Sadly, I will not be 'up north' again until May. Before I winterize my boat, I'm thinking of hitting Minnetonka, Waconia or Independence looking for Musky. Anyone care to help a noob with some spots or tips? Thanks in advance for any help!

A lot of metro lakes have musky. Minnetonka is huge lake vs one of the city lakes that has them. Depends what you are looking for. Tonka is good, but big water and dont go on the weekend.

I would be trolling a Shadzilla, of course!

Thx fuys

email me ATB , i fish waconia alot , i'll share some spots for muskies , there's more than a hand full of 50"+ in waconia.

quote mastertangler: "I would be trolling a Shadzilla, of course!"

hard to troll tonka or waconia , with all the milfoil , best presentation for these lakes trolling can be a 1oz spinnerbait tipped with a live sucker minnow.

quote shock: "

quote mastertangler: "I would be trolling a Shadzilla, of course!"

hard to troll tonka or waconia , with all the milfoil , best presentation for these lakes trolling can be a 1oz spinnerbait tipped with a live sucker minnow."

Maybe trolling is not so good then? Pick a good windy day and drift and cast. Yes I REALLY like tossing spinnerbaits tipped with chubs or suckers. They make lures designed specifically for this application which are minus the skirt. I first learned about this straight out of In-Fisherman many years ago. Excellent presentation amongst the tops of weeds. I liked putting small round piece of plastic on the hook above the minnow as a "keeper" of sorts so I don't cast my minnow off.

drifting and casting is a great way to cover area on a lake like lake Waconia , we do it often , and i've found if you do have 2+ days of a steady wind in the same direction you can troll cranks in the direction with the wind on milfoil lakes , it blows all the loose chopped up stuff into 1 area much less snags from drifting weeds.

Trolling can be a pain with all the floating milfoil, but it is also effective. This time of year the floaters are less of a problem.

One trick is to use a long (e.g. 4') leader (I like 130# fluorocarbon) with a grappling hook attached via split ring to the swivel at the front of the leader. The grappling hook is a big treble with the points and barbs cut off. It will grab chunks of weeds and keep them from fouling your lure. You still need to clean it often, but it helps.

I got a 50" on Tonka several years back trolling in early October. Got two others that day as well. That was pre-zebra mussels.

Not the west metro, but I just caught a small (~24") musky on Nokomis with a green stick bait, right by the bridge.

It didn't look healthy at all, it looked hammer-handle thin for this time of the year...but a big one was following it when I brought it in, maybe 40", and it looked very healthy. Followed it right to shore, I thought it was going to attack the small one but it didn't--and I'm glad because was using only 6-lb test.

I didn't know there were decent-sized ones in Nokomis.