Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Central Minnesota?

I've never fished in Minnesota. I'm sure there is good fishing, the right lake, at the right time.

Jag,
They mainly fished the big lakes on this trip. They caught a lot of nice smallmouth and a few walleye on Mille Lacs. Biggest smallmouth was 4lbs.3 ounces. Several between three and four pounds.
When I went, my BIL and I fished several smaller lakes. They all had pulloffs for the most part and were canoe/kayak accessible. The owner of the resort we stayed at had a little aluminum jon boat that he let us use. We would throw it in the bed of the truck and we got into some really good fishing doing that.
As for gun laws I do not know. It has been several years since I went with them.

Thanks for that info, bro.

Man, thats a trip I'd like to make. 3-4 lb smallies sound great.

They've shut down walleye on Mille Lacs, right?

5sdad,
Yes, I believe so.My BIL said that starting in July, when fishing Mille Lacs, you couldn’t even use a bait that catches walleye even if targeting another species.
Something about 70 thousand pounds of walleye being taken out of the lake last year.
They could catch walleye there in June. They just couldn’t keep them.

I might add that on the second day at Mille Lacs my BIL had hired a guide for a day and he said that was money well spent. He said they would not have caught the numbers of fish that they did the following two days had they not done so.
Primary lure used was Ned rigs.

Grew up in Aurora, my wife is from Hibbing, now living in the liberal schit hole Duluth

Wanna bet.

For a month I think. You can still catch smallmouth and there is a shot at a real trophy fish.

There is a realistic chance at a 22” smallie.

Mille Lacs also has some fantastic musky fishing and some dandy northerns if you have the know how and put in the time. Panfish have been spotty for me but some pretty decent sized fish have been caught. I used to fish the lake with a friend who had a small boat and 10 hp motor. She wouldn't go very far into the lake but there was no need to as fishing for something was available near shore.

The walleyes have been the draw for so long that the other fish get overlooked.

As for lake access, many lakes have public landings though they vary greatly in quality and parking. I did most of my fishing from a 14' rowboat with 6 hp motor and could find more lakes to fish than I could in a lifetime. A canoe or kayak can open up even more places to fish. I even fished some of the bigger lakes though I did not venture far from the launch site. There is some very good fishing near the ramps that often get overlooked.

As for honoring Texas carry permits, the state of Minnesota does not do so now. That changed a few years ago as Texas will allow a Cary permit to be issued to someone under 21 years of age in select circumstances while Minnesota will not.

I lived in MN for 6 years, have vacationed there several times since. Have been to BWCA and voyagers multiple times (combined trips, maybe 10?)

MN has turned into a liberal hell hole. All my friends there are leaving. I don't know if I'll be back.

Caught some monster smallies last time I was in voyagers, but too many other great places.

All lakes are open to public fishing except a select few inside the reservations like Lower Red Lake. Upper Red is open to the white man but only about 25% of it.

The norther portion of the Arrowhead was Taken over by the Feds back in the 60s and turned it into a motor free zone.
F*cked up the best Walleye and Lake Trout waters north of the Mason Dixon line. It’s called the BWCA , Boundry Waters Canoe Area

The DNR maintains boat landings on thousands of lakes from concrete with docks, to remote carry down. Very few lakes are inaccessible with a small boat.

The DNR web site list most all lakes, species, size, water clarity, stocking reports, test netting reports and more.

https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakes/index.html

Firearms are welcome, just don’t have a loaded one in the vehicle without a permit to carry.

Many lakes here in the Arrowhead have a slot limit for walleyes and other species like Muskies.

The lake I have my RV parked on has a slot, all Walleyes under 13 and over 17inches must be returned, cept you can keep (1) over 26 inches.

Its been tough to get keepers in the slot, most are well over 20, but we manage to keep a few.

There are, outside the 5-county Metro area, yeah...

The big farms in that part of MN are beautiful.. Lush crops, gently rolling lands and quite peaceful.. The only things I really dislike about MN is the above-mentioned 5-county Metro area, the Queens, and that it lies between me and South Dakota...

There are not many lakes that aren't open to public fishing. You'll have good luck with the flat bottom 17 footer. You'll have no problem catching bluegills at all. No problem with bass, though they won't be TX sized bass most of the time. Small mouth you'll find a lot more the further north you go. Central MN and up you'll be into the smallies and largemouth. Plenty of northern pike of all sizes as well.

Don't forget the excellent Sturgeon fishing on the Rainy River.

Do you live near there, Walt? I live about 15 minutes west of the grumpy minnow, and fish rush quite a bit.