French Lake

[site admin]

Looks like an interesting lake I found, located in the twin cites area.
Based on the map, where would you fish in the spring for bass? Summer for bass?
Where would you spend time casting?

[jwt]

Ice out: 42' hole, 48' hole, 43' hole, 44' hole, 47' hole.
Spring: Outside edge of weed lines working toward the inside edge in areas adjacent to the holes.
Summer: Along weed lines adjacent to holes. Lake has been heavily stocked with musky(5509) since 2006

Water clarity is 1', weed growth 2'-4'.

[Jerry Borst]

Nice job with the new look Jim (Shell)
This is why first hand knowledge is best. Big Jim obviously did his research and I also spent a few minutes looking up a few things but I saw nothing about muskies in this "French Lake". It may just change the way I feel about it

What I found was:
French Lake in Wright County is 346 acres with a max depth of 50', according to the MN dnr it has water clarity of 4-5' depending of course on the time of the year, in the spring it's probably much clearer than in late July-August. It has received 4 years of stocking in the last 10 of walleyes. According to the MN 2013 dnr netting survey the bass and walleye population and their average size is decent. The survey does not show a good pike population but as we know these kind of surveys can vary from year to year and should be checked out by fishing it. Imo there is a dnr survey and a Spoonpluggers survey ha ha.

If we found ourselves on a lake such as this in the spring or early summer then doing what bass guys do would be the right thing to do. First an out side weedline would need to be determined, if the map depths are correct then it appears that throughout most of this lake it has a fairly steep breakline right at the weedline which would narrow our search considerably. I'd look for areas with a more gradual slope during stable whether and work the transition areas closer to the steep and deep.

However, the lake also has walleyes and might be worth our time as well. The lake has a nice large hump on the north end near the deepest water in the lake with what could be a good looking finger taking you out towards that deep water. This area needs to be looked at first, it probably has ice shannys all over it as we speak. If hard and clean (all the way) it could be a perfect migration route especially in the fall, good spot! During the summer there are other flatter areas in the lake that also would need to be checked and could be done easily with a lake of this small size.

While researching "French Lake" I also found a couple other French lakes. One that looks interesting as well is just south of the twin city's in Rice county. This French lake is interesting to me because 1st it's stocked with muskies and has been for some time. It's a bit larger at 875 acres with a max depth of 56' and water clarity of only 1'. The down side on this lake at first glance would be the amount of docks or homes, could make a guy think he's back on the Fox chain...

http://www.lake-link.com/Minnesota-Lake ... w=Lake_Map

[jwt]

Jerry you're correct. The French Lake DNR survey that popped up when I did the search is in Rice County.

[Jerry Borst]

So Jim I'm curious what you think about this lake and why you picked it, do you have plans on fishing it?

[site admin]

Hi Jerry!
Nevr saw this lake before, just browsing the Navionics web app and saw it. I picked it because it looked like a great structure lake. From the research you did (water color, stockings) it sounds like a great lake! If and when I'm ever in the area, I will stop by and fish it!

[joseph radunz]

Since its been so slow on here lately ill add the little bit i know about this this lake. I have fished this lake a grand total of 1 time in my life. It was for about 45 min. Once on my way home from another lake. Water color was about 6" with a weedline to about 3' and only in a few places. Nothing hard in the way of bottom content. I have heard of some serious bass coming out of here but what the future holds remains to be unseen. Looked real nice but we shall see. Definitely no muskies in this "french lake" but one can hope. The water around here is all hard right now but im waiting for seamonster to call me about hitting up the river for smallies soon. Good luck to all!

[Fran Myers]

I have fished this lake. The water color is VERY good whenever I have been there an 800 will disappear as soon as it hits the water. There are in fact area's of very soft and very hard. John and I went there last year when he was here.

It does have muskies in it but either the population is small or they are pounded very hard. The lake is pounded for the small Walleye's in it. French Lake is in a group of lakes that all have GREAT water color. One across the street is sand past 30' and 0 to 2' weedlines. I just haven't had the chance to invest the time into them.

[spoonplugger1946]

I live in Rice county Minnesota and we have a french lake also that contains Muskies and we have many lakes in the county. I have fished all the area lakes for 40 plus years. Most of the lakes in this area of Southern mn have good water color and decent fishing, Also most have decent depths and some good structure. Ron Roehrick.