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Just putting a post out that Camoman and myself will be heading from Owatonna somewhere to try to catch something...whether it is panfish/crappies/walleyes. Just checking to see if anyone else if planning on heading out in the area and if anyone wants to pair up and find some fish. We were thinking either Washington, Madison, or any of the lakes in the Faribault area (or any lake within 45 minutes or so of Owatonna). We will be up for fishing early morning until mid afternoon. Let me know if anyone will be out and about and where!

We have only been out on Clear (waseca), Mazaska, and Frances so far this year so let us know.

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Anyone recommend heading out of the west access versus the north access or vice versa? Any direction on the lake would be great - just looking for some action. Appears that we will try the shallow water bite and see what heppens.

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Will most likely be out there on Sat morning. Heading out of the Maplewood access off the point in approx. 10 - 15 ft of water. Had real good luck with large sunnies in that area in the last couple weeks and the occasional slimer too. I'm also looking at a few other lakes in the area too if anyone wants to hit a different lake around.

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Hey Scott... this is our first time coming over to Washington, so which access is the Maplewood access? We are trying to figure out which access will give us the best chance to find some pannies...

Diesel & I will be picking up Fishpainter about 6am & heading that way... Diesel & I will be in a Voyager with an older blue Polaris 4 wheeler. (If we look lost, we probably are!!)

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I'm not aware of a Maplewood access on Washington. I know there is the Westwood access which is located on the west lobe of the lake. There is also a public access on the north side of the east lobe of the lake. If you read through some of the past posts, I think you'll find that Mud Bay, Bakers Bay and areas around 3rd Point have been productive. There has been a decent deep water bite going on, but the shallow water bite seems to be picking up as well. Do some searching around by drilling holes and using your flasher unit and you should be able to find fish. This lake is loaded with pannies!

good luck out there!

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Sorry bout that, I got Washington and Clear messed up in my mind. I'll probably sit out on clear for an hour in the morning and see how they are biting there. I've never fished Washington... confused.gif, would love to try it though!

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scott what time sat are you going out on clear I'm thinking of heading out there sat morning

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Probably head out there around 9am. Then if nothing happening there, I don't know where to. Probably look at the map and head either up to Horseshoe or maybe try a new lake. Any suggestions on a lake that hasn't seen much in the way of traffic??? I know of one that I looked at last weekend, hardly no tracks going out on it and I know it produces northerns and crappie.

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there is a lake northwest of clear that hasen't had alot of traffic on it, my brother was out there on tues and caught some crappies and a 29" slimmer, but the fish weren't biting that good

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Well, we tried Washington on saturday - were fishing around 7:30/8am and left alittle after 12-noon. Camoman, Fishpainter and myself caught a total of 1 small perch. We started off of 2nd point and moved a bunch from there towards the channel and then back up off of 3rd point. We fished from 4' to 13' and drilled close to 50 holes. We were marking fish and could make them come off the bottum but nothing would bite. We fished in about 35 fow off of 3rd point and saw a bunch on the vex but again, nothing bit.

We then head to clear in waseca, caught 5 decent 9" crappies and left there about 3;30pm in the rain. So all in all we also ended up with a big fat 0 on Washington. Might try to go out again this saturday and try to find these crappies / bluegills you guys are all talking about to see if they are for real.

It was our first time on the lake and we tried to stay away from the crowds and do our own thing, but, that didnt work out very well this time.

All in all we had fun, just kind of frustrating when you cant even get a sunnie to bite!

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Big Diesel, next time try going out from the north landing about 500 yards and to the right just a little, find less than 8 feet of water with good weeds. I have always done better in this area for the sunfish and found crappies mixed in too. I have fished this area in the winter for over 20 years and always caught fish. The trick is to stay mobile and move with fish.

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ctuma-

thanks for the info. as we were heading out towards the north access we just about stopped in the area you were talking about but decided to head to clear instead. Next time I go I will definitely give it a try! Thanks.

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