Jump to content
  • GUESTS

    If You  want access  to member only forums on FM, You will need to Sign-in or  Sign-Up now .

    This box will disappear once you are signed in as a member.

Looking for fishing companion(s) (teacher really) in Minneapolis


MinneapolisTransplant

Recommended Posts

Living in SW Minneapolis, and have gotten back into fishing after many years away (guess COVID was good for something). I mostly fish in Bde Maka Ska (formerly Calhoun) and other urban lakes because I can get to 'em and get out on the water under pure human power (not opposed to electrics or real boats, just can't afford 'em). Most times out I'll get bass or northerns... but no dang walleye, despite all the fry that DNR pours in there. In fact, I've been living in Minnesota for 3 years now, and from the BWCA to the southern lakes, I have never gotten a walleye to bite, be it leech, jig, dropshot, or crankbait. Which tells me I need to quit trying on my own and get on the water with somebody who knows what they're doing.

 

I'm pretty flexible about timing; can even do some weekdays if we plan in advance. Would love to meet others who fish my local lakes, but at this point, I'll happily travel to learn the mysteries of the 'eyes. If you're looking for another partner or just like to spin yarns, I'll listen and bring along some brews and gas money for your troubles.
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't walleye fish those city lakes you speak of but if you are only fishing them from shore, you are going to have problems getting a walleye to bite, especially during daylight hours in midsummer.  Deeper water is where they are now and you aren't in proximity to that on shore.

 

Under normal circumstances, I would advise trying a river.  But rivers are historically low right now because of the drought, so that's not going to work either.  Maybe if we get a monsoon of rain and water levels come up this fall a river would be worth trying.

 

You didn't even get one to bite in the BWCA?  That's just bad luck.

 

Sorry I'm not more help on this subject.  Maybe someone else will chime in with some better advice.

Edited by gimruis
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rivers should actually be pretty good right now.  Lots more bank fishing/wading opportunities due to the drought.  Fish are still there and walleyes don’t need to be deep during early mornings or the evenings especially.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@gimruis  I'm not shorebound, but it's human-powered watercraft only on those lakes (OK, I guess I could try to mount an electric to a paddleboard or canoe somehow, but I am not yet that clever). Most of my fishing time has been on the water this summer -- I tried the pier and can't even get the sunnies to bite, I think it's over-pressured. I've tried a variety of deeper-water tactics, including trying to run various things along weed edges and paddling back and forth over the lake's deeper points (approx 50ft) with bottom bouncers trailing a variety of things (Berkley crawler on a slo-death, regular spinner, shad-style swimbait, live leech). That bottom-bouncer trick fished in maybe 20-30ft will usually get me a northern somewhere along the way. (Interestingly, mostly NOT when moving, but when I pause and reel it in for a bait check.)

 

To describe it a bit more, the lakes near me are mostly mud-bottom. No obvious structure on the contour map, aside from a few places where there's sort of an underwater peninsula (and I've tried fishing the points of those). The water's pretty clear, so there's weeds you can't see (mostly coontail style, very small amount of cabbage-style) that'll happily grab a trolled bait. I haven't found anything that's more grass-like. 

 

@Wanderer Any good river suggestions near the Cities? I've heard mumbles about the Minnesota, but not sure how to zero in on likely spots since that's a lot of bank to cover. My best guess at the moment is one I know where there's an old disused railroad bridge crossing a feeder creek, seemed like maybe the currents there would do something?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@MinneapolisTransplant

Around the Cities is a little tough for me to recommend when you’re coming out of the SW.  I grew up fishing the Miss from the Camden Bridge to the Coon Rapids dam but haven’t fished any of that for a long, long time.  I’ve heard good things about the Ford dam.  Honestly any dam is worth a try.

 

Redwing is a HUGE walleye draw in the winter because of border water season and numbers of fish.  Hastings has been good to me from the dam to the St. Croix confluence.

 

Most of my time these days is spent further north from Anoka, on up river.  Fish the head ends of holes were there’s good current in the low light hours with some Rapalas to start.  When the walleyes come up to feed they’ll likely be in a pretty specific spot/certain current seam or gravel bar.  The head or tail ends of islands can be good too.  You have to get out there and put some time in to find the sweet spots but when you do, you can count on em.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

 

Calhoun used to be a fun walleye lake 10-15 years ago but walleye stocking rates have declined, northern pike abundance has increased and yellow perch (walleye main diet in this lake aside from sunfish) seem to be disappearing as well.  During open water it's not worth your time to fish for walleyes.   You aren't doing anything wrong, they just aren't abundant. 

 

Aside from the walleye decline, Calhoun can be a tough nut to Crack and you need to have the patience of a saint.  If you want to try for walleyes do it in the winter.  Find an inside turn with lots of weeds and set up in 14 - 17 feet with a large shiner on a plain hook 1 foot off the bottom or a foot above the weeds.  As I said earlier there aren't many eyes left but the ones in there are very nice fish.  You might only catch 1 in 5 days of ice fishing but it will be a nice one.

 

Good Luck

 

 

  • Thumbs Up 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I fish Northeast metro every week and the walleye fishing is just plain tough if you do not have a boat. And even for guys with a boat. Most of the time its just plain hard to find good walleye lakes in the city. I can usually find them in the winter time on my lakes and I was able to get on some nice bites last winter but that was on a couple lakes I would fish four to five times a week so I could find consistent patterns.  summer is a different story. If you want a decent chance at metro eyes I would try lindstrom area lakes use contour maps to find some structure. Or the river. This is the rig I have been using this year works pretty slick with the casting deck I made.

IMG_1573.jpg

IMG_1676.jpg

  • Thumbs Up 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good advice you got here.  Clear water is not your friend during daylight hours.  Target low light periods like dawn, dusk, and at night.  If we get a cloudy or rainy day that would be ideal but those days have been very tough to come by this season.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi again,

 

If you want a better chance to catch a walleye in Minneapolis give Nokomis a try.   If you'd like, send me a PM with your contact information and I'll meet up with you out there this winter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Austin12345 Nice rig! Makes me think it's time to bolt some more PVC sides to my own milk crate.

@Musky RC  PM sent! 

 

I guess it's good to know that some of this is abundance rather that technique... will see about broadening my choices of waterbodies.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree with the advice previously stated here. I have seen eyes come out of Bde Maka Ska and Lake of the Isles, even from shore (springtime). It's all about timing and patience! There are some massive muskies and northerns in there that are putting pressure on the other fish. To locate those deep holes check out the dnr lakefinder! The map shows approximate depths and you'll be able to get in the right area, since the heat we've had has chased a lot of fish into deeper water.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@PeachyHans Thanks, that's helpful. I do have the topomaps, and have them georeferenced so I can get to pretty much right over some of those holes/points. It may well be that I'm not trying deep enough.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
On 8/30/2021 at 3:21 AM, MinneapolisTransplant said:

@PeachyHans Thanks, that's helpful. I do have the topomaps, and have them georeferenced so I can get to pretty much right over some of those holes/points. It may well be that I'm not trying deep enough.

I would like to know more about old town solo-canoe. I would appreciate any information you might have.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...
On 10/21/2021 at 7:18 PM, benclark1240 said:

I would like to know more about old town solo-canoe. I would appreciate any information you might have.

Thanks for sharing information about old town solo canoe, but I need more, if you can provide it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



  • Similar Content

  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.