Minnesota Fishing Reports - 2017

[rascalP]

Been fishing a lot lately.  We spent 5 days on Basswood by Ely, fishing both LM and SM and a little bit for walleye in the evening. We caught quite a few fish up to 20" in both species. Great trip.

        Since then, we had a tourny on Forest Lake and fished Bald Eagle and Big Marine a few times.  The tourny could have and should have been better.  Both me and my partner lost big fish that if landed would have put us in the money. Hopefully we learned lessons that will convert those key bites.  On the other lakes we spent time scouting water and looking for good spots.  In one lake I was focusing on milfoil beds. They are not the dominant weed and are scattered around the lake and vary in size and depth. I think that makes them key spots. The other lake we looked for fish where they were that day and also where they might migrate to a month from now.  Techniques have been mostly t-rigs with a little jig/worm and jig/craws working best.  I always throw a swimbait along weed edges - inside mostly this time of year, but it hasn't been producing that well.  A KVD squarebill worked best tourny night, but the fish weren't taking it good and didn't really get good hooks into them (= lost fish).  Lots of things to work on. 

[punch]

 

 

A little fun from last week.  

[FryDog62]

1 hour ago, punch said:

 

 

A little fun from last week.  

Nice fish...  Can't think of a better way to spend a lunch hour!  

[geneoh]

Went out this afternoon and caught a few including a nice 4+ lb chunk. Yesterday's storm definitely slowed the bite down but they were still munching. Shoutout to Sully who I met at the dock!

[gim]

I went to Mille Lacs with the wife on Sunday evening and again yesterday during the day.  Had a couple free nights at the casino to use before July.  Fished the east side of the lake both times.  Caught 9 on Sunday and 7 yesterday.  Every smallmouth was between 17-20 inches.  Had a couple jump off that may have been bigger.  A couple fish were noticeably skinny from post spawn and others had still yet to spawn.  We caught them on a mix of stuff including jerk baits, tubes, and wacky rigs.  The wife caught a new PB smallmouth, an 18.5 incher.  Water temp 67 degrees.

[Tlauz]

Got out a little on the 8th - 11th.  Water temps were 68-72.   I was fishing by myself so I tried a little bit of everything. Swim jig, swim bait, wacky worm,  crank bait, spinnerbait.  Steady bite, but not great.  Caught 50 + bass, a few pike and some rock bass.  Biggest was 19.5 Smallmouth on drop shot. Sunday I lost 6 small mouth in a row.  3 on jumps, 2 at the boat and one giant broke my line.  I set the hook, and my line broke.  Thought it was a pike, then a huge smallmouth jumped out of the water.  After that I headed back and tarped the boat. Anxious to try again next week.

 

[punch]

16 hours ago, Tlauz said:

Got out a little on the 8th - 11th.  Water temps were 68-72.   I was fishing by myself so I tried a little bit of everything. Swim jig, swim bait, wacky worm,  crank bait, spinnerbait.  Steady bite, but not great.  Caught 50 + bass, a few pike and some rock bass.  Biggest was 19.5 Smallmouth on drop shot. Sunday I lost 6 small mouth in a row.  3 on jumps, 2 at the boat and one giant broke my line.  I set the hook, and my line broke.  Thought it was a pike, then a huge smallmouth jumped out of the water.  After that I headed back and tarped the boat. Anxious to try again next week.

 

Nice! 

 

I went out last night on Crooked for a little bit. The fish had their feed bags on that's for sure. I got about 10-12 good bites and boated like 9 fish in a couple hours. Mostly on a drop shot in the weeds in like 8'. One thing I noticed is that the fish seemed to be all stacked up together. If I got one bite, i'd get a few more bites within about a 20 foot radius. Got one on a swim jig and one on a keitech + jig, but most of the action was on old faithful... the dropshot with a Power Team Lures JP Hammer shad. 

