Minnesota 2020 Fishing Season

[gim]

Pretty decent bite on Saturday morning...until the sun came out.  My friend and I caught 10 bass, 5 pike, and a bonus 32 inch tiger muskie between 7-9am and then not a single fish after 9am when the sun came out.  The last couple times on lakes it has been like this for me.  Quite good under clouds and brutally tough under the sun.

[Nibbles]

Hit up Medicine Lake after work in a rowboat.

 

Didn't expect to catch much, was proven wrong to my delight.

 

Didn't have a ruler with me, but felt pretty hefty in my hands.

 

Glad I had 10# braid on since I didn't have a net.

 

Not sure I could have landed it on 4# fluoro.

[Nibbles]

Productive day after work yesterday, was only on the water for a little over 2 hours, but it was those prime hours after 530 pm

 

Was on Whaletail Lake, which is a bit west of Lake Minnetonka.

 

That place is infested with Northern Pike, I catch at least one every time I go.

 

Doesn't matter what you use, really - have caught them with t-rigged stickbaits, crankbaits, paddletails, finesse and flipping jigs, chatterbaits, etc. 

 

Would have more pike pictures but I didn't take ones of the dinks.

 

[gim]

13 hours ago, Nibbles said:

That place is infested with Northern Pike, I catch at least one every time I go.

A lot of lakes are. I’d be happy if I only caught one each trip. The last 3 times I have gone, I’ve been trimmed off each time too. And it’s only gonna get worse now with cooler temps coming. My friend calls it Pikenado.

[FryDog62]

Whaletail not only has a large pike population but if you read the DNR report, many of them are quite skinny/sickly from malnutrition.  That’s why they hit about everything and it’s hard to catch bass sometimes.  Here’s one I caught a couple years ago, a day I lost about $60 in lures to bite-offs so I rarely go any more.  Big heads, small bodies..

[gim]

Oh man that is one super skinny pike

[MN Fisher]

I keep thinking about trying Whaletail because it's in my neighborhood (<7 miles) - but seeing that and hearing about the issues, I think I'll pass

[NathanDLTH]

Hey gents, I hope the season is treating you well and with fall right around the corner my tourny friend and I are looking to make a day trip or a weekend adventure. I'm located in Osseo and he's in Woodbury just for an idea of our location.

I could use some help for finding a lake that has good numbers with size. My instinct is to head to the family cabin on Bay Lake because there are plenty of other lakes in the area we can fish too including Mil Lacs. There would be no one at the cabin the weekend of the 12 and 13th which would be a bonus. Any input would be appreciated. 

[umdivx]

40 minutes ago, NathanDLTH said:

I could use some help for finding a lake that has good numbers with size. 

Woman, Man, Little Boy Lakes. Anything in that chain just south of Leech.

[FryDog62]

45 minutes ago, NathanDLTH said:

Hey gents, I hope the season is treating you well and with fall right around the corner my tourny friend and I are looking to make a day trip or a weekend adventure. I'm located in Osseo and he's in Woodbury just for an idea of our location.

I could use some help for finding a lake that has good numbers with size. My instinct is to head to the family cabin on Bay Lake because there are plenty of other lakes in the area we can fish too including Mil Lacs. There would be no one at the cabin the weekend of the 12 and 13th which would be a bonus. Any input would be appreciated. 

The aforementioned lakes for smb are very good, for lmb try Ruth, Emily of Kego.  A bit of a drive, but usually produce numbers and a few bigguns ?

[gim]

12 hours ago, NathanDLTH said:

My instinct is to head to the family cabin on Bay Lake because there are plenty of other lakes in the area we can fish too including Mil Lacs.

This would be my choice.  As previously mentioned there are quite a few lakes in that area.  I would check the DNR survey report to see which one perhaps has the best/most recent population study performed.  I have fished Bay Lake a couple times in the past and it was OK.  If I was up there again I'd probably try a new lake though.

