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"A
Northern Minnesota Fishing Tradition"
Current Fishing Reports
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Grand Rapids Fishing Report
8-4-2008 Jason Green - Mid Summer Slow Down, I Don't Think So!!! |
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You would think by now we would be
seeing a mid summer slow down but that is far from the truth. Water
temperatures seem to be pretty consistent on many of the area lakes
ranging from 71-74 degrees and many of the bug hatches have tapered off
making for an excellent day on the water.
Recently I had the chance to spend another day on the
water with Steve Ladany from Northland Fishing Tackle. We spent most of
the day in search of Large & Small Mouth Bass. All though the day was a
bit on the slower side it was quite the soft plastic educational day.
Northland launched a complete line of new "Dean Rojas" Slurpies. The
salted and spiced line of soft plastics offers more styles and colors.
When you get a chance go to
www.northlandtackle.com and check them out!
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I have been targeting Gills, Crappie
and Walleye in low light periods and surprisingly we have caught all
three on the same presentations pretty close to each other. We have
been fishing shallow cabbage in roughly 8'-10' of water with deep open
water near by. Northland Crappie Thumpers are still producing well for
Crappie and Walleye. We have been moving the boat slow in the cabbage
and pitching these vibrant baits in the small open pockets with a lot of
success. For Gills and Sun Fish we have been fishing the same pockets
but using Gypsi Jigs and Fire-flys. On a couple occasions we have had
to tie on floats to keep our presentation in the strike zone longer but
for the most part we are fishing the open pockets the same.
When the wind is blowing we have started pulling #4 & #5
Hornets with some success for Walleye and Pike on the outside edge of
shallow weed lines. As the weeds mature and get thicker crank bait
results should increase. Normally by now vegetation is reaching the
surface but our cooler summer is stunting growth. On calm days we are
still fishing walleye on small main lake humps that top off around
14'-20' of water. Vertically fishing a Roach Rig with a 3/8oz or
heavier weight has proven to be an "Old Standby" that works time and
time again.
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Fishing
Report! 7-30-08 Jeff Sundin - Mid Summer Walleye, Panfish, Bass
and Pike |
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Except for an interrupting series of thunderstorms that moved through our
area on Tuesday morning, the weather has been warm and sunny. The lakes
surfaces temperatures continue to warm and we're looking at a lot of 73 to
74 degree water temperatures in the Itasca region. As waters warm, fishing
action continues to swing toward the "mixed bag" and Bass and panfish have
become more and more active during the daytime.
I'm hearing great Bluegill reports from lots of friends who tell me that
the smaller lakes are really producing fish right now. These lakes are
"turning on" at different times, so if you bomb out on one lake, don't be
afraid to jump to another because you may easily discover a dramatic
contrast from one to another. I've tried Bluegills a couple of times and
so far, my old trick of vertical jigging on the interior edges of the weed
line hasn't worked well for me yet. For right now, it looks like the best
presentation is a small lead head, ice fly or teardrop type jig tipped
with a small cut piece of worm or wax worm and suspended by a slip bobber.
The fish don't want to see much movement, so anchoring the boat has worked
better than passing through with the trolling motor.
After several attempts, we finally managed to boat a Musky and see a few
more this week, so it looks like the warmer water temperatures are helping
with the Muskies as well. Usually we fish with larger baits, but thanks to
a suggestion from a friend, we scaled down to using the smaller Mepp's
Musky Killer and that smaller size bait worked better than the larger
baits. After a long period of of hearing gloom and doom from friends,
we're finally hearing about a few fish being caught on several area lakes,
so maybe we're heading for some decent action in August. A good second
choice for us has been the spinnerbait style bucktails like the M & G.
We've had some fish looking at these as well as two "strikes" this past
week.
Walleye fishing continues to be "above average" for this period of the
summer. Typically we have to have to poke around for a few fish on every
spot. But by using this "cherry picking" method, we are catching quite a
few fish. Thanks to a couple of really strong year classes, there are tons
of small fish keeping us entertained as we look for 'keepers".
