Ice Fishing Lake Harriet

Hi all, brand new to the forum (apologies if there’s a thread just for this lake), and quite new to ice fishing.

Had the day off on Wed. so decided to get some exercise and drill a bunch of holes along the south side of the lake checking for decent marks/depths but only managed a bait-sized perch.

Seems like I only see people ice fish near the bandshell on the NW side but I’m still fishing pretty blind.

Close to my home so I would really like to get better at fishing this lake rather than driving all over the place.

Hoping to get some northerns, walleyes or crappies this season.

Thanks much

Welcome Ted! Good luck to you this season! I’ll be fishing the West Metro hoping for some luck as well.

welcome ted,
i live in south mpls and used to fish harriet all the time but kinda got tired of all the tiny perch. not to many norts in there but many muskies.
there are decent walleye in there if you can fend off all those lil perch. best bet for walleyes would be right off the weeds at prime time. i like to use rattling spoons or shiners. sumthing a lil bigger hoping the perch wont go for them. but ive been shocked before. catching a 5″ perch on a 5″ shiner lol
if u can find them there is are sum decent crops/sunnies as well. a flasher is almost a must as most of the panfish will be suspended and most marks on bottom are perch. but maybe walleye as well.
the bandshell area has good structure and is easy to access thats why it gets alot of attention.

good luck maybe ill tag along with ya sum day as its only 5mins form my place also

Any updates on Lake Harriet this year? I live right by and have never fished this lake. Any recommendations? Any good for crappies? Where should I look for Walleyes?

Been out there a couple of times this year. No real luck on crappies but haven’t spend a bunch of time targeting them.

Walleyes are hit and miss. I find a spot near dark and as they move through, you should pick up 1 or 2. They seem to roam between some of the humps and the back of the weedlines.

Interested to hear if anyone else is having luck. I might get out there later this week.

Matt, I’ve been having luck with Walleye near dark near the weedline as you said. For about 45 minutes after dusk, it’s usually one after another. Tight window for sure but that window can be non stop. I fish towards the south end.

I’m going to try and hit it this weekend for a bit. I think I’ve been too deep. We’ve been working some of the humps and it’s been sporadic.

Matt,

I went out Tuesday and managed to get into some Eyes. I caught about 8 in about 2 hours. Nothing big but four were eating size around 15-16″.

I am going to head out to lake Harriet tomorrow as well. I was planning on going in on the south end and fishing the south east side on the weedline. I will post how it goes. If anybody is interested in meeting up send me a message.

My co-worker claims a 30″ walleye came out of Harriet this week. It was a friend of his.

DaveB wrote:

My co-worker claims a 30″ walleye came out of Harriet this week. It was a friend of his.

Wouldn’t doubt that at all, I went back Saturday evening and was lucky enough to ice this 27″. Thought the water might keep some away but there were quite a few groups out.

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Beautiful fish, nice work!

I was out last night with a buddy, we fished for a bit on the ice (no portable) but it was so windy we called it quits. I managed to help him catch one small walleye and I missed a few small bites. I did hook into what felt like a fairly decent fish that got lost, not sure what happened but it felt like it got either loose near the ice and then I hooked the ice or the fish wouldn’t come up the hole and the line snapped on the ice. I will never know what I hooked into…

I was out last Friday for a couple of hours. Nothing on the ice but marked some fish and lost one on the tip up. One guy near me had a handful of small (12″) fish.

Probably going to try it tomorrow night or give Calhoun a try.

If I’m out there say hey – I’ll be without a house pulling a big sled and wearing a black Striker hoodie.

Good to meet you out there Bonawitz07. I put one keeper size fish on the ice last evening and a few decent perch. Left about 6 because that wind was nasty without a portable. Guy to the south of me caught a couple small ones. How’d you do?

Great to meet you too Matt! Didn’t do too well last night, caught 2 smaller eyes and marked only 3-4 more. Slower night for sure.

Anyone having luck this past week? Things have slowed down for me. Last night I only marked and caught one walleye and marked a few crappies but no takers. Last weekend I was on much better action in the same area (weedline near a drop off). Think the fish are just inactive or have they moved deeper?