Do you have to be in a tournament to fish Lake Minnetonka?

[Guest]

Seems to me that bass fishing on Minnetonka is a tournament only deal. Is this true? When is the lake open to regular fisherman?

[DoctorB]

I'm not sure what you are talking about or implying. It's open 24x7x365 for everyone just like every other lake in the state. I've fished Minnetonka a minimum of three times a week since the ice left and exclusively for bass since opener. There was a lot of open water out there today, especially if you were willing to fish in the wind.

[vern]

Don't you have local tournament fisherman on your staff? Not sure where you're coming from either. It's a very busy lake, but now's the time to fish it. No speedboats, yachts, jet skis or tournaments. I'll be out there for those fall bass & full moon walleyes in October. These days I avoid it until later in the fall. The big fish will be biting. Vern

[This message has been edited by vern (edited 09-18-2003).]

[JoJo]

WGMSA, if you were fishing Tonka last weekend, you no doubt saw tons of bass boats. They were pre-fishing for the MN Pro/AM TOC which is this Friday and Saturday.

We fished Tonka both days last weekend and didn't really notice much except the lack of crazy people. First time in months we actually stayed on the lake past noon.

Jo

[Guest]

Ok so I'm a smart alec. Just throwing it out there...does it not seem odd that there seems to be a tournament every day of the week on Minnetonka Opener til Sept 20 or so? Don't me wrong I like tourneys and I love the Citgo BassMaster show and yes we have a staffer who fishes most of the tourneys but the same lake day after day? That's all.

[This message has been edited by wgmsa (edited 09-18-2003).]

[Dan Wood]

Minnetonka is a huge lake, one of the few in the area that can support those types of tournies..

I guess that is the beauty of C&R... The other lakes in the area with large enough landings to support tournies, aren't nearly as big and the bass take a beating IMO. You won't find many bass in Prior or Waconia without fresh hook wounds on the mouth... Yet they remain great bass fishing lakes due to C&R. Bass do well with C&R for sure, I'd hate to see those lakes without CPR.

Tourney fishermen are great guys for the most part.. There are always going to be those bad apples that seem to give it a bad name unfortunately.