Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota · Freshwater
The land of 10,000 lakes: walleye, muskie, pike, bass and panfish.
Ice-belt region — winter guide
Today's plan for Minneapolis, MN
The plan engine builds today's bite windows, target species, rigs and baits for this region from solunar cycles, the season, live weather and water temperature.
Get today's planTarget species
Main targets
Smallmouth Bass
Micropterus dolomieu
Pound for pound the hardest-fighting freshwater fish in the Northwest. Smallmouth live on rock and eat crawfish imitations year-round.
Walleye
Sander vitreus
Light-shy predators that feed hardest at dawn, dusk and after dark. Walleye are a jig fisherman's game: bottom contact is everything.
Brown Trout
Salmo trutta
A wary, largely nocturnal trout introduced from Europe, now established in Great Lakes tributaries and scattered western waters. Browns eat streamers, spinners and dry flies, with the biggest fish feeding after dark.
Lake Trout
Salvelinus namaycush
A big, long-lived char built for cold, deep lakes. Lakers cruise rocky humps hunting kokanee, whitefish and ciscoes, shallow in spring and fall and 60-120 ft down in summer.
Northern Pike
Esox lucius
A toothy ambush predator of northern weed beds, famous for explosive strikes and slime. Pike sit motionless in cover and lunge at spoons, spinnerbaits and large flies passing within range.
Black Crappie
Pomoxis nigromaculatus
A speckled, paper-mouthed panfish that suspends over brush and timber in clear lakes and sloughs. Crappie bite small jigs and minnows delicately — the strike is often just a slight heaviness.
Bluegill
Lepomis macrochirus
The classic beginner's panfish: abundant, willing and surprisingly strong on light tackle. Bluegill nest in colonies on shallow flats in spring and guard the beds aggressively.
Channel Catfish
Ictalurus punctatus
The most widespread catfish in North America, at home in rivers, lakes and reservoirs. Channel cats find bait by scent and taste, bite readily after dark, and are the backbone of pay-lake and river catfishing.
Common Carp
Cyprinus carpio
Widespread, wary and powerful, carp cruise shallow flats rooting up the bottom and are a growing target for sight fishing and European-style bait tactics. A hooked carp makes long, stubborn runs.
White Crappie
Pomoxis annularis
The crappie of warm, fertile reservoirs — a schooling, minnow-eating panfish that swarms brush piles each spring from Texas to the Midwest.
White Bass
Morone chrysops
The 'sand bass' of spring river runs — a silvery, schooling striped cousin that boils under the gulls in summer and fills stringers from Texas to the Great Lakes.
Freshwater Drum
Aplodinotus grunniens
North America's croaker gone inland — the freshwater drum 'sheepshead' drums over spring shoals, crushes zebra mussels by the thousand, and fights far above its reputation from Erie to Winnipeg.
Commonly caught here
Where the fish hold
The spot types the plan engine works with in this region — drawn from the habitats of its main target species.
Tides & weather
Tide coverage and live conditions for every region are collected on the tides & weather board.
Open tides & weatherFishing rules, in plain language
We explain the rules that cover this region in plain language and link the official sources — what licence you need, how the rules are organized and the local quirks anglers get wrong. We never copy limit tables: always confirm the current rules with the official source before you go.
Tournaments & events in this region
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