What's Working Now...

[UncleKes]

Lucy! You sure got that right! This Pawlenty is definately NOT a fisherman. Uncless you own a casino by Mille Lacs or are a big money donor to the GOP I don't know any other way to get the DNR in this state to restock the lakes around Minnesota. It has been years since I have heard of the DNR restocking a lake. Has anyone else?

Personally I have had Pawlenty of Pawlenty. Lets vote in someone who likes fishing for a change instead of sitting on his backside in St. Paul and assessing fees which in reality are taxes with another name because he is afraid to call them by there normal name!

[CJH]

Let's keep the politics out of it. If you're looking to limit out on 12in crappies, go down south. There aren't a whole heck of alot of places you can do that in MN, regardless of stocking. If you want to get more stocking going, pressure your reps to get the outdoor sales tax initiative approved.

Gettin' ready for the hardwater season!!!!!! Just got back into town from Alexandria for turkey day and there were several small ponds/lakes that were covered in a skim of ice. Its gettin' close!!

[Carp-fisher]

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Yeah but its rare. Im talkin limits. Plus im talkin shako area to minneapolis and east and west. not monticello to wisconsin to st cloud to south new prague. The metro is pretty much shot ta hell. it just isint what it once was unless you work for the ODN or some other Republican money marketing Machine.

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Come on now. We've got it so good here in the Metro we don't even know whats going on. My home state of Iowa has less lakes than there are within a 30 mile radius of my house here in Chanhassen. I caught and released two 14" crappies last season right here in the SW metro. Its certainly true that you have to search for them and keep a lid on it when you find them, but there's a heck of a lot of fish out there.....

[sirfishalots]

I second that, There are alot of good sized fish right in the metro you just have to serch alittle harder. If it is a lake that you see lots of people than the fishing will be a little bit tougher because there are to many meathogs! They will keep any fish with any size and pretty soon all you have is small fish or fish nobody wants like bullhead, rockbass, green sunfish, and carp. Each one of those fish that are thrown back take food and space of the fish we want. So it is two fold start releasing large fish (Don't be a meathog) and get rid of rough fish. If that happened the D.N.R would only have to stock lakes that don't have natural reprodution. Oh yea by the way me and 2 friends of mine caught over 18 cappie in one day last summer and all were over 2 pounds all were C&R. I pulled in a 6 1/2 pound bass that went back. 22 lb. catfish another day C&R, and 10 1/2 lb walleye C&R another day. Ok you get the point I'm just saying keep a few small fish, what you will eat that week don't fill your freezer because you found a honey hole and then 6 months later throw it all away. Alright I'll shut up.

[Grant Pearson]

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Oh yea by the way me and 2 friends of mine caught over 18 cappie in one day last summer and all were over 2 pounds all were C&R. I pulled in a 6 1/2 pound bass that went back. 22 lb. catfish another day C&R, and 10 1/2 lb walleye C&R another day. Ok you get the point

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The bass, cats, and walleyes are believable, but 18 crappies over 2 pounds in 1 day? got pics of any of them? If so, lets see them.

[OLY]

18 cappie in one day last summer and all were over 2 pounds

I have never even caught one 2lb crappie and I fish URL a couple times a year. You must be one heck of a fisherman

[sirfishalots]

I don't have pics from that day but I think one of my friends took the biggest (15"-16") on camera phone although i'm not sure how to get that on here but I could take my camera with to that lake and see what I can get.

[Grant Pearson]

did you get any replicas made? I know I sure would've gotten at least one of the two pounders mounted!!!

[floorguy]

OHHHH the tales we tell. No DNA no deal The idea of throwing the biggins back works well Have fished the river in the downtown area for the last 5 years just from the shore mind you.Have never kept one smallee same holes same bait with a little twist from time to time. Biggest one this summer 5lbs so it would seem that not taken fish results in more fish, bigger fish!!! Have a question for all who read nobody will eat the metro fish in the summer, but in the winter it's all good. I get the whole cold bit, just seems odd, does the mercury content drop in the winter? I've lived in the metro my whole life fished lots of lakes have seen all fish decrease in qty and sz. At this rate will have slots on all fish or no fish. good luck to all

[Kyle Sandberg]

So, WHATS WORKING NOW...

[RonZ]

I went out yesterday on a n metro lake and found crappie stacked from the bottom 17ft up to 14ft. They were biting on just about anything I put down there. They even chased a depth bomb up off the bottom, I used to check the depth on a extra line. About 5:00 I pulled up 2 northern 5 mins apart on my light 3lb test panfish rigs. FUN! Best of all its a day bite! I used blu/white/pink shrimpo's, ratso's, small jigging spoons, teardrop, with minnows,minnow heads,minnow tails,waxies,spikes, and plain jigging. It all worked. They did like it more when the jigs were above the pack up to 10 ft off the bottom.

PS: I was the only one fishing there.

