last year i got a 38,40 and 43 out of the croix. just pike and walleye fishing all with no leader and 10 lb test. with cranks leaders are not at all needed, plus they reduce strikes and the chances for walleye. about 5 years ago my buddie got a 49 out of the warm water discharge. there are alot of musky in the river but they are very scatered. great fish!

the walleye bite will be mostly at night, cranks are a good bet in the channel and on the big point. be patient the bite may start late into the night, AM hours. sunfish can be had on the edges of the reeds, look around and you’ll find some. pike are very small, not really worth fishing for.

The guy who did the undercover work on the story is a friend of mine and producer for ch.9 and i gave him the idea for the story. from personal experience and all the stories i heard on-line. i think he did a good job and hopefully fisherman harrasment will decline in the future.

I’m very sick of the other site, the censorship is out of control. Rick, the guy who runs it is clearly trying to make his living off the site and any little thing he doesen’t like he gets rid of. i have fished with him at mille lacs on one of the outings and the guy does not know much about fishing and it shows in his site. i have been a member of his site for 4 years but i’ve about had it!

live bait was key, they really didn;t want spoons for some reason, i was in 10 to 12 feet. minnow didn’t even have to be alive.

Was out on saturday on west side battled shelf ice and wind but hit perch well. kept 35 between me and my partner. creel worker said we had more fish than rest of lake combined. he said flats are dead, my advice is to go shallow!

Went to the show on Sunday, had to wait 40 minuetes to get tickets because they wer not selling them yet. it was really a mess some guys were really pissed. i hadn’t been to the show in over 5 years. was dissapointed in the number of booths selling tackle, and the lack of really good deals. seems there were more in the past. i guess they don’t make money that way. but had a good time and did get some good deals. I’ll wait on the darter till it is realy field tested this winter and then i’ll know for sure and the price will drop.

TGIF, bait saver adds oxygen to the water, it gives it a blue tint but does not have a scent certainely dosen’t seem to effect the minnow negatively. I’ve had crappie minnows in my basment for probably near 2 months and you couldn’t see 1/8 inch into the water but all the minnows were alive. so it’s very low maintiance that’s the plus, it’s also very cheap. i buy it at fleet farm early in the year, god knows how fast that place is ravaged of fishing supplies.

I buy one little can of some stuff called bait saver, it will keep crappie minnows alove for weeks and shinners for a good amount of time over a week. it only costs about 2 bucks, best 2 bucks you’ll spend on ice gear all year.

I think an east and west metro would be best because i know most people from the St.paul area don’t really care avout the Minneapolis area and I’m sure the same goes for western metro people not caring about the east. As far as walleye from shore, Phalen is your best bet by far in the east metro, it can be a true bonanza in spring but fish can be caught all year long, don’t be too surprised if you get a sauger, they have really started to show up alot the last 2 years.

Sounds like a great idea, i actually wrote a small article for walleyehunter.com for the east metro and had alot of people interested in it, but unfortunately i didn’t have enough time to keep up on the article, and they replaced it with one of those bait shop reports that say the same thing about the same lakes every year, and coincidentaly the lakes were the fish are hiting best are always near thier shop! a good forum on this site would be very good i’m sure with the knowledgable guys that are on here.

thanks alot for the info, last year i fished the ore dock on the Ashland side, got 3 fish the one time all trout and was skunked the next 2 and belive me it’s a long way from St.paul to get no fish! exactly were on the washburn side is good, any specifics on depth or location would be great!

Anybody who fishes mille Lacs right now and complains, is either a terrible fisherman or they have no ethics and those aren’t the kind of people you need on the lake anyway. Any resort that has decent advertising of the tremendous fishing in the lake right now should get plenty of business. The resorts who are still trying to get Iowans to come up here and fill up their trunks with fish are the ones having trouble and maybe that is not a bad thing.

I agree totally, the St.Croix river would be good along with green lake, but i think a general metro forum of east and west would be good. those are nice smallies, i’ve gotten a few off the rocks out there, i haven’t got many but there always over 2 pounds.