Leaving Medicine Lake today I was behind the Sheriffs fresh out the water and they didn’t pull there boat plug they want to sit and preach about not spreading zebra muscles and so on but they don’t follow the laws. If it was one of us fishermen or boaters we would be getting tickets. They should be held to the same standard and all of us. I can’t stand double standards.

I’ve been targeting them during the heatwave. Much nicer to sit on a shady river bank than cook in a boat.

Yesterday’s catch was a ~7lb fatty out of the Crow River North Fork in Meeker County, which is crawling with nice channel cats.

More than one way to skin a cat as they say. After bleeding it out, I make a shallow cut around the fish behind the head and use needle nose pliers to peel off the skin. I then slice the fillets off starting from the tail, and fillet out the ribs as usual.

I brined and smoked one of the fillets, fried the other half in cornmeal coated chunks. When smoking a skinless fillet (as opposed to a whole fish, as I do with pike and carp) I use a soaked cedar plank to keep it from drying out during the 2.5 hour smoking process. I always use a temperature probe to stop cooking at 145.

Any good shore fishing spots in southwestern Minnesota? I’m struggling to find anything decent

Hello everyone,

I am relocating to the twin cities metro area in the first week of August and have been fishing my whole life. I will be bank fishing when I first get there but will likely pick up a kayak once I am settled. I am not asking for anyone's honey holes or anything like that. Just looking for people to fish with in the area since I'll be mostly unfamiliar with the surrounding waters. I've done some fishing in the St Croix river with success but not so much inland lakes in Minnesota. Hit me up if you just want to talk fishing or if you'd be interested in meeting up sometime.

So, a couple of weeks ago I asked about bank fishing for walleye in Northern Minnesota in early August, and the comments advised that it would be extremely tough to catch much.

I have now rented a boat on Leech Lake for 3 days. The boat is equipped with electronics. I’ll be based out of the Walker area.

Any advice on catching walleye, perch, and possibly musky would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I’m not asking for your spots, just advice.

Thanks in advance!

Anyone got any decent places to try for white bass? preferably not on the Mississippi River due to water quality and I kinda wanna try one for table fair but I guess it would be fine to fish the Mississippi if necessary, but anyways if theres like a specific marina or backwater lake I could try that would also be ideal as I suck at main river fishing lures lol

I'm working on a project called "Fishing in America." I'm looking for stories to illustrate. Tales with humor, triumph, philosophy, beauty - whatever fishing in America means to you. Selected submissions get a print of their illustration and a copy of the book in a couple years when I get it published. Visit FishingInAmerica.com to see what it's all about. Thanks!

I'm from northern MN and I'll soon be passing through the Cities. What are your favorite shops/stores for good deals on fishing gear?

I'm retired and want to make the trip to MN to smallie fish in some rivers and lakes.

What would be the best month of the year to head north?

I've been fishing for over 50 years...

Thanks

I have a kayak I just maybe don’t know how to fish off it right? I don’t know… my target is walleye , bass and panfish.

my last few fishing times I got like one inch sunnies and nothing else and I was using worms and it was 9 pm at night so I don’t know what went wrong there.

but does anyone know somewhere I can go so I can catch at least a little more so it won’t be a waste of gas?

I love fishing and I have solid enough gear I just want to catch something bigger than 1 inch sunnies because normally at my grandparents lake I can cant 18+ inch bass and some massive panfish.

any advice or location rec would be amazing! thank you guys!

Does anyone know where I could buy unpainted crank baits in or by the metro? Was hoping to paint some custom ones.

I’m planning a trip to the St Croix and I’m trying to find some deep holes up by the St Croix national forest but can’t seem to find any reliable depth maps for it. Anyone know where I could find one?

