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Posts: 3165
| Got a 41 on fri and a beutiful 40' tiger on sunday,,,throw those gliders |
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Posts: 113
Location: Shoreview, MN | Got a 44" on Forest last night. Crappie Viper, 7', thick weeds, very well-known spot on 3rd all to myself. Had another of similar size come in hot on a Jackpot just as the lightning hit - 3-4', cabbage bed on 1st. Hated to leave, but it was getting nasty.
The lake has changed tremendously since I fished it a week and a half ago. It's getting pretty green with only 2-3' visibility and the deeper weeds are going fast. I probably spent too much time in 7-14' along the dying weedlines - shallower may be the ticket right now.
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Posts: 43
Location: United States | I made a few casts on Tonka last night between lightning bolts. My brother had a small one nip at a bucktail at the boat before we had to leave. I've been out there 2 other times this year seeing only smaller fish so I must be fishing in the wrong spots. Might try Waconia on my next outing. Anyone seeing any decent fish Tonka? |
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Posts: 328
Location: MN | I have seen big fish on Tonka....They have either missed the bait or follows. They are there....Keep working it! |
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Posts: 39
| Slick,
Refer to my last post from about 2 weeks ago. I have seen many 40 class fish on Tonka. The last one I saw was (this is only a guess) in the high 40s.
Oh...wait! What am I saying...Tonka is a sewer. |
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Posts: 259
Location: Alexandria, MN | Tonka has Muskies? :-D
Actually I have seen many and caught a few very big fish on Tonka over the past couple of years. It is a great lake, but the weekend traffic doesn't make it easy to fish.
Keep working Tonka, it has a great population of nice fish! |
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| Fished Forest Lake last night, windy as he!!, did pretty good, hooked an upper 30's fish and lost it at the net, and put a 41" in the boat 2 hours later.
Matt |
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Posts: 925
| Fished WBL Saturday night the 28th. Moved 3 fish, but no takers. Nothing with any size either. Deep weed edges produced the follows.
Off to Lake of the Woods for a week !!!
YEE HAW |
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Posts: 479
Location: Eden Prairie & Pine Island | Fished Independence friday evening after park closed. Mostly topwaters with no takers. Cold front must have slowed them down some. Nice bass near reeds south of island. |
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Posts: 26
| West metro lake, Saturday AM, 45" and a 47" on a tandem Wolftrap bucktail. Burned right below the surface coming off shallows falling into sharp breaks. All the fish I've been seeing lately are on something fast. Got to pick your times with this funky weather and bright blue sky. Mix that in with weekend pleasure boaters and it makes life tough. |
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Posts: 328
Location: MN | Slow, slow, slow on Tonka....Maybe the weather over the last week has just been unstable? Last year at this time, I had boated a dozen fish...this year, 2! I suck or must be something wrong?
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Posts: 26
| Yeah, that is why I posted that I've been seeing them with fast presentations, seems as though many people have been saying slow. Go figure. Don't feel bad, I had only two in the boat prior to Saturday. It was so slow for a while I thought my new Indian name would be Two-Fish.
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Posts: 129
| I fished Inde this morning. Water temperature in the low 70s.
Three musky follows and two small mortherns. Tried other lures, but only
had the action on spinnerbaits. The fish came from either
points or weeds. The water has a very heavy bloom, so be sure
to finish your casts as they suddenly appear at the boat. Interesting article in the Strib this morning about
the degradation of the water quality.
tom |
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Posts: 15
| Strange is all I can say. In June, we were moving 10-20 fish in a three hour outing with very few biters. Now, we move few if any fish, but are averaging one fish an outing. It seems as the water warms, the muskies scatter throughout the lake. They were certainly more concentrated when the water temps were in the high 60s and low 70s.
Any other reports? |
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Posts: 26
| I agree there is a change a brewin'. The same lake I saw regular fish on and caught a 45 & 47 on last week was the dead sea this weekend, at least accroding to my cohorts who were out there. Lot's of pike on deep weed edges..... |
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Posts: 113
Location: Shoreview, MN | Fished WBL from 5-10 am Sat. Typical WBL morning - saw several fish right at sun-up, then nothing. Had one fish short-strike a Topraider, another wack a Jackpot with it's tail, then another appear from under the boat duing an 8 with a bucktail. All in the mid-30's range, and within about 20 minutes. Fish were riding high over 20-25' but near weed edges. Considering the blue-bird skies it was about as expected. Water is still real high - weed growth very nice - some great deep cabage in the 14-18' range. Huge schools of small bluegills around the all humps and bars - it was just incredible how many there were. Seems like there were some muskies working these schools - maybe going to a small shad-rap or similar would work. Bass guys were also doing nothing.
Fished Baldy from 8-10 pm Sun. Had a decent fish miss a Jackpot right at moon rise. Saw a couple local kids catch a low 30's on a bucktail. Conditions were better than I expected. Water clarity was about 2' and still greenish-brown (which seems much better than it could be this time of year). There's still some decent cabbage on some of the humps and long points. It's bit of work to find it but the fish seem to be there.
Heard the harvesters are out in full force on Forest and that it's turning very muddy with lots of loose weeds floating everywhere.
All in all, seems like the fish are moving in very small windows and not that interested in topwaters, but positioned pretty high in the water column.
