ice fish for panfish to trophy fish
Ice Fishing For Panfish
The Grand Rapids, Minnesota area has over 1,400 lakes that provide great opportunities for ice fishing. You will catch panfish to trophy fish on these lakes. Grand Rapids, Minnesota offers a wide variety of lodging options, and fun places to eat & drink. Book your Ice Fishing Trip to Grand Rapids, Minnesota.
For the most part panfish have been the choice of most anglers and until the ice conditions improve for mobility, accesses close to shore for foot travel seem to be best. Bluegills and crappies have been biting on small baits tipped with wax worms or euro larvae in 12-20 feet especially in and around weed beds. With less oxygen available with deep snow amounts on area lakes, it becomes important to find locations that have scattered weeds. Panfish need oxygen and food and are very good at finding both measures of existence in weeds that hold both. These are areas that consistently produce catches of both crappies and bluegills.
Lite line can be key when fishing panfish especially in clear water. 2-4 pound test mono or fluoro carbon are essentially the best choices for sometimes finicky bluegills and crappies. Because of their food choices, smaller baits in sizes 1-64th to 1/16th sizes are preferred when fishing both species. They are feeding on very small micro organisms and larvae so small is best. Very lite rods are too a necessity to detect very lit bites and pay attention to the soft rod tip on a quality ice rod.
Some of the good area lakes to try are Big Bass in Cohasset, Rice Lake, Loon, Little Moose, and Little and Big Splithand lakes. All of the mentioned lakes have good populations crappies and bluegills. For a lake that has produced good to excellent opportunities for nice perch, give Big Jay Gould a shot. It’s one of the better perch lakes in the area.
Ice Fishing For Walleye
Walleye fishing has been good on area lakes and there has been some nice catches reported on several bodies of water. Ealy and late in the day seem to be the best times to try, but on overcast or cloudy days there seems to be a window of opportunity. Depth can vary right now depending on where you chose to fish. Big Winnie has been producing a mixed bag of walleyes and nice perch on shore line breaks and rock humps closer to shore. With the added amounts of heavy snow these are you best options until things firm up a bit.
Some lakes in the Grand Rapids area that offer good opportunities for ice fishing for walleyes: are Wabana, Pokegama, Big Splihand, Moose, and Trout Lake in Coleraine. Looking for a memorable ice fishing trip to Grand Rapids, Minnesota? Book an ice fishing guide trip with Lyle Unger (Grand Rapids Guide Service) or Jeff Johnson (Northern Drift Outfitters).
Women Like To Ice Fish Too!
Ice fishing is not just for the guys! Quiana Radaich enjoys to ice fish with her fiancé, Bryce Bushing, and they fish every chance they get. Ice fishing is one of the winter outdoor sports that doesn’t take a ton of gear to get started. Investing in warm pair of bibs and jacket, and gloves will help make the experience much better. There are a lot of companies that are making outdoor gear for women now. Then a good rod and reel combo, some tackle, either a hand drill or an electric ice auger, and a bucket and you can start ice fishing. If you are looking to invest a little bit more money, purchase a pop-up ice house and a little portable heater and you can fish all day. The pop-up ice houses are light or portable that you can pull yourself or attach to a four-wheeler or snowmobile easily. So, guys don’t leave the girls at home! Ice fishing is the perfect couple and/or family winter outdoor activity where great memories are made.
Places To Stay
While on your ice fishing trip to Grand Rapids, Minnesota, you are going to book your lodging prior to arrival. Being a hockey town our weekends book early. Mid-week will give you a lot more availability. If you are looking to come up on a weekend, and the in-town Hotels, Motels, and Vacation Rentals are booked, check out the Resort Cabins, and Lake Vacation Rentals. There are many Resorts that are open year round that are located on prime ice fishing lakes. Find places to stay HERE.
Eat & Drink Local
Grand Rapids, Minnesota has a wide variety of places to eat & drink. You will find several of the fast food options on the south and east end of town. Then there are the local favorites like Timberlake Lodge Restaurant, Sammy’s Pizza, Forest Lake Restaurant, Pickled Loon Saloon, Unwined Up North, Boulder Tap House, Fuji, El Potro, Cedar Creek Grille and Florio’s. Grand Rapids, Minnesota is home to two craft breweries as well: Klockow Brewing Co and Rapids Brewing Co. View all of the places to eat and drink in Grand Rapids, Minnesota HERE.