[gim]

Did some more night time fishing under the moon last night. 18 bass and a 22 inch walleye in about 3.5 hours, all on a black spinner bait. The three biggest largies I caught were 17, 17.5, and 18 inches. Water temp 74 degrees.

[OperationEagle]

7 hours ago, gimruis said:

Did some more night time fishing under the moon last night. 18 bass and a 22 inch walleye in about 3.5 hours, all on a black spinner bait. The three biggest largies I caught were 17, 17.5, and 18 inches. Water temp 74 degrees.

That sounds like a ton of fun. I need to try that. Gimruis you are having an outstanding season...good for you. You’re catching for all the rest of us.  Very mediocre for me. 

[gim]

I hadn’t been fishing at night for years until this season. I’ve gone 3 times now since mid July and it was generally better than fishing during the day time. At least when it was hot and sunny out during the day. I was intending to try a topwater but the black spinner bait was so good I just couldn’t put it down.

[ajschn06]

On 9/5/2020 at 1:07 PM, gimruis said:

Did some more night time fishing under the moon last night. 18 bass and a 22 inch walleye in about 3.5 hours, all on a black spinner bait. The three biggest largies I caught were 17, 17.5, and 18 inches. Water temp 74 degrees.

Dang I’m averaging about a bass an hour lately and feeling pretty good about myself.... biggest this year is 17.5”

[gim]

10 hours ago, ajschn06 said:

Dang I’m averaging about a bass an hour lately and feeling pretty good about myself.... biggest this year is 17.5”

I used to fish at night quite a bit when I was younger, mostly for walleyes or muskies.  I never did much of it for largemouth.  Another bass angler on another local forum kept posting photos of tanker largies in the bass thread he was catching very early in the morning before the sun came up (like 3:30am).  So I considered trying it, but there was no way I was getting up at 3am to do it, so I tried another alternative: starting an hour before dark and then fishing for a couple hours after it got dark out.  That is what I've done 3 times now.  I also was trying to find a better way to avoid recreational boats in the heat of summer.  I had read that black lures that made noise were a good selection.  I don't know if the moon phase plays a big role but it could.  The first time I went in July during a new moon it was pretty insane.  I caught about a dozen bass in 2.5 hours and they were all pretty big, with the biggest being 20.5 inches.  The other two times I caught good numbers (including last week), but I didn't get any really big bass although 18 inches is still a solid fish in my book.  I don't know if I'll be doing it again this season but I definitely will be going again next season.  It helps to fish a lake that you are at least somewhat familiar with.  Setting up a GPS track on productive contours is what guides me.  I simply follow that line on my GPS when I'm fishing.  A really nice side effect of fishing at night is that you don't catch any pike!  Those snot rockets can't see in the dark.  Its basically all largemouth or an occasional walleye or muskie.

[Byang98120]

Hows the fishing in Bemidji? Specifically, Turtle Lake and Little Turtle Lake. I have an opportunity to go fish there on a canoe, but 3.5 hr drive sounds tiring bc I drove to Chicago Labor Day weekend. If it's an absolute must go to catch fish, I'll muster up energy to drive there.

[Nibbles]

Not a bad day out yesterday on Whaletail.

 

Lost a massive bass that felt like 20+, but did manage to catch a few more in the 16 - 19 range.

 

Buddy caught a couple around the same size as well.

 

They all didn't have as much fight as usual, felt heavier than usual, and all had distended bellies so it seems like they're now gorging themselves to the point of lethargy. Roly poly green footballs.

 

Lost my last LC Flash Minnow 110 to a monster pike 20 minutes before we ended the day, which kind of sucked. Gonna be hard to replace since they don't make the slow sinking 3 - 5' FOW ones anymore. Been losing them over the years and sad to see the last one go. Ah well.

 

Fish were caught on a Spro Little John MD in Fire Craw and an OG (non-CIF) Lucky Craft Flash Minnow 110 in Chartreuse Shad (R.I.P)

[gim]

2 hours ago, Nibbles said:

Lost my last LC Flash Minnow 110 to a monster pike 20 minutes before we ended the day, which kind of sucked.

