2020 Alexandria-Miltona area Fishing Reports ( Lake conditions)

[jigginjim]

I was asking my wife if she would be willing to go to Arrowwood for a weekend? So I can fish the chain.

[carpmanjake]

jim- beg her! there are alot of fish being caught, i have been hearing people walleyes are really gonna start snapping with this warmer, calmer weather. and the panfish are gonna be going great this weekend.

darling has been kicking out quite a few nice crappies for me. but then it cooled down. but now that its warming back up, theys should be back in no time!

[Wayne Ek]

R.K and R.G and myself hit a small lake west of Alex. for walleyes today. The bite was steady. That 7 to 8-foot mark was the magic depth today. We are using mainly fatheads now and they are producing just as good as shiners. Light jigs (parrot or pink) and a slow lift was the trigger.

[hhguide]

Well I got out this weekend with some weekend trips and boy were the walleyes biting. The best depth for us was in 9 to 12 feet of water on the rocks and in the cabbage. The bite was steady all day long. Here are a few pictures from the weekend client trips.... I fish were released that were in these photos! Tyler and Myself with two Walleyes caught at the same time.

Bernie with a nice 21 incher

Chad with His biggest walleye ever a 24 incher but that wouldn't last long, well at least for about 20 minutes until he popped the 27 and 1/4 inch walleye below.

19 inch smallie

Dennis with a 27 and 1/8 inch Walleye

One last one while I was out prefishing for these trips this one was 28 inches on the dot.

We also did get into some really nice crappies which are still up in the shallows in the 4 to 6 foot range. we were using crappie minnows with twister tails and bobbers.

Good luck to all those who are heading out it should be a great next couple weeks for fishing!

[awkwardjim]

awww nice fish HHguide I cant wait to get out of work this week!!! Ill be heading up that way on wed, staying wed and thurs nights. got 2 free nights lakeside at Viking Bay on Miltona... 1st time fishing the Alex chain- any suggestions??- besides having u guide me all day long haha

if i wasnt on such a limited budget i'd def be spendin some more loot to get on the fish... but it seems all i can afford these days are and live bait, tips, and maybe a little luck--

[carpmanjake]

hey hh, mind giving me the location so i can get into some of those slabs?

its been far too long since i caught a good crappie

[DaveZman14q]

How much longer does the minnow bite last? I prefer fat heads over shiners right now... am i on the right track or should i be sticking with shiners still? Also I was told once it gets into the mid 50s its time for the crawlers. Are people using crawlers yet or do you hold off on that for a while still? Personally it seems as if its too early for a crawler... I like to wait til End of June/Early July before I break out the harnesses.

[carpmanjake]

How much longer does the minnow bite last? I prefer fat heads over shiners right now... am i on the right track or should i be sticking with shiners still? Also I was told once it gets into the mid 50s its time for the crawlers. Are people using crawlers yet or do you hold off on that for a while still? Personally it seems as if its too early for a crawler... I like to wait til End of June/Early July before I break out the harnesses.

most of my eyes have been hitting shiners... but im not the one to ask about when to change that, one the walleye sink past the 20 foot area, i rarely get a chance to catch them

[carpmanjake]

got some beautiful crappies yesterday, was to lazy to get on the computer last night to post the pics. so ill post them tonight.

and im gonna tease a little bit, i finally broke the 14" mark! just a beautiful fish! all the females were spawned out, and i got some BIG beautiful males as well.

[-JAKE-]

My family and i went up to our annual fishing\camping trip to brophy lake resort near alex on memoirial weekend. The fishing wasnt as good as previous years but we still cought a few bass and the crappie bite was awesome just drifting a creme spoiler shad and the crappies just smoked it in about 1-1.5 FOW . as for bass they hit on topwater frogs and plastic baits along with shiners and spinnerbaits. The reason that they were not biting is that the water was too cold and the pads and stick grass was not grown yet but there was a few spots there with a few pads. There wasnt a good bluegill bite and i hadnt seen very many of them and i cought about a 9-10 incher and that was all. but the weather was nice and the water clear and i enjoyed the trip.

[carpmanjake]

jake -brophy had ALOT of sunfish and bass in the boat canal between brophy and north union, that was just a week ago. i LOVE those spoiler shads!

well guys here are the slabs i was telling you about!

the one on the left is 13 7/8" so close! but the one on the left came out at 14 1/2"!

the 3 on the dock were 12 1/2", 11 3/4", and 12 1/2"

sorry but the area will remain a secret until i break the 16" mark (if there are any in the lake that big). lol

[carpmanjake]

here are some more crappie from today,

started off with this beautiful 12" male

ended up with 3, but let them all go after my camera died, (i was making a how to for the webshow i am calling 'jake on the lake") i went home after that, and 3 crappies arent enough for a meal lol

at about 5:30 i hooked into a big fish, that was pulling drag, i was thinking, "sweet i got a carp!" but when it broke the surface, i found it to be my first true PIG largemouth of 2009. weighing in at 4lb 3oz, and 20 3/8"L

[carpmanjake]

hog from today, just over 21"

[1eyeReD]

Very nice!!

[carpmanjake]

i tried to break the MN state record for rockbass a few days ago. found alot of nice sunnies and bass, as well as some pig rock bass. biggest weighed 1lb 6oz. but i got about 8 over a lb, and 3 from 12 to 15oz. and 2 between 7-8oz.

here is the 1lb 6

some others

big sunnie

[1eyeReD]

HH Guide...

I'm interested in knowing your rates. Can you please email me? [email protected]

[awkwardjim]

Miltona Crappies- theyr out there!!

[EyeGuide]

Nice fish AK Jim!

[carpmanjake]

nice fish!

