Big fish – bass lakes

Our Minnesota waters have changed in the past 2 years – with a ton more pressure and also a drought this summer. Wondering people’s opinions on best lakes to catch big bass?

My opinion is that it isn’t in the same waters it was a few years ago. A lot of lakes where some big fish came out of were the larger bodies of water. Sure Mille Lacs will still kick out a 6 pound smallie or an occasional tank largemouth will come out of Tonka or Gull. But a lot less it seems…

The increase in number of licenses, free time (due to pandemic), tournaments, high school teams, etc I think most bigger lakes have been getting absolutely hammered to death.

My thoughts are that the bigger bass are or will be caught in lakes with enough of the right water/structure/size to hold bigger fish – but just small enough that it can’t support anything more than a smaller derby. And with the heat this summer, maybe reservoir-types with moving water are less affected.

What are anyone else’s thoughts on size (acres), type of water, structure, cover etc. where you expect to find the next big one??

Great post Fry! Mpls. chain of lakes all have piggies.

My “Favorite East Metro Bass lake” is certainly no secret. Outdoor News publishes something like “Big bass being caught on DeMontreville on sucker minnows and leeches” pretty much every week when the water is open. Why they feel the need to point everybody at a 130 acre lake, week after week, is beyond me.

The pressure out there is incredible. I was on the water this morning at 3:30AM. On a Friday. And I was the third guy in the lot. Now add in the fact that the lakeshore owners association poisons all the weeds several time a summer, and this lake has become a disaster.

To put this in perspective, a typical morning in the past would be 12 to 15 Bass between 15 and 19 inches. This year I am coming up with 2 or 3 fish, typically about 10 inches long. I keep waiting for it to get better but so far it’s been awful.

How much of this is due to the weather? I saw surface temps of 84 degrees in June and it’s still between 75 and 80. All I know for sure is that I’m getting very discouraged.

SR

Steve Root wrote:

My “Favorite East Metro <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>Bass lake” is certainly no secret. Outdoor News publishes something like “Big <em class=”ido-tag-em”>bass being caught on DeMontreville on sucker minnows and leeches” pretty much every week when the water is open. Why they feel the need to point everybody at a 130 acre lake, week after week, is beyond me.

The pressure out there is incredible. I was on the water this morning at 3:30AM. On a Friday. And I was the third guy in the lot. Now add in the fact that the lakeshore owners association poisons all the weeds several time a summer, and this lake has become a disaster.

To put this in perspective, a typical morning in the past would be 12 to 15 Bass between 15 and 19 inches. This year I am coming up with 2 or 3 fish, typically about 10 inches long. I keep waiting for it to get better but so far it’s been awful.

How much of this is due to the weather? I saw surface temps of 84 degrees in June and it’s still between 75 and 80. All I know for sure is that I’m getting very discouraged.

SR

I completely agree Steve. I have had nothing but brutal days out there when it used to be my confidence builder lake for numbers AND size. I haven’t seen a 4 lber come out of there in two years now when I used to get 5 lbers multiple times a year out there. It has been crushed and it’s really a shame. I think the lake level has come down a couple feet the last few years as well which hasn’t helped.

I think it will be lakes that have rivers feeding them. The last true giant I saw in person was a 6’1l in a Greenhorn Bass tourney I was in from Cross/Pokegama and it was caught in the Snake River in between the two lakes. The smaller pond/lakes have some potential to kick out a state record too. I was on one last year in the metro (not going to even say what part) and the DNR was out netting and said the day before they caught a bass that would’ve been the state record.

The amount of fishing pressure has changed the quality of fish on a lot of lakes everywhere. Well know big fish lakes will still produce large fish, probably just not in the #’s as in the past. There are many factors that determine if a lake will produce big fish or not and often those factors change over time. I know several lakes that use to produce a large # of big fish that no longer do ( Prior lake is a prime example ) I also know of a few lakes that never seemed to have quality fish in them that now seem to be producing nicer fish. I think the key to finding big fish lakes going forward is to find lakes with less fishing pressure. Not to say that lakes like Mille Lacs and Minnetonka will not keep kicking out big fish – I just believe they won’t in the #’s as they did so in the past. This is all just my opinion of course.