[CALVINIST]

Here's a few Tonka walleyes I got this morning caught on a dead stick with a shiner. I missed another four fish. Maybe have to use a small treble hook in the future. They didn't want a jigging spoon at all, but probably served in calling 'em in.

A nice eater

walleyes for the table

Hopefully I'll catch more and bigger Tonka walleyes in the near future

[Kyle Sandberg]

Those are some nice metro eyes Cal. Great job.

[Matt Johnson]

Any recent reports? A lot of people are catching panfish across the Metro. Both shallow over the flats as well as out suspended in the deeper holes.

Lately I've been doing well targeting that 7-13 foot range with size 8 Ratsos. Crappies seem to be coming through about 3-6 feet below the ice, while the gills hold tighter to the bottom.

A few good reports of walleyes coming out of Tonka and White Bear. Weedlines on Tonka and deep rocks on White Bear.

Pike are still hot around most of the Metro. Seems as if the midwinter funk hasn't taken hold quite yet. Again, weedlines are holding a lot of pike. Tip-ups with shiners or else a nice chunk of frozen smelt works well too. I would also drop down a size 5 or 6 Chubby Darter or a 3/8oz Lindy Flyer jig wipped with a 4-inch Berkley Power Grub. Both are great jigging techniques for Metro pike... or pike anywhere for that matter.

I heard a couple good reports on Medicine too, but the size is down a bit.

A lot of fishing taking place right. People are constantly stopping in at Thorne Bros talking about various catches and bites. Seems as if a lot of people are catching fish...

[GoggleEye]

If anyone knows any lakes around St. Paul where I can go to catch decent sized panfish, will you please email me!!!!! I am so frustrated with these metro lakes!!! I have some honey holes over in WI, but I am sick of having to drive all the way over there to catch decent panfish. My email is [email protected] if you could help me out. Not looking for any specific spots or GPS cords., just a lake name. Thanks!!

GoggleEye

[Chode2235]

Good panfish are tough to find in the metro. You have to weed through the small ones to find them. They are there, but its a challenge to say the least.

The fishing for crappies has been pretty fast and furious on almost all of the smaller metro lakes that I have been out on. Typically they have been suspending about 5-8 feet off the bottom and have been biting better and better. Not many big ones, but a few nice ones. I have also been finding some good bluegills at the deep pivot points. Inside turns seem to be key.

Glad to hear the pike bit is still going on. We hooked into a couple nice ones at early ice, but have been concentrating on the panfish as of late.

[comin4you24]

I fish around Chaska and a lake I've been going to has been producing consistently. I've been finding crappies around 30-35 fow, suspended around 22-17 ft. They'be been biting on chart. (green eyes) Genz Bugs more than anything; tipped with 2 or 3 spikes. Has anyone else seen any luck around there? Send my a PM and I'll tell you what lake.

[GoggleEye]

PM doesn't seem to be working. It says that you have to be an administrator. My email is [email protected] if you still want to share the name of the lake you were catching nice crappies.

GoggleEye

[Mark1:17]

Has anyone had luck on Waconia with panfish in the past couple of weeks?

[fishersofmen]

I love that verse Mark 1:17. You kind of stole my screen name though. (kidding)

[CARVER_COUNTRY]

 Originally Posted By: Mark1:17

Has anyone had luck on Waconia with panfish in the past couple of weeks?

Yes you can catch them anywhere from 7 to 12 feet of water. Fish in the weeds or on the weedlines early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Thats whats been workin for me.

[Fishing Queen]

Well Hi Boys,

It has been a long time since I have posted. No I did not fall off the edge of the ice

Last few years I have just been a little busy with life issues. I have looked in once or twice to check reports.

Now on to my report.

Lake Minnetonka: Look to the west side for some decent sunnie action I have been using a genze horizontal tipped with a white Nuggie plastic and have been catching alot of 7" or better fish. I am fishing in about 12' on the edge of weeds and fishing the whole column. I have mainly been on Seton Lake now that I live right on the channel now

For some crappie action start fishing the deeper holes I have been using 1 minnow and bobber rig, and the other rig I am jigging a glow demon tipped with a minnow. I have not found some big fish but I am averege is about 9.5 up to 12". Well good luck to all I hope to see you out on the lake. If you are by Seton look for the Red Chevy and a crazy girl fishing next to it. Take care

RIP LIPS

Pat

[Matt Johnson]

Good to hear from you again Pat! It has been a long time. Sounds to me like you're still putting a whoop down on the Tonka pannies. That's good to hear.

Thanks for the report and see you on the ice!

[Matt Johnson]

Spent the morning out chasing pannies. Looking for monster gills but settled on crappies instead. Had a hard time finding any gills over 9-inches, and not too many numbers either. The crappies on the other hand decided to come out and play.

We targeted depths of 7-13 feet and marked a lot of fish and caught a lot of crappies in the 7-10 inch range. Out group did manage 7 fish over 12 inches with the biggest coming in at around 13 3/4 inches. Most of the fish came in on plastics (Ratsos and Power Minnows) but a few came on Marmooskas and larva. I caught all of my fish on either a Glow/Chart Power Minnow or a Pink head/blood red body Ratso.

