Schmitt: Where to Find Fish on Central Minnesota Lakes
The colder weather this week is helping area lakes firm up with more ice. Glen Schmitt from Outdoor News joined me on WJON. He has some suggestions on how and where to catch fish on Central Minnesota lakes in December. Glen suggests fishing weed edges locally because we don't have big expansive lakes like they have in other portions of the state. He tends to like finding his own locations to fish and not set up shop among a cluster of fish houses. Schmitt indicates he may fish on the perimeter of these fish house clusters but not among them.
When it comes to larger lakes in northern Minnesota Schmitt says anglers can be a bit more limited because you may not have access to all locations. He suggests shoreline breaks and points. He says depths where anglers can fish can vary from 10-20 feet depending on ice thickness.
Schmitt says northern Minnesota lakes are seeing ice depths in the 6 to 12 inches. He indicates ATVs and side by sides are starting to be used on these lakes. Schmitt says resorts do their due diligence checking ice depths and helping anglers know where the safest spots to go on each lake. Schmitt says he still suggests checking ice depths yourself just to be sure.
The deer hunting season is winding down with muzzleloader season wrapping up Sunday and the archery season finishing up at the end of the month. Schmitt says as of Tuesday the DNR is reporting 6,100 deer shot during the muzzleloader season which is up 15% from last year at this time. He expects this to be a busy weekend for muzzleloader deer hunting. Total deer harvest this year is at about 163,700 which is down about 7% from last year at this point.
If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Glen Schmitt it is available below.