Francis Lake/Clear Lake (Waseca)

I fished Clear Lake in Waseca on Sunday, and Frances Lake today. Clear had about 8″ of good ice on the SE side, and a LOT of people were bringing their permanent shelters out during the day. The fishing was really slow for me, with just one Northern and a few small sunnies to show for my effort.

Since Clear Lake didn’t produce, I headed over to Frances Lake today. The east bay has about 9″ of ice, and several trucks drove out on it during the day. Personally, that is cutting it too close for my taste–I dragged my gear out by foot. After I was out there a CO came around checking people out, and he reported that a snowmobiler drowned on Tetonka Sunday night–be careful, people!

The fishing was decent, with a few eating-sized sunnies mixed in with the small ones. I also had four shiners left from the trip to Clear Lake, so I put a tip-up down. I got two hammer handles, and two missed strikes in about three hours, and the guys around me had flags coming up too. That took care of my shiners. The panfishing could have been better, but all in all it was not a bad way to break the ice drought for me.

VikeFan~
Thanks for the report!
Yeah that would be cutting it to close for my likings as well. 9 inches of ice is rather thin. Surprised the CO did not go run them off the lake but again why would a CO wanna get that close to vehicles on 9 inches of ice…
If people would only understand that it is doing more damage to the ice then good not waiting for proper ice conditions…

It was ok on the north side, they were pulling them out with wheelers…..

as for the fishing, the bite was light, but we were onto perch all afternoon…on the vex, on the camera, then on the hook…all small, but sure beat working