What's Working Now?Fishing Reports.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

Hit an east metro lake this morning and I couldnt be happier with the results. Fished cranks practicly the whole day. We didnt load up on numbers but the size was there. My Dad got a 19" and 20" both over 5lbs. And I finally got that 6lb bass monkey off my back! She was 21 1/4" and 6lb. 4oz.

The fish came in 10-12' feet of water on DT 10s and Deep diving fat raps. The 19, 20 and 21" fish all came within 20 minutes of each other off the same small rockpile that sat about in 10' on a breakline with deep water on one side and a large flat on the opposite.

*Edit* Just got back from the 1 hour photo. Had to waste 10 pics to get it but the anticipation was killing me

Mr. Pike, that lake does put out nice pike. The population seems very low though. I think Ive caught more musky than pike from it. I did pull a 12lb + pike last fall and a fat low 30" fish a few weeks ago.

[st.crioxfishin]

The frog bite up north was HOT this weekend. I caught 21 bass on saturday morning on a bronze eye rojas frog all in the rice. Biggest 3 were 3lbs 10oz, 3lb 5oz and a 6lb 2oz pig, I'll post the pics when I get them. I wore out my frog and it wouldn't float anymore, and lost another one to a pike. Sunday I had to use the plastic buzz frogs by zoom and managed a few more three pounders early, some 2lbers on docks later in the day and one 4lb 5oz fish on a jig.

I have never caught so many fish on a frog before and the big fish were puttin on the feed bags. It was totally worth the trip from Iowa.

[bucketmouth64]

Got out on a local lake about 8am and had most of the action in the lily pads using a rat. All were about 2lb. variety. Got off about noon do to recreational boaters and the action was pretty slow.

[Mr. Pike1]

Turnupthefishing. We may have to meet up on said lake some evening after work and chase bass, musky, and the big pike that appear to exist. Congrats on the 6lb fish. the two 21" fish I got were both in that 6lb class. My largest this year is 22.5 and in my aviator.

Looks like by this picture you have found another East metro gem for the bucket mouths.

Dietz and others it appears the top water bite is upon us. I may need to add a nice buzz bait, a few poppers, the scumfrog, and my favorite which is made by Mepps but I can not for the life of me think of the name. It is like a torpedo that spins and you add a plastic trailer to hide the hook and make it weedless. Works great over the pads and other weedy structure. You can fish in many different ways to trigger that strike in the slop.

[TurnUpTheFishing]

That would definatley be a possibility. Sounds like you know the lake much better than I do. I spend most my time going after the toothy guys there.

[st.crioxfishin]

Heres the pictures of the bass I refered to earlier that were caught on frogs this past weekend.

4lb 5oz

3lb 5oz & 3lb 10oz

same fish, 6lbs 2oz, above and below

[Matt Johnson]

Bob,

Very nice fish! Congrats! Those are some thick hogs!

[BASSproJOE]

stcroixfishin- i just went to tonka yesterday (prefishing) and slammed them on the spro frog. my biggest was around 4 pounds. the deeper lily pads around the docks were the ticket. the best strikes in the world come on a frog.

[st.crioxfishin]

Thanks Matt! it was awesome up there.

BPJ, yep those frogs are beggining to become one of my favorites, I never liked the other slop frogs because of hook up ratios, but these ones seem to get the job done.

[Cyberfish]

I had a good time on Mille lacs monday with two friends. BigPutz and Juggs, in search of topwater smallie action. we were on the southeast side hitting all the rock piles we could find.

Juggs got the first bite, but it didn't have a small mouth!

It was his first musky, fun!

We got a few bass here and there, and a couple of walleye on rapalas too, finally near the end of the day we hit the big school off a point feeding on grasshoppers that were all over, apparently blown in from across the lake by the north breeze. We got lots of nice sallies, no trophies, but really nice sized mostly slamming our topwaters!

BP nails a football sized bass.

Juggs hits a fat smallie

We get dubs, but I got the short end of this one hehe!

but I come back with this bronzed beauty!

All in all a good day on the lake, can't wait to do it again!

[Juan Grande]

Went out to Turtle Lake last night (Ramsey Co.) and did okay. Fishing was pretty slow from 4 PM to about 7:30. We threw buzzbaits, senkos, beetle spins, spinnerbaits, etc. with very few fish.

Kept fishing the docks and around 7:30 the fish moved in and we picked up a half dozen bass before dark. Nothing too big, but a couple decent two pounders.

Most of the fish we caught were very skinny and pale looking. Not healthy looking at all.

Weather was beautiful and it was a great night to be out on the water.

[BASSproJOE]

one major tip for turtle lake fishing: dont waste your time on docks, all docks there are shallow trust me. i have lived on the lake for several years and fish it about every other day. stick with outside and inside weed edges this time of the year.

[Juan Grande]

bassprojoe,

Thanks for the advice. What exactly is an "inside" weed line? In most cases, don't weeds grow from shore out to a certain depth and where they stop is the weedline?

We fished the weedline in about 10 ft. of water last night for a little while, but didn't pick up any. I'm sure I would have done better had I stuck with it.

I noticed most of the docks were very shallow. Most of the bass we picked up were on the few docks out in deeper water.

