Minnetonka help

[BryeGuy]

I am looking to spend a good amount of time on Minnetonka this winter. I am looking towards the walleye/crappie brand. I have no idea about the lake if somebody could steer me in some kind of direction that would be great. Im looking around the lower part. I'll be jumping around with a 2 man portable.

A good color or depth? certain bays, reefs?? Any info would be great.

Thanks!

((yes I know its July))

[Matt Johnson]

Focus on the weeds for both. A lot of your bites will come around weeds. I would do some homework right now to find the hard bottom spots inside the weeds (12-18 feet) and mark all of those spots on your GPS. Those spots will light-up with walleyes this winter. The weeds will die a bit (but not completely) and you'll be able to fish the area fairly well. Your largest crappies will come from those areas too.

You can always fish the holes, but you're targeting smaller fish in general and mostly just crappies with an occasional rogue walleye. Focus on structure and you'll catch more and bigger fish.

We also had a good bite out there for walleyes going in about 28-35 feet last year too. This is more of a depth thing (much-like fishing up on Mille Lacs). I would still focus on the structure and find the hard bottom spots amongst the weeds.

Another important structure-type to focus on are the rock piles too. Any rock pile out from an expansive weed line will hold fish during the winter, at least during twilight periods when they put on the feed for that magical hour (or so) window.

Minnetonka is a fun body of water to fish in the winter and can really kick out some nice fish... but the lake can definitely humble you at times too, so don't get discouraged if you're not always catching fish out there...