Minnesota Fishing Report - 2019

[sully420]

On 10/7/2019 at 7:35 PM, FryDog62 said:

On 10/7/2019 at 6:40 PM, gimruis said:

 

I get as surgical as I can when fishing for largemouth late in the year.  Number one thing is to spend the time driving around the weed edge looking for any remaining green weeds - before you start to fish.  There will be very few green weeds left but that is where any remaining feeding fish will be.   
 

I then throw jigs... I start with big ones and move a little lighter/smaller if I need to.  Love throwing a 3/4 oz Mop Jig with a big floppy Megadaddy trailer.  Worked phenomenally last Fall.  Next size down would be a 1/2 or 3/4 oz AT Grassmaster jig with Chigger Craw.  Or if I need to, move down to a 3/8 - 1/2 oz Grassmaster with a compact, do-nothing Berkley Creature Hawg

This is pretty much my strategy as well, and for some reason the Berkeley chigger craw seem to really work well. I will also choose lakes with with laydows or hard bottom areas and fish those.

[ThatOneBigKid]

On 10/7/2019 at 7:35 PM, FryDog62 said:

I get as surgical as I can when fishing for largemouth late in the year.  Number one thing is to spend the time driving around the weed edge looking for any remaining green weeds - before you start to fish.  There will be very few green weeds left but that is where any remaining feeding fish will be.   
 

I then throw jigs... I start with big ones and move a little lighter/smaller if I need to.  Love throwing a 3/4 oz Mop Jig with a big floppy Megadaddy trailer.  Worked phenomenally last Fall.  Next size down would be a 1/2 or 3/4 oz AT Grassmaster jig with Chigger Craw.  Or if I need to, move down to a 3/8 - 1/2 oz Grassmaster with a compact, do-nothing Berkley Creature Hawg.  
 

I‘ve done this the last couple years down to about 42 degree surface temps and still caught some fish.  You’ll catch less fish, but I’m really only targeting the big girls this time of year and use the mentality of go big - or go winterize your boat...

 

And speaking of that - this is also the only time of year I think about having an E-Tec... that I can winterize, but take out again if you get a nice stretch of weather late in the year.. and then re-winterize with a push of a button..

Fantastic tips as always Fry. I have also had good luck rolling a chatterbait or lipless crank around this same remaining green weeds. Making slight contact with the weeds and then ripping off them to get the reaction strike. 

 

Also, slowing down with a Ned Rig last fall really produced for me as well. Working it very slow around hard bottom and lay downs. It was painful at times, but I was still getting bit. 

 

I also love having my E-Tec this time of year I think I "winterized" 3 or 4 times last year before finally calling it quits.  

[gim]

What about jerk baits? I do pretty good with them in the spring when the water is cold, so why wouldn’t they work in the cold water of fall?

[FryDog62]

18 minutes ago, gimruis said:

What about jerk baits? I do pretty good with them in the spring when the water is cold, so why wouldn’t they work in the cold water of fall?

I think yes, but as the water dips well below 50 a lot of the fish are heading to wintering holes.  The remaining “feeders” are usually by green vegetation.  But you may jerk some nearby that are either cruising between weed clumps or getting ready to go deep.  

[punch]

I've not been fishing for largies in several weeks, BUT we just did return from a "trip up north" to fish smallmouth last weekend. We hit a pretty big glacial lake about 3.5 hours north of the cities. It was a blast even though the weather on Saturday was garbage. We caught a ton of smallmouth, some walleyes, and some largies. 

 

The top techniques were: 

- 3/8 oz football jig w/ a X-zone muscle back finesse craw

- 3/8 oz mustad football head open hook w/ a Z-Man Turbo CrawZ (AWESOME dragging bait) 

- Biospawn Exoswim 3.25" swimbait (feider shad color) on a 1/4oz goldeneye swimbait head

- Various ned rigs

 

I'll be honest.. after sept 1st I'm usually 100% smallmouth mode. Why fish for largies when smallies put on the feed bag in 40-50 degree water temps? 