Presentations vary wildly right now and we've caught some fish on almost
everything you can think of. There are still fish out on deep structure so
the live bait rigs with Leeches and Night Crawlers are performing. There
are a steadily increasing number of shallow locations beginning to work
right now too and for me, this seems to be the better action right now.
There have been a few fish hitting leeches and even a few hitting smaller
crankbaits. But on these weed edges, we've had better fishing using night
crawlers. Our best depths have varied from lake to lake, but generally
we've found fish in 8 to 12 feet of water.
With the weedlines developing nicely, the largemouth are establishing
deeper water haunts on the outer edges of deep weeds. As you'd expect by
now, Bass are schooling up on the points and inside pockets of these weed
edges. We caught an awful lot of Bass on Leeches and night crawlers as we
pursued Walleyes earlier this week and so even though I haven't been "Bass
Fishing", I feel like we've been doing it. I think this would be a great
time to head out for the traditional mid summer plastic worm bite.
Northern Pike fishing has been sluggish and fish of small to medium size
have been available, but medium to large Pike have been elusive. Late last
week we trolled some deeper water with larger crankbaits and lead-core
line and did manage to catch a few pike. But. so far I haven't seen
anything to get to worked up about. I'm hoping to get a chance to chase
some better Northern's during the next several days and maybe I'll have a
better report next week.
Finally, if you like PERCH, better times have arrived! These fish have
caused me trouble all summer long, but we're finally starting to see them
on some of the deeper, main lake bars and humps, in the weed beds and on
the rocks. So far for me, the best quality fish have come from the deeper
(20 to 30 feet) water. Jig and minnow has been about the best bet. One
caveat, you need to be sure that you have located a good school of fish
before you start fishing! If there are a lot of fish on these deeper
spots, you will see them on your graph. If you're only seeing a few fish,
or if the fish you see appear to be scattered along a breakline, don't
bother fishing that spot. Do a little extra searching up front and you'll
be happy that you did.
Be sure to listen or go to
KAXE 91.7 FM Grand Rapids Radio on Thursdays at 6:20 AM. We
usually try to expand on this report. If you miss the show, you can pick
it up on the website.
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Walleye schools are building up in
the weeds. This 28 incher was caught on a main lake hump with a nice
weedline in about 12 feet of water. Largemouth Bass are using the same
structures, so action may be mixed.
Click on this
picture for a closer look. When you see Walleye suspended high above the
bottom in shallow water like this, try running a couple of crankbaits
through them. We've had some success with Salmo's #5 hornets this week and
it looks like we might be headed for some good times in the next few
weeks.
Reports of good Bluegill action have
been floating around all week long. We've had a few hours to look for them
too. So far, our better presentation has been small jigs and slip bobbers
set to fish near the bottom.
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Fishing
Report! 7-23-08 Jeff Sundin - Mid Summer Bass, Walleye and
Panfish |
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The weather has stabilized, the insect hatches are running their course
and the fishing has settled back into a more predictable pattern for
mid-summer. Surface water temperatures are consistently in the 71 to 73
degree range on almost every lake in the Grand Rapids, Deer River area and
the "warm water fish" are starting to respond. Panfish are still most
active in the evenings, but we're catching more of them during the day.
It's common to hook an accidental bluegill as we fish live bait rigs for
Walleyes and this is usually a sign that the "day bite" is going to be
starting soon.
Perch are starting to show up more regularly too. So far, we're not seeing
huge schools of them, but again it's common to catch several nice size
Perch as we fish for Walleye. In a few cases, we've been able to switch
baits to a jig and minnow or spinner and minnow combination and catch
enough Perch for a fish fry. As the water continues to warm and insects
continue to disappear from the bars and humps, we'll see these Perch
moving toward rocks and that will be a great time to get in on some Jumbo
Perch fishing.
