Minnesota Fishing Report - 2019

[OperationEagle]

Caught 12-15 tonight w some size on all. Most were 16-17.5 inches. A good night, finally. 

 

Found them by the weed line in 7-10 fow.  Weighted senko was the ticket tonight. 

 

 

[OperationEagle]

On 7/3/2019 at 11:25 PM, OperationEagle said:

Caught 12-15 tonight w some size on all. Most were 16-17.5 inches. A good night, finally. 

 

Found them by the weed line in 7-10 fow.  Weighted senko was the ticket tonight. 

 

 

Just back from a good morning.  Rinse and repeat so quoting myself lol.  Pattern is intact.  Found some in the pads as well.  Caught a 20 incher today.  Hope you all can get out this weekend while the fishing remains decent. 

 

[meisterluv]

Fished Zumbra today and got wrecked. Broad leaf pond weed everywhere.  Threw the sink at them today and only managed a few off of whatever weed edge we could find.  weedless senkos, swim baits, t-rigs, etc. couldn't find a pattern. if anyone has advice on how to fish this lake or lakes with similar pond weed lmk. i seem to struggle with this stuff. thanks!

[FryDog62]

13 hours ago, meisterluv said:

Fished Zumbra today and got wrecked. Broad leaf pond weed everywhere.  Threw the sink at them today and only managed a few off of whatever weed edge we could find.  weedless senkos, swim baits, t-rigs, etc. couldn't find a pattern. if anyone has advice on how to fish this lake or lakes with similar pond weed lmk. i seem to struggle with this stuff. thanks!

I’ve only fished Zumbra a couple times and found fish, but size was small.  Lots of 12-14 inchers... a lot of lakes in the area that seem to produce better size - yes, using the types of techniques you listed above, so haven’t been back..

[OperationEagle]

Yep fished zumbra as well with only moderate results. There is the bay that gets choked w weeds to your left as you leave the dock. Have pulled a few out of the slop there.

 

 

[sully420]

Went you Saturday morning and had a pretty good day. Found nice bass under pads and milfoil mats also found some on deep grass lines. Jigs and Texas rigged creature baits were getting it done. I'm sure any kind of worm or finesse technique would have also worked on the deep fish. Haven't got a good deep crankbait bite yet but I plan on trying to get it going on Tuesday. I'll let you guys know what I find out.

[FryDog62]

Went fishing with Ned tonight.  8-12 fow outside weed edge.  On a lake about an hour West of the metro with both greenies and brownies...

[SmallBlockMuscle]

Went out Saturday AM. Only managed 4 with one being 2.5# and the rest being much smaller. Got those 4 by docks on a spinnerbait and could not get them to bite anything else. The docks where I caught these never have fish, this is the first time i've caught anything on that end of the lake and got skunked everywhere else. The visibility was much lower this weekend. The lake I go to doesn't have much bottom definition, it's a long flat transition into deeper water and very soft bottom. I don't remember the last time I was out there and caught less than 10. 

[wisconsin heat]

Got the kayak out on a small lake east of the border yesterday, and had quite an eventful trip for the 2/3 hours I spent on it. I've only fished this lake once from shore before, so I didn't have too much to go off of. I got to the landing and the lake looked a little gross, a lot of floating dead weeds and pretty green water. I paddled to the other side of the lake where I had had success before, and the water quality looked a little better. As I dropped my (brand new) kayak anchor over board, some rope came undone and down she went! Oops.

I'm

Well, I paddled up into a creek that flows into the lake. One side of the creek is a flatter mud bottomed and has weeds, the other side was a tall bluff wall with some overhanging trees,  and a little bit deeper water that had a few boulders and was littered with juicy laydowns. It really was a very cool place to fish. 

 

I threw a spinnerbait for a while as it looked like a good tool for the water clarity and depth/cover I was fishing but only managed one nibble on that. I switched to a top water walking bait after seeing a couple bass bust on top next to some rocks and the wall-got swiped at a couple times but didn't connect.

