Minnesota Fishing Reports - 2018

[SmallBlockMuscle]

Went out yesterday 6am-11am and hammered them on a Spro lil john again. Zero top water action early and immediately started catching them on the spro after switching. Me and my buddy caught 20+ fish including two right around 5#. Lots of smalls as well. Of course lots of pike to deal with but did get a 36" that was fun to fight.

[rascalP]

5 hours ago, ThatOneBigKid said:

Had a great day on Saturday. My Uncle and I got out at sunrise and fished until about 2pm. Must have caught around 50 fish total. Biggest was a hair over 3lbs. Lost a mid 4lber and another three at the boat, and had another 3 wrap me around a limb and get off. Was not my day for putting the big ones in the boat. All fish came on either a Blk/Blue Swim Jig, Blk/Blue chatterbait, or a 1/4oz TX rig in the lay downs. 

I thought you would be fishing Washington/Stella on Saturday. Sounds like a great day nonetheless. 

 

 My plans are to head up to Grand Rapids area next Monday and fish a number of lakes for 3 days. It's a great area from GR north to Marcell.   Throw in Pokegema and Trout, and it's easy to see why MLF went there.

[JackKlassen]

6 hours ago, punch said:

I was out there on Friday, did you end up going? We went out of Cove bay and hit some of the reefs in the south west end and even made a run up to Indian Point. We caught some smallies but no biggins. They seemed to be on the dropshot & ned rig but they wanted NOTHING to do with the swimbait.

 

 

We launched out of cove as well on Saturday as wind was coming from S/SE. We normally fish out of Garrison so we were going in somewhat blind. Overall the bite was pretty tough. All our fish came on dropshot, tube and spybait in 12-20 ft. besides on 4lber my buddy caught under a dock (crazy huh?). Other than that nothing big. Did have about a 3lber hit my 6 inch osprey swimbait at the boat though which was pretty cool. Will be back up soon once it cools down as fish are definitely still in summer pattern.

[punch]

15 hours ago, JackKlassen said:

We launched out of cove as well on Saturday as wind was coming from S/SE. We normally fish out of Garrison so we were going in somewhat blind. Overall the bite was pretty tough. All our fish came on dropshot, tube and spybait in 12-20 ft. besides on 4lber my buddy caught under a dock (crazy huh?). Other than that nothing big. Did have about a 3lber hit my 6 inch osprey swimbait at the boat though which was pretty cool. Will be back up soon once it cools down as fish are definitely still in summer pattern.

 

We've had some good luck going out of the east side at Liberty recently. Probably where I'll go this weekend. 

[Jmhalvo]

Mille Lacs fall patterns: what has worked for any of you in the past?

[punch]

3 hours ago, Jmhalvo said:

Mille Lacs fall patterns: what has worked for any of you in the past?

Same stuff all year honestly with the exception of metal spoons and blade baits as the water gets into the 40s. Once it gets really cold, the metal comes out. 

 

Swimbaits are a big producer in the fall, for me. Slow rolled on the bottom. 

[ThatOneBigKid]

On 9/17/2018 at 5:56 PM, rascalP said:

I thought you would be fishing Washington/Stella on Saturday. Sounds like a great day nonetheless. 

 

 My plans are to head up to Grand Rapids area next Monday and fish a number of lakes for 3 days. It's a great area from GR north to Marcell.   Throw in Pokegema and Trout, and it's easy to see why MLF went there.

Nick and I were going to fish the Open, but He had knee surgery the week leading up to it and Washington/Stella are a 2hr drive one way from my house so I wasn't thrilled about that. Figured I would call it a year for tourneys and do some fun fishing for fall. 

 

Sounds like a fun trip up north. Enjoy it! 

[punch]

1 hour ago, ThatOneBigKid said:

Nick and I were going to fish the Open, but He had knee surgery the week leading up to it and Washington/Stella are a 2hr drive one way from my house so I wasn't thrilled about that. Figured I would call it a year for tourneys and do some fun fishing for fall. 

 

Sounds like a fun trip up north. Enjoy it! 

I couldn't fish the GH Fall Open.. I had no child care. My wife was working and my usual babysitters (my folks) were working. Not sure who else I could dump my kids off with at 5am so I can go fish all day haha. 

 

Looks like they are trying to fill up the Aresnal Fall Brawl though, if ya'll are looking for one more derby to hit. It's on E/W Rush. 

[ThatOneBigKid]

1 hour ago, punch said:

Looks like they are trying to fill up the Aresnal Fall Brawl though, if ya'll are looking for one more derby to hit. It's on E/W Rush. 

This is somewhat tempting as it is only minutes from my place. May have to look into this. You fishing it?

[punch]

3 minutes ago, ThatOneBigKid said:

This is somewhat tempting as it is only minutes from my place. May have to look into this. You fishing it?

 

You have a link to any details by any chance?

https://www.classicbass.com/tournaments?action=view&id=4061

 

I wish I could, but my wife's working that day (so I got kids) and we got some plans that evening. 

[ThatOneBigKid]

2 minutes ago, punch said:

https://www.classicbass.com/tournaments?action=view&id=4061

 

I wish I could, but my wife's working that day (so I got kids) and we got some plans that evening. 

