2020 Alexandria-Miltona area Fishing Reports ( Lake conditions)

[EyeGuide]

Thanks Jake, but I kind of want to learn how to do it. I'm sure it's been talked about 100 times on here but I never took the time to learn so if you can shoot me an email with some instructions that'd be great!

[carpmanjake]

email sent

[EyeGuide]

Thanks Jake!

[FISHON71]

Im heading up to a cabin on Andrew next week and was wondering if anyone has any reports from there.

Thanks

[carpmanjake]

Im heading up to a cabin on Andrew next week and was wondering if anyone has any reports from there.

Thanks

i havent heard of any specific reports, but if you are gonna look for crappie, i highly recommemd the far northern (North west corner to the middle of the north shoreline is the best) shore. the shoreline full of reeds so the only access is by boat. but be careful, there is a bar there, so be sure to go through deeper water.

its a softbottom, with alot of cover. and the middle of the little bay gets to about 10 feet. so it should be a great spot for crappie.

[EyeGuide]

Here's a quick report from the walleye infested waters of Alexandria

I ended up picking up a last minute trip for today thanks to fellow FM'er WalleyeChic(Kim) and her Dad, thanks for the great day! We hit the water early again today and had nice steady action all morning. We boated many fish in the 15" - 20" range along with some nice big ones that came up to get their pics taken. Today was less than ideal weather wise with calm waters the entire day, but no one remembered to tell the walleye because the bite was great! We were using lindy rigs with leeches and minnows with success on both. Our depth ranged from 11-17FOW and with the weeds becoming thicker and thicker keeping your bait clean was essential. Today's water temps started out at 62deg and ended up at around 67deg. Well that's all for tonight, I have to get to bed it's been a long day and I have another long one again tomorrow! Summer is finally here and it looks like it'll be here for a while so come up and enjoy the fishing! Good Luck.

Here's our catch from today!

Also here's a few pics of the big ones including WalleyeChic's personal best!

[walleyeman1]

I have a dumb question? When the fishing is good, why are you keeping 19 and 20 inch fish, Them fish are the prime spawners. Or is the guide trip not sucessful unless they kept there limit.

It looks like they caught plenty of fish, so if they only kept 8 15-18 inch fish. It is not sucessful. I can't believe that the amount of fishing that eyeguide and hhguide, that you are letting your clients keep fish of that size. I think it is great that you are releasing the bigger fish, but come on, you know as well as I do that your prime spawning fish are your 19-23 inch fish.

[hhguide]

Walleyeman Eyeguide and myself invest lots of time and money into our resources without them I am out of a job. Those fish that we are keeping arent necessarly the biggest fish that we keep. We may keep a few of those 19 inch fish because those are perfect eaters. I think of it this way if a husband and wife come out on a trip with me and we keep a limit of fish and we keep 3 that are 19 inches. we those three fish are equal to about 6 or 7 12 inchers (which I saw people keeping this past weekend. I am more about letthing the smaller 12 and 13 inch fish going so they get that big if a man keeps 2 19 inchers instead of 6 12 inchers thats better for the fishery correct? I dont mean to be harsh i try to think I know what I am doing and we keep it honest for the lake and its resources. If Joes views are different i'm sure he will chime in. Feel free to email me with any other questions or concerns I'll take all the time to answer questions or conerns about fisheries. Thanks.

As for reports this week and weekend was some of the best fishing weve had. It was a great time to be out on the lake enjoying the day. Here are a few pictures to look at from this past week and weekend.

We had many personal best fish this week along with some great eating fish. Thanks to all my clients. Good luck to everyone feel free to email me with any questions or concerns.

[hhguide]

i also wanted to give the fishing report for the weekend. many of the lakes around the area are still hitting the walleyes on the head. We have been fishing in the 14 to 17 foot range. We have still been usuing jigs and minnows. With the mayflies starting to pop on many of the lakes in teh area im sure we will be switching over to crawlers and leeches before weeks end. I forgot to tell you also about the crappies. They are still really hitting on some lakes right now with white Twister tails on a light jig head. My sister and I went out for and evening and really got into a school of them. We kept 5 or 6 to put on the frying pan.

[carpmanjake]

very nice drake! looks like the lense needed to be cleaned in the first shots. lol

[carpmanjake]

I have a dumb question? When the fishing is good, why are you keeping 19 and 20 inch fish, Them fish are the prime spawners. Or is the guide trip not sucessful unless they kept there limit.

