new to this area

[newtoarea]

I think this is the right area to post. I recently moved to New Germany MN and I love fishing. I have a 19' fishing boat with a Humminbird Matrix 17 with GPS.

I talked with some locals and they say that lake Waconia is the best bet for my area. Unfortunately I spent the better part of a month out there trying for bass/northern/wallies and never had much luck. It seems the lake is VERY overfished. Just wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of a good lake in the area.

I went out on Waverly lake the other morning and got a couple decent bass. Anyone know if Waverly is a good fishing lake? I do not mind driving to the lake up to 30 miles or so. Maybe 60 miles on weekend.

Any adivse would be much appreciated.

[metro 1]

Have you checked Collinwood ? It has numbers of walleyes and I have heard good and poor reports .Metro

[newtoarea]

have not tried that one yet. I will probably give it a try in the next week or so and post results here.

Anyone else know of any good ones?

[Juan Grande]

newtoarea,

From what I've read on this site, Waconia is an excellent lake, you just have to know where to fish.

I think BassMasterMatt lives on the lake and/or guides there quite a bit. He knows where the pigs are. Might be worth setting up a guided outing to get a better idea where to fish.

If I remember right, it seesm like they pull a lot of bass out of the deep milfoil. Not sure what they use, I'm guessing worms and vertical jigging combos would work.

[wannaeye]

Try Howard Lake for multi-species. The weed beds on the North shore a a great place to cast raps over the top. You can't miss these beds. Northerns, walleyes and bass are very active in those weeds.

Colinwood can be good at times, try live raps in front of the county park, or live bait on the mid lake rock piles.

Good Luck!!

[newtoarea]

I will give Howard Lake a try this weekend. I will post on Monday how it went and thanks for the tip.

[duckbill]

Howard can be a good lake. I live in Howard Lake so I have fished it maybe 9-10 times this year. It has it's days to where fish are hard to find. If you are trying for walleyes try the rock piles in the middle of the lake in the evening.
Big Swan north of Cokato can also give up some nice walleye and smallies are fun to catch.
I would have to agree with the locals that you talked to though. Waconia is my favorite bass lake around. It produces big fish and in big numbers. Northern can be tough to find in Waconia. You won't catch many small ones. You are less than 30 miles from Tonka too then if you plan to fish during the week. Fishing on the weekend can be a little interesting to say the least. I lived on the lake for 5 years and really enjoyed fishing during the week.

[newtoarea]

Well I went out to Howard lake on Sat night about 7:30. trolled around checking out the lake and draging a 10ft. rap in about 13 feet of water. Got one small walleye about 1 1/2 pounder or so.

Went out again at 6:00 this morning and got a couple 3 lb bass out of the little reed cove on the west side. Then later got a nice 3-4 lb northern out of the weed beed just west of the landing. Got em all on a black spin bait did not have any luck with the rap i threw for about 45 min at the north weed bed.

[Guest]

newtoarea, Fish a lot of the lakes in this area quite a bit throughout the the open water months primarly for bass but walleyes too. You went out to Waverly...That was a good idea. I have had some pretty good luck as far as quality bass goes on that lake, especally this year. Lakes for numbers and occasionally you'll hook up with a nice sized bass are Twin and Sylvia with a jig and worm. I know its been a while since the last post here but let me know how the fishing has been in the area.

[newtoarea]

I have not had much luck on Waverly. There is a spot on the north side where big waverly and little waverly connect that is always packed with boats so i have not had a chance to fish that spot. My guess is they are getting walleyes there. Where are you getting the good bass at on that lake?

I have done a lot of fishing on Howard lake and got a LOT of bass out of there. Usually get 4-6 each time i am out and only usually get about 2 hours at a time. Biggest so far was 4 1/2 lbs. I fish the reed line on the west side of the lake where that little bay is.

If you live around the area maybe we can hook up some time and check out some lakes.

Thanks for the reply none the less.