Weed beds are growing better now and the beginning signs of a good
weedline, mixed bag bite are starting to emerge. Bass are still hitting
surface baits, spinnerbaits and swimming type baits, but there are small
schools forming in the deeper weed lines too. For guys like me who like to
fish plastic worms, our time is almost here!
There's going to be a lot of variety in Walleye presentations for me this
week. We're still catching quite a few of them on jig and minnow. It's
unusual during July, but the cooler water temperatures seem to be
extending this jig bite. During the past few days, Leeches have
out-performed Night Crawlers but we have still caught several on the
worms. On Tuesday, we moved in from the deep water and tried a test run
with crankbaits and caught several fish on the weedline using the #5 Salmo
Hornets. The fish appear to be building up on the flats adjacent to the
weedlines and it looks good for the folks who prefer to troll. We caught a
few smaller to medium size pike on these baits as well, but nothing to
make me think that there's going to be a hot Pike bite in the shallows in
the near future.
Water is still really clear for this time of year and it wouldn't surprise
me to see the Pike and Muskies stay out in the deeper open water for a
long time. As long as the prime baitfish like Tulibee, Suckers and
Whitefish remain in the open water, the larger predators will stay out
there too. We played around with some lead core line, trolling larger
crankbaits on Sunday and we did find some larger Pike and Walleye in the
20 to 25 foot depth range.
Be sure to listen or go to
KAXE 91.7 FM Grand Rapids Radio on Thursdays at 6:20 AM. We
usually try to expand on this report. If you miss the show, you can pick it up on the
website.
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We've seen an above average number
of large fish this month. This 30 incher hit a jig and minnow and she's
still in the lake for someone to catch next year.
Here's a 26
incher than grabbed a Jumbo Leech on a live bait rig. The Walleyes have
been adaptable this summer and we're catching them on a variety of
presentations.
Trolling large crankbaits using lead
core line in 20 to 25 feet of water produced a handful of "above average"
fish like this 26 incher this weekend.
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Fishing
Report! 7-16-08 Jeff Sundin - Mid Summer Bass, Walleye and
Panfish |
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A turbulent week in Northern Minnesota has kept us on our toes! It had to
happen sooner or later and I guess now is the time. A combination of
stormy weather, insect hatches and the arrival of tons of "young of the
year" baitfish have definitely made the Walleye fishing more challenging.
But we're still experiencing some "highlights" every day and when the
conditions swing in our favor, we're still even having some "above
average" fishing for mid July. I've spent most of my time this past week
on lake Winnie, Cass lake and Cutfoot Sioux.
The
fishing strategies have been similar on all three, mainly live bait
rigging with leeches and night crawlers except for the occasional,
individual school of fish that prefer jig and minnow. I believe that
it's really important that you learn to be a master at using your
electronics, especially during mid summer, because sometimes you need to
move from one point to another and "Cherry Pick" a couple of fish at a
time until you're satisfied with your catch. There have been several times
when we've marked LOTS of fish, but still couldn't get many of them to
bite. By moving from one school of fish to the next, you can always get a
couple of the most active ones to bite quickly and you're always
increasing the odds of finding the one "hot school" of the day.
I've noticed this week that the Walleye have preferred spots that have a
bit of rock on them. It doesn't have to be much, but a little harder
bottom has been a key for me.
We fished last week on Cass Lake and did find the perch fairly active on a
few spots. 12 to 20 feet of water was the best depth for the breaklines.
There are some Walleyes on the same breaklines too, lots of small ones
this year. Some better size Walleye were on the humps and smaller bars on
the West side of the lake. There are tons of Mayflies and other bugs
hatching, so we had to do a lot of searching and stopping for a couple of
bites and then move on to new spots. By days end, we had done fairly well,
but it wasn't non stop action. Leeches were fairly good on about a six
foot leader and Jig and minnow (we had shiners at the time) were the best
on the humps on the west side.
