Minnesota Fishing Reports - 2017

[Jmhalvo]

The bass fishing on lakes seems dead right now. Thinking about the Mississippi onSunday. Any reports?

[sully420]

10 hours ago, punch said:

Rad, we fished the oepn tournament on Coon a few weeks ago. Were you there? 

 

Me and my buddy Josh will be fishing in a ranger reata. 

Which night/division? We're doing the wed night greenhorn. 

We plan to fish 2018

[Tlauz]

Fished Thursday and Friday.  5 hours each day.  Water temps upper 40's,  WINDY ( 15-25mph) and bright sun. Water was crystal clear and most shallow weeds were brown.  Tried swim jig, shallow cranks, lipless crank, swim bait,  chatter bait, spinnerbait, deep cranks.  Caught 6 Thursday and 9 Friday.  It was really tough.  I never caught 2 fish in same area.  It was so windy today I basically could only throw crank bait or spinnerbait.  Most fish were on spinnerbait in shallow water.  Dropped off boat to get winterized and stored.  Already looking forward to next year. 

[Jmhalvo]

River was just ok...caught a few, one 19 in. However, every eddy was FULL of leaves...very tough. Very windy. I still hope to try more late season fishing, but it’s getting to the end.

[gim]

I'm going out tomorrow in the rain and it will be my last trip of the season because the highs are in the 40's a couple days next week and my boat is getting winterized.

 

I have been doing pretty good with a fast, horizontal presentation lately and I plan to deploy that again tomorrow.

[rascalP]

On 10/14/2017 at 6:35 PM, gimruis said:

I've been doing pretty good lately, but I am targeting days with clouds and/or rain in the forecast too which seems to significantly increase success compared to those calm, sunny, bluebird days.  I've got about one week left before I winterize my boat and then put it into storage.

    

    Like gimruis said, the nice weather this past week was not good for bass fishing for me.  I fished tuesday and thursday on different lakes.  Water temp was 56 on Chisago  and 58 on N. Center on Thursday.    Tuesday we scratched up maybe a dozen bass throughout the day, but no biggins - 16" tops, however I did get my biggest pike of the year - a 12-15 lb broadback fatty - in the pads on a white swimjig.  The pike have been on a tear this week.

 

   Thursday I got a call from a buddy who wanted to know he and his son could join me and another buddy, so we went to N.Center to have the pannie option. A couple guys fished panfish while me and another threw for bass.  You literally could not keep the pike from biting.  My buddies son wanted to do some pickling, so we kept a half dozen 18"-22" pike.

   If anybody wants some pike to eat or pickle, head to N.Center.

 

   It looks like I'm heading up to Mille Lacs on monday and tuesday, but I think we'll skip the east side cause of the wind.   The good thing about the real nice weather this past week is it kept the water temps up and that stretches out the late season.   The lakes still have a good bite coming and the Croix will hold till Thanksgiving, even though you might have switch to minnows.   Hoping to still get the boat wet in December this year.

[Jmhalvo]

9 hours ago, rascalP said:

    

    Like gimruis said, the nice weather this past week was not good for bass fishing for me.  I fished tuesday and thursday on different lakes.  Water temp was 56 on Chisago  and 58 on N. Center on Thursday.    Tuesday we scratched up maybe a dozen bass throughout the day, but no biggins - 16" tops, however I did get my biggest pike of the year - a 12-15 lb broadback fatty - in the pads on a white swimjig.  The pike have been on a tear this week.

 

   Thursday I got a call from a buddy who wanted to know he and his son could join me and another buddy, so we went to N.Center to have the pannie option. A couple guys fished panfish while me and another threw for bass.  You literally could not keep the pike from biting.  My buddies son wanted to do some pickling, so we kept a half dozen 18"-22" pike.

   If anybody wants some pike to eat or pickle, head to N.Center.

 

   It looks like I'm heading up to Mille Lacs on monday and tuesday, but I think we'll skip the east side cause of the wind.   The good thing about the real nice weather this past week is it kept the water temps up and that stretches out the late season.   The lakes still have a good bite coming and the Croix will hold till Thanksgiving, even though you might have switch to minnows.   Hoping to still get the boat wet in December this year.

What is your advice- when you say The lakes still have a good bite coming, what/when is the strategy? Thx

[rascalP]

2 hours ago, Jmhalvo said:

What is your advice- when you say The lakes still have a good bite coming, what/when is the strategy? Thx

  It depends on the water.   This time of year I'm either on the river or 1 or 2 local lakes, so I can only speak for the patterns on those pieces of water.  I do know that these lakes will have a shallow bite with water temps in the high 40's to low 50's. And they WILL hit moving baits.  70 percent of the time I will be throwing a swimbait or swimjig depending on weeds,pads, etc.  Chatterbaits and spinnerbaits will come into play, as will squarebill's and jerkbaits.  If none of these work, then I will go to jig/trailer combo.  Cover water.  Look for baitfish/panfish activity. This is real important. Birds can be a tip off.   Throw scattered shallow weeds in the mix and you're there.