How do you typically fish the weedlines, do you go out to a depth and then just anchor or do you slow troll that depth? Do you throw spinners, senkos, or what?

Thanks for your help.

[BASSproJOE]

well... all along the north shore there is a defined weed line where they do not grow out from shore. fish a small texas rigged 4-5 inch worm. for outside weedlines use 10 foot crankbaits, t rigged worms, and jig n pigs. in low light conditions i like to use topwaters and spinnerbaits.

in the spring one strategy that i love to do is throw senko's and soft jerkbaits in the channels on the far south end (if you can get your boat over the shallow part)

WARNING: do not go back there now since there is a large hornet's nest on a log stuck in the side of the canal. i know from first hand experiance that hornets will not tickle you if you [PoorWordUsage] them off. otherwise good luck out there.

[TNFL]

Hit some dock with my younger brother the on Wednesday and caught 4 bass from 5 docks, only one undersized. Got two more bass from the edge of the pads. Not bad for an hour and a half. Little bro didn't catch anything but he was intersted to learn the skipping technique. He is 16 and just getting into fishing with his friends. I just sold him my old boat on Wednesday so hopefully he has fun with it, and it keeps him out of trouble.

[Captain B.R.K]

Went out this past week on our little secret lake up in Douglas County. We fished the edge of the dying weedline with texas rigged tubes and crawtubes. Managed to pull several nice fish with one being 5lbs on the scale, just a chunker

We tried ripping rattle traps through the weeds as well, but that didn't seem to produce.

[Juan Grande]

bassprojoe,

You going to be out on Turtle tonight by any chance? I'm heading out there around 3 with some buddies.

Let me know if you are and maybe we can meet up to say hello. I'll be in a red Lund with a 115 Merc.

[BASSproJOE]

sorry, by now you are probably on your way, and no i am packing for mille lacs, fish the south end, west of the rockpiles, 10 feet of water with a dt 10

[OnTheWater]

got out tonight on the st. louis river for some smallies. Stumbled accross a pile of really aggressive fish, stacked on a rock ledge. Spinnerbaits started it, moved to top water, and ended with jig worm; all produced.

here's a look at the fish of the day!

20" / 5.7 lbs

[EBass]

You guys are making me jealous with all these 20" and up hogs. 19.5" is my top this year. Cripes I got some fishing to do:)

[Aaron Carrell]

Well, I've hit up Prior Lake 3 times in the last 2 weeks and I will say that they've been hitting cranks for us primarily. Last 2 outtings I've totaled 20 & 15 Largemouth (actually snuck a 21.5" walleye last night in between two boat canopies ), only a few that were of a decent size (bigger than 1.5-2 lb/15"), but still fun on light action rods. Main color used has been Rapala SB (Silver-blue with orange belly) suspended shad raps. The floaters just couldn't seem to get deep enough. Bumpin bottom the whole time usually in 5-9' of water.

Here's a couple pics to keep ya interested

[ikeslayer]

Aaron although the fish pic is nice you show me any one of those last 2 pics in about Jan/feb and i will cry those pics are very nice. ike

[grab the net]

Fished yesterday, very windy with cloud cover, a little rain spitting now and then. Small lake, not a lot of sheltered areas to fish out of the SE wind.

Tried the sheltered side first, small fish on a spinnerbait and senko style. Not overly aggressive either, senko had to sit on the bottom for 10-15 seconds before you would see the twitch or line getting tight. Fish were between 12 and 14 inches, one that was 16. Fished the same stretch 3 times very slowly, both in and out. Tried some cranks deeper, just pike out deeper, but they were fun, biggest about 30 inches, almost stayed out there and played with them.

Last hour, went to the windy side and started throwing a trap. 8 fish, biggest 4-11, with the rest 16 inches and above. Several more pike. Throwing the trap alomost on shore and ripping it back through the scattered coontail. They were eating it, every fish had the trap way inside the mouth, every fish jumped at least once, the big fish tried but all he could muster was a wallow on top. Never lost a fish, and this was on a trap that I had not changed hooks on. Figured eventually a pike would steal it so used one right out of the box.

Fished for about 4 hours, last hour obviously the best, rain chased me off the lake. Wind never did go down.

[montanagriz]

Fished Tonka yesterday from about 4:30-7:30pm. Very windy conditions with mixed sun and clouds. Water temp was 67 degrees. Our best fishing was in the first 30 minutes on the water where we worked some docks adjacent to deeper water on the windward shoreline. Picked up several bass skipping wacky-rigged senko's underneath the docks. The larger fish were hitting spinnerbaits on the outer edge of the weedline. The fish were very agressive, and several crushed our spinnerbaits right next to the boat. Also, we couldn't keep the hammer-handle northerns off the line. Overall, it was a great day on the water. Can't wait to get out again soon!

Me with a healthy fish caught on a wacky-rigged senko

popRguy with a nice fish taken on a spinnerbait

[Lunker]

Although back in WI, I hit the river(Wisconsin) a couple days ago during a 40 degree, windy, drizzly day. In two hours before the rain picked up I landed 8 smallies, lost a couple, and missed a few more. Fishing shallow rocky stretches with crawfish crank(rebel) until I broke that off and switched to just a jig and trailer(white). Nothing too big, but the action was there and I love to fight smallies no matter what size they may be.