Snelling Lake and Nokomis 2-17

I stopped down at Snelling lake in Ft Snelling state park with audemp yesterday. Wow how a fishery can change. Past years it was non stop flag action near the aireation system, and some good sunfish could be caught in the middle of the lake. That was far from reality yesterday. We drilled several holes, moved the tip ups around and didnt manage 1 flag. Baby sunfish swarmed the bait in every hole regardless of where you drilled. Either something happened to the pike, or they are all stacked up in the open water from te aireation system. One very odd thing we did notice, the sunfish were all warm to the touch?? The body temp of the fish was easily over 40 degrees?

We left Snelling and moved over to Nokomis to see what was happening at prime time. I drilled a series of holes over a favorite structure of mine and we commenced jigging for a couple hours. We got quite a few hits all together, but audemp managed to land the only cigar of the evening, and lost another good eater size fish. We both got several strikes, but couldnt stick hooks in the fish. We were using big baits.. 1/4 oz jigging spoons with the head of a big shiner(all we had for minnows).

Nothing to write home about, but it was fishing and nice to be outside in non-arctic weather for a change!

Has anyone heard of any fish kills this past summer in Snelling lake. The high temps and low waters this past summer probably did not help the pike and sunfish out too much.

I did have fun though.. and it was cool seeing all the deer down there.

Hey Dave: BIGGER JIGS-you know, the 5/8th oz 1986 glow in the dark musky style…. All kidding aside I need to get to Nokomis soon!!

Dave,
With the MN and Miss rivers so low, what kinds of depths were you marking in the lake.
Could you tell the from past trips if the lake is way down?

The deepest we marked was about 5 ft. I believe Dave said that is about as deep as it gets.

I hope we were just having a bad day and that the bigger fish did not die out this past summer. I hope someone can prove us wrong…

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Dave,
With the MN and Miss rivers so low, what kinds of depths were you marking in the lake.
Could you tell the from past trips if the lake is way down?

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I dont think the water level is down at all? There is some type of inlet(culvert) tht always pours water into the lake near the aireation system… at a pretty good rate I should add. The larger lake, and the smaller lake(by turn in the road) are connected by a culvert, and there is a water level control *thingy* on the smaller lake that will drain water into the rver via an elevated culvert on one of the inlets near pike island.

With all that said, it seems the water has remained stationary, and is deeper than it has been in the past at certain times. I can recall areas where were were fishing, having tip-ups in as little as 1.5′ of water below the ice, the least I found the last trip was 3′.

The river and inlets around Pike Island are low in an insane way, and some area have been for a long time with the excess vegitation and brush growth

thanks for the update. I was tueddling around in my boat through there last spring up through June.
Then the rivers dropped.

Theres some interesting spots back in those channels. It can be carefulyl navigated in high water.. low water.. I wouldnt even want to try a river pro.