ice trout

Thinkin about fishin a lake in the metro that has trout. Only trout fishin I have done has been in streams and tributaries, don’t know how to ice them. The lake is Holland in Egan. I know its been stocked with rainbows and browns, I just don’t know how to approach them. I’ve “heard” that it was an old rock quarry, and lake finder says max depth is 55 FOW! Small lake, but deep. Any ideas of how to ice some trout would greatly be appreciated. Never knew that there was waters in the metro for trout like this one and to pull one through a hole would be even better than open water. I’ve heard that they are usually suspended higher in the column than one would think, but honestly I am pretty oblivious on how to catch them, and I have no idea how to approach them location, time or presentation, so any suggestions I will take into account.

If there is a map of the lake it would be a big help. Humps and shoreline cuts where some shallower water right next to some deep are great places to begin looking for the trout. I prefer early morning and late afternoon when I’ll target the slightly shallower stuff and the trout begin to move in off the deep to chase food. Cloudy days will usually have action thru the day. Once the snow deepens up or when thaws cloud the surface ice enough, bright sunny days can be super hot, but trout are wary and if any indication of movement from atop the ice can be seen from below the fish will likely spook. If at all possible, fish by yourself or away from others to minimize the noise aspect.

If there is a definite “break line” along the shore to deep water, fishing right on it is another good water to target.

Here in Rochester we have a local re-claimed quarry that gets trout stocked at various intervals all year, most being in the winter. Its named Foster lake. The best color of anything I have chucked down a hole for the trout has been a gold jigging spoon, like a 1/10 ounce Swedish Pimple or a 1/10 ounce Kastmaster, that has a stripe of bright orange tape on 1/2 of one of the faces of the spoon. Add a minnow head and hold on. Anything gold and orange seems to tick those fish off. The jigging spoons just let me cover a lot of water and it isn’t often that the fish won’t respond to the combination. I’d start with the same colors/rig there in your puddle.

I grew up in Coon Rapids so I religously fished Cenaiko on opener at the Coon Rapids Dam. Great place to catch a lot of trout on opening day.

I think almost all of these trout lakes are going to be best on opening day. They are called put-and-take lakes by the DNR. Any of these that get any pressure on opening day will have 3/4 of the fish taken out that day. As long as you can put up,with someone setting up within 20′ of you, it’s a pretty good time out there. Just get there early so you take advantage of the sunrise bite. They bite best in that first hour.

I highly recommend Cenaiko. I typicall setup in 4-10′ on the NW side of the lake. I’ve always done best on frozen crappie minnows and a plan hook. Small vertical spoons work well too. Most trout have this fetish with orange so I’d have at least one orang luree.

The lake in Rochester falls under special regulations and is open all year to trout fishing/keeping. 3 fish, one over 16″.

I could not get the link to work for a map, and I don’t know how to screenshot the map to paste it here (new tablet), but if you go to lake finder and check out Holland lake, in Dakota county there is a map, species list and stocking report. It says that they have stocked rainbows but they are not on the species list. Thanks for the advice guys I’ll try them out.