Panfish action has been heating up, especially for folks who fish the
evening "mosquito run". Both Crappie and Sunfish are hitting during the
evening, but so far mid day fishing has been tough for Crappie. Sunfish
are hitting a bit during the daytime and apparently the action is going to
improve as the water temps warm up. I've more to add, but I just ran up
against the clock and I'll have to try and finish this on Thursday
morning. Be sure to listen or go to
KAXE 91.7 FM Grand Rapids Radio on Thursdays at 6:20 AM for a
weekly fishing update. If you miss the show, you can pick it up on the
website.
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Even on a slow day, moving from spot
to spot and "cherry picking" the active fish will produce results like
this. Sometimes you have to work a little harder, but it does pay
off.
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Grand Rapids Fishing Report
7-14-2008 Jason Green - Wind, Wind & More Wind |
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Ryan And Austin Green Out To Teach Dad A Few New Tricks Or Maybe Just
Remind Him Of A Few Old Ones
What a crazy week! We have had high winds
blowing for roughly 4 days now. The only time it seems to let up is when
the rain moves in only to start blowing again. The good thing is that the
fish are still hungry and active.
This past Saturday I had the chance to spend
some time in the boat with my favorite fishing partners, my boys. At age 11
and 5 they were determined to teach Dad a few tricks. Ryan, my 11 year old
picked where we were going to fish and what baits we were going to use.
Needless to say he was right on the money.
Ryan
Green With A Perfect Crappie |
We targeted heavy thick weeds in 6' of water with a sharp
break leading into deep water. The bait of choice was Northland's new
Thumper Crappie King tipped with a 2" DoubleCurl Screwtail. Working these
small baits slowly through the weeds were great for perch, most of them
being nice eaters. When it was time for a change we moved out over the
steep break and found suspended crappie which the same "Thumpers" produced
well.
Walleye are still aggressive and being found on mid lake
humps and bars. It looks like for now the jig and minnow bite is over for
the most part. Our best luck has been vertically fishing a 6' Roach Rig
tipped with a leech or crawler. the main trick has been to keep it slow.
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Fishing
Report! 7-8-08 Jeff Sundin - Mid Summer Patterns Mixed Bag
Strategies |
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I just returned from my annual "busman's holiday" up to International
Falls and Island View Lodge on Rainy Lake. Over the past eight years, this
has become a real favorite time of the year for me because it gives me a
little breather and an opportunity to see some new shoreline. As an added
bonus, I get to spend a couple of precious days fishing with my own family
and friends.
This year's trip was really different for me because the cooler, higher
water temperatures on Rainy have kept the fish in the shallows more active
than usual. So I fished a lot of water where I haven't spent much time in
the past. We discovered groups of fish in a variety of locations, but
probably the best fishing areas we found were the shoreline breaks and
small points around many of the islands. The best bet for me was to locate
sand areas along the breakline. Watching the graph, you'll see your "color
line" or "gray line" lessen in intensity when you move from rocks to sand.
Almost always, we found the better schools of fish on this "rock to sand
transition". Even when we marked good schools of fish they didn't always
bite, so we had to continually search for new schools and experiment with
the baits. There were times when the fish bit best on minnows, sometimes
Leeches, sometimes Crawlers and even a few on crankbaits. We literally had
one good day using Leeches, another good day using Crawlers and the last
day of the trip we had our best success on jig and minnows. Timing was
also really important. Maybe one out of three or fours schools of fish
were active, so the more we moved around, the more we increased our odds
of getting good action. To sum it up, change spots, change baits and
change speeds a lot. Sooner or later you'll find an aggressive school of
fish.
Returning to home water on Saturday, we're finding a similar scenario. So
far this week I've had to do a lot of moving and scouting to find the more
active Walleyes. The water temperatures have risen into the 72 to 74
degree range and there are insect hatches and young of the year minnows
everywhere I look. So the old adage about "finding bait to find the fish"
is sort of improbable at this point. Since there's food everywhere, the
secret now is to keep finding more schools of fish until you hit the
timing right. For the next several weeks, my advice will be to stay on the
move and don't fish a spot unless you are marking fish on your
electronics.