 

Honestly the hammer shad is quickly becoming a top 3 dropshot bait for me. Fish can't seem to resist it. Ya'll gotta try it. T

[gim]

Sometimes when I try to post a photo of my fish it puts the photo sideways and I can't figure out how to turn it right side up.  Help me out here anyone

[shimmy]

Hey, figured I would upload some pics from the week out in paradise. As previously stated, most fish were on the jig, swim jig, and S-Waver. The S-Waver was a fun bite. On some of our lakes, a lot of the weeds had not come up that high and i could let the S-Waver just hover in one spot for 4-5 seconds and then they would slam it. Was a fun bite. It was interesting to see how the bite changed throughout the week. The swimjig was hot the first half of the week, but after a nasty cold front came in, that bite died and the jig and S-Waver did well. Will say that one of my favorite days on the water involved catching close to a 100 while throwing nothing but the 2.5 square bill. That bite was hot. No giants that day, but was a fun switch up from the other baits. Had one bad mishap, during a picture time, my tackle box fell on my 723 powell endurance rod and broke it. At least that's what i think happened cause on my next cast, the rod snapped at the half way point. So, i am doing the trade in. Love those powell rods. Unlike other trips, we didn't catch any 25+ pound bags. Top 3 limits throughout the week were a 24 lb 13 oz, 24 lb 9 oz, and a 24 lb 2 oz bag. By all means, nothing to complain about and every day was awesome. Here are several fish in the 4-6+ pound range. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 minutes ago, gimruis said:

Sometimes when I try to post a photo of my fish it puts the photo sideways and I can't figure out how to turn it right side up.  Help me out here anyone

 

I upload photos to photobucket. I then copy the image from the "IMG code" option. It can be stubborn sometimes, but i will click the image and eventually it will let me copy the image. Then just go on your post here and copy and paste. Maybe there are other ways but this is what works for me. 

[OperationEagle]

Re: shimmy pics

 

Ridiculous 

[OperationEagle]

Was out Saturday morn on a west metro lake.  Caught around 20. 1 at 19, 3-5 at 18' several 16-17.  Bass were aggressive. They were no longer up shallow. 

 

7-11 feet of water.  Near drop offs and weeds. 

 

Senkos did the trick for me. Tried buzzbaits to no avail. 

 

Water temp 73. 

[punch]

We spent the weekend up at In We Go Resort on Eight Crow Wing lake. I love the Crow Wing chain.. it's such a cool system. The water is clear, and boat/fishing pressure is light. The fishing on Eight Crow was pretty awesome once I figured out a pattern. The bass were NOT up shallow, and the few that I did find wern't too interested in biting. I started keying in on flat, hard bottom sections NEAR shallow water & weeds in like 10-20 feet of water. I started fishing the Ned rig down deep, very slowly and started getting hammered. I was catching lots of species too! Crappies, big bluegill, perch, rock bass and lots of largemouth. I got exactly ONE bite all weekend on a crankbait... very weird. 

 

I got a few fish on a swimbait, but the Ned rig was the juice. Caught at least 25+ fish on the NED. 

[Bassn4fun]

I spend last week up around the Hackensack area camping and fishing with my family.  Since I had the kids with we only fished 2-3 hours each day.  But we caught around 20-30 bass each day and one day we boated close to 50.  There really wasn't a pattern, half of the fish were caught on a green pumpkin swim jig with a paddle tail trailer in 2-6' of water, and most of the others on a 3" tube and a 1/8oz jig head around docks all the way out to 20' of water on the weed edges.  We didn't get into any really big fish but had one at 18" and 7-8 over 17".

[FryDog62]

Have switched over from smallies to largemouth this week ... got out at sun up this morning in the west metro.  Caught this 20 incher - well it was really early - so of course used a Caffeine Shad.  Woke both a nice fish and me up too... right before the rains kicked in.  

[punch]

Nice fish Frydog!

 

Anyone ever fish Lake Ida? By Monticello. Going to try and hit up Saturday night. I've never been on it before. 

[OperationEagle]

Metro lake on Saturday morn. Wind made it tougher but bass still slammed them.  

 

6-9 fow. Weighted senko. 15 fish total. A 20, multiple between 17 and 16. 

 

Again, bass were not up shallow or in the pads. No topwater bites either. 

[dsidle61]

On 6/23/2017 at 10:56 AM, punch said:

Nice fish Frydog!

 

Anyone ever fish Lake Ida? By Monticello. Going to try and hit up Saturday night. I've never been on it before. 