 

I switched to a Texas rigged beaver bait with a punch skirt and that's the bait that did the damage- I caught the two fish that swiped at my top water bait, then proceeded to catch a biggun pictured below, no tape measure or scale with but she was a solid 3 pounder in the 18+ " range. 20 minutes later I pitched a really nice looking laydown and set the hook on another big fish! She wrapped around a limb and pulled so hard I lost my balance standing in the kayak and *almost* fell into the lake haha. It did bring down to my knees and the kayak tipped enough to fill with water, in addition to that my other rod rigged with the topwater bait now has treble hooks in my pants leg. All the while I have a 3 pounder on the end of the line, as I regained my stability and composure I had to set my rod down and gave the fish enough slack to get off . 

 

After draining the boat and catching another couple on the topwater and Texas rigged I had to call it a day as it was already getting late and I still had to drive back to the cities. I didn't get up the creek as far as I'd like or get to fish much else of the lake at all.

 

All in all, it was a pretty successful trip despite a few mishaps, and a lake I will definitely be visiting again to explore further.

[FryDog62]

3 hours ago, wisconsin heat said:

Got the kayak out on a small lake east of the border yesterday, and had quite an eventful trip for the 2/3 hours I spent on it. I've only fished this lake once from shore before, so I didn't have too much to go off of. I got to the landing and the lake looked a little gross, a lot of floating dead weeds and pretty green water. I paddled to the other side of the lake where I had had success before, and the water quality looked a little better. As I dropped my (brand new) kayak anchor over board, some rope came undone and down she went! Oops.

I'm

Well, I paddled up into a creek that flows into the lake. One side of the creek is a flatter mud bottomed and has weeds, the other side was a tall bluff wall with some overhanging trees,  and a little bit deeper water that had a few boulders and was littered with juicy laydowns. It really was a very cool place to fish. 

 

I threw a spinnerbait for a while as it looked like a good tool for the water clarity and depth/cover I was fishing but only managed one nibble on that. I switched to a top water walking bait after seeing a couple bass bust on top next to some rocks and the wall-got swiped at a couple times but didn't connect.

 

I switched to a Texas rigged beaver bait with a punch skirt and that's the bait that did the damage- I caught the two fish that swiped at my top water bait, then proceeded to catch a biggun pictured below, no tape measure or scale with but she was a solid 3 pounder in the 18+ " range. 20 minutes later I pitched a really nice looking laydown and set the hook on another big fish! She wrapped around a limb and pulled so hard I lost my balance standing in the kayak and *almost* fell into the lake haha. It did bring down to my knees and the kayak tipped enough to fill with water, in addition to that my other rod rigged with the topwater bait now has treble hooks in my pants leg. All the while I have a 3 pounder on the end of the line, as I regained my stability and composure I had to set my rod down and gave the fish enough slack to get off . 

 

After draining the boat and catching another couple on the topwater and Texas rigged I had to call it a day as it was already getting late and I still had to drive back to the cities. I didn't get up the creek as far as I'd like or get to fish much else of the lake at all.

 

All in all, it was a pretty successful trip despite a few mishaps, and a lake I will definitely be visiting again to explore further.

Nice fish, sounds like you earned it.  Every once in awhile I think of getting a kayak -  then I realize I need to be coordinated.  Might be entertaining at least! 

[gim]

Lol you dropped in the brand new anchor and the rope came undone?! Didn’t they cut the line for the anchor in grumpy old men?  ?

[ThatOneBigKid]

Fished Big Marine Wednesday night for the Greenhorn Advanced league and placed 4th with 13.05lbs with a 4.19lb kicker. Was a fun night but had to work for them. 17.95lbs won it. 16lbs for 2nd, and 13.85 for 3rd. 

 

On to the Mississippi for the next event. Excited to get into some brown fish. Should be a good event. 

