Local Panfish Action

[walleyeking#8]

Has anyone here been fishing nest by hwy 23? A guy I work with that lives by hilltop mentioned to me he seen about 5 to 6 boats in there this past weekend. I wonder if there are any size to them or if there like the last few years, pretty small. I am thinking of trying it somewhere tomorrow morning, any suggestions? C & R only. Maybe norway, foot,willmar, swenson, nest or andrew. Would appreciate any recent reports. WK8.

[jigginjim]

I was at norway and still real slow, the small bays real heating up. Nest near hi-way 23 area is starting to give up some fish but you'll need to sort them. North side of andrew is maybe a week away from the fish to real bite. Some are being caught, look to the shallows. Calhoun is just starting to bite good but does take time to find the active biters.

[joe joe]

don't was your time in the bays on nest your looking at silver dollar sunnys i walk down that way friday i have heard andrew is givin up some crappys

[walleyeking#8]

My son and I were in willmar on friday and decided to try it by the culverts on foot, didn't see anyone catching anything, but decided to try for ourselves, caught some real nice gills and a few 8-10 inch crappies.

It was nice to get out with the open water gear. Might have to take the boat out this week, now that it is all ready to go. Rumor has it the craps are biting on florida. I just hope there not cleaning house once again. It took many years for the crappies to finally get back established in that lake I sure hope they don't fish them all out of there again.

[brandon84]

Yeppers They bitting @ florida, people catching them everytime i was there. People Filling up the buckets with crappie.

[walleyeking#8]

I hope there are some of them using selective harvest or catch and release tactics. It would be a shame if the crappies are once again depleted from a lake such as florida. I have fished this lake my whole life and have seen what fishing pressure can do.

About 25 years ago this body of water was full of really nice crappies even them 15" and larger.

To much fishing pressure along with an over abundance of pike totally ruined the crappie fishery on this lake. Over these last 5 or 6 years the crappie fishing has been real good on lake florida, but now that everyone and there grandma knows about it, it won't take long and these fish will be hard to come by.

[iizfishin]

TOOK MY 12 AND 14 YEAR OLDS OUT LAST NIGHT ON FOOTLAKE AND FISHED OFF THE LEVY.DID CATCH A COUPLE NICE SUNFISH ONE NICE CRAPPIE AND BELIEVE IT OR NOT,EVEN TOOK A PERCH HOME.THOSE ARE THE 4 FISH WE CAUGHT OVER A 2 HR SPAN....VERY SLOW,BUT VERY FUN.

[brandon84]

ya we went on the levy last night too, got a few bites, only caught a small northern. Slow fishing is right. on florida not sure about their catch and release tatics, i had a noticed a few ppl keeping more then they need, even had some offer to give away some of their fish, dunno why they keep that many if they don't want them.

[sheephead24]

anyone ever fish off the bridge on the east side of Green in the spring?

[walleyeking#8]

Not for many many years. When I was younger, in my teenage years, I used to go down there and fish for sunnies. It usually was pretty slow when I was there. I can remember catching a lot of bass down there, but can't remember if it was during bass season or before.

If I remember correctly, you had to do a lot of sorting to get a few sunfish. Maybe there are some others that can share more, or give you some more recent success. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

[walleyewacker]

The brothers were at the 23 bridge monday and brought back about 10 nice fish, both sunnies and crappies that I got to see on my way through. They have been getting them fly fishin, sayin they cant get any good ones under bobber.

[primetime49]

Havent seen any fish of size on 23 end of nest but have seen few nice fish from bay on west end.even guys fishing from shore there got some bigger pans.Heard florida is giving up nice pans too,you might want to try bay back in games,henchun or swan if you slide a boat into those,right around opening where games opens into those is good for crappie right now.Green lake where it connects to acalhoun will probaly be upset for some time as major work is being done on road and utilities right now.I think road is closed over there.Somebody respond when they reopen road please.

[hardwaterfishing]

I went to nest today, a lot of people out there but all i caught was some small sunnies. anyone else been going out?

[eyehead]

We have been catching some decent sized crappies on the Crow River the last few nights. Most have been 9-14 inches. So go get'em. Enough of the panfish i'm ready for some Walleye

[basssmasher*]

Hard we should hit starbuck soon!! NICE crappies and a few nice sunnies also.. me and the better 1/2 went saturday and limited out on crappies and 6 nice sunies to boot... they are in that area thick!!

[lundman50]

I was on norway on sat had to sort but caught many nice sunfish in the 9 to 10 inch range. Florida has been good all along the docks with crappies being really nice but the sunfish are average or a little below. you can get some nice fish on nest but youll be doing alot of sorting, try george for some nice craps around the docks good luck

[walleyeking#8]

Fished norway this past friday, in the rain. Like lundman said some nice bluegills out there. Caught several in that range and also had two real large ones, might have gone 10" or even 11". All in all it was pretty slow though maybe because of the rain and cool weather. I talked to a lake owner and he said the week before the crappies were going, but they too had to be sorted.