      Conditions make a difference - wind better than calm,   cloudy or partly sunny better than sunny,   rain if that's what I'm dealt.  Gradual falling temps is better than a spike up.                     Bottom line : the best time to go fishing is whenever you can.  It's not a for sure magic time,  but it can be.   What IS for sure is, ice is coming soon, so I jam as much open water fishing in as I can now.

     I would be out right now if I didn't have to work in a few hours, but starting sun afternoon, I'll be out the rest of the week.   Have fun, everyone.

[Jmhalvo]

3 hours ago, rascalP said:

  It depends on the water.   This time of year I'm either on the river or 1 or 2 local lakes, so I can only speak for the patterns on those pieces of water.  I do know that these lakes will have a shallow bite with water temps in the high 40's to low 50's. And they WILL hit moving baits.  70 percent of the time I will be throwing a swimbait or swimjig depending on weeds,pads, etc.  Chatterbaits and spinnerbaits will come into play, as will squarebill's and jerkbaits.  If none of these work, then I will go to jig/trailer combo.  Cover water.  Look for baitfish/panfish activity. This is real important. Birds can be a tip off.   Throw scattered shallow weeds in the mix and you're there.

      Conditions make a difference - wind better than calm,   cloudy or partly sunny better than sunny,   rain if that's what I'm dealt.  Gradual falling temps is better than a spike up.                     Bottom line : the best time to go fishing is whenever you can.  It's not a for sure magic time,  but it can be.   What IS for sure is, ice is coming soon, so I jam as much open water fishing in as I can now.

     I would be out right now if I didn't have to work in a few hours, but starting sun afternoon, I'll be out the rest of the week.   Have fun, everyone.

Thanks!

[gim]

On ‎10‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 11:44 PM, rascalP said:

The pike have been on a tear this week.

 

They've been on a tear since Labor Day! That pickled pike is pretty good stuff.

[shimmy]

Went out last week during the good weather. I came in with high expectations and was amazed at how HARD the fishing was...The most my brother-in-law and I caught in one day was 11. A whole day of fishing and that was the most we managed in an outing. I really tried to force the jig and jerkbait but was amazed at how tough it was to produce, aside from my first day. Spinnerbait saved the day for me on several occasions. Will post pics later. The first day out was my best 5 fish day of the week by far, which was a 25+ limit, but after that, i don't think i cleared 23 pounds and on a few outings, we combined didnt clear the 15 pound mark. I caught no absolute giants and gave it my best. Brother in law caught a  6 lb 14 oz bass his last morning on Friday. It was early in the morning and i thought we would have an epic day. We only caught 6 more fish with the second biggest coming in at 4.6 lbs. Even with that giant, we didn't clear 20 pounds for top 5 that day. The fish came in at 22.5 inches. It was a huge bass. It was still a great trip and relaxing, which is what i needed. Water temps hit 49 one day earlier on, but steadied around 53. 

[geneoh]

Thats awesome for your brother-in-law, shimmy, that's a beast!

[Jmhalvo]

Interesting how it was a tough week all over. River was great today, however. Giving up on lakes for awhile.

[punch]

Gene took me out on his tracker this morning on some little lake near Buffalo. There was a tremendous amount of downed trees/wood on this lake. Water temps were mid 50's. We tried some stuff that didn't get too many bites, but then Gene started flipping the timber with a craw and started hammering them all day. Bass were up really shallow and right on the wood. Not a bad way to start the week! 

 

[OperationEagle]

Saw that white stuff flying this morning...is the (non-ice) season done boys?  My fall was not productive...at all.

 

Very soon it will be time to switch species.

 

Thanks Punch for starting this thread for 2017.  Probs my favorite forum to see what was working and what was not in local waters.

 

A few seasons ago I complained that MN had the weakest showing in these forums, especially when compared to the number of fishermen and bodies of water we have in our state.  We've turned that around and its been awesome.

 

We are so lucky to have what we have in our beautiful state.  Fun to share notes as we enjoy and explore it.

[Jeff H]

Put my boat away last weekend. Got tired of the gators! I had good days and average days this fall, none bad unless you add in the gator bite. If I never caught another d**n gator it wouldn’t bother me a minute of my remaining days on this earth.?

looking forward to next season now. 

[gim]

I got into the pike thick this fall too Jeff lol.  Some days they were pretty big, but most days they were the usual snakes that just annoy you and wreck tackle.  One day I broke off two really big ones so I adapted and switched to a beefier setup with a leader and caught the next 3 - one being the biggest one I've caught in 11 years.

 

I winterized my boat and put it into storage earlier this week, and I'm glad I did.  Last year it was super warm into November, but most years that aint happening.  I got some hunting to do now anyways.  Good luck to those that are still brave enough to fight mother nature.  I don't ice drink anymore so my next showing won't be until April 2018.