Bottom content seemed to be mostly hard with a little bit of stick in some areas. Fish seemed to be cruising through and you could intercept a few before the school moved on. Just about drained an entire tank of auger gas today

The key today seemed to be the game of cat and mouse. If you had a fish on the flasher that wouldn't eat, all you needed to do was tease it a little and start to lift the jig away from it and the fish would almost always take the bait. Overall it was a fairly aggressive day.

Here's a pic of one of the crappies...

Tomorrow we plan on hitting a different lake in hopes of finding a few more larger gills.

Don't know why, but I have bull gills on the brain

[Fishing Queen]

Well I hit it hard this past weekend. I mostly fished on Lake Minnetonka on Seton. I had to do alot of sorting I mean alot of sorting but ended up catching my limit all three days. The biggest gill was around 8" most of the fish that I kept were 7" or bigger. I bet I caught 300 hundred fish a day. I never could use two holes it was all that I could do to keep one pole going. I was in about 16' of water and they were stacked in there we had the camera down most of the day and it was full of fish.

I hit the crappie hole on Sat and I of course caught my limit and helped my buddies with theirs.

That is why they call me the

Fishing Queen

I can tell you my back is screaming at me today at work hopefully I can recover by Sat to hit it hard again. Take care everyone will report next week.

Rip Lips

Pat

[Matt Johnson]

You always seem to catch fish Pat

We hit the ice again yesterday morning and ended up switching gears completely. We started out targeting crappies over a decent size basin and managed to catch a few with two in the 11-inch range. However the crappies were not going. We must have worked over 75 holes in about an hour between 4 guys and could not find a consistent school, so we decided to move on to the gills...

We relocated over a shallow water flat with scattered weeds (depths were 4-7 feet). We hooked into a couple nice gills right off the bat but then the pike moved in and it was all over. We couldn't catch a gill without a pike cruising in on the next drop. So, we decided to rip-jig for some pike and we ended up landing close to a dozen pike on jigging rods Biggest was around 7 pounds and boy do they crush the bait in that shallow water! No need to use a flasher and when one hit you knew it!

We caught our crappies on size 8-4 Ratsos. A couple came on Power Minnows too. The gills all took the size 8 blood red Ratso. The pike... well let's say they took just about anything and everything

Sure was nice to feel the warm sun yesterday. Looks like today is going to stay warm until this afternoon. High winds but if you hunker down on the back side of an island or shoreline then you should be fine...

[MedicineMan]

It's great to hear from you again Pat!

Btw, nice Crappie MJ!

[Fishing Queen]

Yeah sorry it has been so long lots of things have been going on. Everything is much better now in my life. I feel so much better now that I am ice fishing again. As ya"ll know this girl loves to ice fish

I do have a queston when it gets back up to some decent temps anyone want to meet me out on Tonka for a little pan fishing action? I am heading up to URL on Feb 17,18,19 but I have open weekends around and after that.Let me know if anyone is interested.

RIP LIPS

Pat

[lakepepinboy]

My father-in-law recently gave my 8 year-old son and me his old portable fish house, gas auger, etc. so we can try ice fishing around the metro area. We've tried Medicine Lake a few times the past couple of weeks but things have been really slow. Tried Spurzem Lake (just west of Baker National Gold Course in Baker Park) this weekend, but everything we caught was pretty small. I have already come to realize how important a Vexilar is and will be buying one before next year. Any suggestions on a good spot to take the little guy to get him a "panfish fix" that can tie him over until the ice goes out and he can return to fishing at our cabin??? Late Saturday afternoon or Sunday would work best for us this weekend. We live in Golden Valley and prefer to drive west - Minnetonka, Waconia, Independence, etc.

[Fishing Queen]

I would love to help but if I tell you my spot I would have to kill you

Just kidding its great that you are getting the younger one into ice fishing. I can tell you that if you go to Seton Lake on Minnetonka you can catch alot of sunnies there. If you look at a good map of Minnetonka you will see it. If you are willing to drive on the lake which the ice is plenty thick out there. Follow 15 around the lake when you get past the spring park bay you will come to a stop light with a BP gas station turn left go about two blocks you will see to your right where people are driving onto Black Lake which is also good panfiahing. To get to Seton you head about 1:odirection there is a channel that heads into Seton. If you don't feel comfortable driving on lake. Keep going straight on 15 over the seton Bridge and you will turn left at next road there is a little used car place there. If you go about four blocks there is a small park on the left that people park at and walk down to the lake. If you see a red chevy silverado with a little flip over HT its me come over and say hi.

I am fishing in different spots all over the lake but sticking near 16 feet of water. Fish are stacked in the whole column. I have been using a small Mini shy bite bobber and a J&B ant with a waxie. They seem to like the slow drop better. Good luck out there its great that you spend time with your kid fishing. more people need to do that with theirs.

Rip Lips

Pat