Minnesota Fishing Reports - 2018

[Dubtee]

Good stuff Sully, thanks.  Makes sense on the deep stuff as I have fished out there enough over the last week and haven't really found them there yet.  Gonna get my flipping rigs ready and go to work, I'll report back.

[gim]

I tried Mille Lacs again yesterday.  The smallmouth are all done spawning now.  The water temperature was 65-67 degrees on the east side.  The water was also noticeably murkier than it has been because of the heavy rain the past week.  My Father and I caught 8 bass and 4 accidental bonus walleyes in about 4.5 hours.  The biggest was a 20 incher that he caught. 

 

Just a heads up guys - there is a HS tournament on Tonka starting Friday that has 150 teams from around the state so the lake is going to get pounded for a few days.

[FryDog62]

24 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I tried Mille Lacs again yesterday.  The smallmouth are all done spawning now.  The water temperature was 65-67 degrees on the east side.  The water was also noticeably murkier than it has been because of the heavy rain the past week.  My Father and I caught 8 bass and 4 accidental bonus walleyes in about 4.5 hours.  The biggest was a 20 incher that he caught. 

 

Just a heads up guys - there is a HS tournament on Tonka starting Friday that has 150 teams from around the state so the lake is going to get pounded for a few days.

Good to know about the tournament, wondering if other fishermen will get pushed out to the surrounding lakes.  I’m about 50-50 if I can go out tomorrow and thinking where to go... def not Tonka now - thx for the heads up!

[Jmhalvo]

Yakkers like “no public access”

[sully420]

Had a great day yesterday fishing a north west metro lake. We were flipping arrowheads in 4' of water. The water temp was 74 degrees and visibility was 1' 

[FryDog62]

Very healthy looking fish sully!!  Early morning or evening bite better?

[sully420]

@FryDog62 I fished from 5am to 12:30. I bet we could have stayed there all day and got bit. Bass kept moving in to the area as the day progressed.

[sully420]

The middle of the day seemed like the best time for the flippin bite. The water was so dirty that it was really hard to get them on topwaters or reaction baits. I could see bass feeding on top and chasing bait outside of the pads i was fishing but couldn't get them to bite until they moved into the pads.

[NathanDLTH]

Nice fish gents. 

[Dubtee]

Nice fish sully.  I still haven't figured out the flipping bite yet.  Fished Prior yesterday and there was a tourney launching when I got there.  Everyone I saw went off shore on breaks, humps, or main lake points.  I followed suit and found a lot of bass in 10-20 feet on outside grass on a power shot but no real size.  I didn't have the time to run the pattern so not sure if it was just a matter of finding one of those points/breaks with good ones on it.  I'd be interested to know what won the tourney - anyone here fish it?

[sully420]

In no tournament fishermen but on prior i would have been fishing docks and grass. I don't like doing what everyone else is doing.

Try smaller bodies of water, less traffic and pressure 

[punch]

I was out yesterday afternoon and figured fish would be offshore a bit on deeper grass lines.. nope. I was marking fish. Just a bunch of pike. 

 

I switched gears and started tossing a frog and wacky senko around reeds in REALLY skinny water and then I started catching quality fish. They were really shallow, and I also spotted a bunch of active bluegill beds. The bluegill spawn seems to be like.. going forever. Saw beds 3 weeks ago and I'm still seeing active beds on metro lakes. 

[sully420]

Yea the good fish seem to be shallow and on the gill bite still

 

[FryDog62]

Parts of the state have had a ton of rain, anyone fishing flooded areas lately?  

[punch]

We got on an INSANE topwater bite tonight in the north metro. We found a gigantic school of bass at around 5pm that were on an offshore, underwater point busting on bluegill. We started walking poppers in the area and were getting fish after fish after fish. They were inhaling the popper. I've never seen that many topwater strikes in one session. It went on for like 2 hours. We also fished shallow and worked some bluegill beds & reeds with jigs & wacky worms and caught a few nice ones too. Was just one of those amazing nights. We easily boated 60+ (seriously lost count) bass in 5 hours. It was ridiculous. 

 

It helped that we had the entire lake to ourselves. Just a few canoes and kayaks. 

[gim]

Don't you just love a good topwater bite?  Doesn't seem to happen very often anymore.

[FryDog62]

Anyone else in the metro area out fishing today?  I did - really struggled to find any pattern on a lake that is usually “can’t miss.”

