stillwater area

anyone fished the lakes in the stillwater area? looking to meet up with a buddy and thats the region that makes the most sense based on our time limtitations…

he mentioned lily lake. i no nothing outside of what lakefinder says about it.

What do you want to fish for?

If you want to have a long walk and little fish Lily would be good. The fish really don’t seem to hold near the east side of the lake in the Winter.

If you want lots of action but not many keepers of pike and panfish Demotreville can be fast paced and a short walk.

I’ll second the request. I have a friend who lives near Mann Lake. He has never ice fished, but tells me this little lake has a lot of hardwater activity on it every year. We have picked a day in January to introduce him to ice fishing on this body of water….any insight would be appreciated!

i would skip lily for a couple more years, it froze out about 3 years ago and they are still pretty small fish.
i think you would have better luck out on big carnelian. about 5 miles north of stillwater. carnelian link

What about the Croix? Anyone been out on it yet?

I have done well, if you want to call it that on rocky bottoms 7-9 FOW on small perch with a couple nice ones mixed in. Today I went out and explored new areas and found some thin ice…….but I stayed dry and no fish to speak of.

As far as Lilly there are few nice crappies and I have never seen a nice gill. Lilly is a great place to bring a kid in the summer and catch a bunch of small sunnies. I have a hard time believing it froze out though…it gets pretty darn deep.

mnfish — I will get back to your pm, I am not ignoring you I promise.

As far as the Croix, apparently crappies are being caught out by shanty town and saugers and eyes away from the crowds from 12-20ft….I was gonna head out there Monday but that’s quite the walk through all this snow

WADE74..no problem. I’ve been quite busy with all the snow and my kids. And yes..the snow is going to be a problem and getting out.

thanks for the help guys. i had to go before the replies came in and ended up going to lily. and from what i saw, the reports were correct.

nothing but dinks and just to see them, we were in the middle of the lake. no small feat hiking out there with all that snow yesterday… makes me wish i had a sled or wheeler!

we fished on the south end past the ice rink in about 25-28fow. waxies and minnow heads were definately the key if anyone wants to try lily this year. be ready to hike away from the parking lot/fishing pier.

thanks again for the hints. this is why i love visiting this site. sounds like stillwater is my best bet for a middle ground between me and my buddy, so ill definately be trying the lakes mentioned above.

There are large Crappies but I would never eat fish out of there. There are lots of water quality problems.

As for the Crappies last year I broke one off that I could not get up my hole….4 inch to make a hand auger easier. I saw it and know it was nice and would have let it go anyways. I know they are there because I fly fish them in the summer to pass some nights and do well on flies.

Aaron