It looks like they caught plenty of fish, so if they only kept 8 15-18 inch fish. It is not sucessful. I can't believe that the amount of fishing that eyeguide and hhguide, that you are letting your clients keep fish of that size. I think it is great that you are releasing the bigger fish, but come on, you know as well as I do that your prime spawning fish are your 19-23 inch fish.

i believe it is the clients choice wether to keep a fish oor not. you are right, the 19+inch fish are prime spawners.

but sometimes on somelakes all the walleyes are stocked. the lake is not suitabe for sucessful natural spawning. that is why lakes are stocked. in the chain there is some successful walleye spawning, but not much, definately not enough to keep a good population of walleyes

i have heard many times (in different states though) that stocked fish are infertile so they cant spawn. im not sure if that is true around here though

[carpmanjake]

Here's a quick report from the walleye infested waters of Alexandria

I ended up picking up a last minute trip for today thanks to fellow FM'er WalleyeChic(Kim) and her Dad, thanks for the great day! We hit the water early again today and had nice steady action all morning. We boated many fish in the 15" - 20" range along with some nice big ones that came up to get their pics taken. Today was less than ideal weather wise with calm waters the entire day, but no one remembered to tell the walleye because the bite was great! We were using lindy rigs with leeches and minnows with success on both. Our depth ranged from 11-17FOW and with the weeds becoming thicker and thicker keeping your bait clean was essential. Today's water temps started out at 62deg and ended up at around 67deg. Well that's all for tonight, I have to get to bed it's been a long day and I have another long one again tomorrow! Summer is finally here and it looks like it'll be here for a while so come up and enjoy the fishing! Good Luck.

Here's our catch from today!

Also here's a few pics of the big ones including WalleyeChic's personal best!

good to see you figured it out joe! my email hasnt been working. so if you sent me an email with any problems, im sorry i didnt get it.

but those are some dandy walleyes!

[JIvers]

[quote=

i have heard many times (in different states though) that stocked fish are infertile so they cant spawn. im not sure if that is true around here though

[EyeGuide]

walleyeman1, thanks for your concern on keeping the bigger fish. I'll have to agree with you to some point. Drake also had some good points on keeping a couple 19"ers is better than keeping a limit of 12-13" fish everyday, like so many people do. Why do you think no one can catch fish on Mary this year? If everyone just went out there and only kept a couple 17"-19" fish that lake wouldn't be in the situation it is. Keeping fish is a tough subject. Everyone wants to do it and everyone thinks the next person is keeping too many or the wrong ones, that's just the way it goes.

walleyeman1, now before you start harassing people you should know the whole story. If you knew me, we wouldn't be having this conversation because I feel catch and release and safely handling fish is a top priority. I'd honestly say I've caught and released more fish in to these water than most people catch in a lifetime. I'm not being arrogant it's just I get to fish more than your average person and I expect the same out of any angler that spends as much time on the water as I do. I also NEVER cull my fish. If early in the day things look tough and one of my clients is dying for fish and we catch a 20"+, well it's going back period. I have a voluntary slot of 14"-18", but sometimes we keep and 18"-19" fish. On this given day we boxed a 19" fish in the morning with bite not being as good as normal. Then later in the day I figured out a little pattern and the 15-17" fish were coming easy. What would you like me to do? take a fish out of the live well and release it after a couple hours? Sorry I'm not going to do that. Also I have a TON of guide trips were the people are there only to learn and catch and release fish or just keep a couple. Did you not read my report from last Friday? I did very well and I didn't keep one fish. So once again I couldn't care more about our resource than I already do, so please don't try to imply I or anyone else has done anything wrong. If you're mad because normally you have tough fishing feel free to give me a call I can show you how to catch em and believe me we'll only keep a couple and they'll be between 15-16". Again thanks for the concern, honestly I'm not being sarcastic. I wish more people shared your concern (maybe not accuse me of things but show concern none the less). I hope after this email you get a sense of how passionate I am about these fish. Most of my clients are blown away by the respect I give each fish and every fish we come into contact with. Keeping some is part of the game, but I deeply respect each and everyone of em. Have a good day.