 

In 6 hours I only caught 5 LMB and 4 we’re small.  Tried Chatterbaits in 6-10 fow, plastics under the docks, Poppin Frog/Toadrunner in/near the pads, and 1oz Dark Sleeper on off shore structure 10-18 fow.  

 

Hopefully somebody else else found something that worked ?!?  I’m all ears!

[sully420]

Algae and stained water are stunting the health and growth of some vegetation. Keeping fish a bit shallower and reducing there strike zones as well as limiting there willingness to chase and the duration of time they spend chasing bait. I've found that the better bass have been on natural cover (vegetation)3 to 8 feet of water roaming early in the day and getting tight to cover as the day progresses. Bigger baits have been more effective for me. The fish seem to bite good you just have to put the bait in there face or look for signs of bass pushing gills to the surface and squeak out some bites with a topwater or bait close to the surface. Look for areas that are near the deep edge of flats also look for activity on those flats and fish the area with activity with a topwater or swimbait then fish the best cover nearest  the active area jig or t rig. If the bottom isn't hard the bass don't want it on the bottom. They will eat it on the fall or after you lift it off the bottom.

[dsidle61]

On 6/28/2018 at 5:21 PM, FryDog62 said:

Anyone else in the metro area out fishing today?  I did - really struggled to find any pattern on a lake that is usually “can’t miss.”

 

In 6 hours I only caught 5 LMB and 4 we’re small.  Tried Chatterbaits in 6-10 fow, plastics under the docks, Poppin Frog/Toadrunner in/near the pads, and 1oz Dark Sleeper on off shore structure 10-18 fow.  

 

Hopefully somebody else else found something that worked ?!?  I’m all ears!

My frog bite has been so lackluster this year that I’m starting to wonder! It’s been my go to for the past 3-4 years.  Having better luck on poppers and whopper plopper next to docks and pads.  Wednesday I tried out a new west metro lake, started w a chatterbait, switched to plastics deeper and didn’t get bit til I tossed a weightless wacky right on the outside edge of very established weedlines.  Even then it was the most subtle little tap.  Don’t know if the summer heat is making them sluggish? But I’ll use that at my excuse ?

[starkeer]

I have been out on the Minneapolis Chain the last few nights and done pretty well, probably caught about 30 fish between the last two nights but fish would only hit the wacky rig. I was able to end last night with this 21". No scale but definitely a healthy fish, put up a good fight on my medium light rod as well

[Jmhalvo]

22 hours ago, starkeer said:

I have been out on the Minneapolis Chain the last few nights and done pretty well, probably caught about 30 fish between the last two nights but fish would only hit the wacky rig. I was able to end last night with this 21". No scale but definitely a healthy fish, put up a good fight on my medium light rod as well

Wacky is incredible- ever insert a nail in one end? Causes it to “back up”

[nguggs]

I got out on Tonka Saturday morning for a few hours before most of the recreational traffic started. Sully's analysis was spot on to what we put together as well. We tried a couple different spots but almost all our fish came between docks in the grass in about 4-6 FOW. Deeper docks were less productive. They still seem to want it slow. Slow rolled belly weighted Gambler swimbaits and would stop them and start up again and have a fish on. 

[Dubtee]

Although I can catch them off shore on breaks right now, they only seem to be small.  That being said, went shallow yesterday after the storms, caught a few shorts and one real good one on a frog.  Saw another good one miss the frog and another came off.   I then found some hard botttom coontail just off some docks, 4-6 FOW, and pitching a 1/2 oz jig was the ticket.  Caught 12 or so fish (all quality) in about 1.5 hours once I happened across the coontail.  They didn't seem to be in the neighboring patches of curly leaf.  Real fun evening and was good to get off of the 13'' funk I have been in.

[Jmhalvo]

I just read that Yesterday St Cloud had an all-time high pressure reading for July. Interesting cuz the bite was hot, then really dropped off in Alexandria thurs/fri. I guess that explains it...or it could of course just be the fisherman 

[punch]

So @rascalP got me in our 2nd tournament of the year by .1 LB! He got 7.99lb of smallmouth and we got 7.88lb on the Mississippi river. So we're 1-1 thus far. 

 

Our next tournament is this week on White Bear Lake and Ethan.. I'm ready for ya! Been putting some work in.