[FryDog62]

42 minutes ago, punch said:

I've not been fishing for largies in several weeks, BUT we just did return from a "trip up north" to fish smallmouth last weekend. We hit a pretty big glacial lake about 3.5 hours north of the cities. It was a blast even though the weather on Saturday was garbage. We caught a ton of smallmouth, some walleyes, and some largies. 

 

The top techniques were: 

- 3/8 oz football jig w/ a X-zone muscle back finesse craw

- 3/8 oz mustad football head open hook w/ a Z-Man Turbo CrawZ (AWESOME dragging bait) 

- Biospawn Exoswim 3.25" swimbait (feider shad color) on a 1/4oz goldeneye swimbait head

- Various ned rigs

 

I'll be honest.. after sept 1st I'm usually 100% smallmouth mode. Why fish for largies when smallies put on the feed bag in 40-50 degree water temps? 

Great report Punch.  Curious what depths and any size to the smallmouth??

[thatbasschigger187]

whoa! It's been awhile since I've posted on here. But how's the fishing everyone? Now's the time to be fishing especially since there's no crowd. Tonka has been fantastic, same as all the metro lakes. The top water bite died within a week... crazy MN weather. But the fish are still super aggressive right now. Finally my Ganterels and GanCrafts got to play! The wiggle wart (pre rapala warts*)has been doing work too. Honestly I swear they'll eat anything right now, other than a top water. So get out there and smash em!

 

Tuesday on Tonka

 

Fishing was amazing! The fish were super aggressive today. Inside grass lines and shallow tops of points were key. Weather was fantastic. Water temps were in the 50's. I started out in Maxwell Bay. I caught a few there flipping the healthiest grass I could find. Nothing big. Went out to Crystal and fished all the super obvious spots. Nothing. Fished Arcola. Fish were filtering through there. All dinks though. I figured they were in there moving/feeding pattern. Started moving towards all the major points on main lake and stayed there the rest of the day. Fish were stacked the tops of points. I started off with a cranks and I never really got off that. Why fish something slow when fast works just as well right? The key though was the grass. Had to be healthy enough to rip grass without pulling the whole thing out. The same applied for the inside weedline. Grass had to be good. I pretty much caught at least 6 to 7 fish per spot. Ended up taking out my dobyns/calcutta set up to throw my swimbaits/glidebaits around. They were smashing it! But alot of misses. Those baits are just to big for the majority of MN bass. Last stop I made was in Black. More of the same, but fish were significantly smaller. Honestly was a fantastic day of fishing. 50+ fish in roughly 4 to 5ish hours. Nothing big but it was fun. 

 

Setups

     Squarebill - Shimano Curado 70XG Dobyns Champion 703 MH 12# Tatsu FL

     Wart - Shimano Curado 70XG Dobyns Champion 703 MH 10# Tatsu FL

     Swim/Glide - Shimano Calcutta 300D Dobyns Fury 8' 20# Berkley BigGame Mono

 

[punch]

10 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

Great report Punch.  Curious what depths and any size to the smallmouth??

TONS of 2 to 3.5 lb fish, with the occasional 4+ showing up. Depths were all over the map. They were on top of the rocks, to the sides of the rocks. They definitely were up on the reefs & rock points. 

[gim]

2 hours ago, punch said:

Why fish for largies when smallies put on the feed bag in 40-50 degree water temps? 

Well the issue is that there are very few options for smallmouth in the immediate area and the rivers are crazy high right now.

[OperationEagle]

Love these reports super detailed...and encouraging...now if I could just replicate them!

 

Id like to head back north to nab some SMB.  Wonder what water temp will cause them to start to slow down? And how far are we from that given the forecast?

[Sodaksam]

The Mississippi above the dam in Brainerd is good for smallies down to about 48-50 degrees.  Some of my best days have been 40 degree air temp chucking crankbaits and drop shot rigs.  Hope it doesn’t cool off too quick. One year I only saw one boat.  It was Al Lindner. Kinda cool. .

[punch]

8 hours ago, gimruis said:

Well the issue is that there are very few options for smallmouth in the immediate area and the rivers are crazy high right now.

True.. but it's worth the drive! Haha

7 hours ago, OperationEagle said:

Love these reports super detailed...and encouraging...now if I could just replicate them!

