Minnesota Fishing Reports - 2017

[gim]

Bass Thumb is right.  My folks really got into the walleyes up there last weekend.  They caught over 40 of them for 3 days straight, mostly lindy rigging with live bait.  The biggest they got was 28.5 inches.  They said it was 5 foot waves rolling all three days in addition to the rain all day on Saturday.

[Tlauz]

Got out Monday, Tuesday, Wed,and a little today north of Bemidji.  Monday was the best day.  Caught 16 bass in 3 1/2 hours. Biggest 3 were 20, 18, 17 1/2.   No pike.  Tuesday fished with a couple buddies for about 4 hours and caught a mixed bag of pike and bass 18 total.  Both Monday and Tuesday were cold, drizzly days. Air temp was upper 40's and water temp low 50's. Wednesday and today the air temp was low 60's, water temp 53-54, WINDY, with blue skies and I threw everything I could think of with little to no success.  Water temps were 7 degrees lower than last time I fished opening weekend.

[DevinFishing29]

1 hour ago, Tlauz said:

Got out Monday, Tuesday, Wed,and a little today north of Bemidji.  Monday was the best day.  Caught 16 bass in 3 1/2 hours. Biggest 3 were 20, 18, 17 1/2.   No pike.  Tuesday fished with a couple buddies for about 4 hours and caught a mixed bag of pike and bass 18 total.  Both Monday and Tuesday were cold, drizzly days. Air temp was upper 40's and water temp low 50's. Wednesday and today the air temp was low 60's, water temp 53-54, WINDY, with blue skies and I threw everything I could think of with little to no success.  Water temps were 7 degrees lower than last time I fished opening weekend.

What did you catch those on?

[Jeff H]

Was out today on Chisago for 6 hrs.  We (my son and I) caught some fish but worked pretty hard for them, maybe 15 between us and biggest was 17"(x3), most were 13"-14".  Surface temps were 58-59 deg.  I figured it'd be a tough bite but I was still expecting warmer water.  Docks and shoreline with jigs and plastic cigars is what worked.  I could find nothing on flats at mid depths with spinnerbaits or jerkbaits.  Lake is WAY up.

[Tlauz]

1 hour ago, DevinFishing29 said:

What did you catch those on?

Storm GT 360 swimbait.  Really shallow.  Less than 3 feet in emergent reeds.  They really got it good.  All of the bites had it swallowed.  Also caught some on wacky worm a little deeper, and a few on a swim jig.  Sorm GT was by far the best bait.  Monday and Tuesday they were there, Wednesday and Thursday gone.  Tried 4-5 feet in emergent weeds and caught a lot of pike. 

[geneoh]

Got out tonight for a few hours. Caught some on a spinnerbait and a few misc baits. Once the sun set I threw a popper in and around patchy grass and caught 6 bass and a northern just shy of 10lbs in about an hour. First topwater bite of the year so I was pretty stoked. Biggest bass was maybe 2.25 so nothing huge but oh so fun. WT was around 62. 

[OperationEagle]

Got out tonight.  15 between two of us. A few 19's. But more 16, 17, 18s. 

 

Mostly caught on senkos. Light colored ones got all the fish. Zero on my black and blue. Just the opposite from opener. 

 

Still up shallow hugging the reed edges.  Water temp 59.  

[rascalP]

On 5/23/2017 at 0:59 AM, BassThumb said:

 

 

I was fishing for bass with small swimbaits, specifically 1/4oz VMC Mooneye Jigs and Keitech Easy Shiners in Pearl Ayu color, and ended up with no less than 50 walleyes over 16" along with 8 bass in the 1.5-2lb range. At least 6 walleyes over 24". They all came from the edges of rocky seams in 6-9' of water. I cast the swimmers out, let them fall to the bottom, and slowly reeled them back, bumping along the bottom. 

 

Good luck guys. I know this is Bass Resource, but good fishing is good fishing.  

 

 

Wow, that's a hot walleye bite!  And yes, "good fishing IS good fishing".

