The sheer amount of water here is unreal. Confuses me as to where to start. Looking for a lake that I can fish with a reasonable chance of taking a one-person meal (3-5 fish depending if perch/crappie/gill) of reasonable size. Am limited to my hind feet as a mode of transportation and am a 61yo semi-semi-fit guy. Would prefer within 10 miles of town if that is even possible.
PM me please…..
7 months…no response. lol
7 months…no response. lol
that’s funny!
So in that time have come up with some spots?
Okay … there are a few spots along the Mississippi River you could try. A pumping station east of town (a few miles at most) on river road lets you get close and has a few good places to fish from the shore. Also, west of town there is a dam on the river with a park … you could also fish from shore there. In the spring when water is flowing you could try below the pump house on the Prairie River north of town … a few places to fish from shore. You’ll mostly be fishing bass, pike, walleye in these spots. Split shot, hook over a slip bobber works for me. Just keep casting it out and letting it drift through pools.
Not many folks up here like to talk in open forums about their fishing spots. But these spots (above) are pretty decent and where I go when I want to fish from shore. If I had any spots to fish lakes from shore, I’d share, but I do not know of any.
Northern MN is an entirely different animal than most other places. People up here don’t really talk and share info much (except among buddies). It can be frustrating. On the other hand I understand why as many of the smaller lakes can be essentially fished out if word gets out about a good bite.
Yep,if you do well in the North County don’t tell.There is no reciprocity. Walk into a bait shop and ask for help,all you get is a half hearted answer. If you return and buy more of the same bait you purchased they will then expect your gratuity.
McKinney lake right on the way to the fairgrounds they have a fishing pier there. ice fishing for walleyes northers and crappies is excellent on the south side spearing there for northers too
The lake with the pier near the fairgrounds is Ice Lake. McKinney is just north of the civic center, next to hwy 38. Lots of folks fish McKinney in winter for crappies.
If I was tasked with learning new lakes in that area I would go onto navionics webapp and just start picking lakes that are smaller in size and in the area that you don’t mind driving to and then look them up on MN DNR lakefinder. Check out the surveys and make a list of the lakes you want to hit. I like to search out the lakes that are small and have a deep hole in them. 25-35 feet of water. Their should be TONS of small lakes loaded with panfish in that area.
That’s how I found most of the good panfish lakes in the Bemidji area when I used to live there. I think the same approach for Rapids area would work great!
The sheer amount of water here is unreal. Confuses me as to where to start. Looking for a lake that I can fish with a reasonable chance of taking a one-person meal (3-5 fish depending if perch/crappie/gill) of reasonable size. Am limited to my hind feet as a mode of transportation and am a 61yo semi-semi-fit guy. Would prefer within 10 miles of town if that is even possible.
PM me please…..
Try Pokegama for something close to Grand Rapids. There are also some stocked trout lakes in the area that are fun to fish.
If you can hitch a ride Trout Lake in Coleraine can be fun. I moved to the area over 5 years ago and it is a challenge to get information out of people up here. Pat is very right in his approach to finding good panfish lakes. It has worked pretty good for me so far.
Good Luck!
So in that time have come up with some spots?
My apologies for no response. Took a job in Savannah shortly after my last post. Gave every last stitch of icefishing gear to a local guide that claimed to take vets and the underprivileged out on trips (it was a goodly amount of high quality gear I might add). The prospects for icefishing in GA was pretty poor and I saw little point in hauling it.
My situation has since changed. Decided to take my SS and went back to my home in Central WI. Know the water there exceptionally well.
Good to see that some folks were willing to share some info. I appreciate it.
Old post I know but if your planning on coming up this way, there’s a whole lot of snow. Lakes gotta be horrendous. Took hwy 6 up, not near the fishhouses out on the lakes. Some lakes the accesses aren’t even plowed.
I was watching WCCO news this morning. a gal from deer river reported they already have 10 more inches of snow now than ALL of last year.
I agree on giving out hotspots as most people like to rape and pillage the panfish up here and have 10 cousins that need to fill the freezer also … Just what i have witnessed on some local small lakes
There is a PM feature on this forum so that info is held in better confidence.
In the time that I was in GR I was able to get into some pretty good WE fishing on Pokegema, Big Split Hand and on Cutfoot. Cutfoot was very consistent in the late summer and fall. Got quite a few walleyes over the slot and that was a lot of fun. They were very wind-related and the bigger fish just pounded the jig/plastic at times.
On Pokegema I had same good catches of eater-sized fish and a few larger fish in summer if I used red tails. Just could not get them to go on jig/plastic or dragging big leeches. One good fish slammed a jumbo leech on a trophy saddle and he caught me napping. Caught my fair share of 10-11″ crappie in the spring, shortly after ice-out.
Got some good bluegills on Bass lake with one measuring 10.5″ while icefishing. Used nothing but plastic in the red portion of the color spectrum.
Did real well on bluegills to 9.5″ and crappie to 12″ on Big Split Hand during summer. Lost a real nice pike on a bass spinner that raced into the weeds. Couldn’t turn her with 20# braided on a baitcaster. Would have at least liked to have seen her.
Pretty much did it on my own without much assistance. Lots of water covered to get what I got through trial and error.
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