Hi friends,

I will be heading to Pine Lake through McFarland on Thursday and was wondering what I might be fishing for? I know it is before walleye opener so maybe northern? Or perch? Anything I might be able to eat? Tips on where I should fish on the east side of the lake by the campsites? What kind of lures/presentations? Still new to fishing but curious to learn anything I can. Thanks!!

Regulations

You might want to read up on the fishing regulations before you go.

Hi Savage Voyageur, I have read the regs and am good to go there. Otherwise I would be targeting walleyes/bass/etc. Just curious what I should be looking for this time of year since it is before opener. Thanks

Well the reason I posted this was because you stated in your original post that you want to fish this weekend May 8th for Northern. The season does not open for Northern until one more week May 15th. And you can’t target a species during a closed season. I could be wrong because there are a million rules about 10,000 lakes in the regulation book. If I’m wrong I apologize and please correct me, but this is the way I understand the rules. Pine lake is inland waters and it says open season for Northern Pike is May15th. So Pike, Musky, Walleye, Large mouth Bass, Small mouth Bass, Lake Trout, Stream Trout are out. The only thing you can fish for is crappies, sunfish, perch, rock bass, white bass, catfish, whitefish. Some of the legal fish I’m not even sure are in Pine lake. I’ve fished Pine about 12 days during two trips. I have never caught one of the legal fish I listed. My advice is to leave the fishing rods at home until opener.

grumple4: "Hi friends,

I will be heading to Pine Lake through McFarland on Thursday and was wondering what I might be fishing for? I know it is before walleye opener so maybe northern? Or perch? Anything I might be able to eat? Tips on where I should fish on the east side of the lake by the campsites? What kind of lures/presentations? Still new to fishing but curious to learn anything I can. Thanks!!"

Perch would probably be your best bet and McFarland or John are better than Pine for that, Northerns aren’t open this weekend .

Excellent to know. Thank you all!