smaller musky lakes

[Gekhang]

hey guys, im looking for a relatively small lake that holds musky as my only form of fishing is shore or canoe and dont want to get bombarded with day traffic. going to try Harriet this evening and see how that goes. any others in the metro you guys would suggest for this time of the year?

[mainbutter]

I'd give Cedar a shot with the canoe. You can launch your canoe off of the shore wherever you can find nearby parking.

[Gekhang]

yeah i used to fish cedar alot, but had most of my musky success on that lake shore fishing...lol

[joefish1116]

round lake in eden praire is stocked with tigers and is a basically a big pond. i dont fish musky but it is small :>)

[mainbutter]

This lake?

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/showreport.html?downum=27007100

No muskie stocking in it..

[50inchpig]

hey try casting under the bridge on nokomis too, both sides. there are some old pilings throughout under there that hold fish. i like spinnerbaits for that area.

[EBass]

Bryant has Tigers, but wake boarders too. Go early on a weekday ifn' you can. Good bass in there too.

[Gekhang]

This lake?

http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/showreport.html?downum=27007100

No muskie stocking in it..

i read through the info and it says "Many species have been stocked over the years (starting in 1979), the most recent being tiger muskellunge in 1988 and 1992. No stocking of any species has occurred since." but 22 years? do tigers live that long?

i will keep nokomis in check.

[Zelmsdawg]

I think tigers only live about 8 years so if the last stocking was in 92 you may be out of luck

Zelmsdawg

[mainbutter]

Tigers are supposed to be quite short lived, particularly compared to pike and muskies, I have read multiple sources claiming that it's estimated to not live longer than 10 years or so.

[Aaron Carrell]

Personally, based off of the amount of fish I've seen in any of the smaller metro lakes (and I don't muskie fish much, mostly while bass fishing), I'd say hit up Calhoun or Cedar with a canoe/small boat. I've caught a whole slew of dinks in Calhoun (upper 20's) and I've had quite a few larger follows even. Fun lake with the cleaner water too and fairly easy weedlines to locate.

[brad coin]

Nokomis fishes VERY well from shore,,its tigers but nice ones,,the area on the east shore between the 2 drain pipes that look like a double shotgun barrel and the lone point holds tigers and this is a great area to see the infamous surfing muskies that cruise with their head out of the water,,wading in shorts and shoes 'MAKE SURE SHOES' not barefoot works best has you can add quite a bit of range out has this area slopes very gradually ,,,if your a jackpot/jerkbait guy bring the shortest rod you have because wading dosent give you alot of room for downward stroke,,tigers however can be had with pretty simple baits a double bladed bright color chartruse spinnerbait,,the area from big beach to the Minnehaha creek outlet/inlet bridge is good too has this is a fast drop off you MUST wade this because theres too many trees and bushes on shore.

if you want to be a pioneer go try the Mississippi river stretch below coon rapids dam to 694 bridge I know thier in there but to what density??? I keep wanting to do it but never find the time

in the fall oct/Nov I know of one shore musky fisherman who drives in his car around Tonka and gets out at all the channels between bays and makes a couple casts where the channel meets the lake and then drives to the next one has muskys are moving and transitioning through these.

[Gekhang]

great to know about nokomis. will head there sometime in the next two weeks and will report back to you guys!

[Kettle]

If you are willing to make a day trip, Pine city is about an hour north of you on I 35 have seen some lunkers come out of cross this year.....

kettle

[Gekhang]

which lake on pine city?

[joefish1116]

i just know that there used to be signs up at the lake saying it had been stocked, guess its been awhile my bad

[Gekhang]

went to nokomis last night and after about an hour of pulling the double cowgirls on both ends of the bridge, we settled in on bass fishing as the sonar was beeping off like crazy all over the bridge and caught a few nice ones.

[50inchpig]

with the tigers, you'll have much better luck with smaller baits, like a larger bass-sized spinnerbait, not that they won't eat a DCG

[Nick Kuhn]

Yep, when I fish tigers I don't even bring my muskie box; I fish reaction-type bass baits.

[Gekhang]

thanks, i will keep that in mind. hitting it again tomorrow and will be throwing out midsize bass spinnerbaits.