Ice Fishing Reports by Area in Minnesota

[Rick]

Minnesota Ice Fishing Reports by Area - Share you ice fishing stories here...Click it to set the hook!!!

[monstermoose78]

Hearing 10-17 inches around Princeton 

[Mustangsally]

found 17 inches on Buffalo 1-7-17 and 20 inches on a smaller Annandale lake. Tight lipped today where we were.

[icepike 1]

 Minnetonka 16" to17" inches of good ice trucks allover the lake. 

[Alex wilhelmi]

Hi all. I'm a newbie. And Iowan, but I love everything Minnesota. Ice Fishing is a short season here. I'm down by cedar rapids. Girlfriend and I are going to faribault this weekend to try some lakes. Any tips would be appreciated. I honestly don't keep many walleye back here, we imposed our own 17 in to 24 in all we keep standard. And it's helping the River in our area. At Least we think so.  Anyway, we're just looking for some good walleye and Pike action any bonus panfish too. If you could give us some legit pointers . That would make an awesome trip. Thanks again. Tight lines

God too many beers . We only keep 17 to 24 inch eyes

[Rick]

14 hours ago, Alex wilhelmi said:

Hi all. I'm a newbie. And Iowan, but I love everything Minnesota. Ice Fishing is a short season here. I'm down by cedar rapids. Girlfriend and I are going to faribault this weekend to try some lakes. Any tips would be appreciated. I honestly don't keep many walleye back here, we imposed our own 17 in to 24 in all we keep standard. And it's helping the River in our area. At Least we think so.  Anyway, we're just looking for some good walleye and Pike action any bonus panfish too. If you could give us some legit pointers . That would make an awesome trip. Thanks again. Tight lines

God too many beers . We only keep 17 to 24 inch eyes

Check out the South Central MN Forum. Click the link in the first post and ask your question in that forum.

[Alex wilhelmi]

Thank you! Good luck on the ice!

[monstermoose78]

The shallower lakes are froze over and the deep ones are getting close. I should add that’s in the Princeton area. Still not enough ice for me yet.

[kunzi26]

Anyone have updates for some smaller St. Cloud area lakes? I'm hoping to get out tomorrow before heading south for Thanksgiving traveling. I've tried a couple early ice lakes in the past, but what are some reliable and "safe" (no dangers springs or moving water spots) early ice lakes in the area? I plan on checking as I walk obviously. 

[Rick]

A wee bit early @kunzi26

 

Check back when the better ice fishing guys get rolling ... soon.

[monstermoose78]

On 11/19/2018 at 10:32 AM, kunzi26 said:

Anyone have updates for some smaller St. Cloud area lakes? I'm hoping to get out tomorrow before heading south for Thanksgiving traveling. I've tried a couple early ice lakes in the past, but what are some reliable and "safe" (no dangers springs or moving water spots) early ice lakes in the area? I plan on checking as I walk obviously. 

Be careful the ice varies so much from lake to lake. There are guys fishing smaller lakes. Please check the ice often if you go out and bring a buddy. As Rick stated most the normal ice fishing guts are waiting to see how warm it gets tomorrow.

[kunzi26]

On 11/22/2018 at 10:23 AM, Rick said:

A wee bit early @kunzi26

 

Check back when the better ice fishing guys get rolling ... soon.

 

Was able to get out on a tiny lake I was very familiar with on the 21st - found 5 inches consistently until I got set up. Nothing too big, but that lake is mostly for reliable bites with kids or in my case my dog. Was good to get him out and experience some ice for the first time. Paid off when I took him out again this weekend! 

[Woodsman66]

Any reports about prior lakes ice conditions? 

[Rick]

On 12/4/2018 at 9:57 AM, Natew48 said:

Any word on lakes around mankato?

Ask in the Metro Forum.

[Noah Moldestad]

How’s the ice  fishing on nest lake spicer Minnesota 

[tankstool]

South Central mn

[Rick]

1 hour ago, tankstool said:

South Central mn

Here ya go... Ice Fishing Reports by Area - Be sure to share your ice fishing stories there...Click it this link!!!

[Austin12345]

Has Anyone heard anything about Bald Eagle Lake or White Bear Lake involving ice thickness?

[Rick]

Check out the Forest Lake Forum.

[BobT]

Thought I'd post this here. Anyone else struggling to find fish this year? I'm speaking primarily of walleyes. The summer of 2021 started out with real promise when a friend and I went to Lake Traverse about 2 weeks before the MN fishing opener. We found walleyes to be quite cooperative that day.

 

But, alas, the rest of the year was, by far, less than something to write home about. I couldn't seem to connect with walleyes to save my life. Caught a few here and there but really had to work for them. Tried, Vermillion, Leech, Winnie, Rainy, Osakis, West Battle, and a few other places around my home.

 

This winter, with the cold weather and other projects getting in the way, I've only been able to get out a couple times. Thursday and Friday last week was at LOTW and managed to bring up 56 fish between three of us. All saugers except two walleyes, and because we were fishing in 35' of water, we were forced to keep a limit of small ones as they would have died for sure. The resort package included fish cleaning. It was embarrassing to give them 6" - 10" fish to clean. I wonder how many of those we released, that seemed to be okay, actually died anyway? Aside from that I was on Osakis twice this winter and yesterday I tried Sauk Lake but came up empty on those two lakes. 

 

How about you all?

[Wanderer]

Hey, good for you Bob, keeping fish that were gonna die anyway.

 

We’ve been out nearly every weekend except last weekend.  Been sick for a week plus.  All my reports are in the thread I started Winter Wanderbouts.  We did fine for numbers of walleyes on Winnie but that’s about the only place we targeted them.  Size wasn’t great for the most part but lots of non resort lakes have been too tough get everything out on this year with snow, slush, ice thickness concerns so we’ve stayed pretty basic.  
 

Panfish and pike have been mostly slow but steady with a few highlight days.  Plenty of fish dinners and more waiting in the freezer.  I’m actually just about over the ice fishing season already, strange as that sounds with March coming up.  I’ll go if someone prods me out there but probably not on my own anymore.  Need to turn my attention toward work again.

 

Good luck.

[fishfirst]

About 5 inches of ice around Chisago and Cambridge area