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Lake Minnetonka Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

The Twin Cities' trophy maze: 14,000 acres of bays and channels where metro muskies, bragging-size bass and ice culture share the docks.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
75 / 75 F
Wind
S 16 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Lake Minnetonka is in transition: bait on the move and predators following. Today brings cloud cover, wind S around 16 mph, steady pressure near 1017 hPa and a high of 75. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:50 AM-11:50 AM and 10:20 PM-12:20 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

MuskellungeExcellent

This band covers the spring spawn, which in Wisconsin runs at 49-60Β°F; spawning muskies eat little and rarely chase lures, Wisconsin DNR says. After the spawn, and again as fall water cools, work large lures along weed edges and structure.

Smallmouth bassGood

Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

WalleyeGood

Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Yellow perchGood

Spring and fall: perch hold shallower and, by Michigan DNR's account, feed through the day, so shoreline weed edges, flats and the shallows near spawning areas are worth searching.

Tomorrow: Similar at 73 F with a rain chance. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Minnesota requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $25.00 for residents. What a Minnesota licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing smallmouth bass here? Check the size and bag limits with DNR before you keep anything. The season dates for Minnesota, read off the agency, are on the Minnesota seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp75 F
High / Low75 / 58 F
WindS 16-25 mph
Pressure1017.4 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain100% cloud, 25%
Sunrise / Sunset07:40 / 18:15
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Lake Minnetonka this week

The best day on Lake Minnetonka this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
9:50 AM-11:50 AM and 10:20 PM-12:20 AM
Minor period
4:13 AM-5:13 AM
Sun
07:40 to 18:15
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 16 mph
Rain chance
25%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Lake Minnetonka: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Muskellunge illustration

Muskellunge

Fished from late spring into late fall where seasons allow

Muskellunge are solitary, fish-eating ambush predators of the pike family, holding in weed beds and other cover in lakes and rivers of the Great Lakes, upper Mississippi and Ohio basins. This band covers the spring spawn, which in Wisconsin runs at 49-60Β°F; spawning muskies eat little and rarely chase lures, Wisconsin DNR says. After the spawn, and again as fall water cools, work large lures along weed edges and structure.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Yellow perch illustration

Yellow perch

Caught all year, including under the ice through winter

Yellow perch are schooling panfish of the Great Lakes and northern lakes, and Michigan DNR calls them the game fish most often caught in that state. Spring and fall: perch hold shallower and, by Michigan DNR's account, feed through the day, so shoreline weed edges, flats and the shallows near spawning areas are worth searching.

When to come: the Lake Minnetonka calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Smallmouth bass
Muskellunge
Walleye
Yellow perch
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Lake Minnetonka today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Muskellunge led the card at excellent. High of 76 F, wind to 7 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Smallmouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 74 F, wind to 7 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Smallmouth bass led the card at excellent. High of 69 F, wind to 11 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Minnesota requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Minnesota license. Muskie 54-inch minimum; bass and pike zone rules: check DNR metro regs.

Access

Grays Bay, Spring Park, North Arm, Cooks Bay public accesses; winter plowed roads vary by bay.

About this water

14,004 acres, Hennepin County, MN. The Twin Cities' many-bayed flagship.

Fishing Lake Minnetonka: the full guide

The metro giant

Minnetonka sprawls 14,000 acres of interconnected bays twenty minutes from Minneapolis: the Twin Cities' flagship fishery wearing a yacht-club reputation. Underneath: a muskie program with 50-inch credibility, largemouth densities that host major tournaments, and panfish-and-pike water that taught generations of metro anglers.

Bay-by-bay logic

The lake fishes as a federation: clearer lower-lake bays (Wayzata, Carsons) run weedline finesse and smallmouth rock; the upper lake's fertile bays (Halsted, Jennings) fish stained and shallow: frogs over slop, pike in the cabbage. Muskies patrol the main-lake points and bar edges everywhere: dusk trolling in June, big rubber over the bars come fall.

Bass factory credentials

Minnetonka's largemouth average embarrasses fancier waters: docks by the thousand, milfoil edges, and harvest habits that left the population thick. Skipping docks and punching milfoil produce all summer; the smallmouth on the lower-lake rock piles add the technical dessert. Metro pressure teaches the fish: fluorocarbon manners apply.

Four seasons on the bays

Ice caps the bays into a village network (crappie in the deep holes, pike on tip-ups over the flats): spring crappie stack the channels: summer runs the full program dawn-to-dusk around recreation traffic: fall clears the lake for the muskie-and-bass faithful. Public accesses ring the lake: Grays Bay, Spring Park, North Arm: the maze rewards a map and a plan.

Common questions

Does Lake Minnetonka really hold big muskies?

Fifties are caught most seasons: the metro's best trophy odds. June's dusk troll and October's big-rubber weeks over the bars are the windows.

How do I start on 14,000 unfamiliar acres?

Pick one bay per trip: weedlines in the upper lake, rock-and-dock in the lower. The lake fishes small once you treat each bay as its own water.

Is fishing good at Lake Minnetonka right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Lake Waconia10 miKinnickinnic River47 miSaint Croix River57 miLeech Lake58 miGreen Lake68 miLake Pepin76 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 44.9130, -93.5860 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.