 

Id like to head back north to nab some SMB.  Wonder what water temp will cause them to start to slow down? And how far are we from that given the forecast?

You can smash smallies RIGHT until ice up north. Heck some guys bust the ice out if the ramps to go out. 

[FryDog62]

1 hour ago, Sodaksam said:

The Mississippi above the dam in Brainerd is good for smallies down to about 48-50 degrees.  Some of my best days have been 40 degree air temp chucking crankbaits and drop shot rigs.  Hope it doesn’t cool off too quick. One year I only saw one boat.  It was Al Lindner. Kinda cool. .

Was he filming, or just out having fun alone?

[umdivx]

22 hours ago, FryDog62 said:

Great report Punch.  Curious what depths and any size to the smallmouth??

We had 3 boats, in my boat (my brother and I) our biggest largie was 4.3 and caught in 4' or less of water. All the smallies were off boulder reefs, most of the bigger ones were in 10+ feet hanging off bigger isolated rocks.

 

Our boat we mainly focused on ned rigs (not very confident in jigs), bombing them out, and slooooowly dragging them back, and popping them off the rocks.  Pulled in several 4+ lbers doing this. 

 

Saturday our best 5 went for 19.48lbs, also pulled in several 20"+ eyes. 

 

Photos

[Sodaksam]

Kind of off topic. My son and I went out on our lake in 34 degree temps and snow accumulating in boat and caught 5 walleyes before our hands about froze off. Mom was happy to have us out of the house. Water was 52 degrees. I hope the water does not cool a whole lot more. The forecast isn’t great the next 4-5 days. 

[gim]

Sodaksam, thanks for reporting. We’re you fishing near Pequot lakes?

[shimmy]

Fished this week in the Ottertail County area. This may have been the worst weather I have ever fished in a week. 20-30 mph winds the whole week with the exception of one day. There was another day where it was 15 mph, but gusts of 30-40. I had planned on staying Friday and Saturday, then leaving Sunday, but then had a blizzard Thursday night. I actually don't mind fishing in the snow, but was nervous about the launch ramps and drive home. Too many extraneous variables, so I decided to play it safe and left Friday morning. Fishing was tough most days. My favorite lake had a kill off this winter. I honestly feel like I lost a best friend with it. It is so sad and the lake was becoming an incredible fishery. Too many big bass and not deep enough to sustain the oxygen needed. Serious bummer. Had over a 28 lb bag out of it last year and now it is never going to be the same. Went to some of the other next best lakes. They are very unlikely to produce a 28+ lb bag, but was able to get two 25 lb bag days during the two days in the 60 degrees this week. Went back to one of the lakes 2 days later and did terrible. The bite just shut down. If I could go out in a couple weeks I would since I am sure it would pick back up, but the bite was so rough. The only pattern I found out there was find a different lake. Some lakes would be shut down while other adjacent lakes were ready to play. No pattern. Fish were scattered, never clumped up like I can usually find late fall. Type of grass didn't matter. Some clumps of grass had a school of bass, but all were small. Big fish were lone rangers for me this week. I had one 5+ lb bass (that i didn't know at the time), that bit my brush hog maybe 20 times on at least 10 casts until he was finally on and I just set the hook. I found that a lot of missed jig bites wouldn't follow up on the jig, but would take the brush hog on follow up casts. Maybe the traditional senko follow-up would have worked, but I needed something with weight given the ridiculous wind so the brush hog did the trick for me. All big bass were in 6-8 feet of water range. Didn't catch a big one deeper or shallower than that. But again, there may have been some that followed it from the shallows and committed once in that depth. Don't know. Tough week with a few good days. It will get better out there, but I won't be there to experience it. I almost feel like this first real cold front got them skiddish, but the next one will let them think of feeding. Fished by myself so I was not able to find some patterns out in a good time on most days. Best lures of the week were #1 -jig, #2 - brush hog, and #3 -chatterbait worked as a jig in murkier water. Caught some on rapalas, spinnerbaits, frogs, and swimbait, but nothing over 5 pounds. 

