Waconia has been producing a lot of walleyes

Waconia has been producing a lot of walleyes, but not much for size. The bass are done spawning and all the shallows are ruined and stirred up by carp. Carp are everywhere shallow.

Went to Black Duck to fish Upper Red

Went to Black Duck to fish Upper Red for spring crappies. I also wanted to fish walleyes on Cass. I was not able to do either. The wind and rain was severe all weekend.

Fished in the metro for opener

Fished in the metro for opener and didn't have too bad of luck. We had seven walleyes on Saturday morning. Last night Nick Geller and I caught four more. Now tonight Brad Grams and I had some real dandies. We had two over 23" and a five others.

Brad and I fished a few different patterns with most of our fish coming on shallow rocks with crankbaits. We caught a few on a bobber and leech and a jig and minnow. We fished just outside the milfoil today, 13-15 ft of water and caught a few. At sunset we worked the shallow rocks with cranks. I will try and get some pics up ASAP. Nice healthy looking fish. Good Luck!

Got the itch to catch a few crappies

Got the itch to catch a few crappies, so I dumped the boat in Waconia and chased them around for about three hours. Had some pretty good luck, but not much for size. They are still in pretty shallow. I caught all of my fish in less than 6 feet of water. A bobber and flu-flu without bait are still producing a lot of fish.

The lake has been very busy with panfisherman for three weeks. Living here all my life I have never seen this many boats on Lake Waconia in the spring, ever. I am a little concerned being that most of the panfish are very vulnerable to harvest with the low water. They have no other spawning grounds except the bay, and it is full of boats. If you haven't heard, they have closed many of the shallow bays on other lakes this spring due to low water and fish vulnerability. People are taking pails full of fish home every day. I am not sure what the long term effects are going to be, but if you want to have fish for years to come, all of us have to protect the resource and let them go. I can only hope that this weekend's opener takes the focus off the panfish so they can try and recover. It will hopefully alleviate some of the pressure since most guys will be going after game fish.

When you see pictures from the 1950's, 60's ,and 70's with all those fish they used to catch, doesn't it make you sick? Are we are doing the same thing? We have to preserve our resource, not drown it.