Moving to Minnesota from Nebraska!

My wife just got a job offer and we will be relocating to Minnesota this spring. Always been a dream of mine to live up north so I’m pretty excited. I grew up fishing northern Minnesota every year but With her job we will have to live somewhat close to Minneapolis. Was hoping to talk with some guys form the Minneapolis area. I mainly walleye fish and was wondering what lakes/rivers around Minneapolis would be worth my time to learn? Also if anyone has any input on good suburbs around Minneapolis for fishermen to live I would appreciate it. Not asking for anyone’s secret spot just trying to learn a new area.
Thanks!

Welcome back to MN
Search Pool 2 alotta info there.

Will do thanks!

Welcome, your best bet for Walters is the rivers. Most of the suburbs have lakes nearby except for SE say by Woodbury. You probably have found out that houses are expensive here so I hope you got a good pay bump. Send me a PM this spring if you want to go for pannies or bass-others on this site can help you with walleyes (I’ll walleye fish with you, you just won’t catch any!)

Thanks for the input. I’m always up for fishing with new people that sounds good. And yes she got a big pay bump houses are much more expensive there then the small town we currently live. It will be an adjustment.

Hey Walleye Guy….I moved up here from Omaha about 15 years ago. PM when you get settled and I’ll get you on pool 2 or the st Croix. There is a ton of great multi species water in the area but the rivers are your bet for walleye.

Where is your wife going to work and I can make some suggestions or at least pros and cons. Traffic is a beast depending on direction you go each day.

Thanks Matt I think we’re planning on being up there in May or June so I’ll get in touch. I honestly enjoy fishing for all species but walleye are my favorite. She will be traveling to hospitals in the city and needs to be within reasonable driving distance to the airport as I think she will be flying once a week. For that reason we were kind of thinking southern Minneapolis area but personally I’d rather be north so it’s a shorter drive to Mille Lacs was my thinking.

We live in south Minneapolis about 5 miles from the airport. It’s a $10 Uber ride there which is great as we both travel. These are older neighborhoods….houses built in the 1920’s and 30’s if your into that kind of thing.

Trying to commute from north to south or from west to east can be tough. If you wanted to be a bit north or west and be able to hit the airport in reasonable time maybe look at Plymouth or Minnetonka. Straight north from Minneapolis trying to get back to the airport is tough because the interstate exchanges near downtown are under major construction for the next few years.

This is my commute from south Minneapolis to Plymouth. Usually 40 minutes during rush hour to give you an idea. PM me if you guys are narrowing anything down. If you have kids the school districts in the west metro are good.

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We live in Chaska and love the SW metro. Not a bad drive to the airport or DT MSP, but cabs/Uber’s are pretty spendy. Lots of good lakes for the metro including the metro’s biggest in Waconia and Minnetonka, both of which are 10 minutes away. Plus the MN River in town, a short drive to P2, and manageable day trips to Mille Lacs or P4. Also, nice backroad options to avoid traffic going up North, especially with 94 going under construction for 3 years.

Thanks for the info we will have to Check out Chaska when we come up in a few weeks!

Not to hate on the other guys areas but ne metro is the best!! St croix and pool 2 are the best walleye fisheries in the metro and only 1hr 15 to mille lacs. Plus you are far enough from the city. Just my 2 cents

Thanks Justin!

Let’s be honest…driving in the twin cities area is an absulote joke, I wish it on nobody and it’s only getting worse! My recommendation is to live as close as you can to work that is safe. Sorry to say this but I so desperately want to get out of the metro lately, if you’ve been driving here the last 2-3 weeks you’d REALY know why. LOL.

IMO Plymouth is a great area with some good lakes around with decent access to the Minnetonka area and in the right direction for heading north on the weekends.

South and west metro are great areas but driving is a shat show. Good fishing around and some nice lakes to the south and west just out of the loop.

Welcome to MN.

Thanks for the honesty haha. I’m a little nervous going from small town Nebraska to a bigger city. I’m drawn to Minnesota for the great fishing so this gets me closer to where I want to be at least. I’m sure traffic does suck though. We’ll be sure to check out Plymouth.
Thanks

We need more husker fans up here. You’ll be just fine.

Heck ya! Go Big Red!

I’d look at the north metro or better yet…..north of the metro.

Just my humble biased opinion

It would blow having to drive through the entire metro to head up to Mille Lacs or farther for the day/week/weekend.

The Forest Lake and Hugo area are 30-35 minutes from the airport (with light traffic), and also that much closer to Mille Lacs and Lake Superior

That seems like a nice area to be!

