CLEARWATER LAKE
Located west of the Twin Cities metro area, Clearwater Lake is a very popular summer destination for bass anglers, but it doesn't receive a ton of pressure in the winter. It's a great lake for catching crappies, sunfish, walleyes and pike.

A recent creel survey conducted by the DNR during the ice-fishing season showed that anglers on Clearwater do pretty good compared with other lakes in the state. The average sunfish was 6.9 inches long, and the average crappie 10 inches long. Pike anglers were catching fish in the 3- to 4-pound range, while walleyes were on the smaller side in the 13-inch range.

The good news, according to the Montrose area DNR fisheries office, is that those small walleyes are the result of recent successful fry stockings and should only improve as the fish get bigger.

A map of Clearwater shows plenty of structure with tons of mid-lake humps and some nice deep-water holes. The holes can be great locations for walleye fishing with some ice-anglers catching them as deep as 50 feet or more. Many fish are caught in the 20- to 30-foot range, with some of the best action coming on flats in that depth lining the edge of a deep break.

Crappies tend to suspend over similar areas, as well as around weed edges, which is also a great way to find bluegills. Pike are all over the lake with some coming in the shallows and others coming in 35 to 50 of water right off the bottom.

For more information, contact BJ's Bait and Tackle at www.bjsbait.com or call (320) 274-3730.

ALEXANDRIA AREA
There are tons of lakes around Alexandria and many of them are excellent for ice-fishing, though when it comes to multispecies, the top picks are Le Homme Dieu, Carlos and Miltona lakes.

Andrew Brinkman is an avid ice-angler who spends as much time as he can ice-fishing when he isn't working at Christopherson's Bait and Tackle. "On any of those lakes you can go out and catch pretty much anything throughout the winter," he said.

On Lake Carlos, Brinkman said the walleyes and pike tend to concentrate on underwater islands and throughout the lake along breaklines. Carlos is the largest lake in the Alexandria chain of lakes and it is deeper and longer than it is wide. The points in the middle of the lake are a good location to target with several of the lake's major flats located nearby.

Darling Lake is another top choice for Brinkman, and he said you can always catch something on it throughout the winter. Much like Carlos, which Darling is connected to, there are several midlake humps and sunken islands where the majority of the fish are found.

Le Homme Dieu is another great multispecies lake in the chain with a much different look than Carlos and Darling. While Le Homme Dieu also has deep water, it doesn't have the same kind of midlake structure. There is a significant shoreline flat that runs around the entire basin of the lake with a few deep holes in the middle of it. Fishing along this flat near those deep edges can be a great way to find all species of fish.

Not to be overlooked is the famed Lake Miltona that Brinkman said is a great walleye and panfish lake. The best walleye fishing is along the numerous midlake humps and flats and the areas along the sharp points and breaklines of the west side. Panfish anglers tend to fish the weed holes and edges of the shallow bays.