Good discussion Fryer.

I think there are big bass in a lot of lakes. Maybe not record breaking, but certainly of quality size. The lakes that see more pressure from competition and regular tournaments make it significantly tougher. Add in a crap load of recreational boating traffic during summer and it can get down right frustrating. The lakes like Mille Lacs and Minnetonka also have clear water which tends to also make things more difficult, especially if you are only using artificial lures which I think most of us in this thread are.

If you go just an hour outside of the metro area though (to the north or west), there are a lot of lakes that receive little to no fishing pressure (for bass at least). My folks live near Princeton and when I go up there to bass fish (or even further north) I see maybe one other boat on the entire lake…and they are not bass fishing.

The weather this season isn’t helping me one bit. I personally had the best fishing season I’ve ever had last year in 25 years of fishing in MN, but this is also now the hottest and driest season on record that I’ve seen living here. My jam is not ultra-finesse tactics. That’s definitely part of the problem and its my own fault.

As for arriving at the access at 3:30am and being the third boat there…that’s borderline insane. I know Steve is a dedicated early riser in the bass fishing world. Maybe the hot weather is driving more people to fish earlier and earlier and earlier this season?

This is a good topic. I’m a little concerned what all of the added pressure of the more and more fishing tournaments/derbies/leagues will have on lakes.

I also wonder what effect the C&R has had on the quality of bass in the last 15-20 years. I know that keeping bass has never been overly popular in my lifetime, but it seems that essentially no one keeps bass at all now. I’ve wondered this because the handful of lakes that I’ve fished that are C&R only, seem to have a large abundance of small bass and are stunted. Maybe keeping a few bass would be beneficial for long term size structure?

blank wrote:

Maybe keeping a few bass would be beneficial for long term size structure?

Selective harvest of smaller sized bass in certain bodies of water is not problematic. In fact, it can actually be beneficial because each system can only handle a specific carrying capacity based on forage and habitat. Its when people start harvesting medium and large bass is when there are problems. It takes a decade for a bass to reach 20 inches/5 pounds here. Even a 17 incher that is 2.5 to 3 pounds is not replaced so quickly either. But on rare occasion harvesting a 12 or 13 incher when there are an abundance of them is perfectly fine. Harvesting small pike is also something we should be doing more of right now.

I agree with you, that’s why I wonder if C&R only lakes, or those that allow 12″ or less, are stunting the bass in those lakes.

I think I posted here last year a 19.25 inch largemouth I caught on Mule lake up North was tagged. DNR told me the fish was 19 years old and had been caught/reported several times. So yes, harvesting the wrong fish can really stunt size, releasing the right ones definitely helps! The one fish I’m all for harvesting are the 21 inch snot-rockets that eat everything including their own..

Interesting thread. I don’t fish bass much but will fish the north metro and the river a few times a year. The St Croix and Mississippi always give you a chance for a trophy and they aren’t that pressured given proximity to the metro.

My thought is the big fish lakes in the future will be north. Seems like the heavy pressure for bass, outside of some of the more popular like ML or some of the Brainerd lakes, is really confined to the metro. As you get further north there are guys targeting bass but the pressure is significantly less. We go fish LOTW a few times a year and never see guys targeting bass. It’s a great bass fishery but dominated by walleye fisherman.

I agree with Tim…I live a couple miles from the MPLS chain of lakes and they are full of big fish. The limiting factor is access so my guess is they are protected to a certain extent.

And, I completely expect Mahto to give me a hard time for admitting to bass fishing!!

Chain of lakes has maybe one tourney a year-I think those large fish find not good but great structure, piece of wood or something man made by some good weeds, one gripe I have with these tourneys is you pull a fish out of that structure throw it in a live well and jet it to the weigh in a mile away-Yes you release it healthy but you just messed with its whole deal. My 2 pennies.