I tell ya, losing nice expensive lures to those things gets old QUICK. I went all season until mid August without losing a single lure and then 3 trips in a row I got snipped off. Down $40 real quick. The small ones generally don’t bite me off and that’s mostly what I catch. The 20 inch snakes that are just slimy and annoying. It’s the big gators that just completely engulf the lure and you feel a big thud and then everything is just gone.

[Nibbles]

32 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I tell ya, losing nice expensive lures to those things gets old QUICK. I went all season until mid August without losing a single lure and then 3 trips in a row I got snipped off. Down $40 real quick. The small ones generally don’t bite me off and that’s mostly what I catch. The 20 inch snakes that are just slimy and annoying. It’s the big gators that just completely engulf the lure and you feel a big thud and then everything is just gone.

Got it to the boat, buddy got the line wrapped around the net handle and the pike cut the line with a head shake. Shame, wanted to land it. Pretty big looking. Probably mid 30s.

[RiggityBop]

On 9/20/2020 at 11:50 AM, gimruis said:

I tell ya, losing nice expensive lures to those things gets old QUICK. I went all season until mid August without losing a single lure and then 3 trips in a row I got snipped off. Down $40 real quick. The small ones generally don’t bite me off and that’s mostly what I catch. The 20 inch snakes that are just slimy and annoying. It’s the big gators that just completely engulf the lure and you feel a big thud and then everything is just gone.

Yup, "big thud and then everything is just gone." is exactly right. had 2 of those this weekend. lost two chatterbaits this way, and pike destroyed the rest of my spinnerbaits too... where did my blades go?! frustrating, especially since the bait shop on the lake didn't have anymore spinners/chatters either. 

 

It was quite a weekend battling the wind, but i grinded out 3 days of bass fishing for a friendly online bass tourney with some buds across the US. it was a judged on the 5 longest bass, which was quite a fun way to compete with others from  various states across the US. 

 

I worked a ton of water, but what produced the most for me was working the pencil reeds (not sure of the actual plant name) with spinners, and chatterbaits. Topwater wasn't really producing bass for me, but i did have some crazy pike blowups on frogs, couldn't get buzzbaits/ploppers going either. The bass I caught were in the 18's, 17's, and a bunch of 15.5's/14's/13's. Unfortunately, i lost a couple really nice ones which would have put me on top of the competition... Every once in a while you'll get one that is quick to bury themselves in the weeds, and it didn't matter that i had 60lbs braid and muscled it out, it was gone. oh well. fun nonetheless. 

 

Now I'm on to hunting season, and a couple musky outings. Speaking of, here's a couple ski's from two weekends ago. Caught them on some RiggityBop homemade bucktails, which has been a goal for a while   

 

[gim]

Did some more dock skip fishing yesterday for about 5 hours.  Its still working.  I caught 21 largemouth and the biggest was 18.5 inches.  I only had the dog with so there's no photos.  Looks like one more warm day and then its gonna be in the 50's next week.  Water temp 66 degrees, north metro.

[gim]

Caught 7 bass, 6 pike, a walleye, and a muskie last night in about 3.5 hours.  I started before the sun went down and stayed out under the full moon for about an hour and a half.  The biggest bass I caught was a plump 19 incher.  Water temp 61 degrees.

[Byang98120]

Relatively new to river fishing. I want to catch smallies on the Mississippi, only caught one so far. 

Any spots in Minneapolis to catch them around this time of the year from the bank?

What lures or baits? Set up? Trying to avoid crankbaits because they get snagged

Will drop shot work?

 

[Nibbles]

2 minutes ago, Byang98120 said:

Relatively new to river fishing. I want to catch smallies on the Mississippi, only caught one so far. 

Any spots in Minneapolis to catch them around this time of the year from the bank?

What lures or baits? Set up? Trying to avoid crankbaits because they get snagged

Will drop shot work?

 

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/areas/fisheries/eastmetro/rivers/pool2.html