punch

Lake George has a lot of small pike, but they are active! I've hooked some decent LMB on Geroge as well. They seem to love crankbaits on that lake. I've fished slow with plastics on George and had terrible luck, but then I tie on some cranks and cover lots of water and start hammering them. This summer I'm going to hit Coon more, it's a lake I'm not far from but I don't feel totally comfortable fishing yet. On my 2015 to-do list. I have a question for the north metro area fishermen though, where do you guys like to fish for walleye? I've been on the lookout for a decent north metro area walleye lake but I havn't really been able to find a good one. We got tons of bass/pike action, but where are the walleye hotspots? I know Clear lake over by Chicago has a good walleye bite.. but where else?

I can also vouch for the Bass bite in Green, Chicago and Clear Lake. That whole area has some pretty good bass fishing. I havn't been on Forest in a few years though.

I think 5lbs is a really safe ballpark. Nice fish!

I really need to add top water to my skill set. I'm going to hit that hard this year. I just haven't dabbled in it much. I also need to improve my walleye fishing. This is the year i'm going to get more comfortable with lindy rigs.

What lakes do you guys hit? I hit Lake George and Crooked Lake mainly. I'll pop over to Coon Lake once and a while. My dad lives in Forest lake so we hit Clear, Chisago, and Forest once and a while. I hit Crooked Lake in Coon Rapids a LOT. Like a few times a week. It's a few minutes from my house and the LMB bite there is.. well.. there's a reason I go there every few days. (not on the ice, open water on my old crestliner)

Hey, long time lurker.. first post. I fish a lot in the northern suburbs. I had a good summer fishing some of the north metro lakes on my little vintage crestliner, I even found what i'd consider one of the best metro largemouth lakes around.. crushed on it this year. Anyone else in the coon rapids/andover/ham lake area?