The guys in the Elite/St. Lawrence tournament last week were releasing fish 80 miles away from where they caught them!

Wow Fry- rediculous

Matt Moen wrote:

As you get further north there are guys targeting bass but the pressure is significantly less. We

Absolutely true. The further north you go the less pressure there definitely is after bass. I could spend an entire month in northern MN targeting them and not have to fish any lake twice. And I would probably not run into another bass angler either. The one issue was that the further north you went, the colder the water was, and the shorter the warm summer growing season was, which limited their maximum size. But that may now be changing with a warming climate. People catch largemouth north of Duluth now and 15 years ago you never heard of that.

“People catch largemouth north of Duluth now and 15 years ago you never heard of that.”

Well….there has always been some good largemouth fishing way up north if you’re in the right spot. Pelican Lake near Orr has always been a tremendous LMB fishery. I’ve caught Largemouth in some of the smaller lakes near Ely. And years ago, B.A.S.S. held tournament on LOTW. Most teams assumed it was going to be all Smallmouth and fished it that way. A team from New York went as far back into the slop at the bottom of a southern bay as they could, and caught gobs of big Largemouth and won the tournament. So they were always there in the right spots.

SR

I honestly think could be from the southern part of the state. Longer growing season from the warmer weather and more time to feed. Also the pressure isn’t that great either down there. I look at tourney weigh ins from down there and there are a lot more six and even seven pound bass being caught down near the Iowa border.

Steve Root wrote:

A team from New York went as far back into the slop at the bottom of a southern bay as they could, and caught gobs of big Largemouth and won the tournament. So they were always there in the right spots.

That’s really interesting. Maybe your right. They’ve been there but just more being caught.

Mahto has it here. If you look at weekend derby results, most winning bags from south of the cities are 17+lbs. I’ve fished quite a few in the southern part of the state this year where the winning bag approached 20lbs, and there’s always multiple 5 pounders caught. Not a whole lot of numbers down there, but the overall size definitely makes up for it. Most lakes are pretty stained and shallow, which grows bass faster than deep, clear lakes. There’s a lot of lakes to fish down there, too.

fishingdakotacountymn wrote:

Mahto has it here. If you look at weekend derby results, most winning bags from south of the cities are 17+lbs. I’ve fished quite a few in the southern part of the state this year where the winning bag approached 20lbs, and there’s always multiple 5 pounders caught. Not a whole lot of numbers down there, but the overall size definitely makes up for it. Most lakes are pretty stained and shallow, which grows bass faster than deep, clear lakes. There’s a lot of lakes to fish down there, too.

I think the larger lakes around ‘Kato (Tetonka, Washington, etc) get hammered with tourney pressure – but a lot of other small-mid sized lakes down there hold some bigger fish. Tetonka used to have the state record LMB before Auburn, but I honestly wouldn’t fish it because of the reputation/pressure.

I think the next state record could come from a different lake in the Mankato area or maybe from Otter Tail county.

I agree with tournaments not being real helpful. My son and a partner fished Whitefish last Sunday in a high school SATT event. 200 hundred boats with 2 anglers a boat. Only 750 Bass were caught. 37 boats didn’t land a bass over 12in. We managed a couple. I don’t know if it’s the heat or the fishing pressure or the too many contestants. I have to watch them fish Mille Lacs next Sunday. Don’t expect great numbers other than a select few. Smaller lakes seem to give a better chance at a whopper. That’s my 2 cents.

I really hate to blame poor fishing on tournaments because it’s why bass fishing is in such a good spot right now. Especially the high school level. BASS and other groups have done an incredible job getting kids into the sport and it will keep bass fishing much more relevant than other types of fishing for a long time.

That being said we need to figure out how to limit or keep some lakes from getting crushed over and over again.

FryDog62 wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>fishingdakotacountymn wrote:</div>
Mahto has it here. If you look at weekend derby results, most winning bags from south of the cities are 17+lbs. I’ve fished quite a few in the southern part of the state this year where the winning bag approached 20lbs, and there’s always multiple 5 pounders caught. Not a whole lot of numbers down there, but the overall size definitely makes up for it. Most lakes are pretty stained and shallow, which grows bass faster than deep, clear lakes. There’s a lot of lakes to fish down there, too.

