Minnesota Lakes Fishing Report.

[Jeff H]

On 2/17/2016 at 8:29 AM, sean55337 said:

Does anyone know the time frame when Gander Mountains and Cabelas have their fishing items on sale (not ice fishing?) With the warm up in temperature, I am getting excited. I know it is still way early but  I can't wait

Go to the websites and sign up for email notifications of the sales etc.  I setup an account with Cabela's and put stuff I want in my wishlist and just check that everyday to see if the things I want have gone on sale.  If they have it at local store I'll stop and get it, if not I'll order online and have it sent to store for in-store pickup....and pay no shipping. 

[gim]

Hey guys I'm a MN bass guy so I'll be in on this more often.  Did you guys see that the Bassmaster Elite Championship is on Mille Lacs next September?  Do you guys fish smallmouth out there much?  I do it several times a year but for some reason I never do that great.  A fish here, a fish there, but never any real consistency.

[MidwestF1sh]

On ‎3‎/‎2‎/‎2016 at 7:35 PM, gimruis said:

Hey guys I'm a MN bass guy so I'll be in on this more often.  Did you guys see that the Bassmaster Elite Championship is on Mille Lacs next September?  Do you guys fish smallmouth out there much?  I do it several times a year but for some reason I never do that great.  A fish here, a fish there, but never any real consistency.

Yes it is and im pumped to go to that and the river rumble on the Mississippi! I try to get up to mille lacs around ten times a year, last year was nice without walleye anglers everywhere. normally kill the smallies out there! lots and lots of fish in the 19-21" range and generally you can get a ton of numbers of them as well. later in the season last year I noticed that I was getting more numbers but had to sort through them to get the 20" fish. In the spring time they are super easy to find and so aggressive and packed up. After all it was the tenth best bass lake in the country last year.

[gim]

Maybe I'm fishing the wrong areas.  There is just so much water to try and cover.  Do you normally use tubes and wacky rigs and target the east side rocks?  At what depth?  My boat isn't huge so I have to constantly keep an eye on the wind and waves.  I can't be out there in 5 footers.  Thanks

[MidwestF1sh]

The lake can be very intimidating and I remember when I started fishing it for smallies I had all the same questions and concerns. Yes the rocks on the east and south side of the lake are great spots to find them. depth can very from day to day and from their seasonal patterns so there really isn't a target depth, some days in could be 4-6ft some days 20ft or somewhere in between. Some days it even changes throughout the day! with the wind deal, you should be able to find amazing smallie spots very close to public access. find a rock pile and fish it, if nothing move to the next, if you do get one figure out why you caught him, why was he there, what was he on, then go try to replicate it in other areas, any craw imitation works good, jerkbaits, dropshots, typical smallmouth baits.

[gim]

Great, thanks MidwestFi1sh.  I'll give it a try report back.

[punch]

Well, my local lakes in the north metro have total ice out. Saw a trailer at the launch today and got a little jealous! I'm getting my boat out next week. 

[WIGuide]

Does anyone know the ice condition on the Mississippi backwaters on pools 4,5, and 5a by chance? I live about an hour and a half away but have a tourney out there in April and would like to start fishing it asap so any info you guys have about the ice would be great!

[fayegarnett]

spending a couple weeks in Rochester MN. read from the fishing regulation that you could not even target bass right now. what does that even mean? what if a bass bites? I understand if you are not allowed to keep the fish, but not even targeting them? Does that mean not fishing at all until May then?

[gim]

Correct.  You cannot even target bass, walleye, pike, or muskie until those inland water seasons open in May & June.  What you can do is go fish some border waters that are open year round like Rainy River or the Mississippi River near Red Wing along Wisconsin.  You can only target panfish until inland walleye/pike opener in May and I believe bass opens later in May.

[punch]

On 3/17/2016 at 2:56 PM, fayegarnett said:

spending a couple weeks in Rochester MN. read from the fishing regulation that you could not even target bass right now. what does that even mean? what if a bass bites? I understand if you are not allowed to keep the fish, but not even targeting them? Does that mean not fishing at all until May then?

Welcome to Minnesota's acquainted fishing regulations! We should have catch and release year round with the harvesting season not opening until May.. but nooooo. We get to stare at our unfrozen lakes for a good month and a half before were allowed to target predator fish. It's kind of ridiculous. 

This state is so slow to make changes to anything. It's 2016 and we still don't sell alcohol on Sundays for cripes sake. 

I just go out with ultralight tackle and target crappies.. and whatever bites bites! I'll be doing that this weekend thats for sure. 

http://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2015/04/14/michigan-introduces-year-round-catch-immediate-release-bass-season/

Michigan saw the light last year. Minnesota and Wisconsin needs to get on board. 