Thanks man. 

[starkeer]

Pretty cool night last night. I really did not want to go out in the kayak and deal with the wind this morning but I really wanted to fish. I went to a nice beach which forms a point on a metro lake and casted from shore.. This was at 1am since I worked till midnight. I ended up catching 7 bass, 3 of them were nice, around 3lbers. I had almost no expectations and I was pretty thrilled to catch anything. All fish were caught on white spinnerbait. 

[NathanDLTH]

Question for y’all. Is there a lake or river or pond in Minnesota which holds Spotted Bass? 

[Dubtee]

Anyone have a metro report form the past few days?  I have a buddy coming into town this weekend and want to put him on a few.  I tried last night on the west side and got my butt kicked although the pike were active.

[ThatOneBigKid]

Got out yesterday from sunrise to about 3pm. My cousin and I caught somewhere around 30 fish total. I'd say it was a 60/40 split Largemouth to Smallies. Biggest fish was maybe a 17" Smallie. Only pattern we could get going was fishing docks with tx rigs and wacky senkos. This was a new lake to us with very little for grass or structure. Fun fall day overall.

6 hours ago, NathanDLTH said:

Question for y’all. Is there a lake or river or pond in Minnesota which holds Spotted Bass? 

No. You would have to go a few hundred miles south minimum to find some spots.

[ThatOneBigKid]

Don't tell me everyone winterized their boats..........?

 

Wont be fishing this weekend as I have work to do on my Mother-in-laws house. Two windows to replace and a bunch of finish trim work to be done. At least I am getting the cash to buy a new Phenix Feather Jerkbait rod out of the whole deal.

[SmallBlockMuscle]

I'll be heading out Saturday AM. Supposed to be in the 40s! Any tips? I havent been out in a couple weeks

[punch]

I was out yesterday and caught a few on a swim jig & chatterbait in 8ish feet of water. Only presentation I was getting bit on. The grass on the lake I was on was still green and healthy. It feels like fall above the water, but under the water there still seems to be plenty of healthy vegetation. 

[FryDog62]

2 hours ago, punch said:

I was out yesterday and caught a few on a swim jig & chatterbait in 8ish feet of water. Only presentation I was getting bit on. The grass on the lake I was on was still green and healthy. It feels like fall above the water, but under the water there still seems to be plenty of healthy vegetation. 

Did you happen to check water temps?  Thx

[FryDog62]

Here’s today’s water temp in the South metro...

[OperationEagle]

Thanks frydog. Were they bitin’ today?  Headed out in the morn. 

[FryDog62]

1 hour ago, OperationEagle said:

Thanks frydog. Were they bitin’ today?  Headed out in the morn. 

Was a good day - Got about 25 in 4-5 hours between 16-20 inches.  Topwater early (before the wind kicked in), then all Chatterbaits (6-10 fow).  Water temps in the 50’s helps, find the green coontail and stay there...

[starkeer]

18 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

Was a good day - Got about 25 in 4-5 hours between 16-20 inches.  Topwater early (before the wind kicked in), then all Chatterbaits (6-10 fow).  Water temps in the 50’s helps, find the green coontail and stay there...

@FryDog62 I remember seeing a different thread by you that you were looking to try out some larger swimbaits around the area this fall. Any luck so far? Have you been throwing anything? 

 

Thanks

[FryDog62]

1 hour ago, starkeer said:

@FryDog62 I remember seeing a different thread by you that you were looking to try out some larger swimbaits around the area this fall. Any luck so far? Have you been throwing anything? 

 

Thanks

I have thrown a big (7 inch) soft plastic lure I can’t remember the name of right now and a MB Grenade.  Nothing on the plastic yet (fish are still in the coontail) and the Grenade worked great until a 2 foot snot rocket decided to take it with him - argh

[rascalP]

On 9/26/2018 at 3:47 PM, ThatOneBigKid said:

Don't tell me everyone winterized their boats..........?

 

  Not by a long shot!   Was up around Grand Rapids  Mon.-Wed.   Monday on Pokegama.  Launched on Jay Gould and fished pads and got a few on froggy and a weightless dinger, then motored into Pokegama to try some points and reed edges hoping to get some smallie action.  No go, so we went back to Jay Gould, picked up another buddy, and got back to pads. A buddy got a few nice fish on a jig/plastic, and I missed several real big fish on the frog - never really got any hooks into them. The rain started in the afternoon and that seemed to really shut things down.

 

   Tuesday we went to Turtle by Marcell.  Got some nice smallies off reed edges scattered around the lake. The south end of the lake gave up some LM but most weren't very big.  The fish all came on Ned and a weightless dinger.   The biggest smallie came on a pink x-rap.    Wednesday we hit a tiny little lake east of GR that's had a real reliable bite without having to figure anything out.  Perfect for a windy post front day.  We got a dozen or so fatty's up about 4 lbs on t-rigged plastic in 8-10 fow, around a big milfoil hump.   Water temp was 61 -58 on all the lakes.  A tad warmer on the big water on Mon., Tues.

 

  Staying local next week, then hopefully up to Eveleth area the week after.  I will start spending a lot of time on the upper Croix now as well.     Tight lines all,  and dress warm!