The fishing is good, but if you would of come before the early 2000′s you would of made a killing. The reason behind this I suspect is due to the rapid developement around the lake and surrounding area thats brought in more than the lake can handle.

The milfoil has gotten to the point where swimming or off the dock fishing has become nearly impossible in most parts, and gets worse each year.

During the summer the lake gets easily over populated with boaters and parking ends up going up old county road 11 (even on week days). This is not mentioning the added boats and people who live on the lake itself.

Not to sound like a lorax but Lake Waconia is a 15 min drive from Bavaria and is the largest lake in Carver county (2996 acres) with multiple accesses, parking, public beach, a lakeside restaurant in town, and has great fishing.

I have found the smaller northern to bite on shiny spinners and anything toting a nightcrawler and havent seen any surpassing 2′.

The bluegil sunfish and very fair amount of crappy will bite on almost anything including garden variety canned corn on a plain hook. Most of these panfish are small and not worth any time but if you want to teach the kids this is a great way.

Unfortunatly the lake houses a fair amount of carp which I have seen over 4′ long even dead on the beach. Milfoil is also an issue when fishing but can certainly be avoided – the Northern and Bass love to use them as an ally to snag your line.