     We were up there on wed. - east side, and got maybe 15 smallies, but no walleyes.  And I was throwing a swimbait, but higher up in the water column.  Most of the smallies came on a small pink x-rap with the biggest being 19", so no giants.  Not a bad day, but not a great day.  In hindsight, I woulda done some different things like spend a little more time fishing deeper like 8-12ft and maybe slower on better fish spots. Water temp was 52.

 

   A lot of guys were out. Talked to one boat that was doing good on walleyes with tubes, so it seems get the bait on the bottom and you'll catch walleyes.

    Next week, we head up to Basswood lake up by Ely.    Boundary Waters with 25hp motors. Fantastic smallmouth AND largemouth fishing.  

 

[punch]

I went out this morning on Big Lake for a few hours and we did really well shallow (like less than 8') with a dropshot and minnow-style plastics. I was using a finesse worm and didn't get bit, but we changed to a power team hammer shad and started catching a lot of bass. I got no action on topwater or square bills. I did get a few nice bites and one good fish on a crappie colored swim jig in about 9-10' on the outside of a growing weed line. Was a fun morning! 

[NathanDLTH]

Out for a few hours the last couple days and all I'm getting is pike or walleye. Have yet to catch my first bass of the season.

[BKhaos]

11 hours ago, rascalP said:

 

    Next week, we head up to Basswood lake up by Ely.    Boundary Waters with 25hp motors. Fantastic smallmouth AND largemouth fishing.  

 

Wow, did the Basswood trip when I was a little kid, maybe 20 years ago. Caught some of the meanest fighting smallies of my life that week. It was a dream! I'd love to take my family and my old man up there some day. Good times!

[Tlauz]

Fished Saturday Morning 8-1 and Sunday morning for 2.5 hours.  Saturday was tough.  Caught 10 bass and a few pike.  Tried weeds in 4-6 feet and caught almost nothing.  Finally found some bass in less than a foot of water on trees along sandy shoreline. All smaller fish. Ran out of trees and fish.  On Sunday,  I went back to what worked opening weekend. Swam a jig with craw trailer in less than 3 feet and bass were still there (not sure why I didn't try this Saturday?). Caught 9.  No giants, all between 14-17 inches.  Water temps were still middle 50's in mornings.  I did much better when I slowed down.   

[Bassn4fun]

Made it out yesterday for a couple hours, ended up catching 6 bass and 3 northerns.  I started off trying a green pumpkin vibrating jig, a swim jig with both a craw trailer and a paddle tail swimbait but nothing, so I switched over to a white/chartreuse spinnerbait with nickel blades and a paddle tail trailer and started catching them, all of the fish were caught on the spinnerbait in sparse lily pads in 2-3 feet of water.  I did catch one bass that showed signs of being on a bed or making a bed, but the others didn't have a mark on them.  The water temp was right around 60-63 degs. 

[punch]

Spent the weekend in Isle Bay on Mille Lacs camping & fishing. The weather was not great (wind/rain) and my boat isn't very big so I was kinda relegated to fishing little nooks where the wind wasn't so terrible. I really wanted to find smallies but they proved to be illusive for me with the conditions and lack of mobility. I did manage to catch a nice 4lber fishing from the bank though! 

 

The walleye bite is just insane on that lake. I boated a ton of eaters and some big tanks on drop shots, ned rigs and swimbaits. They were eating everything and in all sorts of depths. 

 

Mille Lacs is such a fun lake. You never know what's going to happen every time you cast! Can't wait to go back. 

 

 

 

 

[NathanDLTH]

Nice Punch!! Looks like a good outing. 

[gim]

I went out on Memorial Day for a few hours in the morning with a friend, small north metro lake.  We caught 16 bass, 5 pike, and a walleye.  All but 3 fish were small male bass 10-15 inches long, with the other three being about 17 inches.  I could not get a fish to hit a moving lure.  I had to slow way down and almost hop a small plastic stick bait on the bottom like I was jigging for walleyes.  We saw several large bass guarding beds but they would not bite, plus I don't have a lot of experience targeting bedded bass.  Water temp was still only 62 degrees.

