Ham Lake

This weekend kept me pretty close to home so it was off to a lake that is just .5 miles from my house. Ham Lake. To me this small lake just north of the metro is like so many others in the area. Jam packed with stunted pan fish. In the last 2 days we had no problem finding. Between sunnies, crappies and a few northerns on tip ups there has been non stop action. It might even be more of a challange to not find fish on this lake than it is to find them.
What has been the most entertaining for me on Ham lake this weekend has been helping my kids to catch these fish. This is a great lake for introducing them to ice fishing. Plenty of action. Small jigs and euro larve have been our main bait but have heard others doing well on minnows and waxies also. I would think the smaller offerings would keep the best action going.
If any of you guys are looking for a good place to take the kids and kleep them entertained on the ice for a few hours this might be a good choice. There are a couple of good roads on the ice so it is easy to get out there.

Any one else been out on Ham lately.

That’s strange Mike! I heard the fish coming out of Ham Lake work slabs!

But then I was talking to your neighbor

What was moving around in the snow like? I haven’t been out since it snowed

Wasnt to bad in the 2 wheel drive van. 4 wheel should be no problem unless we get more snow or the water starts showing up on the ice.
What ham lake needs is a good shot of cat fish. That might take care of some of those small pan fish. What is really suprising about the lake is that I measured a crappie for a guy one day a couple of years ago that was close to 16″.

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What ham lake needs is a good shot of cat fish.

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It’s funny you should mention that…

My Dad wasn’t too fond of the DNR’s practices in the first place, then they stocked “catfish” into Lake Ripley by Litchfield. He was not a happy camper…to say the least.

I emailed the DNR asking why they would do this…has to be some reason for planting channels into a lake…right? The response was because some people like to fish them.

The last few years…good old dad has been enjoying half, three quarters and one pound sunnies on his fly rod. His limit is 8 to 12 depending. He’s been saying how good the fishing has been AND that a freind of his caught a 10 lbs channel cat…

Over the weekend it hit me…pulled up the stocking report for that lake and what do you know…Flatheads were stock in there in ’94 (If I recall), they never stocked channels.

I don’t see the “ring” of baby bullheads around the lake anymore either.

Once I tell him my thoughts…I might not be his best son anymore…

So you maybe right…a shot of flatheads maybe what Ham Lake needs.

I grew up a couple of miles south of Ham Lake and as a kid we would ride our bikes up and fish from shore. When I got older we used a boat. We caught decent northerns and bass, but the sunnies were always small. You could catch as many as you wanted though.

It’s been about 10 years since I fished the lake, but I did notice that the fish were even smaller than I remembered.

What the metro area lakes need are slot limits for all species of fish.