Fishing Report

Good afternoon from the Quiet Lakes, I apologize for the later report. We have company in town and it slipped my mind to get you the report this morning. A slight cool down this weekend and then temps warm up and look to stay there for a while. I am seeing pretty decent chances of rain early this week and then again next weekend. We still need as much rain as we can get to help keep the lakes in decent shape for the fishing opener. It sounds like Moose Lake and the Chip are really the two main concerns at this point, all of the other lakes in the area are at good water levels.

A few anglers have been in the bait shop and doing okay finding fish. It sounds like the crappie were up shallow on the lake they were fishing and they found perch slightly deeper. They also reported to see some weeds growing as well. The crappie and perch were all caught on nightcrawlers (which is somewhat odd for this time of year) which tells me fish are active and hungry. A simple little spinner blade jig under a slip bobber is how they were catching fish.

Only two weeks left to get the boats ready and the chores done before we get to the fishing opener! Turkey seasons are also underway and while I have seen a lot around I have not heard of any successful hunts as of yet. I will be trying to fill my tag starting May 1st. Good luck to all who have tags for this year!!

That is about all I have for this week, still not many anglers out quite yet but that should change with the warmer weather we have coming this week. Have a great weekend and we will talk soon!

Greg

Good morning from the Quiet Lakes, for the most part we have stayed dry and this weekend looks to be no exception! In fact, today and tomorrow are both showing mid to upper 60s with at most a 6% chance of rain (which could mean we will see precipitation for sure, if anyone has listened to weather forecasts long enough😆). It does appear we will get a decent amount of rain Tuesday and Wednesday and then a little bit of a cold snap with high temps in the 40s for the rest of the week. A few overnight temps dip below freezing during the week, but shouldn’t have any impact on the lakes at all.

Some good news for anglers is that the DNR guys are installing piers at all of the public launches in the area, I know for sure LLL and Clear Lake (Spider Chain) have been done but can’t speak for any of the others. I know water levels are going to be a concern for many anglers and while most lakes are a little low, most are fishable without issue. The Chippewa Flowage is still way down although I have read posts that Xcel energy has cut off flow as much as possible and people are optimistic it will be at full pool by opener in a few weeks.

I still haven’t much intel on fishing as there still has not been many anglers out, but that should change with the weather getting nicer. My guess would be crappie are starting to push up into shallower water and getting ready for spawn. Look for green new vegetation and fish deep edges of those beds. Bluegill and Perch should also be in close proximity to those spots as well.

DO NOT FORGET that last year’s licenses are now expired! If you are heading up or heading out to fish be sure to get a ’24 fishing license, nothing worse than starting the year off on the DNRs bad side! You can order them online or stop in at Happy Hooker Bait & Tackle and purchase them there!

That is all I got this morning, have a great weekend and we will talk soon!

Greg