don't worry Mike, that is my new personal best eye. Glad to see you hooked up with a VERY nice one as well! The best part about it was that was the first fish I caught after putting a stinger hook on! Wish I could have had the 9 bites before that back! Pitching shiners in the current was definitely my go-to technique as well. Can't wait to get back out there, but I'm stuck up at school taking two more finals before my summer begins.

[cvanderweyst]

Looks like a trend here, All these big fish were caught in the dark or in low light conditions

my 27 1/2" from opener morning

[carpmanjake]

my walleye from cowdry yesterday

also got a bunch of crappie as the storm was going on. it was pretty cool. it was bass after bass, then when the storm blew in it was crappie afer crappie.

today i went out to geneva/le homme dieu. wasnt getting anything. i ended up leaving eary and going to my carp spot to see if i could find some eyes. i found alot of fish, but not the species i was looking for. alot of 2lb+ largemouth bass

then i got a nice perch. i ended up hooking up and loosing, a few more. i finally located the le homme dieu jumbos after weeks of looking!

[EyeGuide]

Nice report Jake!

[EyeGuide]

Well the walleye bite has changed quite a bit with all this unstable weather coming through. I was catching most of my fish shallow and now after Wed nights front quite a few of my fish have moved to the bottom side of the breaks in about 18'-24'fow. I've been having a lot of pick ups and drops. Thursday was my poorest bite so far this year, but we still managed some real nice fish. Plenty for the fry pan and even a nice picture fish. I'd like to thank my clients Bob and Martha for a great night out!

[carpmanjake]

Well the walleye bite has changed quite a bit with all this unstable weather coming through. I was catching most of my fish shallow and now after Wed nights front quite a few of my fish have moved to the bottom side of the breaks in about 18'-24'fow. I've been having a lot of pick ups and drops. Thursday was my poorest bite so far this year, but we still managed some real nice fish. Plenty for the fry pan and even a nice picture fish. I'd like to thank my clients Bob and Martha for a great night out!

did i miss the shallow bite in the secret spot?

[EyeGuide]

Well Jake, structure walleye seem to react differently to cold fronts than do the shallow walleye that relate to moving water. Also keep in mind that just because a few schools of fish move deeper because of a cold front doesn't mean the next windy day they're not going to be right back in 10' FOW. All fish have one thing in common and that is they'll follow there food source. This time of year if you have moving water you'll find bait and usually regardless of the weather the eyes will be coming in after em! Stay at and you'll figure out the pattern.

[Wayne Ek]

Crappie bite is still going strong. I'm still puzzled by the constant ebb and flow of the sunfish and crappies this year. I have not seen it quite this dramatic in years past. In shallow one day gone the next, then back. Normally by now they have established themselves in the bay I'm on and stay put no matter what the weather offers up. Not this year.

[ocf1]

What do we have for water temps in the area? Agape, have you been on Ida lately?

[carpmanjake]

joe- i went out last night from 7pm-2am (a long time i know lol). i caught 2 walleye, but i had ALOT of hits, i need to pick up some stinger hooks. the secret seemed to be orange jigs and small 2" shiners, i tried chartruse,gold, silver, and blue fireball jigs, i got a few hits. but when i switched to orange the bite really picked up.

also got a nice male bowfin, seen him sitting in the shallows, i could see him sitting there. i did hook into a bigger one about an hour earlier but he broke off

[EyeGuide]

Glad to here my advice helped!

[cvanderweyst]

She managed to outfish me again today! Nice C&R just shy of 28"

[Wayne Ek]

I have not hit Ida. We have been fishing smaller lakes west of town. The temps. are in the high 50's in the back bays.

[carpmanjake]

nice walleye!

i went out for bowfin today, i really kicked some fin! it was a beautiful day to be on the water!

[hhguide]

I wanted to add a report in here too. Friday and Saturday I was up on Ottertail fish a tournament fish was slow but did get some fish in the 17 to 25 foot range. As for sunday we got out and caught some nice fish in the 11 to 15 foot range on rocks. We had some over 20 inches which we release and then had some nice fish for eating also. We were using shiners and jigs or lindy rigs. Best bite was early morning and then mid afternoon the fish really turned back on. Good luck to all those out let me know if you have any questions about lakes and such. I will be talking some groups out this week around the area so will have a better feel as the week goes on!

[jigginjim]

Great looking fish. Has any one fished Le Homme Dieu? In-laws had a resort on the north side, which is now all condos.

[carpmanjake]

jim, i fish le homme dieu all the time. i havent found any walleyes, there have been a few caught around the geneva le homme dieu tunnel. but i couldnt get any. bass are really active everywhere i have been fishing. i have yet to find crappies there. but around govt. point should start producing some fish soon. if not now. i havent been able to try. i have been mainly looking for the walleyes.