[MN Fisher]

Well, I can now say I've caught a 'weighable' bass. Out this morning on Phelps Bay from around 8:30 to 11. First fish was a 1.5# Northern on a white spinnerbait (Willow/Colorado blades). No more bites after that so changed to a Chartreuse spinner and got this 'little one' - 1.25#

 

After that it died again and tried everything else I could think of - T-Rig, Swim jig with trailer, DT-4 (finder was showing them at 3'-5' deep), Shallow Shad rap and spent the last half-hour trying to entice them with a Powerbait on a drop-shot. Very slow day on Phelps.

[FryDog62]

Had fun today fishing around some clumps of partially submerged grass.  Watched for a couple blades to jiggle when the bigger fish went in there to ambush some food.  Track their location and cast to them with lighter jigs and weedless Plastics... sight fishing above water!

[OperationEagle]

Out this morning and algae was in full bloom.  Dropped the visibility down to near zilch. Made it for a hard day fishin’!

[MN Fisher]

22 minutes ago, OperationEagle said:

Out this morning and algae was in full bloom.  Dropped the visibility down to near zilch. Made it for a hard day fishin’!

Ya, that was one of my issues yesterday on Phelps. The visibility wasn't down to zero, but I was picking algae off my lures and/or knots 4 casts out of 5.

[gim]

Looks like the heat is on!

[wisconsin heat]

On 7/13/2019 at 5:32 PM, FryDog62 said:

Had fun today fishing around some clumps of partially submerged grass.  Watched for a couple blades to jiggle when the bigger fish went in there to ambush some food.  Track their location and cast to them with lighter jigs and weedless Plastics... sight fishing above water!

That looks like a really fun way to fish! Always cool when you get to have those "call your shot" moments, I bet it's even better when that's the pattern!

[J Francho]

On 7/13/2019 at 6:32 PM, FryDog62 said:

Had fun today fishing around some clumps of partially submerged grass.  Watched for a couple blades to jiggle when the bigger fish went in there to ambush some food.  Track their location and cast to them with lighter jigs and weedless Plastics... sight fishing above water!

That stuff is called water willow, and it's all over Oneida Lake, and it's pretty fun way to fish.  We use frogs and blind cast into there, and hope to feel the weight of the fish when we hear the strike.  The other way is a heavy pegged bullet and something slender like a fluke or Pit Boss, and pitch at the moving stalks.

[J Francho]

Could be water reed.  I'd fish it the same.  We have that around here too.

[FryDog62]

2 hours ago, J Francho said:

That stuff is called water willow, and it's all over Oneida Lake, and it's pretty fun way to fish.  We use frogs and blind cast into there, and hope to feel the weight of the fish when we hear the strike.  The other way is a heavy pegged bullet and something slender like a fluke or Pit Boss, and pitch at the moving stalks.

The water underneath the grass line was actually a little deeper than it appears (2-3 feet, altho it looks like 2-3 inches). I did the high trajectory underhand flip similar to a punch rig, and threw a 3/8 oz All-Terrain “Grassmaster” Jig (based here in good ol’ Savage, MN  so it could get down in the water without getting too snagged in the roots... if there were fish there they’d hit it on the reaction.  If not, sit back and sip some coffee and wait for the next “jiggle.”  

[J Francho]

That's about the same depth here.  We sometimes use a push pole to get into the bigger fields.

[punch]

I'm heading to Vermillion Thurs-Sunday to chase smallies (and walleye). Can't wait! I love me some rocky, tanic lakes. 

[gim]

The river bite is on!  My Father and I caught 18 smallies in about 3.5 hours this morning, all on topwaters or wake baits.  In about a 10 minute span, I caught a pair of 19's.

[FryDog62]

3 hours ago, gimruis said:

The river bite is on!  My Father and I caught 18 smallies in about 3.5 hours this morning, all on topwaters or wake baits.  In about a 10 minute span, I caught a pair of 19's.

That is awesome!  Hard to beat the river... the first half of the season has been 2 hard years in a row.  Had to settle into a pattern sooner or later.  Glad you got them dialed in... which topwaters worked best?