If you start in the Twin Cities on June 1, the crappie bite should be on here full tilt. There will be crappies on the beds yet all over the state through the 10th, too. For a little change from normal Minnesota lake concentration if you drop south and a little west from Itasca you have the Detroit Lakes area right at your fingertips and then directly south is Ottertail county that claims a thousand lakes all by itself. You will see pothole country there for sure. Much of the west of the state was like that all the way down into Iowa before it was all drained for farming. South of that your drive out of lake country out onto the west Minnesota prairie. If you keep going south you past the headwaters of the Minnesota going south and east and the Red River of the north going north and then up almost 800 feet up and onto the top of the Buffalo Ridge that the last glaciers never covered and reach first the Pipestone Quarry and then farther south just before you reach I90, Blue Mounds at Luverne where there are free ranging bison on true native prairie. Minnesota has big timber up north and NE, pure prairie in the SW and lakes and rivers all over. A west loop like this will also show you more corn than you ever thought existed and in a lot of places miles between the individual trees, too. Not everybody is comfortable with that vista either.

To identify fishing spots go over the map to gather lake names and run them through the Minnesota Lake Finder on the Internet. It is quite a tool.

Right now we are heading into the real deep freeze with daytime highs all over the state forecast to be in the double digits below zero for the next couple of days.

I also warn you that the Mall of America is LOUD. Make sure you pack your aspirin. An quiet evening picnic with a little fishing afterwards say at Lake Calhoun or Lake Harriet might be in order after a trip to the Mall. Harriet has a band shell and may even have a concert on; I don't know what the schedule will be though. Personally I avoid the MofA, myself, it rattles my nerves. Also try to avoid Minneapolis freeways during rush hour, they can be stop and go at times.

Watch this forum as the time gets close. Also I would not mind a PM around then, and I will be more specific. I will certainly be out then on Minneapolis waters provided I can thaw out from what we have now. IMO we have very close to the best urban fishery in the world right here in the Twin Cities.