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Top 5 Smallmouth Fisheries


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Guess I don't chase them a lot, but here are mine....

1. Mississippi (St. Cloud area.) If you live here, you should get out and fish the river!!!!!!
2. Lida
3. Big Cormorant
4. Big Lake( north of Ely)

I would love to here where I need to chase smallies on Mille Lacs.. D man any suggestions?

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This is a test to try and link a picture of a pig small mouth my brother caught. Hope it works.
P.S.
It was released just after the picture was taken and by all accounts, it lived.

[This message has been edited by Kidd (edited 03-12-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Kidd (edited 03-12-2002).]

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D-man, been to Mille Lacs a half dozen times for smallies with some success but have yet to really bang em. What's the best water temp for topwater action, and are these ma les on the beds?
For what it's worth, I used to go up to Sylvania Wilderness Area in the U.P. for great smallie action. A lake called High had turquoise blue water and lot's of downed timber-- and big smallies. Beautiful campsites.

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Here's a picture of a 22-incher that I caught last August up on Lake of the Woods. It weighed about 6lbs 3oz. I'm heading back up to Lake of the Woods this summer to try and tag another one.

CANpig3.jpg

Good Fishing, Matt.

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Were do I start?

#1 Mississippi River. (even in the metro, better north and south though)
#2 St. Croix river above Taylor Falls
#3 Minnetonka (main lake, browns bay, wayzata bay)
#4 Rum river (heavy fishing pressure)
#5 I guess I need a boat to explore some more SM fisheries

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I'm telling you guys, you are missing out on the St. Louis River! They catch some nice smallies out of there!

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I would have to say the Mississippi River North of North of Clearwater to Brainerd is the best in the state. Mille Lacs and LOTW also in that mix. One I would disagree with is Minnetonka. I fish it a lot for smallies since I live in the Metro and it doesn't even compare with the Mississippi or Mille Lacs. I can catch 50 or more smallies a day on the Mississippi with a couple of them usually being over 20". And and 30 over 16 inches.

I'd like to know what to try on Minnetonka to catch 10 smallies in a day with good consistant weather.

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Jim

Vermillion
Basswood
Upper Iowa-bet you know that one
St Louis-could be a sleeper never fished it guys I have worked with excellent reports

Cedar-my all time fav not far from you Osage to Cedar Falls canoe with lots of wadeable sections try by bridges south and west of Osage

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Well,
I only based my Minnetonka rating on two days worth of fishing, but those two days were VERY GOOD.
Our top producer was working shad raps on the outside edges of breaks, humps and of course milfoil. I could not believe the quality size of the fish caught and those we saw. It is definetly worth fishing. Of course nothing compares with the rivers mentioned as well as Mille Lacs, Green and Deer (Can't speak for Vermilion since I have not fished it...YET), but do not discout Minnetonka for size and quality.

------------------
>"////=<
Gull Guide Service
fishingminnesota.com/gullguide
Brainerd-Mille Lacs-Willmar
Bemidji-Ottertail

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mpete54 is right. ST.Louis river is great!
released over 20 fish 19+inches last season

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Thanks for all the replies. These all sound like good lakes. I am going to have to try some this summer. I booked a trip at Lake of the Woods near Souix Narrows from July 6-13. Hopefully I can tag another pig smally. Keep the responses coming.
Good Fishing, Matt Johnson

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DARK30-

Saw your post on Orwell, love that area, I'm in Fargo so its a bit of a drive, but I usually get down there a couple times a month during the summer. Had great luck a couple of times. If you see someone down there this summer with a big red softside tackle box and either a Cubs hat or Red Sox hat, come on and say HI. I'd love some pointers, I seem to be hit or miss down there. Did pull a 6+ lbr out last summer and a couple at 5 lbs. I used to just wade in with shorts on but I caught a 30" dogfish, man are they ugly, seen a few very large snapping turtles, and have seen some big ass fish brush against me, its probably stupid but I'm just uncomfortable with bare legs in there now. By the way, have you fished for cats down there before, I've never tried for them but have seen some nice fish in the water.

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HEY ON2STIX! WHERE YA BEEN BUDDY!?

I WAS GONNA BE UP THERE THIS WEEK LOOKING FOR CRAPPIES, BUT DECIDED TO STAY HOME. CAN'T WAIT FOR THE WARM WEATHER SEASON BELOW THE DAM THIS YEAR...WE NEED TO HOOK UP...MAYBE TEAM UP IN THAT OTHER SPOT I TOLD YOU ABOUT....I'LL MAIL YA WHEN I HEAD THAT WAY.

YA, THERES PLENTY OF CHANNEL CATS IN THERE TOO... I USUALLY NAIL A FEW ON THE RAPALA BUT THOSE SMALLIES TAKE THE CAKE!

WET NETS!

------------------
cast,cast,cast,cast......

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I know I'm a little slow but here's my two cents. 1 Where ever I am going to be fishing next. 2 Lake of the Woods 3. Mille Lacs 4. BWCA 5. Rum River

My rating of Lake of the woods is based upon one day in paticular. 5 years ago a friend and I went fishing out of the Northwest angle for walleyes in early July. We had been fishing since 6am and had not even gotten a bite. So we decided to cruise over to Canada and try our luck. After checking in with the mounties and fishing for an hour or two with one walleye between us we decided to try somthing different. We cruised into Monument Bay about noon. I started throwing a big bucktail spinnerbait looking for pike and muskies and my friend used a 3 inch white plastic grub trying for smallies and walleyes. He caught a couple of good 16-17in smallies in a matter of 15 minutes so I decided to switch and do the same thing. Then we caught the pattern, the only time we caught anything is when the jig almost hit shore or in my case bounced off of a rock on shore. Every two ta three casts after that we would see huge female smallmouths engulf our little jigs in 6in to 2ft of water from every boulder or rocky flat we threw to. These fish were monsters. We then started throwing mirror finish top water chuggers and the water just expoloded over the next 4 - 5 hours. These fish were huge most ran from 18 to 24in <-- yes one 24 inch absolute Pig (my partner caught). We caught (& released) somwhere between 60-80 fish during that span with at least 10 of them over 20 inches. the only reason we left is because this huge electrical storm rolled up on the lake in a matter of minutes. If that had not happened I just might have not stopped fishing ever. I have never caught the quantity and quality of fish that I did that day and probably never will again. I will always remember those fish and how we had never even planned on fishing that way on that day. We did not bring one fish home during that weekend trip. What once was one of my worst days fishing quickly became my best. I guess that is why I go out, for the hope of what could happen and the reality that it somtimes does.

May everybody on the forum have a day like that this year.
Jim

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Pound for pound the toughest freshwater fish in North America.

1.)Mississippi River (North of the cities)
2.)Rainy
3.)Crooked
4.)Lac La Croix
5.)Basswood

I would love to give Mille Lacs a shot, but I can't pull myself away from the eyes on the big puddle.

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Can't wait till season gets going, Red is starting to open up here, so that should keep me busy for a while. My job in the summer is pretty leniant so let me know when you're heading that way and I might have to join ya.

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  • 1 month later...

My favorite is lake of the woods by the northwest angle. Its beautiful and there is no better fishing anywhere.

frenzy

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  • 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
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