Update

Walleyes remain fairly slow in area. Some bright spots have come and died off. Not many people pursuing panfish. Late afternoon and night remain the best times to be out. Casting crankbaits and jig/plastic combos are hooking more fish, but leeches seem to hook the bigger fish right now. Weed lines are developed and some lakes are already seeing the choking effect by cabbage and milfoil. Water clarity should remain decent for a couple weeks yet although there has been a lot of water recently. Smaller rivers are filled to the banks yet.
Good Luck, TGIF

Thanks TGIF.

Can you tell me the condition of French Lake public access right now??? Is the water up enough were you can launch a boat with bunks, or does a guy need a roller trailer to launch???

Been fairly slow for me too. Able to always pull a few but nothing real hot and heavy. However, I’ve noticed the crappies starting to really move into the shallows latelty. Water temp when I was out on Sat. eve was 60 so the crappies will be on the beds this week. Some were already starting on Sat.

Gary.
I haven’t been on French but I know Madison on opener was way up from last year. And with the “beautiful” weather we’ve been having I can’t imagine it has gone down much if at all.

French is pretty low. I get real frustrated with that access and I have a roller trailer. Hoy’s resort will launch you for about $5 which is cheaper than many other things that can occur on a shallow launch if you don’t have anyone to back you in. The weeds are getting up to about a foot below to hitting the surface. The walleye bite there sounds like the dead sea, but the next 2 openers will probably yield more action. One other concern is that the weeds get cut on French and float on the surface making surface and trolling presentations useless. So far I have not heard about the weeds getting cut yet. Good Luck! TGIF

Thanks for the update!!!

Is Nipples still open??? They had a fairly decent launch there too, but I don’t see much activity there anymore……

Knipples should be open, but I don’t see anyone around there much anymore.

Brian, I talked to a guy the other day who said he fishes the lakes in that area alot and he said that the weeds are very high on the lakes this year. With that in mind, is the apparant weedline helping fisherman finding a good bite on the weedline? Hows the bite been for panfish? I have 3 grandaughters who live in Northfield which is only 12 miles north of Faribault that I need to get out on the water catching some fish.
Thanks, Bill

Bill;

My opinion is to probably go to Shields or Mazaska. French has fish, but I feel that Shields or Mazaska has a better population of quality panfish.

Thanks Bud.
Thanks, Bill

Bill;

If you need a couple of starter spots on the lake, shoot me a pm.

I haven’t been down there at all this year, but there are some good spots that are easy to find on the map.

Could one of you guys tell me what lake(s) in the area would be good to fish for bass? I tried fishing cedar lake last year, caught a few small ones the milfoil seems to make it tough

My opinion is that Shields host some very nice bass.

Most of the lakes in the area are fairly decent for bass. I’d say Cedar by Faribault is the top bass lake, but Mazaska, Shields, Hunt, and even Cannon have 2-3lb+ bass. There are some smallmouth in upper Sakata and Tetonka as well.

Panfish…Madison is pretty good. Washington, Shields, Mazaska are decent for size. Roberds has some decent crappies remaining and you can make hay on some bluegills, but the size has been small for the past 2 years. Byllesby is good for size on crappies. Tetonka has some nice bluegills and there are some brutes in Sakatah, but I’ve haven’t found them much past June. Get ’em before it get green. TGIF

can anyone tell me where the good spots on byllsby are? I have been out a couple times and have gotten nothing. was on french the other day and got a nothern and a muskie. my first muskie and I caught it on a lindy rig with a chub.

Byllesby is a really tough lake to fish. Reason is because there is very little weed structure or reef structure in the vast majority lake, that is typical is most lakes.

Byllesby is a reservior.

Where Al Linder once said that 90% of the fish are in 10% of the lake……..I would take a shot at 95% of the fish are in 5% of the water in Byllesby.

Work around the bluffs and you will find a good mix of crappies, bass, & walleyes.

Also, read that map and find what structure there is, then get out with the boat and sonar and go find it. There is some very defined “breaklines” with the river channel that runs through the system.