[walleyeking#8]

Lake Carlos walleye from this past weekend....CPR'd

What amazing color in these fish......can't wait to head up there again!!

[carpmanjake]

went out fishing on a local lake, it wasnt long before i spotted a BIG bass, patrolling the shallows. i threw everything i had at her. but i could not entice a bite. i had only one thing left to use... my fly rod. i tied on my hand tied, gold tinsel minner. i cast out to her, and almost immediatly WAM! hooked up! but a few seconds later she threw it. i cast back out again, and immediatly WAM! hookeed up! after a nice long battle, i pulled in my biggest bass of the year so far, on the fly to boot!

23" long, 5lb 7oz!

i kept stalking the shoreline, and eventually i spooked a nice bass from right next to shore, so i walked out on a tree and waited.. and waited, eventually she came back, and i threw out the fly. WAM!

3lb even

i hit the end of the flat, so i doubled back. i noticed the 5lber patrolling the same area i got her from. but i kept going eventually, i found another beauty! she was sitting in about a foot of water. i cast out, and right when my fly hit the water, SPLOOSH! fish on!

22.5" and 4lb 9oz

[hhguide]

I just wanted to give a fishing report from this last weekend, with the cold front I was alittle nerbous but the guide trips went well, with numerous fish over 20 inches and many nice size eaters. The transition from minnows to crawlers has started on some of the smaller lakes. Look at depths between 12 and 15 feet of water on breaks that aren't very steep but more gradual break lines. Chartertuse has still be working best. Good luck let me know if you have any questions about specific lakes.

[Wayne Ek]

Drake how did the tournament go? I've made the switch to leechs (gulp for now) already. We are booked for this week. Two on "waska" weather permitting, one up to Miltona and then a Lobster trip. I caught the biggest doggy I've ever caught this past week out of 28 foot of water, what a beast. The colors on those deep fish are amazing.

[carpmanjake]

I caught the biggest doggy I've ever caught this past week out of 28 foot of water, what a beast. The colors on those deep fish are amazing.

a dogfish in 28 FOW? tahts odd

[hhguide]

Wayne,

I know well be running around all this week too. The fish have really been biting in the area. The next few weeks should be great fishing for all those coming up. Here is a picture from the Group on Sunday.

Jesse and rolf Sumstad with some nice fish just under 20 inches for some perfect eaters.

[fishnowworknever]

HH -

Heading to Ida this Friday - Sunday, any suggestions?

Thanks

[CJH]

We were upon the chain last weekend, and the weather was brutal!!!

Most of the crappies had moved off to the first break, but found a few shallow still. Lots of bass in the 5-10ft mark. Only caught pike of the breaks in 10-20 ft. Didn't do any wally fishing (I am not patient enough for that!).

[Wayne Ek]

Guide trips all this past week. Half day trip today. This is what we found so far. Walleyes on small dirty lake west of town are still in that 6 to 8-foot range, holding on the rock sand transition areas. Bass (small males) are going nuts on the large chara grass flats from 6 to 10-feet. The bigger females we found are post spawn and had good girth to the belly, they are holding in deeper water on most of the lakes. We did find good numbers of big fish extremely shallow on one lake, their heads are all scuffed up, I think they are chasing crawfish in the shallow rocks. And yes the smallies are still on beds on one of the lakes we fished, I would bet by the middle of next week they are gone. We found no sunfish bedding yet, which surprised me.

[EyeGuide]

Morning report…

Well even with the up and down weather the last couple weeks the fish have been very cooperative. Now with finally a couple consistent days of weather on our belt and the forecast looking to be the same I was looking for the fishing to get even better. Well this morning the walleye didn’t let me down, I headed out early and had 12 walleye by sunrise! We picked up two 21’s”,22”,24 ½”,26 ½” and the rest were between 15”-19 ½”. Every fish was very healthy and released to fight another day. What a beautiful morning to be out and 12 nice walleye in an hour and half… well that has to rival just about any lake in the state.

What’s been working best for me the past couple weeks…

Well, every lake is going to be a little different, but right now it’s hard to go wrong with a good leech. I’ve been concentrating on the 10’-22’ foot areas, pulling jigs or lindys. With that said I still have some lakes that are strictly minnows on a lindy and others where a jig and a minnow work best. It’s funny how different lakes only a couple miles apart can be. Most lakes are in the high 50’s to low 60’s right now, but when that water hits the mid to upper 60’s I’d defiantly give some crawlers a try. I’ve been turning a few fish with crawlers but I still feel it’s a little cold for them.

Hey Wayne and Drake, I’m glad to hear you guys are busy too. I don’t have any trips for this weekend, but the next two weeks I don’t know when I’ll have time to sleep I’m defiantly not complaining, especially because the fishing has been just ridiculous this Spring. I hope everyone gets a chance to enjoy the incredible scenery and fishing Alexandria has to offer at some point this summer! I’ve been fishing at least 5 days a week and I have yet to see Drake or Wayne out on the water this year, so that just goes to show you we have an abundant number of lakes in the area that are kicking out some serious fish. Your only issue now will be picking just one lake to go to!

I’d just like to end my post with a little reminder, that we need to preserve our resources and only keep what we NEED to eat. You don't need to keep a limit to be a good fisher person. The water is still very cold and the survival rate on catch and released fish during this time is nearly a 100%, so please take a second to admire the beauty of your catch and put some back. If we all do our part we’ll most certainly have even better fishing in years to come. Good luck to everyone this weekend it looks to be a great one!

If someone could email me directions on how to post some pics I'd be happy to share.

Thanks!

[carpmanjake]

Joe- if you want to email me the pics, i would gladly post them for you