 

On a personal note, I did manage to finally end a 16 year muskie drought.  I broke through with 8 this season.

 

[Jeff H]

Yup, time to do a little hunting and work on the truck now.

[FryDog62]

Had a death in the family and the last few weeks have been a real bummer.  Haven’t kept track of fishing or water temps in the Metro area at all.  Don’t know if I’ll get out this week or weekend.  Feel like I should to get over my brother’s passing - if the weather is tolerable.  I don’t hunt or ice fish so this could be my last shot for awhile...

 

Anyone have current water temps for either metro area lakes or rivers??  Am I too late for bass?  Could try muskie too but big sucker minnows are probably getting hard to find...

 

Thanks guys - -

[punch]

38 minutes ago, FryDog62 said:

Had a death in the family and the last few weeks have been a real bummer.  Haven’t kept track of fishing or water temps in the Metro area at all.  Don’t know if I’ll get out this week or weekend.  Feel like I should to get over my brother’s passing - if the weather is tolerable.  I don’t hunt or ice fish so this could be my last shot for awhile...

 

Anyone have current water temps for either metro area lakes or rivers??  Am I too late for bass?  Could try muskie too but big sucker minnows are probably getting hard to find...

 

Thanks guys - -

Sorry to hear that Frydog. 

 

I was out on a metro lake yesterday and the water temps were around 45. Bass were biting, especially on finesse stuff. Got some nice bites on a spinnerbait too. Fishing is still on as far as I'm concerned. 

[geneoh]

Water temp was 48 at Johanna today. We still have a few weeks left I'd guess. 

 

With that water in the 40's what do you guys like to throw? 

 

I'm still trying to figure out how I want to fish late fall. I've had some success with a jerkbait, jig. I might try to go more finesse the remaining weeks. 

[rascalP]

6 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

Had a death in the family and the last few weeks have been a real bummer.  Haven’t kept track of fishing or water temps in the Metro area at all.  Don’t know if I’ll get out this week or weekend.  Feel like I should to get over my brother’s passing - if the weather is tolerable.  I don’t hunt or ice fish so this could be my last shot for awhile...

 

Anyone have current water temps for either metro area lakes or rivers??  Am I too late for bass?  Could try muskie too but big sucker minnows are probably getting hard to find...

 

Thanks guys - -

     Sorry to hear, Frydog, that's tough. 

  I plan to fish tomorrow and thursday.  I will put the boat in until ice up even if fishing is reeeally, reeeally slow.  If the fish aren't biting, then I'm scouting weedbeds for ice fishing. Plus, I figure weeds that are still healthy now are some real good weeds year round and I'll know where they are when they are surrounded by pondweed.

   

  I'll be sticking with swimbaits worked slow, swimjigs, and chatterbaits.   Jerkbaits and squarebills worked real slow and finally maybe a small tube if nothing else is working.

 

   On another note, a buddy and I were up to Mille Lacs last week and it was tough. The wind blew hard for 3 days and we only managed to fish the big pond Mon morn with nothing to show, so we pulled and went to Borden. First time on this lake, and we managed to catch maybe 10 that afternoon, with 16" being the biggest.   Swimjig, shallow got most fish.

  Sunday afternoon we fished Round and got 1 smallie each - a 20" and a 17".  The big one came on a spinnerbait and the other on a jerkbait.  A few small largies and a couple pike rounded it out.  All fish came from wind blown reeds.  All 3 bodies of water were right around 53 degrees.     Tuesday we threw in the towel and came home without even fishing.

 

  Fry, take advantage of the few nice days that will come before ice up and spend some quiet time with your brother.

 

[FryDog62]

Thanks rascal, appreciate the update on water temps, Fishing,etc since I lost touch.  I’ll be watching the weather and am hopeful to get back out again.  Best, -Fry

[OperationEagle]

9 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

Had a death in the family and the last few weeks have been a real bummer.  Haven’t kept track of fishing or water temps in the Metro area at all.  Don’t know if I’ll get out this week or weekend.  Feel like I should to get over my brother’s passing - if the weather is tolerable.  I don’t hunt or ice fish so this could be my last shot for awhile...

 

Anyone have current water temps for either metro area lakes or rivers??  Am I too late for bass?  Could try muskie too but big sucker minnows are probably getting hard to find...

 

Thanks guys - -

Hey frydog so sorry to hear about your loss. Must have been unexpected as you look young enough.

 

Sunday looks warmer but rain is forecasted. Might be one of the last days above 50. 

[FryDog62]

10 hours ago, OperationEagle said:

Hey frydog so sorry to hear about your loss. Must have been unexpected as you look young enough.

 

Sunday looks warmer but rain is forecasted. Might be one of the last days above 50. 

Thanks, it was very unexpected.  Younger than me, a special needs guy.  Out of the blue, he had a massive stroke and just like that is gone.  Count your blessings everyone, life is good but can be short.  

 

Sunday does look a little warmer - and if it isn’t raining too hard or windy will try to get out.  Thx again everyone...