I have been telling myself to go fish the Waterville area lakes for a long time now but have not found the time to travel the 2 hours until this past weekend.
I tried French on Saturday morning for some toothy critters but did not see anything. We hit the water a little after 6AM but could not raise a fish (not that I know if we would have seen it). We tossed the whole box but mostly topwaters and bucktails. The water was thick with algae and slime. My son tossed a bettlespin and caught a crappie.
Off to Tetonka for the afternoon and evening. We managed a few medium size bass on chatterbaits and spinnerbaits, a few small pike and then some nice bluegills and some small walleye later in the evening on bait. Of course we caught plenty of sheephead on bait and one famed bullhead. The lake was full of floating weeds and moss like stuff that fouled the baits and made fishing difficult. The deeper bait fishing was easier and the kids caught fish but not what I was expecting.
Sunday we let the kids sleep in and hit Clear lake in Waseca on the way home and expected to find some decent bass but only caught 4 medium sized ones (again 14-16″ and on chatterbaits and spinners), some smaller bass and panfish on bait against the reeds. At least Clear lake was far cleaner looking that Tetonka and French and much easier to fish around the weeds.
All in all it was good to be on the water but I still would rather travel the extra 2 hours and hit the Brainerd area or even go as far as Bemidji.