Grindstone Lake fish

Hi,
I’ve fished Grindstone, on vacation in summer, for many years. It’s a fine lake. In all those years during daylight I’ve seen on the fishfinders suspended fish in large numbers over deep water, say between 5 and 17 feet, usually somewhat near to structure. I’ve never actually seen one of these fish and I’m wondering what they are. Also, crossing the lake late at night I’ve seen hundreds (or more) very small fish jumping at the surface, when disturbed by the boat, over the deep basin. At the same time other fish show up on the fish finder about a foot or two off bottom in the deepest area of the lake. Sometimes they can be spotted at midday tight to the bottom, same areas. I’ve always been curious about these fish. Wonder if they’re ciscoes, burbot, etc. Any opinions? …Dave

First, welcome to IDO!!! I have fished the Grinder but have never witnessed this….u might want to shoot Tanner Wildes a message as this is one of his home bodies of water.

Fished that lake many times: 20 years ago: as I remember I did catch some eyes pitching jigs on the shoreline during the late summer time.

That lake is reported to have a large population of rainbow smelt.(?)

Smelt? Well, I suppose it’s possible. As far as forage goes I’ve always seen lots of perch and sunfish, fathead minnows and lake shiners. We’ve found the same when seining bait.

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Hi,
I’ve fished Grindstone… Wonder if they’re ciscoes, burbot, etc. Any opinions? …Dave

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Dave:

I am going with ciscoes, though smelt could be the right answer. Ciscoes are notorious for flipping, the behavior of breaking the surface in the summer. They don’t necessarily need to be disturbed by the boat to jump either… I have casted to those flipping fish while trying to entice a walleye or musky!!!

Mark

Not to start a rant but the Wi DNR has really gone down hill on their lake info site. Used to be able to get lots of details and maps for most lakes. Not any more. At least for some lakes I got maps from them in the past. And the details they offer are slim. MN DNR provides all this info along survey info.

It seems trap nets and shocking provide all the survey info. I’ve never heard of deep water or basin area fish samples, or how such fish might be sampled.

From past experience on bodies of water similar to this,you might find the largest fish in that system near those schools! They can be 10%-20% heavier in weight compared to similarly lengthed fish in other portions of that system.Smaller head with wide shoulders & thick body mass all the way to the tail. Your suspended forage usually have a higher protein base than the usual shoreline forages you might find. When I see something like this I can guarantee I will be running cranks around that forage! You might notice this activity most prevalent the last hour or 2 before sunset when paying attention to electronics.You might see a large dark area which appears to be coming from the bottom which is what this forage is feeding on & it rises to the surface as the sun sets. The forage follows this (plankton)& the big fish follow the forage.Nature of the beast. I said too much allready.SHHHHH Go FISH man!

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It seems trap nets and shocking provide all the survey info. I’ve never heard of deep water or basin area fish samples, or how such fish might be sampled.

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They could trawl in open water and do on large bodies of water… Grindstone is a large body of water, but probably not large enough to trawl. IMHO they are probably finding these fish (smelt or cisco) during their spawning period when they are closer to shallow water.

Mark

what you are seeing out there are cisco’s in the evening they move to the surface out in the middle of the lake feeding on plankton and insects on the surface. The arcs you are marking on you locator on the bottom is more than likely going to be walleye, there will be some walleye below the thermocline out there hugging the bottom. you can catch them with a bottom bouncer and crawler harness.

Hope this helps you out.

Good Luck,
Tanner Wildes

Tanner is 100% correct. I spend a great deal of time on grindstone pulling harnesses over deep water. As a matter of fact my PB came off grindstone last summer. Awsome body of water!!!!!

I would love to give it a whirl. Heard it is tough to figure out but the size of the fish are exceptional. Whitefish by Stone Lake is similar? Caught some nice Muskie out of there.