On Tuesday I had my first opportunity to try and catch a Musky, but it
wasn't my lucky day. We caught a couple of mid size Pike, but the Musky
activity was zero where I fished. We took a break from casting during the
mid day and did manage to get in on a mixed bag of Perch and Walleye, so
there were some 'highlights" for the day. From here on out, we'll be doing
a lot more mixed bag fishing and I'll get some updates added as I get back
up to speed.
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Mid-Summer Walleyes aren't finicky,
they're just well fed. Sometimes it boils down to being in the right place
at the right time. keep checking spots until you find the one or two hot
schools of fish and you're trip will be successful!
Insect hatches like these Mayflies don't have to "kill" the
action, but they do make your job tougher. It's important to keep moving
and checking for schools of active fish. Sooner or later you will land on
top of an aggressive school of fish, but you have to keep checking.
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Fishing
Report! 7-1-08 Jeff Sundin - Summer Peak Going Strong! |
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This week I want to welcome a new sponsor. It's not very often that I go
into "commercial mode", but sometimes I find something that I really like
and take an opportunity to share my good fortune with you. I've been on
the lookout for a Loki Landing Net ever since my first one blew out of the
boat in a bad storm. I finally had the opportunity to link up with them.
Another week into the summer and the fishing action shows no sign of
slowing down. I was a little worried about a string of thunderstorms the
blew through the area on Friday night, but at least for the time being,
these storms had little impact on the quality of fishing in the Deer River
and Grand Rapids area over the weekend. If anything, it looks like it may
have helped me on Saturday (6-28) as it apparently moved a whole load of
"pre-spawn" Smallmouth Bass out of the shallow water and on to the first
shoreline drop off. Thanks to this little shift of location, we had a
great mixed bag of Walleye and Smallmouth.
Walleye location has continued to shift toward the deeper water. Shoreline
related points that extend well out into deep water, reefs, sunken islands
and main lake bars are all good right now. Key water depths for me have
been 18 to 24 feet for the most active fish, but at times we are finding
schools of fish in the 30 foot depth range as well. The deeper fish seem
to be less active, but we've been able to trick some of them into feeding
on healthy extra large or jumbo leeches. For me, the Shallower fish seem
to be a bit more prone to take night crawlers. I'm not sure what the
difference is, but that's been a good rule of thumb for me during the past
few days.
There are still fish hitting the jig and minnow combinations too, but I've
started having enough trouble keeping the minnows fresh that I'm ready to
go into rigging mode for a while. I still plan on carrying a few minnows
in the boat as a back up plan and when I have problems keeping them alive,
I'm putting the dead ones on ice. The ice extends the use of the minnows
for at least of full day and I'd suggest freezing some water in a one
quart plastic container. Just toss the minnows on top of the ice chunk and
you're in business.
The Smallmouth Bass I mentioned all appear to have fat bellies full of
spawn. I've
been concentrating on several of the deeper, clear water lakes that tend
to warm up latest, so this would help explain the later spawning activity
of the Bass. We had been looking for
these fish in shallow water a few days ago and found most of them on rocks
in 4 to 8 feet. On Saturday, they were down the edges in 16 to 24 feet
mixed with the walleyes and they were very active. We fished with
jigs/worms and caught these fish steadily throughout the day. When the
weather returns to normal, I'd guess the Smallies will head back up onto
those shallower rocks again. When those fish were shallower a few days
ago, I had good experiences with the Berkley Gulp Leeches on a 1/8 ounce
jig.
Bluegill activity in the shallow water spawning areas continues to be
good. On Saturday I had to envy a group of fishermen who were anchored
within easy sight of where we were Walleye fishing. These guys were
hauling in some decent looking sunfish from a shallow patch of mixed weeds
and bulrushes. They were fishing with jigs tipped with worms under a small
bobber. The action for them appeared to be steady for at least a couple of
hours.
