Any Small Lakes Close to Grand Forks

[crappies_are_us]

I am a college student at UND and I am just wondering if there are any small lakes around the Grand Forks area or even on the Minnnesota side close by. I fish in central Minnesota alot and love fishing panfish and walleyes. Basically I am looking for a lake to fish that is close by. Thanks alot

[lenny4077]

In the spring I used to go trout fishing at Turtle River state Park - I think it might be open right now. If not there is McVille Dam, and a few other ones that are just to the north or south of Hwy 2

[deadstick]

1. English Coulee diversion near the trap range south of town (small perch, with a few marginal keepers, bass, pike) - only about 10 minutes from town.

2. Lake Laretta near Michigan (small perch, huge pike) - 50 miles

3. Stump Lake (south of Lakota) - drainoff from Devils Lake (I've done well here this winter on both perch and nice walleyes) - 65 miles

4. Devils Lake (Black Tiger Bay is the closest - perch, walleye and pike) - 80 miles

5. Maple Lake near Mentor, MN (nice crappies, walleye, pike) - 60 miles into MN on Highway 2.

6. Fordville Dam - 45 miles NW (walleyes, small perch)

7. Lake Ardoch - 20 miles north (small fish, but close)

8. Matejcek Dam - 55 miles NW (walleyes, small perch)

9. McVille Dam - 45 miles W (walleye)

10. Tolna Dam - 55 miles W, near Stump (walleye, perch)

11. Larimore Dam - 30 miles W (sunfish, bluegills, perch)

If you want to go somewhere close, go to the English Coulee. If you want to catch crappies, go to Maple Lake. If you want walleyes/perch, go to Devils or Stump. If you want pike, Devils Lake is good but a bit past that you can try Lake Irvine near Churches Ferry, Lake Morrison near Webster and Sweetwater north of Devils Lake. Lake Laretta is also pretty good and much closer (if the perch are killing me at Devils during the day and I can't take it anymore I try one of those other 3 - if I'm just going after pike, I'll do the short drive to Laretta).

Lots of options - good luck,

[icefishingdude]

deadstick, how hard would some of those walleye lakes be to get to from fargo and how does a person go about fishing them, portables and sleds??

[marine_man]

Here's a link to fishable waters in ND:

ND Fishing Map

It was posted by ScottND in another thread...

marine_man

[crappies_are_us]

Thanks for all of your replies!! At least now I have some general direction in where I can start fishing. Every time I come back to UND for the second semester I don't want to leave home because I know I won't be fishing. I might have to go out this weekend and try some of these locations. Thanks again and good luck fishing!

[midwesthunter]

I am also a UND student. If you try in the coulee, let me know how you do. Do people ever fish on the red river around here?

[sid05]

Try the Crookston/Thief River posts for info on the MN side. They will have info closest to you on the MN side. Maple, Sarah, and Union will be your closest lakes over there. All of which are capable of producing fish. The family has a place on Union. There is a little of everything in there.

[jlm]

Check out the Red River forum, you will find a lot of information there and some good people to help you out. The Red River is one of the best kept secrets in the midwest. Excellent fishing and great trophy potential for several species. Rivers can be hazardous however, please use caution or get a guide the first few times out. You should be able to travel only a few minutes to a good spot from GF. Good luck and hang on!

[Steve Foss]

I fished the Red in GF/EGF religiously from 1972 to 1983, and again from 1995 to 2001.

There's a spot along the Point in East Grand Forks that yields 'eyes. In fact, the whole stretch below where the old dam and the new rip-rap is can be good.

But try the following spot. You're technically on the Red Lake River in Minnesota at this spot, only a feet feet away from the Red, so you'll need a Minnesota license.

Go the the Point itself, with the Red on one side and the Red Lake on the other. Go down the bank onto the Red Lake. The main current flows fairly strongly downstream, with a backwater eddy flowing back upstream tight to the bank. Several feet out there's a seam of relatively slack water that ebbs now upstream and flows then downstream, but basically is still.

Walleyes feed in there. It's best late afternoons and early evenings. Unless the snow is unseasonably light, you'll likely have to drive down the east side of the Red Lake and walk across toward the Point to this spot. Sometimes the fish hit right at the Point in this seam, sometimes a bit farther upstream.

I had my best luck over the years with a buckshot rattle glow spoon from Northland Tackle tipped with a minnow hooked through the head. The water is, of course, very silty, so visibility is down, making glow and rattle a good idea. My second line was a bobber with a minnow/jig a foot off bottom.

And if you hit the seam just right, your electronics, with the 19-degree transducer, will be able to pick up your lure right below it, which is not a common occurance for those used to ice fishing river current. Plenty of times on rivers I've had to put the Vex 15 feet downstream from my fishing hole to pick up my lure.

Good luck!!

[Steve Foss]

I fished the Red in GF/EGF religiously from 1972 to 1983, and again from 1995 to 2001.

There's a spot along the Point in East Grand Forks that yields 'eyes. In fact, the whole stretch below where the old dam and the new rip-rap is can be good.

But try the following spot. You're technically on the Red Lake River in Minnesota at this spot, only a feet feet away from the Red, so you'll need a Minnesota license.

Go the the Point itself, with the Red on one side and the Red Lake on the other. Go down the bank onto the Red Lake. The main current flows fairly strongly downstream, with a backwater eddy flowing back upstream tight to the bank. Several feet out there's a seam of relatively slack water that ebbs now upstream and flows then downstream, but basically is still.

Walleyes feed in there. It's best late afternoons and early evenings. Unless the snow is unseasonably light, you'll likely have to drive down the east side of the Red Lake and walk across toward the Point to this spot. Sometimes the fish hit right at the Point in this seam, sometimes a bit farther upstream.

I had my best luck over the years with a buckshot rattle glow spoon from Northland Tackle tipped with a minnow hooked through the head. The water is, of course, very silty, so visibility is down, making glow and rattle a good idea. My second line was a bobber with a minnow/jig a foot off bottom.

And if you hit the seam just right, your electronics, with the 19-degree transducer, will be able to pick up your lure right below it, which is not a common occurance for those used to ice fishing river current. Plenty of times on rivers I've had to put the Vex 15 feet downstream from my fishing hole to pick up my lure.

Good luck!!