 

Few highlights of the trip, I bought the bass pro shops goretex parka and bibs on sale and they handled all of the ridiculous weather. Not only did I stay completely dry, but they stopped the wind. Best purchase for me in years. Bought some conventional "rain proof" gloves which failed miserably after holding one fish. I need to find a legitimate pair of rain gloves that are actually rain proof. Any suggestions? Other interesting things, had a northern jump at the boat so high that as I moved my face, it bit my hand and I then bled all over. Then the stupid thing jumped again at me and headbutted the boat. Never seen that before. Other bad northern highlight, went back to a good lake i previously did well on and within 3 casts, had both of my chatterbaits snipped off. Ouch. Hope you guys get in to them. 

[FryDog62]

1 hour ago, shimmy said:

Fished this week in the Ottertail County area. This may have been the worst weather I have ever fished in a week. 20-30 mph winds the whole week with the exception of one day. There was another day where it was 15 mph, but gusts of 30-40. I had planned on staying Friday and Saturday, then leaving Sunday, but then had a blizzard Thursday night. I actually don't mind fishing in the snow, but was nervous about the launch ramps and drive home. Too many extraneous variables, so I decided to play it safe and left Friday morning. Fishing was tough most days. My favorite lake had a kill off this winter. I honestly feel like I lost a best friend with it. It is so sad and the lake was becoming an incredible fishery. Too many big bass and not deep enough to sustain the oxygen needed. Serious bummer. Had over a 28 lb bag out of it last year and now it is never going to be the same. Went to some of the other next best lakes. They are very unlikely to produce a 28+ lb bag, but was able to get two 25 lb bag days during the two days in the 60 degrees this week. Went back to one of the lakes 2 days later and did terrible. The bite just shut down. If I could go out in a couple weeks I would since I am sure it would pick back up, but the bite was so rough. The only pattern I found out there was find a different lake. Some lakes would be shut down while other adjacent lakes were ready to play. No pattern. Fish were scattered, never clumped up like I can usually find late fall. Type of grass didn't matter. Some clumps of grass had a school of bass, but all were small. Big fish were lone rangers for me this week. I had one 5+ lb bass (that i didn't know at the time), that bit my brush hog maybe 20 times on at least 10 casts until he was finally on and I just set the hook. I found that a lot of missed jig bites wouldn't follow up on the jig, but would take the brush hog on follow up casts. Maybe the traditional senko follow-up would have worked, but I needed something with weight given the ridiculous wind so the brush hog did the trick for me. All big bass were in 6-8 feet of water range. Didn't catch a big one deeper or shallower than that. But again, there may have been some that followed it from the shallows and committed once in that depth. Don't know. Tough week with a few good days. It will get better out there, but I won't be there to experience it. I almost feel like this first real cold front got them skiddish, but the next one will let them think of feeding. Fished by myself so I was not able to find some patterns out in a good time on most days. Best lures of the week were #1 -jig, #2 - brush hog, and #3 -chatterbait worked as a jig in murkier water. Caught some on rapalas, spinnerbaits, frogs, and swimbait, but nothing over 5 pounds. 

 

Few highlights of the trip, I bought the bass pro shops goretex parka and bibs on sale and they handled all of the ridiculous weather. Not only did I stay completely dry, but they stopped the wind. Best purchase for me in years. Bought some conventional "rain proof" gloves which failed miserably after holding one fish. I need to find a legitimate pair of rain gloves that are actually rain proof. Any suggestions? Other interesting things, had a northern jump at the boat so high that as I moved my face, it bit my hand and I then bled all over. Then the stupid thing jumped again at me and headbutted the boat. Never seen that before. Other bad northern highlight, went back to a good lake i previously did well on and within 3 casts, had both of my chatterbaits snipped off. Ouch. Hope you guys get in to them. 

Fish Monkey makes some good waterproof insulated gloves..

[OperationEagle]

Shimmy, serious bummer about your favorite lake. That happened to me this past year.  Not sure when or how long it will take to return to what it was like....maybe 7-10 years assuming not another kill happens. 

 

Also so glad you are safe as fishing alone in nasty conditions can be less than ideal. 

 

Nice write up despite poor results. You will be on em next time. 

 

Btw, fry and I were out together recently and we found the fish to be scattered as well. We were waiting/hoping to find them bunched up and never did. 