How'd you do on Ida?  Ive fished it twice a year or two ago.  Really only had good success right at sundown on topwater but the fish I caught were good size.  I havent been back since I got rid of my slide in boat bc that boat ramp is treacherous!  

[punch]

21 hours ago, dsidle61 said:

How'd you do on Ida?  Ive fished it twice a year or two ago.  Really only had good success right at sundown on topwater but the fish I caught were good size.  I havent been back since I got rid of my slide in boat bc that boat ramp is treacherous!  

I actually punctured a tire on my expedition on my way to Ida and had to turn back around. I ran over some twisted metal bar. I'm going to attempt to fish it this week though after work.   

[NathanDLTH]

You guys and your big fish drive me nuts lol! Boats and more boats. Man those are some good looking fish y'all are posting. Hope everyone has a good 4th of July and stays safe. 

[NathanDLTH]

Caught five small bass today, all on a wacky rig senko. Lake Harriet. Missed some bigger bites, but that's the way it goes sometimes. Still a good start to the 4th. 

[gim]

I was at Mille Lacs yesterday.  The bigger smallmouth (and the big walleyes) have moved to deeper structure and offshore.  The spots that I caught them earlier this month only had smaller fish.  Water temp 69 degrees.

[rascalP]

I've been spending some time on WBL, Coon and S.Center, with mixed results.  Last really good day was on WBL  a couple weeks ago, and a week before a tourny. Last wednesday night on WBL, we just couldn't get any big bites and finished middle of the pack.  Fished S.Center Tuesday and only got 2 legals, though one was just shy of 20" caught in 18 fow.  And I know that lake. Tried 2-20 fow and all different ways.  Coon today with similar results.  I don't know if its me or the fish.

 

   On another note concerning jig trailers.  How often and how do you decide to switch jig trailers?  Do you stick with one tried and true or do you switch it up if you're not getting bites.  Iv'e been experimenting with different ones, lately a paca chunk. It sure has a lot of action, maybe too much?  My same thought process is figuring out t-rigged creatures. Pitboss (more action) or sweet beaver (less action).  Thoughts anybody?    Oh yeah, the ned rig (big TRD) got the big fish yesterday and today. 

[geneoh]

Fished Gull Lake on Sunday. I was out there with about 150 other boats. The chop was absolutely insane. I found a spot where they were loaded up on a deep weed edge. Caught probably 20 in that spot alone, most at 2lbs or over. Switched to docks late morning and caught a good one, weighed 4.6lbs, biggest of the year so far and a few more here and there. 

 

It was really fun, would love to go back when it's not a holiday weekend! 

[Jeff H]

13 hours ago, rascalP said:

I've been spending some time on WBL, Coon and S.Center, with mixed results.  Last really good day was on WBL  a couple weeks ago, and a week before a tourny. Last wednesday night on WBL, we just couldn't get any big bites and finished middle of the pack.  Fished S.Center Tuesday and only got 2 legals, though one was just shy of 20" caught in 18 fow.  And I know that lake. Tried 2-20 fow and all different ways.  Coon today with similar results.  I don't know if its me or the fish.

 

   On another note concerning jig trailers.  How often and how do you decide to switch jig trailers?  Do you stick with one tried and true or do you switch it up if you're not getting bites.  Iv'e been experimenting with different ones, lately a paca chunk. It sure has a lot of action, maybe too much?  My same thought process is figuring out t-rigged creatures. Pitboss (more action) or sweet beaver (less action).  Thoughts anybody?    Oh yeah, the ned rig (big TRD) got the big fish yesterday and today. 

It's not you. It's this crazy inconsistent weather. 

[Ranger518vx]

On 7/4/2017 at 6:01 PM, gimruis said:

I was at Mille Lacs yesterday.  The bigger smallmouth (and the big walleyes) have moved to deeper structure and offshore.  The spots that I caught them earlier this month only had smaller fish.  Water temp 69 degrees.

I was fishing all weekend up there and minus one evening where I was able to catch 8 fish in 5 feet of water, all other fish I caught came off big boulders in 10-12 ft of water. With the wind and waves it was a challenge to stay on top of the boulders. Biggest fish was 3 lbs so I can only assume the really big fish are in 15 to 18 ft.