Metro Ice

Pretty awesome if you are catching walleye on that chain of lakes. I give you props, that’s not a easy thing to do, especially consistently.

Fished Gray’s Bay for a few hours. Got a small perch and a few sunfish. Lots people out. Wonder why…maybe bigger fish roll through oh occasion, but everything was pretty small tonight. Conditions were just about ideal though.

Aboxy17 – Amazing fish!

Slush conditions improved in Lindstrom. Most of it froze up overnight but there were still pockets of very deep slush up to my knees. Fishing was slower. 1 small walleye and a nice 36-inch pike that destroyed my finger. The ice basically looked like a murder scene. The cut froze pretty fast which stopped the bleeding nicely. Just had to fish with a sock wrapped around my hand for the night, lesson learned.

I see temperatures well below freezing all week and Saturday night has a low of -7. I’m hoping the slush problem goes away after this

Yes the slush should go away, but then here come the trucks.

It was a nice run with no traffic. With the upcoming snow forecasted I still think some of these spots will not be reachable without plowed roads.

I’m a little late to the party here, but I saw the first vehicle on Demontreville in the east metro today. At least 5 or 6 portable shelters, but just the one vehicle (I saw it last minute, and couldn’t tell if it was a truck or SUV).

When it comes to driving on a lake you don’t want to be early to the party.

tim hurley wrote:

When it comes to driving on a lake you don’t want to be early to the party.

I safely like to be early to that party. Been doing that for years.
But safety is key

Ice conditions have improved greatly from 4 days ago. All slush froze completely ice has about 1-2 inches of snow on top, there is also some drifting after the gusts today.

Fishing has been good panfish-wise. Fish today were less aggressive than yesterday but still would have easily caught a limit if I was keeping. The biggest crappies have been 12-13 inches so no giants. We continue to get quality pike while targeting the pannies almost every time always a fun fight on the UL.

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Nice job Aboxy…Quality fish.

Still around 12 fow?

13-15 fow this area is a mud basin where the fish seem to congregate during the winter. We have been catching our walleyes pretty shallow as well.

Aboxy you are incredible. That is all.

Thanks guys!

Speared my first like today! More like hunting than fishing. I’d go again for sure, but my preference would be to fish versus spear.

Went out Wednesday north of metro and was able to drive out finally. Caught a couple keeper crappies and some smaller ones right away. The fish were in the community hole and stayed there all afternoon. But at one point the sun came out and I struggled to get them to bite after that. And only small ones. But it was a nice day to be outside, didn’t need the clam. Mission accomplished.

Was out in the south metro today trucks and cars everywhere. Was surprised at how much light was making it through the snow. Setup on a weed bed in 14 ft of water caught about a dozen bluegills and 3 crappies. They were hungry, was surprised no permanents were setup there. Waxies ruled the day, was in and out in 4 hours

Found 16″ on tonka yesterday. Some trucks out and about but not heavy where I was fishing. Unfortunately all I caught was tiny perch. No walleyes came to play

The kid missed 1 and then got this 21 this morning just a few minutes ago. We have 3 trucks next to each other. Ice checked out pretty good all the way to this spot.

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Your boy is growing up fast!

Gregg Gunter wrote:

Your boy is growing up fast!

He is getting big already. He will be 12 in April and stands 5ft10 165lbs. When we wrestle I have to tell him to take it easy on the old man.

20 inches in Black Lake on Minnetonka today, but a good chunk of that at the top was junk ice. A ton of people out, but no one was catching anything. We only managed a few small sunnies. Tons of fish on the flasher, a lot of bites, but they just weren’t hitting. Nice day though. Didn’t even put up the hub.

Ended up doing some solo camping in the Lindstrom area. The big temp swing for sure negatively impacted the bite. The only thing that saved me was discovering a new spot. Marked lots of walleye this morning and had to pick through the fish to get bites. The way things ended up working out I wasn’t even able to fish an evening bite all weekend but was still able to catch 10-12 walleye most coming in the morning some coming as late as 10:00 am. Camping setup worked great as usual. Half of my fish were eater size up to 20 inches half were 10-12 inches. Always fun doing an overnighter. I just think about what my fish total would have been if I had fished the evening bite as well. Always next weekend I guess lol.

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queenswake wrote:

20 inches in Black Lake on Minnetonka today, but a good chunk of that at the top was junk ice. A ton of people out, but no one was catching anything. We only managed a few small sunnies. Tons of fish on the flasher, a lot of bites, but they just weren’t hitting. Nice day though. Didn’t even put up the hub.

That spot gets hit hard all winter

crappie55369 wrote:

That spot gets hit hard all winter

That’s spot gets hammered in the spring too. I’ve seen 40 boats stacked in there when the spring panfish bite is going.

Did well for crappies, had to hole hop-Nice to be able to drive out there, walking is a lot better now too.

Do we lose much ice with these warm days? Still been pretty cold here at night.

Ice will be good for a while. Trucks all over this morning as I drove by a few lakes. Plan to enjoy some afternoon warmth and hopefully catch some too.