[carpmanjake]

walleyeman1, now before you start harassing people you should know the whole story. If you knew me, we wouldn't be having this conversation because I feel catch and release and safely handling fish is a top priority. I'd honestly say I've caught and released more fish in to these water than most people catch in a lifetime. I'm not being arrogant it's just I get to fish more than your average person and I expect the same out of any angler that spends as much time on the water as I do. I also NEVER cull my fish. If early in the day things look tough and one of my clients is dying for fish and we catch a 20"+, well it's going back period. I have a voluntary slot of 14"-18", but sometimes we keep and 18"-19" fish. On this given day we boxed a 19" fish in the morning with bite not being as good as normal. Then later in the day I figured out a little pattern and the 15-17" fish were coming easy. What would you like me to do? take a fish out of the live well and release it after a couple hours? Sorry I'm not going to do that. Also I have a TON of guide trips were the people are there only to learn and catch and release fish or just keep a couple. Did you not read my report from last Friday? I did very well and I didn't keep one fish. So once again I couldn't care more about our resource than I already do, so please don't try to imply I or anyone else has done anything wrong. If you're mad because normally you have tough fishing feel free to give me a call I can show you how to catch em and believe me we'll only keep a couple and they'll be between 15-16". Again thanks for the concern, honestly I'm not being sarcastic. I wish more people shared your concern (maybe not accuse me of things but show concern none the less). I hope after this email you get a sense of how passionate I am about these fish. Most of my clients are blown away by the respect I give each fish and every fish we come into contact with. Keeping some is part of the game, but I deeply respect each and everyone of em. Have a good day.

walleyeman1- i can really back joe up on this one. he really does care about the fisheries, and how pressured the areas get. he has given me some very helpful tips and a good spot, but he made me promise not to share the spot even though it is a pretty heavily fished area. he definately worries alot about the quality of the fishery.

im not on anyones side here, its obvious you both care about the quality of the fisheries very much. no sense of arguing about whose opinion is right, it only leads to hatred. just like what has been going on in the middle east, and the arguements of religion

[carpmanjake]

Some states also stock special "triploid" fish that are sterile. These fish are treated while embryos to alter their chromosomes. Some states stock triploid grass carp to control plants; I do not know if Minnesota does so. Experiments have been done with triploid salmon and black bass, but I do not know if they have been placed in public waters anywhere--certainly not Minnesota. Triploid fish often grow faster and larger than their normal counterparts, and always seem to be infertile, thus not likely to cause long-lasting problems, but there are ethical questions surrounding their use.

thats what they are! this guy is Massachutsets was talking to me, and he was showing me all these huge pike, and that they were stocked, and they cant reproduce.

if i remember right, the area that the new world record trout was caught was stocked with triploid rainbows. im not certain though

[walleyes29]

well....well...well... Seems we have another endless battle between what fish to keep and what fish to let go...If memory serves me correctly I can keep any size walleye as long as I am abiding by state and lake regulations. If you buy a license in the state of minnesota you have every right to keep your limit/possession of fish. No matter what anyone else thinks. As a person who would like to protect the fisheries around their "home" waters, I can assure you that the local guides are going to practice selective harvest. As a customer I would want to keep a limit of fish because I most likely don't have the opportunity to fish as often and a fresh meal of walleyes is very difficult to beat. As a guide I want my clients to be happy, catch fish, learn how to catch fish, and keep some for a meal. More importantly I want them to have a good time so they would refer friends to my business. As a customer I would want to learn how to fish for species we are after, catch fish, and keep enough for a good meal. I also want to have an enjoyable time on the water.

Bottom line people who have a current MN license can keep a limit a fish as long as they are within there possession limit as well.

So how do you make everyone happy......YOU CANNOT DO IT....You obide by local/state fishing regulations and enjoy your short time here on earth.

[carpmanjake]

wellBottom line people who have a current MN license can keep a limit a fish as long as they are within there possession limit as well.

So how do you make everyone happy......YOU CANNOT DO IT....You obide by local/state fishing regulations and enjoy your short time here on earth.

well said!