Hey yall! So I’ve definitely tried for a few months and have gone out tons (some sessions 5hrs plus) and i get skunked most of the times, ive gone out on different times of days, early morning late evenings, have watching tons of youtube videos about diffrent rigs, set ups, lures, water maps weather, have spend at least 1000 on gear from trying all this stuff and still not really caught anything, i ride a motorcycle so dont want to get a boat or anything but from the videos i see shore fishing shouldnt be that much of a limiting factor. That being said id love to learn from someone? Or better yet like hey, here is all the gear i have what can i do with it. Im in the Minneapolis area but im down to drive 30ish minutes and would love to hit different lakes/ponds, lunch on me + you’re price, thanks!

We are headed down to Maplewood next week and are camping in the main loop campground.

Looking for which lakes we should try over the 2-3 days we are there, we have a 12' Jon Boat, so larger lakes on windy days would be a no go. We know July isn't prime season, but hey its summer and its vacation time.

We are primarily looking for anything that is biting. We normally fish Pike, Walleye, Perch back home, but are more interested in bass if there are any decent options nearby. Again, we will smash pike all day if they are biting vs getting skunked trying for small mouth.

I would say anything within a 30-45 minute drive is easy and has a boat launch/place to back in a small Jon boat. We primarily catch and release, with the odd time keeping only a walleye for supper.

We have park permits, fishing licenses, and all that jazz ready to, just need some advice on which lakes would be the best to target for action, not worried about getting master anglers.

Any other tips for the area are appreciated. One member put me on the trail of the Trolls, so we plan on hunting those down as we tour through the US on this trip.

Thanks!

Decided to skip the boat under the hot sun on the lake and instead found a shady river bank that did not disappoint.

Hi all - I'm new to the area. What are fly fishing opportunities near Chisago City area? Including the St Croix?
Thank you!

I absolutely love fishing started fishing with my girlfriend afew months ago and have been hooked ever since but I suck and I am looking for any help I get skunked every single time I go out almost and I've tried many different lures techniques and many different lakes any spots or tips or anything would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, hope you all are beating the heat. I am soliciting some advice about bass fishing in the Twin Cities Metro. I just started bass fishing after mostly fishing for carp and catfish and have been having limited success (1 largemouth off the shore of Lake Demontreville on a wacky rig)

I would love to learn more about

Weather Patterns: I understand that the bite is tougher when it is real hot, real sunny, and in the immediate aftermath of a thunderstorm. I understand that the bite is better when it is cloudy, during dusk and dawn, and when a storm front is coming in. I would love any advice about using weather to my advantage and maybe even a little scheduling advice for this weekend.

Rigs: I usually fish a wacky rig because it's pretty simple. I own some senkos, robo worms, some craw trailers and swimbaits, a spinner bait, a flipping jig, a frog, an old buzz bait, and a floating minnow. I have some basic basic weights, hooks, and round jig heads. I would love any advice, but I would especially like to learn more about crankbaits, jerkbaits, and the world of hard plastic lures because all I do is lose them in cover and not catch fish. I would also love to know if it is worth it to buy a swimming jig or if i can just swim my flipping jig. I also want to work on techniques like jigging, dragging, hopping ect. I always feel like I am going too fast or too slow, too hard or too soft

Locations: I live in northeast and usually try to fish places like Mississippi under the lowry bridge, the Plymouth bridge, boom island park. I also venture out to metro lakes when I can. I want to get out to flats on the river by the U, lake vadnais, the Minnesota river by black dog dam and picnic island, places like that. I own a canoe with a trolling motor but I am equally interested in shore fishing. I would love any advice about working those spots or places I should try. Where it is legal, I really want to try some two line fishing and throw bait out for cats or carp and then do some bass or pike fishing to keep busy.

Thank you for any advice you can give me! If you want to know about carp fishing, I am happy to return the favor

I had a huge pike come up and snatch my texas rig the other day while I was fishing by some lilypads for bass. Almost landed the sucker, but his teeth cut my mono line right as I went to net him. I don't really know how to setup a texas rig on a steel leader, so I've taken to using a 4-6 foot heavy fluro leader. Hoping it helps, if that happens again.

Any suggestions?