 

We are owed a long extended fall....one of these years.  Tight lines shimmy good to hear from you. 

[gim]

I went out for a couple hours this afternoon and had my best day targeting largies of the season. I looked for the thickest weeds I could find and the fish smoked my slow rolling spinnerbaits and my slow vibrating chatterbaits. I caught 10 bass and 6 of them were over 18 inches. Water temp 53.5 degrees.

 

The advice to look for and find any remaining weeds proved to be effective. Thanks

[FryDog62]

44 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I went out for a couple hours this afternoon and had my best day targeting largies of the season. I looked for the thickest weeds I could find and the fish smoked my slow rolling spinnerbaits and my slow vibrating chatterbaits. I caught 10 bass and 6 of them were over 18 inches. Water temp 53.5 degrees.

 

The advice to look for and find any remaining weeds proved to be effective. Thanks

I saw someone out casting from a boat on Parker’s Lake by my house today... had to be upper 30’s, 15 mph winds and a few drops/flakes.  And readily admitted there’s someone definitely more manly than me lol.  But good for you Grant if you can get out in weather like this with ideal water temps, you deserve to catch a bunch of nice largies!!

[gim]

23 minutes ago, FryDog62 said:

I saw someone out casting from a boat on Parker’s Lake by my house today... had to be upper 30’s, 15 mph winds and a few drops/flakes.  And readily admitted there’s someone definitely more manly than me lol.  But good for you Grant if you can get out in weather like this with ideal water temps, you deserve to catch a bunch of nice largies!!

The sun actually came out for a little bit too! Definitely cold out there in the wind tho.

[Sodaksam]

Yes, kicker I was fishing close to home. FryDog, Al wasn’t filming unless he pulled out his iPhone when I was trying to get my dt-10 out of a tree.  The water temp was 54 on Friday in the snow. I imagine it has plummeted. 

[thatbasschigger187]

Man was the weather amazing yesterday! Cold but sunny. Not as windy as I thought it would be. I was out on the Mississippi. My buddy and I knocked them out. Nothing too big though, biggest running around 3. Pretty dangerous though not gonna lie. Water is super high and it's fast. The ultrex was at max to keep up. And there's tons and tons of brush in the water right now. So be careful if you guys plan to go out there. But we caught alot in the the 6 hours we had to fish. Easily over 50+ fish. Water temp was cold, low 50's and water was pretty muddy. Not the ideal conditions for smallies but the time of the year plus the sun finally being out definitely helped.

 

My buddy and I started with cranking. We were throwing squarebills. I was chucking a KVD 1.5 and he was throwing a Luckcraft LC 1.5. We caught a few but the fish seemed to be missing the lure. All our bites were outside the mouth. I switched to a Storm Arashi 03 with rattles and they got on it. Everything in the mouth. We did this for about 2 hours and it got a bit warmer. The crank bite died down. The fish seemed to get tucked in more to the brush and trees on flooded shoreline. We also noticed alot of baitfish swimming around in the calmer, clearer water. No idea on what type it was but there were small pods of them everywhere. We decided to start flipping to fish the brush more effectively. My buddy went with a tried and true jig but I wanted to try something different. I went with the Megabass Dark Sleeper. And boy was it FIRE!!!!!! We ended up flipping the rest of the day with some occasional drop shot mixed in. Majority of the fish were caught in typical fashion. Find a form of current break with brush mixed in with rocks. The darksleeper was awesome. Not too weedless though. I lost 4 of em compared of the one lost jig of my buddy's. All in all fun day of fishing. Again if you guys go out there be careful!

 

Setups

     Squarebill - Shimano Curado 70XG Dobyns Champion 703 MH 12# Tatsu FL

     KVD 1.5 in Chartreuse Shad / Arashi 03 in Wakasagi

 

     Flipping - Shimano Excence DC  Dobyns Champion 734 H 25# AbrazX FL

     Megabass Dark Sleeper 3/8oz 2.4 inch in Hanahaze

 

     Dropshot - Shimano Stradic 3000 Dobyns Champion 701 L 8# InvizX FL

     Berkley Gulp Alive Minnow 3 inch

[punch]

I really do need to work the dark sleeper into my river fishing next year, great idea.