I am thinking about heading over to Big Stone to fish next weekend. From what I can find online it sounds like the lake is still icy but people are thinking she is going out next week. What do you guys think? Anyone around that area care to chime in with their thoughts or any advice? I am thinking about tenting at lakeshore RV park. Might give a bait shop a call tomorrow and see what they think.
I am thinking about heading over to Big Stone to fish next weekend. From what I can find online it sounds like the lake is still icy but people are thinking she is going out next week. What do you guys think? Anyone around that area care to chime in with their thoughts or any advice? I am thinking about tenting at lakeshore RV park. Might give a bait shop a call tomorrow and see what they think.
Well.. It’s a guaranty that you will have crap weather and a ton of wind on BigBone. It’s also a guaranty that you will call the local bait shop and he will tell you they are crawling into coolers,, just open it near shore and you’ll have your limit in 7 minutes (after all,, they do sell minnows). It’s also a guaranty that you will ask yourself why you didn’t drive the extra 75 miles to the Webster area….Just my 2 cents. BUT hey,, it’s open water fishin’. Good luck!
It should be noted: I may be a little bitter towards BigBone after 15 consecutive years of total crap fishing in April,,,with the exception of 1 or 2.
Thanks for your reply. Sounds like you aren’t fond of the lake. I have only fished it twice years ago for the MTT tournament. I’m looking forward to just getting the boat out and drowning some minnows. If I find fish that is a plus! I heard the ice is out now so game on!!
You will find 90% of the guys running to the north end of Big Stone, I have fished this lake several times. jig-minnow and float fishing are the main tactics with this cold water. Although trolling a large spread of lures could cover a lot of water and may put fish in the box.
Sounds good, thanks for the advice. I am thinking about just finding some breaks and jigging. Maybe we will cover some ground if we get tired of jigging and might pull some raps. Might pull some lindys too? Who knows? haha now I am getting excited to get on the water. It will be a long week. Just got a tent site reserved at the campground. He sounded like the water is still really high and he isn’t sure his docks will be in by the weekend or not. Fingers crossed it goes down enough and I can put in at the resort and won’t have to battle the traffic at the main access with the tournament.
There is a MWC tournament out there this weekend so that will kind of give you an idea of the bite. I fished it a few years this time of year and it was a tough bite. We tried everything. Guys that did good were using slip bobbers on rock piles on the south end.
I believe the dnr has put their docks in today on the state parks. May want to verify though.
Looked like a tough bite out there
Yeah, we tried from Mallard point to Yankeetown on the north side and then cruised down and fished around the islands across from the state park on Sat. It was strange, only marked fish in ten feet of water even though everyone was saying to flip jigs to shore to catch the fish. We did some shore flipping as well as vertical jigging in and out from 12 fow to the shoreline. Didn’t get a single fish, 10 hours on Sat and 2 on Sunday. The access at Mallard point was difficult to say the least with the wind on Sunday LOL. Oh well, first skunk of the year out of the way. It was still awesome to get out and do some fishing and play with the new boat. Looks like half of the tournament got the same skunk.
Heading there Saturday, looks like it’s supposed to be pretty nice out, maybe get the fish going a little bit. How is water clarity? From what I have been hearing it was a jig/minnow shallow this past weekend. We plan on showing up late morning and try to find some fish before we pull cranks at dark.
My buddy who fished the MWC said to look for water in the 51-53 degree area. Over the weekend, that was where other water was flowing in. Once you hit those temps, you could get numbers of males.
They caught a couple 30″ fish downriver prefishing, didn’t happen during the tourney.
The water was like chocolate milk. I saw water temps from 49 all the way to 58.
We pulled some cranks during the day on the break, perhaps at night would have been better. We didn’t fish after dark being not too familiar with the lake and there was still some debris floating around.
They caught a couple 30″ fish downriver prefishing, didn’t happen during the tourney.
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Too bad they didn’t get those during tourny but still great fish. Will report back on how we do.
Fished the afternoon and evening yesterday and brought home 4 walleye ranging from 16-21″. All caught in 5fow or less. One came on a firetiger rippin rap, other 3 came on original floaters. We probably only fished 2 Miles of shore line the whole trip either casting various jigs/minnows and artificial or trolling. Bonus was this 43″ northern I caught about 10 casts into the trip on a jig and minnow. Waters temps ranged from 52-55 areas we fished. Concentrated on wind blown shoreline with rocks and gravel. Didn’t think we did too bad for the first time being out there. Nice body of water and will be back. Lots of water to cover out there.
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