I expected better from this full-moon weekend - how did others do?
Edited by MNSteveH 7/14/2003 9:05 AM
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| Fished Minnetonka 2pm to 4:30 pm on Saturday. Lake was a total zoo. Managed a 34 incher on an inside turn of the milfoil. I was in 20 ft of water throwing towards the milfoil. Rad dog spinner orange and black.
After being frustrated with the Mtka. zoo I fished Mpls. metro 7am to 11:30. Saw one follow my topwater and then nothing the rest of the morning. Slow. All bass guys were also slow. |
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Posts: 480
| I fished metro lakes twice over the weekend, no muskies caught. I am still seeing enough fish, a few with size (upper 40s). The fish are where they have been the last 2-3 weeks only lower in the water column. The follows are much deeper, further back and slower. I honestly don't know what to do with these fish when I get them this close. I get my rod down under water and figure 8 and watch hang a round a while before swimming away. I'm on quality fish, just not my day. Any suggestions? Capt bigfish |
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Posts: 827
Location: Minneapolis,Minnesota | Capt.Bigfish,
Troll, start out at 3 mph and work your way up till you get bit and then just remember how fast you were going. Alot of time in the summer they want the bait going faster than you can reel, but if you have to cast go with fast moving baits like hair or a topraider, and another thing I've noticed that has increased my boatside action is turning off my fishfinder when I'm casting a spot, I think bigger fish are familiar with the pinging the sonar gives off and they turn faster at he boat. Since fishing with mine off I've had almost every fish that has followed chase the bait around the boat usually until I screw up the figure 8, but I've always have them chasing now. Just a theory I have about that.....
Can't wait to get back up there this weekend and pound some fat spotty Tonka girls!!!
My $.02
~Killer |
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Posts: 46
Location: Hugo, Mn | Steve,
Fished Forest on Sunday Morn. Saw one small muskie in the low 30"s. Your correct. Lots of weeds floating and the water is dark. Caught 8 pike which kept things interesting. My son and his buddy were in Baldy Sun eve and caught one small pike. He had something hit his trolled grandma pretty good but no hook up. Think I will try WB next.
Hugo |
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Posts: 113
Location: Shoreview, MN | WBL kicked my butt again Tues night - and a lot of other good North Metro MI Members too! Quite a few fish seen, and few strikes (I had one nice fish all over a Viper - don't know how the hooks didn't stick) but only one 39" caught.
Anybody have any suggestions about approaches to fishing this lake in July? (Other than at night or during bad weather) |
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Posts: 656
Location: Forest Lake, Mn. | I was out tuesday night on the Bear for the N.Metro outing. First time I have been able to get out due to my wifes illness. We didn't see a muskie but then I trolled alot because I thought it might be easier for her to do. I did get a dink pike on a 6 inch reef hawg. Talked to some of the other guys via marine band and they saw 4 fish. One was about 40 inches. Noticed on the depth finder that the weeds seemed to be down to 20 feet in some spots. Thats the deepest growth I have seen on the lake. Stayed after dark and didn't get a hit.
Does anybody catch any muskies after dark on white bear? |
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Posts: 43
Location: United States | Finally on the board this season. 4th time out was a charm. 42.5" on a West Metro lake last night on an Undertaker. Had another nice fish blow up on a Jackpot but missed it by a mile. Probably just playing with it.
No other fish seen.
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Posts: 129
| Fished Tonka this morning. Two follows..thought the second one was going to go, but....
The interesting part of the day was the two muskies that lazily swam by.
Those girls were very impressive and not interested in anything I threw.
When you see fish that size, I wonder why I do not use leaders sometimes.
tom |
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Posts: 3165
| "Holy ####" WHAT HAPPENED to all the weeds on Independence!!!!!!!!!! Never,Ever seen it like that,,,should we complain to dnr/parkboard about over poisoning???? we saw two hot fish hooking one on a figure eight,,"No weeds" |
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Posts: 479
Location: Eden Prairie & Pine Island | I talked to a guy who lives on the lake...his theory is that the recent higher water levels actually caused much of the milfoil to die. Don't know if I buy this, but I guess its possible. |
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| A couple weeks ago Bald Eagle went from lots of weeds to no weeds also. |
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Posts: 480
| water levels went up on all the lakes and the milfoil didn't die on just some of those lakes. can you say chemicals? i've seen weed cutters on a few of the metro lakes and fish seen to move back in those areas in about a week. they must disperse and need time to get confortable and/or weed growth to fill back in. i like weeds, but i really work to memorize those weed lines and then they cut em down and i have to start all over again. oh well, time to punch in and go to work again. |
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Posts: 39
| Fished Tonka for 3 hours on Saturday AM with a friend from Texas (non-fisherman). Hooked and boated a 45 inch muskie with a fine net job from the Texan. This is my first legal muskie...yah whoo!!!
It took a while but the fish swam off strong.
Edited by freystone 7/27/2003 12:51 PM
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Posts: 129
| Way to go Freystone. We fished Tonka Sunday morning for about three hours. One Musky follow and a bunch
of northerns. The biggest northern was 33". Also had a nice crappie smash
a spinner bait, so it is dinner tonight. Lots of recreational boaters, so we
fished areas we don't usually fish.
tom
let's work at getting more posts on this thread. |
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