Southern Minnesota Update

Hello everyone! I’ve been lurking on this forum for a while but finally made a profile. @nd year ice fishing on my own and primarily fish Rochester/Wabasha areas. Considering going to Albert Lea (Fountain Lake) or closer to Tetonka area to try and get on some Eyes. I love pan fishing but starting to get a little repetitive. Any suggestions for lakes that are decent first time options for Wallies within 60-890 miles of Rochester? BTW dropped down to Chester Woods on 12/30 in the morning. Fished there 5 times last year lots of big gills but never any crappie. Anyways last week i got lucky and dropped down right on a school of Crappies. Caught 8-9 before they moved off including a few 12-13 inchers which really surprised me. Thanks for any input and tight lines yall!

60-80 miles**

Thanks for the update Zac. I love ice fishing but haven’t ventured out in this area since moving here in 2017. I assumed the waters around Rochester would be pretty fished out, but from the sounds of it you’ve had some luck.

There’s a Facebook group for Southern Minnesota fishing with lot’s of reports on bigger game fish. Especially west in the area’s of Waseca, Faribault and Mankato.