There are some good Crappie reports floating around too, but I haven't had
any first hand experience during the past week. What I've been hearing is
that Crappie action has been heating up in the deeper water now. Deeper
rocks and deep Cabbage Weeds have been producing for the Crappie anglers
and the action has been best during the evening. From past experience, I
really like looking for those isolated patches of Cabbage weeds and
casting small 1-1/2 inch tube jigs or a similar size plastic beetle body
on a 1/16 ounce jig head. This time of year you can get some great mixed
bag fishing using this approach.
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Action fishing for mixed bags of Bass, Pike
and Walleye are here!
Smallmouth Bass action kept us hopping on Saturday as we
fished for Walleye. I had a great experience fishing with Valora Lundberg
who fishes like a pro!
According to Joe
Stevens we "found a good hole" on Lake Winnie. The deep water bite has
been picking up steadily over there too, but don't overlook the "weed
bite" on breezy days.
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Grand Rapids Fishing Report 6-30-2008 Jason
Green Pick Your Favorite Style Of Fishing, It's Working! |
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Another incredible week in Northern MN! This past week we
have run into just about every situation in the 1000 Grand Lakes Area. From
windy cool days like spring to mid summer HOT calm days. Each day has
presented a style of angling that produces better. Mother Nature has also
thrown us a curve ball with multiple bug hatches transpiring on many of the
area lakes but the good news is that the fish are still hungry.
On days that the wind starts to blow we have had our best
luck back on the shoreline. Targeting areas with larger rock has worked
well for us with a 1/8-1/4oz Fireball tipped with a shiner. I have noticed
that there are plenty of soft shell crayfish in these areas and walleye are
binging on the small tasty morsels. The best producing color for us on the
rocks has been Parrot.
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Perch Are Starting To Show Up With
The Deeper Walleye But We Still Have Not Found Any Consistency.
On calmer days we have been forced to
move out to mid lake humps and bars. Occasionally we have found a few fish
that will bite on a jig and minnow but what these fish really seem to want
are crawlers and leeches. If the weather stays consistent I believe the jig
and minnow days are numbered.
The best presentation for these deeper
fish for me has been a 6' Roach Rig with a 3/8oz Worm Weight or bullet style
weight fished vertically under the boat. I like the bullet style weight
because it is useful on just about any type of structure. The Worm Weight
also allows you to change out the size easily if the wind suddenly changes
on you.
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Fishing
Report! 6-24-08 Jeff Sundin - The Summer Patterns Begin |
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For a lot of folks, it seemed like summer would never come this year. But
we've had quite a turnaround this week. On Monday (6-23) we happened to be
fishing on Lake Winnie when the morning surface temperature began at 67
degrees. By day's end the temperature had risen to 74 degrees. There are
currently several insect hatches going on at once. Fish Flies and a couple
of other insects known to me only as "little green bugs" are
crawling all over everything. As expected, the Walleye are responding to
insect hatches by heading out into open water where the main lake bars,
humps and reefs come in contact with softer bottom areas that harbor the
insect larvae.
We found fish on a variety of structures that included some of the most
popular and largest main lake bars. There were also a lot of fish showing
up on the small "humps", especially the ones located closest to the
shoreline.
Walleye anglers were catching fish on a variety of baits including lindy
rigs with Leeches or Night Crawlers, jig and minnow combinations and live
bait spinners tipped with minnows. For a week or so, you should be able to
continue catching fish by jigging on the deeper structures. After that,
the fish will get a little more fussy and start looking for the slower,
live bait presentations. Lindy rigs with Leeches will be favored by lots
of folks in another week or so.