[geneoh]

On 4/12/2017 at 2:19 AM, geneoh said:

I bought a new boat this winter (tracker pro team 175) and I purchased some graphs to go along with it, two Lowrance HDS7's. I'd like to end the year fully understanding these graphs and be able to find fish. I'd like be more adapt with soft plastics in general. Specifically dropshots but not just that rig. I plan on having outings where all I bring are plastics, force myself to fish them and get comfortable with it. 

 

Back to what Punch asked at the beginning of this thread, I've spend a lot of this year already on dropshot/weightless setups. I've been able to catch fish every time I go out which wasn't the case last year. They may be dinks but at least I'm not getting skunked. 

 

What are your favorite baits for dropshots to get bigger bites?

 

Also, anyone working on the techniques you want to get better at?

[punch]

My current favorite dropshot baits are: PowerTeam's Hammer Shad & Tickler, roboworm, 4" senko, berkley powerbait minnow, berkley gulp minnow (great on crappies)

[Indianas Finest]

I am headed up to Hackensack area fishing this weekend (3rd-8th). I am from Indiana and this will be my first time in Minnesota fishing.  The other 4 guys I am going up with want to walleye fish but I would like to bass fish.  Gonna be staying on Birch lake but don't mind trying different places.  Any suggestions where I can fish for both bass and walleye??? 

[OperationEagle]

Welcome to Minnesota!  Please do not tell others how nice it is up here. Just tell them lakes are still frozen over. 

 

You wont be too far from leech lake. It is a good multi species lake.  Problem might be where your buds might want to be to catch walleye there likely will be limited bass. 

 

Call a a local resort up there in the area for some ideas then narrow down. So many bodies of water to choose from. 

 

I am a hoosier transplant with no intention of returning...fishing is too good up here. ?

[Tlauz]

Went out 1:30 -6:30 on Wednesday and 8:30 -1:30 Thursday.  Wednesday caught 23 all bass. Thursday 10 all bass.  First time this year I got into some smallmouth.  The lake I fish has an OK number of small mouth, but  I struggle to catch them throughout the year.  They were all shallow in less than 3 feet of water near beds, but not necessarily on them.  Wednesday was fairly windy and I thought with no wind today I would smash em.  Nope.  Saw lots of fish cruising, but couldn't get them to go.  The cruisers seemed to be smaller.  Caught almost all fish on Wednesday on Storm 360 1/8 oz. swimbait.  Thursday caught a few on jig, weighted worm and Storm swimbait.  Water temps were 58-63 depending on day and time.  If I would have caught 1/2 the fish I saw the day would have been epic.

 

[geneoh]

That 360 is working wonders for you, Tlauz!

[FryDog62]

Took my last antibiotic this morning after fighting an upper respiratory and Staph infection for the last 3 weeks.  Lost 10 pounds and hadn't been outside in what seems like forever.  Great to be back on the water.  Not a lot of fish today, but a couple very good ones including this 21 -1/4 bronzeback.  

 

Good to see Punch out on the water too !!

[OperationEagle]

Frydog glad you are back up and at em. Not too much time lost from fishing. 

 

Thats a nice smallie...what did it hit?

[FryDog62]

Good question... this one was kind of fun.  I did one of those long casts to shore, well a little too long -- I threw a wacky worm and it wrapped around a small tree branch about 3 feet above the water.  Shoot, hate it when I do that... but it happens fairly often with an amateur like me.  I thought about snapping it back and re-casting but thought well, I just dangle the worm into the water and see if anything happens...whoosh!   Big boil but no fish, so I let it down just into the water again and this time she did not miss...

 

That was great, but now what?  I'm sitting there with a big fish on one end, braided line and an 8 pound leader.  I either try to hoist the fish up over the branch or yank and try to snap it.  I did the latter and lucked out, probably a 50-50 chance.  Was great to get it to the boat and in the net to a big sigh of relief!