OK Minnesota angler's I didn't make it out for opener and this weekend I am planning on killing it!
I see lot's of posts from all over the south, but nothing from good ole Minnesota.
Game on Ladies and Gentlemen.:cheers2:cheers2
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OK Minnesota angler's I didn't make it out for opener and this weekend I am planning on killing it!
I see lot's of posts from all over the south, but nothing from good ole Minnesota.
Game on Ladies and Gentlemen.:cheers2:cheers2
Wow. A lot of nice crappies up here. Even the Minnesota Bound Crappie Tournament two weekends ago had nice weather (long over due).
Used the walleye opener as a crappie fest this weekend, boating well over 200 fish, keeping a handful of 11" fish for a meal and letting the rest swim. The biggest of the bunch was 1.9lbs.
Dirty water and high water down here in the corner are making it challenging. I fished on Monday at a local lake with limited success. Most of the negative came from a series of storms that went directly over the lake I fished tossing lightning around and, of course, thunder, all night. A week ago I had a super great day with crappies, but that was when the water was relatively clean, warming, and the temps were moving the water temp uphill. The surface temp dropped since last week by 7 degrees. The water temp down at 8 feet was about the same but the fish evidently didn't like the fireworks and were tight lipped. Such is the game of fishing.
Late ice out and cold wet weather have raised some local lake levels almost 3 feet since the beginning of spring thaw. Good catches by those willing to work for them including reports of crappies over 15" from inside the metro. Bonus gamefish have also been showing up from well before season openers, including pike, muskies, largemouth bass and some incidental carp. Biggest pike I have seen taken on crappie tackle was just at 30", biggest muskie hookups definitely pushed 40 but I have not seen one of them landed. Biggest largemouth went 23". I put the tape on that one myself although I didn't catch it, and saw the 2.25 shad bait that it took.
The crappies are taking the sun whenever it is out and have returned to many of their traditional spots that had been too shallow earlier.
The crappie bite is on and so is just about everything else at this point. Season is also now open for pike and walleyes.
Any word on how the bite is around the Aitkin area.
Thanks
I used to spend time up there on Farm Island with my cousins, but the one that was the crappie angler of the bunch stays pretty busy now.
The panfish are heating up now. We still see some shots of cool air that like to slow things for a day or two but for the most part the pannies are agreeable.
Its been stated before that the winter here was a real ugly one. The spring has been almost as bad. A nice day or two here, and there but cold fronts, nasty wind, wet and late snows really changed the fishing complexion early on. Little by little things are settling into more conducive conditions for fishing and the panfish are responding.
Let's be honest here, the sunnies and the crappies and even the perch never really stopped biting and they don't all year around, but we are finally deep into the spring patterns with spawning due to start soon in the shallowest, warmest southern waters and all across the state in the next couple to few weeks, if the temperatures stay up.
Once spawning starts I shift over to carp for a couple of weeks and let the panfish do their thing; there are far too many harvesters who would follow us around, many of whom couldn't find the beds on their own if they fell into them.
it had been on and off last few outgoing, lake i fish at was pre spawning and found them hanging in deep break line action was fast but have to follow them as they kept on moving along break line, once water temp hit the likely spawning, couldn't find them up bed so went to different lake, did pretty ok ok with size. i am more of summer crappie fisherman than spring. actually more look forward to summer bites!!!! and now i am focus on big bull bluegills. did pretty good on them on few lakes now.
Finally finding darkening male crappies up in bedding areas. Also pretty good numbers of smaller fish still sunning. Our city park lakes were walled as a WPA project back in the 30's. Recent rains have filled many of them to overflowing; so we have some pretty good pools at storm drains to play with. One has to work in and around overhanging trees and flooded brush in some places to take decent numbers of crappies. Dock shooting techniques work well in and under the overhang in some places, in others a reach to dip into holes in the brush is the ticket. Inch and a half tube was all I needed.
The big eaters (pike, muskie, bass) are pretty much done spawning and are feeding pretty heavily on the juvies in the shallows, often herding them into huge schools. The one I saw Wednesday evening had thousands of 2 to 4 inch crappies with a few perch, some cigar-sized walleyes, and some bluegills mixed in. The bluegills showed some size when they came from under the school. Wednesday afternoon at a different dock it was thousands of bluegills with some up to 8".
What a difference a week makes: last week the water temp was 57 degrees and yesterday the water temp. was 75 degrees.
The crappie bite is in full swing, My fishing partner and I limited out in the afternoon. The fish were stacked up out side of the rush beds in 5 FOW.
A jig tipped with power did the trick.
About the same to report here in the southern end of MN too. Water temp yesterday was at 70. We don't have weeds on our local lake [a reservoir actually] due to the extremely steep shorelines and deep water right at the water's edge. Our crappies line up right along the first break which can be anywhere from a couple feet off shore to maybe 8 feet out and 4 feet deep. This lake is challenging. Jigs and plastics of purple with chartreuse tails have been the rule in our boat. We get a lot of idiots on the water by 10 in the morning so my fishing has been from about 5 am until 10 am. We've had some very nice sunrises lately.
I was at Bryant Lake's swimming beach with my son today. It's still early, so the water was nice and clear and there were plenty of sunnies checking out the legs and toes. I noticed their chartreuse-ish tails behind the dark/purple/brown bodies and it reminded me of your post, CTOm, and my favorite black and chartreuse tubes.
Its been a while since anyone has added anything here so I'll toss in a couple cents worth.
I cannot ever remember where we have had such a water over-load almost state-wide as what we have going on right now. The Rainy River system on the Canadian border is really getting bad and the heavy rains just keep coming up there. We were in Two Harbors at the cabin last week and the rains we had made the yard look like swamp. Lake Superior is much higher than last year and a person fishing on the breakwater in Two Harbors does not need a net with an extension. For that matter a fish could almost be slid up onto the walkway if the waves were used. I've never seen Superior this high before.
More locally to my home in Rochester in the SE corner of the state, the local lake I fish the most, Lake Zumbro, is currently over 3.5 feet into the flood stage and the Mississippi River is something like 12 feet into the flood stage so the fishing around here is spotty at best. Our local flood control reservoirs are to capacity now too so the shoreline bass fishing should be dandy but it doesn't stay dry enough to venture out into the grass. If the daily rains would give it up the Zumbro would be fishable in about 8 days but we've still got rain on the slate for the next five days here. It would be nice if these fronts would go backdoor and soak some of the fire prone areas in the west and give everyone a break.
Tom, How, and for what do they fish Two Harbor's breakwater?Quote:
Originally Posted by CTom
Lake trout and salmon. I cast spinners and baits like Little Cleos and Krokodile lures.
Super high water here in the Cities,too. Most of our Chain of Lakes, and other city park lakes were walled by in WPA days. We started the spring about as low lake levels as I have ever seen but now Minnehaha Creek is overflowing its banks, Lake Minnetonka is "no wake" and water levels are over the walls in many places.
Sunfish are bedding so bite is on there. I could have limited out on 8" males the other evening, with one on every cast there for a while. Crappie spawn is about over, but bite is still strong there, too.
Muskies are out this year with my first stolen panfish this past week (that was the third muskie hookup of the year on panfish plastics and I saw this one happen from start to finish, although it was not actually a hookup on the muskie, only the crappie it stripped from my jig.) The muskies are patrolling fishing docks and inside weedlines this time of the year for spawning sunfish and ducklings.
Shoreline fishermen with plastic worms and hard baits are taking lg mouths by walking the walls and casting to the outside weedline. I have already seen a 23" bucketmouth this year, and reports are there of numerous fish pushing the 20"/5# mark.
High water, lots of continuing stormy weather, but a good bite on most of our species when the weather and the water levels allow.
Most of my potential fishing time this spring has been raining, however, so I have not been out as much as in former years.
One thing really new this year: we have a pair of breeding plumaged loons on Lake Calhoun right in the heart of the south side of Minneapolis. Really gotta wonder just where they are gonna find enough privacy to nest, though.
I'm pretty well land locked right now. Even my shore fishing areas are under water. On a positive note, I don't have to water the garden.
Don't be surprised if they show up in your garden, no1son.Quote:
Originally Posted by no1son
Just in the Spring or year-round?
I'm starting to regret activating my sprinkler system...
"Just in the Spring or year-round?"...per IMFISHIN
I'll assume this is aimed at me. The fishing for trout runs from mid-January thru the last day of September. Salmon and steelhead [loopers] along with herring and whitefish is year round.
My apologies CTom, I forgot this forum doesn't show sub-replies in it's default flat mode.
Thank you for the T.H. insight. We usually head up each year and spend some time in the gooseberry area or at Superior Shores, but I haven't fished while up there.
Take a spinning rod, medium action 6 or 6'6" will be fine and load with 6 pound mono. Use a good ball bearing swivel on ALL lures. Pick up some gold/orange stripe lil cleos in 2/5 ounce and Kroks in 1/4 ounce. A plain Mepps spinner in gold with the orange plastic tube on the treble in a size 4 or 3 will finish the gold stuff out nice. Blue/chrome and green/chrome works ok too. The water is up so you won't need much but do take a net. For the lakers, cast and let the lure free fall [bail open] to the bottom. When the line goes slack, bring it in using a moderately slow retrieve. This works good on lakers. For the others, cast, count down to as much as twenty and retrieve with a moderately fast retrieve speed. Fish in the higher water column will chase real good and generally are faster swimming than those down deep. From the dogleg to the end of the breakwater expect the water depths on the harbor side to be between 35 and 60 feet, the deeper stuff at the end of the wall. On the outside the water depths are generally in the 70's feet deep. Off the end its about 77-79 feet right now.
Thanks CTom,
Very interesting. Reminds me of fishing the tailraces below the big dam at Garrison ND. We had to detach the landing net's head and tie the four corners to a rope, lower it about 40' down to the water's surface and secure the rope's end to the fence line up top, then lead the hooked walleyes over the net lip.
Do they tend to prefer harbor or lake side depending on the day/time?
Now that my little guys is a bit older, I'll be looking at getting some recommendations, loading up the canoe, and heading farther north on the BWWA
They get fish on both sides. If there's a preference its pretty much an angler thing.
LOL I am on high ground here on the near south side, but they might show up on Powderhorn which is about 4 blocks away. There is a prohibited island on that 5 acre pond, but right now it is full of woodies and mallards, also a cormorant or two with sharpshins and the normal woodland birds in the trees around it. Wonderful place for birding. We get loons every spring when the water birds come through along with the grebes and merganzers early, and there have be juveniles on Calhoun for a couple of summers now, but this is the first time full breeding plumage adults have been around this late into the summer. This is definitely a pair, too, that is getting to know each other real well.Quote:
Originally Posted by IMFSHN
We have probably a good dozen or more DNR fihing docks around the Cities with two each on Harriet, Calhoun, and Nokomis, and singletons on quite a few others, and even one out on the big Muddy, plus walls all along the river, too. Those floating docks generally reach out over the first break and the outside weedline on all those lakes, very often out to over 25' depths, and all in public parks, generally with parking close. Those are there from about two weeks before walleye opener until about the beginning of November, and provide occasionally hot fishing all during that period.Quote:
Originally Posted by CTom
Having seen that same exact type of fishing dock way down in the SW part of the state by Luverne, I thought they were a state wide program. That is what I would look for. Of course they aren't all primo, and none of them are all the time. I realize that not everybody is blessed with the amount of easily available prime fishing water we have here in the Twin Cities. Nor the variety of species to target either. I would have to say we have probably the top urban fishery in the country if not the world. :)
The Luverne area is flooding to beat it right now.
I hadn't caught that on the news, but it is a real mess from well norh of Luverne south which is right through where I grew up and where a lot of my relatives still are. Rainfall there over the past few days of perhaps 10" and more and over a pretty wide area on top of everything. At least one whole town has been evacuated, Alvord. The Rock River that runs by Luverne and then south right through Rock Rapids has cut Rock Rapids where my mother lives in half. Every crik and stream bed and bottom in the area is underwater. My niece had to make a good half hour plus detour to find a way to get across the Rock River so she could get to work at the Rock Rapids hospital which isn't 10 blocks from where she is staying. Mom says she is cut off from the rest of the town to the west, to the south and to the north, open only by a wide detour east; so she says she will hunker down and just stay put until things sort themselves out. So long as her electricity stays on she has a freezer full of food; so she won't starve or anything.Quote:
Originally Posted by CTom
It sounds like a possible reprieve tonight but tomorrow is not supposed to be nice at all with the worst of the bad stuff pending. Blue sky and sunshine here right now. Still humid though.
We've been getting another hosing here since about 5 AM. No hail or wild winds, but the radar shows that this is far from over.
CT, It rained here much of the night, sometimes real heavy, but we seem to be on the backside of it now, although we remain under flash flood watch from west of Minnetonka and along the Minnesota from at least LeSeur right through both core Metros. That is nothing like the flood watches from your area se into Iowa. I seem to remember that you have a stream in your backyard. Here's hoping you are high enough and that your power stays up.
I went out to a couple of docks last evening. I found crappies at both of them. At the first out over deeper water all around the T were thousands of juveniles 3-4" stacked like cord wood! Some little perch and a few sunnies were mixed in. Water was higher than I have ever seen it there, well over the WPA walls. No waders but that is what it would have taken just to reach the shoreline trees.
The second dock had the average 7-9" crappies scattered all over but not concentrated anywhere. I fished to visible fish in 3' of water on the inside weed line, over 10' on the outside weedline and down to maybe 15 or 20' at the docks deep T over 30' and caught scattered fish in all those places and in most spots in between and at depths from the surface down as far as I could get a 1/64th oz jig to go on 2# line. Yes you can get a 1/64th oz just with a tiny plastic tail down to the bottom at close to 30', if you have the patience and are out of the wind. Bite there came on a slow lifting retrieve up from the complete bottom about 1/3 to 1/2 the way back to the surface. Color of the 1" tail was white and that seemed to be the only color that worked. The jighead was black. I will fish any color jighead as long as it is the same color as Henry Ford's first cars. This year white tails have been best both for the little rattails like last night and the twister types.
I suppose I threw back maybe a couple dozen 7-9" crappies at the second dock in a matter of a couple of hours, not a fast bite, but one that could be worked pretty well.
The sunfish are nesting these days on bottom that was dry last year at this time in a lot of places, and all breaks are now deeper than they have ever been before; so it pays to move up structure a bit, if you can.
Here's a picture of the stream and river that run behind us, Dutch.
http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/a...58780f3ea5.jpg
The creek is the water in the foreground. The river runs from right to left. The hand-railing you see in the middle of the picture under the trees leads down to a sand bar that's currently underwater. The young lady waving in there is Carole. Next to where she is standing the creek is normally flowing about 12 feet lower than what you see here. I took the picture from the foot bridge that spans the stream and we live on the side opposite of where Carole is standing and more behind me on the bridge..
We have quite a bit of that around here, too, in fact pretty much all across southern Minnesota. Here in the Twin Cities we got between 2 and 6 inches more rain depending on where you were just in the last 24 hours. My house is about as high as you get in South Minneapolis, it is downhill in all directions from here, but to get to work I will have to cross some pretty low spots and I may have to do some serious detouring to cover that 6 mile stretch. (and that is to start at 4am!) I laid in some food and have enough canned goods if the power goes out, but work still needs to be covered and I am about the closest in anyway.
Oh - it is raining again and that is heading south...
My on-line weather map shows Rochester almost out of the rain for the night. Maybe it will stay quiet all night.
I have to pick strawberries again in the morning so I'm hoping things will at least be dry from the top down, meaning no rain on my back. I'm enjoying a bowl of strawberry shortcake right now in fact. As far as strawberries and raspberries are concerned, this wet is good. The other stuff in the garden is liking the moisture too. My bush beans are three feet tall now so they can quit growing and put their energy into making my beans. The tomatoes are approaching three feet now too and have grown a foot since we got home Monday. And of course I am super happy that I fertilized the lawn this spring. I need a baler attachment on the Toro.
The only thing this rain has done that's negative for me is that its keeping me off the water.
Looks like you will only need to let the fog burn off.
That's certainly better than another half foot of rain!
I can see sunshine.
I just did a check on a couple water level monitoring sites and both places I'd fish have very high water right now. The lake just north of town is about 3 feet over normal with a "no wake" rule in effect. I can launch at either end of the lake but it will still take a half hour at an idle to get to where the fish are. The other area is on the Mississippi River and the backwaters I'd target have 4 to 6 feet of fast moving water over them right now and launch sites are basically under water. So here I sit with a fishing pass for the next three or 4 days and no where to go.
The whole state except for the extreme NW corner is having to deal with high water. Something isn't right here...it darned near July and we're supposed to be looking for some extra water.
We drove along the Mississippi between Lake City and Red Wing yesterday and the water was within 18" of being on the highway in a couple areas. The Frontenac beach area is really taking a hit. Red Wing's water front is pounded too. I check the monitoring site I use for the river and see that today, ever so slightly, there is a turn down in water levels so the crest had to have happened yesterday. The flow at Alma has been steady at 157,000 cubic feet of water per second. That rate has shown a very tiny decline. Locally Lake Zumbro has dropped below the no wake levels so normal operation on the lake can be done but with the river still ripping and high the Zumbro will take a serious busy hit. It'll need to settle out some anyway.
I tried some fishing in a slack area along shore in Red Wing yesterday and found some nice gills and a crappie or three. All were released since I was working....or supposed to be working. I saw others shore fishing too and they all had fish. On a bright note, this high water is creating fishing that normal water levels can't offer and the old lemons/lemonade ideology comes into play. And gas is saved when not needing an outboard. Its not all bad.
The no wake mandate on Tonka makes for some long downtimes getting to where you want to get to, so I'm going to stay with the smaller nearby lakes and the canoe. If I'm going to have to go slow, it should be on my own terms ;)
i finally bellied up the cash and had my crappie rod fixed/replaced this spring. Man that thing is butter!
CTom: speaking of rods and drifting back to the Two Harbors salmon/trout stray post, I just recieved an email that I wine a drawing for a Fetha Styx CHROME (10'6" 12-25lb. 3/4-4oz. MOD-FAST MED-HEAVY) Steelhead/salmon rod from a different forum. Nice, but a bit heavy for tossing one of those Krocs. ;)