Live Bait and Fishing Tackle Minnesota Lakes North Fred's Bait Shop Deer River MN

8-21-10 Fishing Report Chester Powell Dad and I decided to go and try a new lake last friday. We were in search of panfish with hopefully a walleye or two. We started by casting beetle spins and Mister Twister's into the weeds with just a few perch and one nice bluegill to show. After about anhour we decided to explore the lake and cover some water so we tied on Salmo Hornets and in the first 100 feet of trolling we caught two nice 16" walleyes and that is how the day continued. We ended up keeping 6 keeper walleyes and threw 3 smaller fish back. We also had 3 nice bluegills also caught on the hornets and countless perch and little northerns to keep us busy. We were fishing in anywhere from 11' to 13' with size 4 blue and silver hornets. We have also had luck with the same baits on winnie in the same depths lately.

8-9-2010 Fishing Report - Chester Powell Fishing has been spotty lately with all of this hot weather. The best fishing has been in the evening and on into the night. Walleyes have been bighting good on winnie. The north shore has been the best with spinner rigs during the day and crankbaits in the evening. The other area lakes have been producing as well with leeches and crawlers on calm days and minnows when the wind is blowing.
Muskies and pike fishing has been good. I have heard of several guys seeing and even catching several muskies in one day. Double 10 bucktails and bulldawgs have been the big fish catchers. Pike are starting to move back to the shallows with big minnows or spinnerbaits being the preferred baits.
I have not heard much of a bass or panfish report but with all this hot weather most of the bass are going to be out on the deep rocks or deep in the thick weeds. Catching panfish is going to be just a searching game in the evenings along the weed edges. - Chester Powell

8-8-10 Field Report Brian Castellano Mary and I hit Winnie yesterday, 8-8-10 from 3-7pm. Luckily we were smart and were home before the storm came through.
We headed up to the NW side of the lake and found the walleyes in 10-12 feet of water. We used 1 oz bottom bouncers, bright spinner crawler harness's, crawlers, at around 1.5 mph. The wind was out of the SE and when it picked up the fish really turned on. I did try running raps for a bit, but Mary was doing so well with the bouncers that I changed over. We ended up with our limits and let a few others go, including Mary's twin 21 inchers. - Brian Castellano

7-22-10 Field Report Chester Powell - Dad and I went to Deer lake on tuesday after work looking to catch a few smallies and hopefully some walleyes for supper. I decided to throw the musky gear in the boat just incase we saw a good spot. We started rigging creek chubs and leeches on the humps with a couple of walleyes and lots of little perch to show for it. When we came to the top of the hump we started casting for muskies and to our surprise I hooked and landed a beautiful 47 inch muskie ( my personal best). We also had another muskie follow that was in the 45 inch range. Muskie and pike fishing is just starting to pick up and will only continue to get better as the summer progresses. The fish are being seen on a variety of baits with the big one being caught and seen on the double 10 bucktails. Chester Powell

More fishing reports>>>link to the UpNorth Report | link to Jeff Sundin Fishing Report |

7-20-10 Field Report Brian Castellano Mary and I hit Spider Lake on Thursday afternoon, the 15th. We trolled 5-7" sucker minnows on steel leader/spinner rigs w/ a 3/4 oz weight. A piece of rubber worm threaded on after the minnow helps to keep the minnow in it's spot and from falling off the hook.
The fish we caught were in the 9 to 15' range. We ended up catching about a dozen gators and a bonus muskie that will hopefully be a 50 + incher one day.
Mary had the best luck, catching a 30" & 29" northerns, her personal best's, along with her 1st musky, a 23 incher.
She refused to hold the fish for pics, after the 30" gator gave me a "love bite" on my right pinky while I was getting the hook out of it.
We've have yet to see a loon chick while we've been out this summer, very odd? - Brian

7-13-10 Field Report Brian Castellano On 7-12-10 my 2nd cousin, Paul Castellano and I hit Pokegama. We fished northerns from 9-1. We targeted the 17-25' range w/ heavy duty spinner rigs, 3/4 oz slip sinkers, and 4-6" sucker minnows. We backtrolled and ended up with 5 nice eater sized northerns in the 3-5 lb range. We also lost a couple of fish and had a couple hit n misses.
We graphed alot of fish on the deep weedlines and I'm gonna try to get back out there this week and drag a rig/leech or rig/crawler around to see what else is down there. Water temps were around 75 degrees.

7-9-10 Field Report Chester Powell Dad and I have gone out after work the past few night on the smaller local lake in search of panfish. We have good success with all of our fish being caught on beetle spins and like baits. The fishing has been really slow until the sun hits the top of the trees ( about 7:00) and has continued until its dark enough so you can no longer see what you are doing ( about 10:00). The walleye bite has been good with most guys still pulling rigs and leeches. There has been a good evening crankbait bite also. I have not heard any good northern or muskie bites. Bill and Brian are supposed to go on tuesday and we will see how that turns out. - Chester Powell

7-8-10 Field Report Chester Powell The Powell boys returned from our tenth annual week long fishing trip to Oak Island, MN on Lake of teh Woods on June 26 with smiles on our faces. There were six of us that went this year and the fish didn't stand a chance. We got up there on the 19th and after we unloaded the boats we went out to catch supper. Mine and Dads first fish of the trip was a beautiful 39 inch northern pike. We caught several other 20 plus pound pike throughout the trip. Dad and I were mainly after muskies and we had good success. We had 31 follows and Caught 7 with the biggest being 40 inches. The other two boats in our group mainly fished walleyes with several 100 fish days. The average walleye size was smaller this year at about 15 inches. We think this was due to the massive mayfly hatch that occured all week. Over all it was a great trip and I am already counting down the days until next year. Hope to see you on the water - Chester Powell

7-5-10 Field Report Brian Castellano My brother and I hit our "home water" this past Monday, 7-5-10. It's been 15+ years since we've fished it. We waded the Prairie River and fished for smallmouth bass. The water levels were perfect. My brother loves to top water fish and had numerous misses on a Heddon Devil Horse.
I ended up catching a couple smallies in the 14-16" range. I had the best luck on a split shot rig w/ a 4" Berkley Power Minnow. I also caught some on Yo Zuri jerk bait. - Brian

7-1-10 Field Report Brian Castellano We had a tough time on Winnie Tuesday. We caught a couple of walleyes and boy were they puking up mayflys! Rigging leeches w/ floating jigheads worked best for the couple of fish we caught.
With the wind blowing today (Thursday), I decided it was time for my 1st musky trip of the season. I hit the Mississippi River from 9am till 2pm. Casting produced 6-8 northerns and 1 4 lb largemouth.
After no luck casting, I decided to throw on a crankbait and troll the main river channel. 10 minutes later and WHAM! Fish on!! It was a mid 30" musky that shook off at the boat when I reached for the net. Typical of my luck with muskys! I trolled for another hour or so and packed it in. - Brian