[gim]

You may have a point.  I understand the idea of keeping it closed until May though, to protect spawning fish.  Until then, like you said, either fish some border water on the river or panfish.  I generally do not target panfish when the real fishing season is open anyways, so this gives me an opportunity to do that for a couple weeks before hand.  Plus, its just a good idea to get the boat out before opening day anyways to make sure there aren't any serious mechanical problems.  I did hear that basically everything in the metro and south of it is ice-free now.  Further north, probably not yet.

Breaking news on Mille Lacs this season...catch n release only for walleyes, NO LIVE BAIT.  That's brutal

[MidwestF1sh]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:'

Breaking news on Mille Lacs this season...catch n release only for walleyes, NO LIVE BAIT.  That's brutal

Too bad the resorts can still keep 4 smallies a person and CAN use live bait. I understand the resorts need a way to stay in business but after some of the pictures of 30 smallies hanging on a board all around 5 pounds last year made me loose a ton of respect for them. Also how the DNR worded it ticked me off.

[gim]

To my understanding, NO LIVE BAIT can be possessed on the lake unless it is a sucker that is 8 inches or longer designated for pike/muskie fishing.  Yes, they can keep bass if they choose to, but they can't use live bait.  They consider LIVE BAIT to be any form of live, dead, frozen, or preserved bait that is or once was alive.

[MidwestF1sh]

The resorts can use live bait if it is part of a survey, they need to document every fish they catch. They put the way around it in there to allow charters to take people out or like you said a minnow over 8"

[BassThumb]

The no-live-bait rule is gonna be a killer for those (remaining) bait shops. I feel really bad for them.  Very few people use 8"+ suckers up there for northern/musky, so they're gonna have to live on selling fishing line...

This also means no live bait for panfish, which kind of stinks. The lake has some nice crappies and bluegill.

I'm excited to hit up those smallies, though. 

Mille Lacs can really be a blast for bass, but it can be tough, too. It's not called the Dead Sea for nothing. Those fish like to move! And if you don't stay on top of them from week to week, you have a good chance of getting skunked. 

[gim]

Well I just heard that they reversed the live bait ban on Mille Lacs this season after some public outcry and local business complaint.  So there's a good chance that it will close before August 1 for walleye fishing again now based on high mortality using live bait.  What it also means is that people can target bass, perch, and other fish using live bait as well.

 

[FluffChucker]

It's the same old song and dance for the MN DNR & Legislature. Announce some new idea and get it signed into law, realize two months later it is a terrible idea, and then slowly back away from it after spending a ridiculous amount of money getting the word out about it. Invasive species stickers, anyone?

[gim]

Well the panfish are in the shallows.  Went out last weekend on Lake Minnetonka and the crappies/sunfish are in the shallow/backwater areas of bays in 5 feet of water.  Also the water temp was 52 on the main lake and almost 60 in the backwaters.

[NoDak Bass]

Anyone getting excited for this weekend??? 

The Lake I'll be fishing this weekend is Leech Lake, and sad to say, but the conditions look atrocious.

Here's the weather for the week- weekend: https://weather.com/weather/5day/l/56484:4:US

So, as you can see atrocious, high of 54 degrees all weekend and I have no idea if the Bass will be biting. Might have to move to walleye fishing for the opener. What do you guys think? Any tips for cold weather bass fishing in MN? This will be my first opener being a noobie fisherman, but I'm excited.

What lakes you guys fishing this weekend? I want to hear!

[spoolinx]

Not sure what the water temps are up there, but I was out on Tonka last week and I was seeing 59-60 in the bays. Saw bass cruising around, but no beds yet and none were locked into any particular area/structure.

Was out there again today, but just shore fishing this time and spotted a few beds even a male that was locked on a rock, chasing away bluegills that came near it.

It's looking good!

[Cootz]

Hello Mn anglers! I would like to start up a Jon boat tournament series since there aren't many clubs that allow boats under 16' in their clubs if you want to help me get this going please message me ! Thanks 

[punch]

So anyone get out today?? Where did you go? Find any fish on beds? 

[seporpn]

I wanted to go fishing so badly in Waconia, but I didn't want to freeze my ears off.

[punch]

I got out last night on a north meto lake with a buddy. Went out from about 4pm until 8. The water was 60 degrees. All the action we found was in and around the weeds in VERY shallow flats. All our bites came in 5 feet of water. Bass (and pike) were hammering kaitech 4" swimbaits, and we got a lot of action on simple #2 blue fox inline spinners (gold and silver both worked). There was a little bit of wind/chop and that blue fox spinner was smoking hot for a few hours. We caught about a dozen fish.. I lost a bunch of bass until I upsized my swimbait hook. Also caught a few on a wacky senko for fun. 

My trolling motor popped a fuse so I couldn't go around hunting for beds. 

We also tried fishing 10-13 feet just outside the flats with crankbaits and didn't get many bites. Fish were super active shallow though.