moving to minnesota

[Redneckcgil29]

hey guys my names Cory Gilbert and im moving up to Minnesota to work next week. I will be working at the flint hills refinery in rosemount through September. i currently live in ohio on the shores of Lake Erie and a avid fisherman. i was wondering if anybody could point me towards some public lakes with land access to fish off shore. i plan on buying a boat up there but that will be once i am settled in. thanks

[Redlineracer12]

I live not far from the Flint hills refinery. Unfortunately this part of the metro doesn't have much for local lakes. There is Rebecca in Hastings that is pretty popular. Otherwise you have the Mississippi pool 2 and the St Croix rivers which both provide decent fishing opportunities for larger fish. Not sure what you normally like to fish for.

[SkunkedAgain]

Assuming you don't mind a little drive, the metro is loaded with public lakes with shore fishing options. Many of the city lakes have public fishing platforms as well. You won't have trouble finding places to fish but as redlineracer pointed out, you'll have to drive a few minutes to get there.

[Redneckcgil29]

If it's worth catching fish I do not mind driving. I see that Lake Minnetonka will be about a hour west of me have already looked into that. But there is so many little lakes just everywhere are the all public???

[ozzie]

99% of the lakes in MN are public...no shortage of lakes to explore in MN

[nofishfisherman]

I do alot of shore fishing on pool 2, or at least I did while free time was in greater supply. There are a lot of spots on the St. Paul and Minneapolis side that provide good opportunities to catch walleye, small mouth bass, white bass, catfish, and various other river species.

Right now the river is extremely high with all the rain we've had so alot of my best spots are underwater but as the river drops I'll be hitting several spots that are best when the river is high.

I was actually out a few weeks ago while the river was a little lower than it is now and landed a few walleye. I was catching them maybe 50-75 yards from where the normal river bank is. Caught them sitting in the flooded trees and mixed in some grassy areas.

[SkunkedAgain]

99% are public but that doesn't mean that you'll have easy shore fishing access, assuming that houses or cabins ring the lakes. Minnetonka is a huge, beautiful lake filled with mansions and bars. You'll get the classic Minnesota mix of species with walleye, northern, muskie, LM bass, SM bass, crappies, panfish, and assorted rough fish. Many of the bridges that cross the bays have shore fishing spots along the channels that people fish. I wouldn't boat fish it unless you do it early in the morning, otherwise by noon you're life is in danger with all of the pleasure boats and Al Czerviks driving massive boats.

The rivers are great places to shore fish though and you'll find many spots for doing that. If you're into trout, there are many great streams in SE Minnesota.

Here is a link to all of the public fishing piers in MN: http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/fishing_piers/statewide_list.html

[Redneckcgil29]

i would mainly like to target bass pan fish walleye and pike......im guessing there's plenty of large lakes i could fish where all of these species are abundant but how about the smaller ones???????

[nofishfisherman]

Hard part about fishing the lakes specifically the smaller ones is good shore access. A lot of shoreline spots can get choked out with heavy weeds later in the summer making them difficult to fish. Not every spot is like this but its takes some looking around to find the good ones. There are also a number of lakes with fishing piers that can provide better access but not all of them are in the best fishing spots. Most are in areas that made it easy to get the dock in versus areas that hold fish.

I don't mean to sound like a debbie downer on shore fishing the area lakes. There are spots where you can catch a variety of fish especially panfish, pike, and some bass. You just have to put in some work to find them.

Once you get into Minnesota I would just check out a map and start targeting lakes closest to you. Take some time driving around and checking them out. Unfortunately you probably won't have anyone able to hand you a prime spot it just takes time and some exploring. Virtually every lake you come across will have some sort of shore fishing access whether it being in a park, along a road way, bridge, or at a public landing.

If you have interest in hitting Pool 2 in St. Paul or Minneapolis let me know and I can PM you some areas to try once the water level drops.

[JBMasterAngler]

Check out the DNR lake finder site. You can do all sorts of research on pretty much every lake in Minnesota. I think the DNR site has a link with info about shore fishing as well, but I don't know for sure what it all talks about.

Skip the lakes in my opinion! Vermillion River out of Hastings has some good shore fishing opportunities. It's mostly sheepshead, but you can catch walleye, white bass, catfish, carp, and bowfin with regularity as well. Or head down to the Cannon and/or Zumbro River, put your flip flops on and you'll get some good smallmouth bass action, an occasional brown trout, and a variety of other fish!

Buy a delorme Minnesota atlas, it will help you get familiar with locations.

[Tom7227]

There is a state bookstore that has a very wide variety of books and maps.

http://www.comm.media.state.mn.us/bookstore/mnbookstore.asp?page=mncategory&CatID=119

[delcecchi]

Check out the DNR lake finder site. You can do all sorts of research on pretty much every lake in Minnesota. I think the DNR site has a link with info about shore fishing as well, but I don't know for sure what it all talks about.

Skip the lakes in my opinion! Vermillion River out of Hastings has some good shore fishing opportunities. It's mostly sheepshead, but you can catch walleye, white bass, catfish, carp, and bowfin with regularity as well. Or head down to the Cannon and/or Zumbro River, put your flip flops on and you'll get some good smallmouth bass action, an occasional brown trout, and a variety of other fish!

Buy a delorme Minnesota atlas, it will help you get familiar with locations.

And in SE MN there is excellent trout fishing as well as others. Root River, Zumbro below the dam, as well as tons of trout streams. Hour or two from where you are. Also the whole mississippi. And check out the fishing float at Alma.

[Kyhl]

Check out the little lakes in Eagan. I don't shore fish but a friend does and he sends me nice bass pictures regularly. He has been known to sneak out on a long lunch to catch a bass or two from shore.

[Redneckcgil29]

like the lebanon hills park??? is that any good around there????

[Sandmannd]

Another option is to check here or just ask on the site if anyone has an open seat in their boat to get out. There's many of us with boats that enjoy taking others out fishing with us.