With the liberal demrat control on this state i would pass on that job and delete mn from your list

Walleyeguy33 wrote:

Heck ya! Go Big Red!

hope them huskers can get it together but they got a long hard road. where were you from in NE if you don’t mind me asking

Definitely check out the Mississippi River section, sub section Mississippi River walleye. Lots of good info to burn hours or days on. Mostly pool 2, 3, and 4 info but plenty of other areas covered.

I live in the North metro and work in Downtown Minneapolis, traffic can be a bear getting far south but it really depends on schedules.

We lived in south Minneapolis and loved it, but we were always driving north to see family, go to a cabin, get to rivers, hiking etc. We moved to a northern suburb a couple years ago to avoid that extra 30min driving through the city to get anywhere, and for better schools (and our house was 800sq ft).

It is give and take – being within walking distance to the light rail in the city was great for doing downtown things, and there are restaurants and breweries opening every week it seems. We have no regrets moving though and will likely not go south again. Our commute to downtown is still 30min although it is several miles longer. Uber to the airport is under $30, or $20 or so to go downtown.

I have bought two houses in the cities and I would say unless money is no object be prepared to look at a lot of houses. If you aren’t a pretty knowledgeable DIY guy or in construction find an agent who is – there is some pretty weird/dangerous stuff out there, but also good deals to be had if you can do some work and are ready to bid fast.

Walleyeguy33 wrote:

For that reason we were kind of thinking southern Minneapolis area but personally I’d rather be north so it’s a shorter drive to Mille Lacs was my thinking.

I live in north metro and it saves a half hour to an hour or more compared to south metro off my drive time to Mille Lacs depending on the day or time. And Mille Lacs is a phenomenal fishery.

Also worth noting is there’s the light rail that will take you directly to the airport. Very nice to not have to pay for airport parking and/or not relying on having someone (you) drive your wife to the airport.

As with any major metropolitan area, the TC metro has it’s share of traffic congestion but still less so than some other major metro nightmares. The issues seem to be when there’s a snow event which so far this year has been common and does slow the commute process. Never ending road construction adds to the misery too.

This will be a major adjustment for you and your wife, and will likely take time to acclimate. However, there is a reason the TC metro is home to over 3 million citizens…there is a rewarding quality of life.

You wont be far from some great fishing in any direction you want to go, and you don’t have to go too far.

Oh, and BTW…there is a Gopher faithful here and a win over the Huskers is oh so sweet…

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My job requires me to drive all over the metro area. Traffic is pretty similar everywhere with some notable exceptions like 494 through Bloomington, the “Fish Lake interchange” in Maple Grove and 62 from Edina to the airport. From my experience the east west routes seem to be the worst and timing is everything. The earlier the better. It sounds like your wife has to do her own driving so public transportation seems out.

Don’t forget about your own job/commute. Also you didn’t mention kids. Some areas are better than others for schools. Just a few more things to think about.

Thank you everyone for the all the helpful information!

B-man wrote:

I’d look at the north metro or better yet…..north of the metro.

Just my humble biased opinion

It would blow having to drive through the entire metro to head up to Mille Lacs or farther for the day/week/weekend.

The Forest Lake and Hugo area are 30-35 minutes from the airport (with light traffic), and also that much closer to Mille Lacs and Lake Superior

X5 on this. Live north it’s awesome. The lakes are just a stones throw away. I drive to the cities every day for work and it’s not that bad

The days of the Gophers competing without Huskers are over. The gophers are my second favorite team but Scott Frost will have the Huskers winning the west consistently.

Maybe we can all agree that Michigan sucks.

Don’t discount good ol St Paul. From my house I can get to MSP airport in 10 minutes, downtown MPls and U of M hospitals in 20-25, St. Paul hospitals in 15-20. All without ever using a highway (except a couple miles on hwy 5 to airport). The only time I sit in gridlock is when I have to get from the suburbs to the city during rush hour and I’m instantly reminded why I can’t live in the suburbs. That’s just me.

Mille lacs is great but for me, I’d personally rather have an extra 30 mins on that a weekly drive north than deal with it every day on my commute. LOTS of walleye to catch within city limits here as well. I get off work at UMN at 430. I can get home to St. Paul, say hi to wife and grab my kid from home, and have the boat wet on pool 2 by 530.

But be warned. If you choose to live in the city you will be called names around here.

Matt Moen wrote:

The days of the Gophers competing without Huskers are over.

Ok….

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Drive extra 20 min each way, every work day, just to be an extra 30min closer to being up north makes zero sense to me. Do what makes sense for work, since work is what makes the dough for the toys and gas money to go fishing.

There is good to great walleye fishing 45 min any direction from downtown mpls. Fish off-hours and figure out weeds.

Metro offers alot more than just walleyes though, you’ll live a much happier life once that’s realized