I think the larger lakes around ‘Kato (Tetonka, Washington, etc) get hammered with tourney pressure – but a lot of other small-mid sized lakes down there hold some bigger fish. Tetonka used to have the state record LMB before Auburn, but I honestly wouldn’t fish it because of the reputation/pressure.

I think the next state record could come from a different lake in the Mankato area or maybe from Otter Tail county.

Tetonka is getting absolutely destroyed this year. Tourney after tourney and too big of fields on top of it.

I think the next state record will come somewhere between Hutch-Mankato-Faribault, and I think it will be soon. I’ve seen more 19lb+ sacks in local club derbies and other tourney results than I can count. I don’t even fish that much and just in the last few years I’ve personally seen a 29lb sack, 8.15lb largie, and 7.5lb largie, all on different lakes to boot! It’s gunna happen down here, and its gunna happen soon.

Matt Vogel wrote:

I don’t even fish that much and just in the last few years I’ve personally seen a 29lb sack, 8.15lb largie, and 7.5lb largie, all on different lakes to boot! It’s gunna happen down here, and its gunna happen soon.

You saw someone tie the state record?

mahtofire14 wrote:

You saw someone tie the state record?

I think the state record is 8 pounds, 15 ounces which is not the same as 8.15 pounds. I thought the same thing initially but then realized it wasn’t.

gimruis wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
You saw someone tie the state record?

I think the state record is 8 pounds, 15 ounces which is not the same as 8.15 pounds. I thought the same thing initially but then realized it wasn’t.

You’re probably right…..Good thing we have you here to correct all of us Gimruis……

I think its going to be anywhere in Minnesota there is so many lakes and so many lakes hold over 5lb.

Anybody see the blackfish derby results, there were multiple fish 6lb and a ton of 5lbs.

Charles wrote:

I think its going to be anywhere in Minnesota there is so many lakes and so many lakes hold over 5lb.

Anybody see the blackfish derby results, there were multiple fish 6lb and a ton of 5lbs.

I would not say a ton over 5. I think if I counted correctly there was like 16-18 and 3 over 6. Now the 3 over 6 is Impressive, but 18 over 5 on a 100 boat tourney on a lake like Minnetonka is not all that impressive. The # of 5lb. fish showing up in tourneys on that lake has been falling each year. That 100 boat field had some of if not the best Lake Minnetonka fishermen fishing it.

Are most BASS tourneys going to CPR or CWR formats? Seems like that would be the way to go across the board, no reason to keep fish in a livewell to be released later anymore.

ssaamm wrote:

I agree with tournaments not being real helpful. My son and a partner fished Whitefish last Sunday in a high school SATT event. 200 hundred boats with 2 anglers a boat. Only 750 Bass were caught. 37 boats didn’t land a bass over 12in. We managed a couple. I don’t know if it’s the heat or the fishing pressure or the too many contestants. I have to watch them fish Mille Lacs next Sunday. Don’t expect great numbers other than a select few. Smaller lakes seem to give a better chance at a whopper. That’s my 2 cents.

The situation with all the HS bass tourneys is going to change. I believe starting in Sept. they now all need to start applying for permits for all their events ( They have not been required to do so till now ) I have nothing against the whole explosion of High School fishing. If it comes to limiting them or the adults who have been tourney fishing for 30+ Years I’d side with the youth every time. There was a recent post on Facebook on this HS bass fishing and a fair # of the bigger tourney guys who are not real happy about it. Lets see these big tourney guys have been hammering the same lakes weekend after weekend for 30+ years and they want to say the recent addition of the High School tourneys is now the cause of a problem. I personally think all the tourneys are starting to cause a big problem. Most tourney guys and the directors like to think just because a fish swims away after the weigh in that it survives to be caught again another day. That is just not the case. Delayed mortality is a far bigger issue than the tourney guys want to even think about.