Chunkers at Chester Report (1/17/07) (5 pics included)

[Tyler Holm]

We didn’t start drilling holes until after 6pm and we fished till about 9:30. I tried two different areas tonight, and the ice was 7.5” at both. We never ventured outside of the first finger from the boat ramp.

Spot #1 was 26 FOW and the second my slip knot reached my bobber, the bobber continued to go down. 10.5” crapp. That was the last fish taken on a minnow. For the rest of the evening, waxies or euros on small ice jigs did the best. We seemed to get more bites on smaller profiled jigs, but the hookup was substantially down.

Spot #2 was 29FOW atop of some structure and man were there fish there. Getting them to bite was a different story. Once in a while I’d win the 5 minute staring contest, but most the time I would loose. There was no particular pattern that I could find. First they would hit it as I slowly pulled it up and away from them, next that would spook them and they wanted it perfectly still for several minutes. Most every bite was super light and they would usually nose it once, then take it about 30 seconds later (if you didn’t set the hook while they bumped it with their nose)

Crappies and gills acted about the same today. All the fish I caught were suspended with several of them being 20-25 feet down.

Over the course of the night, I only caught 1 small fish and it was a 7” crappie. The rest were plate worthy, but like always, all fish were CPRed (Caught Photographed & Released)

This is your standard 10"-10.5" crappie at Chester

Here's a couple that went 11"

This gill was all of 9.5" (my largest of this ice season so far)

[nate larson]

Wow...nice report Tyler. Those are some healthy looking fish. I have never fished Chester before. Looks like I will have to give it a try. I didn't have much luck at Foster's last night. Just a couple small sunfish. Didn't start fishing until close to 8:00. I was marking fish that didn't want to bit. Seems like the fish aren't very aggresive right now. Do you happen to know where I could find a good map of Chester Woods? I couldn't find it using the Lake Finder feature on the DNR website.

[lookincalifornia]

nice pics ty,

when they are all nice, you don't mind working that hard.

love that release photo, makes me feel like i am right there

[Nellie30]

Great post as always Tyler! Question for ya, Can you define the first finger? Are you meaning all the way down to where it opens up to the beach to the left & areator to the right??

[Tyler Holm]

Nate,

There is no map that shows the depth contours, but here is a map of the physical lake. The first finger is the area from the boat ramp to where it opens up into the main lake.

http://www.co.olmsted.mn.us/upload_dir/pw/3600-03.pdf

[Tyler Holm]

The lake has 3 fingers. The North/NE finger is the one with the boat ramp and that's the one I fished.

[frydaddy]

Tyler, nice report and THANKS for CPR'ing those fish. Chester has the POTENTIAL to be a fantastic crappie/bluegill and bass lake if people do not fish it out. Already there is a really nice population of big bluegills as you found out. The crappies and bass are progressing slowly..........in 5 years if people are responsible and the dnr protects this resource it is going to be an incredible place to catch slabs and really nice bass.

Thanks.

Question..........how is the releasing of fish working out for the league?

[Bogsucker]

Contour map of Chester with approximate lake boundary. I'd be looking for the creek channels and points and timber.

[nate larson]

Tyler,

Thanks for info and the map. I am also gratefull that you released these fish. I think catch and release is important for most Rochester area lakes.

[NW angler]

Good to see that there is a closer option (than lake zumbro) for catching decent pannies. Thanks for your post Tyler! I am curious about Gamehaven. I know it has lots of bluegills and sm mouth bass, I am wondering about crappies. I know its a huge walk.

[FishinFool]

NW angler I don't believe that Gamehaven has any smallmouth bass in it, only largemouth.

[NW angler]

It does, I have caught them there.

[FishinFool]

Guess I stand corrected. I just have always heard of people catching largemouth out of there and not smallmouth.

[smg04]

me and a friend fished chester woods lake this morning, got set up around 7:30am in 16ft of water next to a large tree sticking out of the ice,it was slow right away we found a few decent 7-8in sunnys suspended around 4-6feet off the bottom, i threw almost everything i could think of but all they wanted was a black shrimpo tiped with a waxie, i did get one on a marmooska with a red nuggie, around 10:00am we moved shallower to around 12ft on the west bank at the base of the dropoff with alot of trees and branches around us instantly started nailing the lm bass all came for me on a glow chartruse frosty and waxies my friend was doing just as well on a blaze orange and black nuc. ant and waxies, between the two of us we prob iced a couple doz. between 10 and 11:30 when we had to pack up and leave, most of the bass were right around a foot in length with the last one i caught being the biggest 18in and im guessing it prob went arund 3 lbs. that thing was a hog, huge belly in it, i really wish i could make the next uplr event out there but i wont be able to make any more monday night events, but if its anything like it was today it should make for a very fun night, also we found around 8in of ice around 200yards streight out from the boat landing, when we moved shallower we were only on 4 1/2"