[walleyeman1]

I am sorry for stating my opinion. I thought this website was for that.I would hope that are area guides would instill into there customers that keeping 19 or 20 inch fish is hurting are area lakes.I guess I never brought up keeping smaller fish, but in my opinion let them keep there 13 inchers instead of the 19's. They are only allowed 6 that is are possession law.And if you see someone keeping fish everyday, because you are on the water all the time, turn them in.Or I suppose that would hurt your business. I also guess you see some of your clients out there after a guide trip of fantastic fishing of catching there limits the day before.And there keeping fish again and you know as well as I do they did not eat all of there fish. Why do a lot of are bigger lakes have lower slots limits. It is to keep the prime spawners in the lake. Maybe if we would let the 18inch fish or bigger we wouldn't have to stock are lakes like we do now. Yes we do have natural reproduction in our area lakes, suprising, yes and of course there are lakes that don't.And as a guide, I would hope that you would ask your clients if they want to catch bigger fish or eaters, or both.I fish a lot and I think there is more and more people who are catching and releasing fish, which is great. But to call 19 inch fish great eaters. Sorry I can't buy that one.And why is it when someone states his opinion, he can't catch fish or he is just jealous. I fish a lot and I guess I am sorry to all the people in my boat that if it isn't 15 inches or it is over 18 it goes back.That may make some days with out bringing a fish home. It is not all about bringing fish home to clean or catching your limit.Yes and you are right that if you have a license you can do with what you want and you can't make everyone happy. But I would like to thank are great guides that give reports and do not put the lake names on here. This helps out a lot in keeping people off a hot bite, especially on are smaller lakes and still brings people up to are area businesses.

Sorry for the long rant, now I am ready to get beat up on the net for stating my opinion.

[hhguide]

walleyeman you make up some great points and I agree with you on many parts. Its like Joe said earlier though too I havent seen Joe out on the water or Wayne for that matter we are all taking fish from different lakes and I know I am moving around lakes too. I would rather have a guy like you out fishing anyday versus someone who could give a rats [PoorWordUsage]. Its all opionin like you said, I am glad you brought up the matter, its shows you care about the resource. Your thoughts are welcome dont feel as if we are trying to rip you one.

[StrosLit31]

Question me if i am wrong but is this not why people hire a guide service? If they want to go out once in a summer and catch and keep a limit, right on. I would think that people going out weekend after weekend catching and keeping there limit would be more of an issue.

Lots of open water and different lakes in the area. I dont think three guides can fish them out......

You here the same arguement in the brainerd lakes area about guides. Tough bussiness to say the least.

[carpmanjake]

walleyeman- its great that you stated your opinion. so it could be discussed and clarified, and without a doubt, this is a site for sharing thoughts, stories, opinions, tips, etc.

tight lines!

[carpmanjake]

slayed the crappies and sunnies on le homme dieu today! broke out the fly rod, and they just wouldnt leave the fly alone!

[1eyeReD]

Any size to the paper mouths?

[carpmanjake]

Any size to the paper mouths?

tons of 11 to 12"ers. and countless 10 and under. but NONE less than 8 1/2. i kept 4 10s for the neighbors, one 12 that was hooked very deeply, and would not have survived. and and a few bluegill.

i did see a 14 (at least) on a bed. i got it to hit, but missed the hookset. if i would have got her, she would have definately been released.

and to prove the sheer numbers of crappie i caught, my wrist was hurting so bad last night, and i now have to wear a wrist brace. i completely wore it out. and i was never casting more than 30 feet, so it was not from casting.

i was using 2 flies, and getting a double 12. happened fairly often. anything big and crawfish like was getting em. i was a fox tail bug (Size 8), and a wiggle craw (my own design) (size 6)

[DaveZman14q]

nice fish carpman im always impressed by all your photos you post on here. You should get a biology degree in fisheries management... that would be right up your alley. you ever fish Mary by chance?

[carpmanjake]

nice fish carpman im always impressed by all your photos you post on here. You should get a biology degree in fisheries management... that would be right up your alley. you ever fish Mary by chance?

thats is probably gonna be what i study in college.

here are some fish from last week

big rocky on the fly

and here are some bass from "not so secret spots" in osakislol

2lber on a live pointer

beautiful, FAT largie by the 4way

another beauty

2lber right at sunset

another beauty

[1eyeReD]

Wow,man... Like always, you got em dialed in. Keep the posts comin!

[EyeGuide]

I've been up at Mille Lacs for the past week so I don't have anything new for you from the Alexandria area. The fishing has been incredible up there though, so if you're interested see the Mille Lacs forum. These pics are from over there too but I thought you guys might enjoy them. This was the Tuesday night cloud system that moved through.

Calm before the storm!

[MNUser]

How has the bite been on Miltona? We will be at the in-laws house for a few days this coming week and want to get out and fish in the mornings or evenings. Is it a crawler bite? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks!