fishing reports Big Chetac Fishing Reports

[Dylan33]

Looks like i'll be bringing the fly rod now too....thanks again

[HOBBSTER]

Fellas, I'll be fishing Big Chetac Aug 6-13. Family vacation, first time to the lake. We'll be staying on the middle westside of the lake and have a pontoon. I'm an avid bass man but I want to keep my family occupied so I'll be targeting sunnies, crappies and eyes. Any suggestions on whats working where would be appreciated. I'll have internet access so I can keep you posted on what has worked for me while I'm there. Thanks, Hobbs.

[c_lou]

Went up for the last time this year and fished for about 4 hours. We caught a few fish right out from the TP. We moved up to the North end of the lake and didn't get anything. We moved to the East shore and got into some pretty good Crappies and Perch. The fish were in about 4 feet of water. I thought it was pretty odd for them to be that shallow.

[Slabasaurus]

Spent a week on Big Chetac at the end of 2011, and just returned back from another weekend outing up there.

Ice is plenty thick. I measured a foot before we left last night. there were 3-4 trucks on the ice in the north basin, we left ours in the driveway and just hoofed it all weekend.

havin no trouble findin the perch and crappie, both seem to go for larvae/plastics during the day, but once the sun sets it's minnows/minnow heads.

Pike have been taken on tipups usin shiners or suckers, of various sizes. unfortunately I haven't really been able to dial in on any structure/feature to target, I'd say if you follow 'traditional' thinking (any of the tips in the pike on tipup thread in the pike forum) you'll have some luck.

DNR stopped by yesterday checking lines n licenses, that was awesome to see. I've had the cabin on the lake for goin on 3 seasons now and that was my first time seein em. Another positive experience with the CO's

fishing was on fire saturday, not sure why it was so hot, but towards late afternoon/evening the bite cooled bigtime, and never really picked up again. Marked fish like mad, and they'd swim up to check the bait out, then swim right back down to wherever they were. I haven't tried so many different presentations and not get bit before. Very different than saturday afternoon was. No complaints though, I was fishing outside on Jan 8th, in bibs, a long sleeve t-shirt. It was a great weekend to be out on ice.

haulin the sled back to the cabin after another beautiful weekend on Big Chetac.

[WalleyeChaser]

Slab, great report! My family and I have stayed on chetac early summer for a week a few years back. A string of about 6 years I would say. Always had a blast catching hand filling gills and crappies, and also about a dozen or so keeper eyes through out the week. Never thought about ice fishing it though. My in laws now have a cabin near shell lake so I have thought many times about making a day trek over there on hard water. How has the walleye pop. faired over there? Any luck with them through the ice? I have heard the numbers are down quite a bit.....

[Slabasaurus]

You have heard right about the numbers... the recent walleye survey data that had population down to 60% of what it was 2 years ago, or right around that if I remember right. Rice Lake Article on Big Chetac Walleye

I'll confirm that survey. I'm not terrible at fishing... but you'd think I was since my walleye catch rate from Big Chetac is 2 in 2 years. My dad's caught 1 in 2 years, and my neighbor... well being retired has helped him, but he's still only caught 6 or so.

I have some theories as to what happened/is happening, all based on personal observations of the lake and conversations I've had with neighbors. Simply put the Curly Leaf Pondweed isn't helping anything, and there are a few other species that are starting to become more prevalent in numbers and size.

There are some in there, and they are very nice fish, at least the two I've caught (23 and 26.5"). I have stopped targeting them though, if I go walleye fishing now it's on different lakes, or the Mississippi down here in the twin cities.

[c_lou]

Any word on how the fishing is going on the lake? Seems like everything is going to be early this year. Might need to get out a little sooner than past years.

[Slabasaurus]

We put the dock in on saturday, though I spent most of my time up there exploring some streams around the area and unfortunately didn't even wet a line until I was back in the cities... go figure.

Back in the warm stretch a few weeks ago some of the surface temps on the north end were close to 55, though this past weekend they were back down to 45.

Green grass and the dock in before the end of march? That's weird. No complaints from me though

Oh. If you are walking in the woods, or have dogs or anything... watch out for the ticks. They're pretty thick so far this year around the lake. Walked through maybe 50 yards of a trail and pulled 8 deer ticks off of me.

[c_lou]

It's good to hear from you Slabasaurus. If you get a chance to wet a line in the next couple weeks, let me know how it goes. I don't like fishing the opener, but if that's when the crappies are going to be in shallow, I might need to get out.

My guess is this cool down is going to slow things down a bit.

[Slabasaurus]

That's going to depend on the weather I'm thinking. I think you're right on the cool down. If it stays like this, it might be until the opener before they move in.

I hope to make it up there this month, it's going to be tricky though. MN Trout opener, and a golf trip to 'bama... twins games... uf.

I plan on hittin up the pike and crappies opening week for sure. There's a spot that was quite productive for both last year that I'm dying to hit up with my fly rod.

[AaronTC05]

Any recent updates on the fishing in this lake?  Any better walleye fishing?  I see they stocked it a few years ago.  I'll be up there this weekend with some family and hoping to do a little fishing.  I'll target whatever's biting (which seems to be panfish mainly on this lake).  Sounds like the southern end of the lake might have better cover since they cleared out the weeds on the north end?  

[snoozebutton]

Haven't been out there since early May, got zero walleyes but we ran into some decent crappies, 9 to 11 inches. We weren't really targeting walleyes though so I'm not sure if that helps or not. Ice fishing it, the best time for walleyes was always around 11:00 PM to 4:00 AM but did catch a few at prime time. Good luck out there and let us know how you did.