The Bass and panfish report is excellent right now thanks to the warming
trend. I had a good experience with Bluegills in the shallows this weekend
and talked with several friends who have been getting awesome shallow Bass
action for both Smallmouth and Largemouth. If you like fishing surface
baits, spinnerbaits or jerk worms. This is the time to get out and give it
a whirl. I sent one friend out to a good Smallmouth spot and he reported
catching about 40 fish in just a few hours. All of the fish are in the
shallow areas like Bulrushes, mixed rock/gravel and around any kind of
timber you can find.
We discovered that a few of the Bluegills are already beginning to move
out of the shallows and set up shop on the deeper weed edges. I don't
think I'd give up on the shallow water gills just yet, but with all of
these insect hatches going on, they too will be attracted to the deeper,
soft bottom areas to cash in on the bonanza. Try the shallows first and if
that fails, move out to the outer edges of the deeper weeds and try a 1/16
ounce jig tipped with a piece of cut night crawler. For the best results,
fish slowly trying to keep your jig almost motionless near the bottom. The
really nice sunfish don't need to see much action.
The early signs of a Crawfish hatch are showing up now too and that will
be good news to folks looking for some more consistent Perch action. The
shallow areas with mixed rock, gravel and sand are the first to warm up
and the first areas to look for some Jumbos. As the water continues to
warm, the mid depth rocks are going to get productive. I'll be spending
some time looking for Perch this week and should have a better update for
the next report.
Things are hectic right now so I'm struggling to keep the reports updated,
don't be shy though.
Ask a question if you need to and I'll get back to you ASAP.
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I finally found a
replacement for my favorite landing net! Click here to
read a review about it.
Walleye remain active in the shallow
water. Breezy days still offer good jig and minnow fishing. Shallow weeds,
rock bars and primary drop off areas continue to hold fish.
Nick Swerlyk had a good week last
week. he boated lots of fish including this dandy Walleye. Walleyes are
heading out into deeper water water now as the insect hatches heat up.
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Fishing
Report! 6-17-08 Jeff Sundin - Summer Peak Fishing! Walleye, Bass |
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We've had plenty of wind, overcast skies and
continuing cool water temperatures during the past week. Surface
temperatures on most of the Deer River area lakes are hovering between 61
and 63 degrees and seem to be stabilizing in that range. The Walleye
fishing continues to be strong in the shallow water on jig and minnow
combinations in water ranging from 6 to 12 feet depending on the lake
and/or the area you're fishing.
There's a change on the horizon though
as we've noticed lots of fish with stomachs full of insects instead of
minnows. On Monday we moved out into some deeper water and began to locate
small, but active schools of Walleye on some of the sunken islands (reefs)
located close to shore, but not connected to it. So far these schools of
fish are still just fragments of the larger schools we're finding in the
shallows, but from past experience, once these fish start to move out to
deeper water, the transition will happen fast. With much warmer
temperatures predicted for the early part of next week, I'd anticipate a
'mass movement" on at least some of the are lakes, especially the ones
with strong Mayfly hatches.
For a short time, the Walleye will continue to hit a jig and minnow, even
in the deeper water. But if you prefer live bait rigging with leeches and
night crawlers, your time is almost here. On Sunday we tried slip bobbers
with leeches, but found only Perch to be interested in them. We switched
back to jigging from an anchored position and the action started right
back up again.
As I spent the last week fishing nothing but Walleye, I'm a little short
on the panfish report, but look for an update in the next few days as our
warm weather arrives and gets us interested in the Bluegill bite again. You
can still view
last weeks report for what I had at that time.
Things are hectic right now so I'm struggling to keep the reports updated,
don't be shy though.
Ask a question if you need to and I'll get back to you ASAP.
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Walleye remain active in the shallow
water. Breezy days really perk them up and doubles like these have not
been uncommon.
The average size of the Walleye on the
slot limit lakes like Leech Lake and Lake Winnie have been outstanding
this season. We've caught and released lots of fish in the 19 to 22 inch
range and an occasional 24 to 26 inch fish like this one. There are enough
eaters out there to make a fish fry, sorting through the 'slot fish" has
been a fun process.
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Contact Webmaster 7/26/08
