crappie lake near maple grove

[thehawk]

I am an avid ice fisherman, but am new to the area of osseo and maple grove. My main ice fishing lakes are west rush lake and mille lacs. I would like to know if anybody knows of a good crappie lake closer to home. I figure that someone on here might be able to point me in the right direction. I have heard good things about minnetonka, but where does a guy start on that lake? I don't have a wheeler or sled so when you cannot drive out it that makes it even tougher. The different ice conditions this year, driving out is not an option on some lakes. Any advise would be great.

[andrew chadwick]

Give tonka a try. there are some bigones in there. Independence has its times as well.

[broman]

Eagle - in Maple Grove of 169 and 694 or Medicine Lake will provide good crappie action. Mostly on the smaller side.

[thehawk]

can you suggest a place to go out of? Do they charge anything to get out onto the lake?

[jakemcarroll]

I fish Medicine Lake pretty regularly and have always been able to find the crappies, no real size but the numbers are usually good. An easy access is off the west side of the lake (right off of medicine lake drive, the park is called west medicine lake park, free parking with public access) and plenty of people have been driving out, but to get to a decent spot is only a short walk too.

[thehawk]

thanks for the info, i may give it a try. Is it a deep lake with some structure? Any size to those papermouths?

[ameyers41]

Check the DNR maps online. They have both Medicine and Eagle on there. Medicine has accesses off the west side, as stated earlier, plus French Park on the NE side, and a park on the SE side.

Eagle has accesses off the SE side by a little park, and a boat launch off the NE side.

None of the accesses mentioned should have any fees involved.

Check the Metro forum. There's usually reports from both lakes.

Good luck!

[jakemcarroll]

I haven't found much with size in a half dozen trips to medicine, there is a hole right near the west access and you will see plenty of perms and portables out around it, it would be a decent spot to start but there are other spots that have produced also.

[hanson]

Alot of the metro lakes are phenomenal for crappie fishing but it is the same old story... small size.

We had a little FM Get-Together on Medicine Lake this morning and I can't even begin to count how many crappies we caught. My house must have been 50-60 at a minimum. Don't think we saw one over 9" long though which are tough critters to fillet.

Tonka is going to have crappies with good size in them but you are going to have to explore to find them. Most guys on good sizeable crappies aren't going to tell you where they are catching them at.

Lake Sarah to the west is a good panfish lake as well.