Fishing Report July 26 2010 Warm weather persists and with surface water temperatures pushing toward the 80 degree mark, Musky action continues to heat up. Bass action has been good and the panfish action continues to improve as fish get set up on well established weedlines. Walleye anglers who keep their "nose to the grindstone" can continue to bring in some fish, but the Walleyes have been sensitive to the weather conditions. For my money, your best bet is to plan your fishing day to take advantage of whichever opportunity is best on the day you go out.
Musky reports during the past few days have been just too good to pass up and so on Sunday, we set our sites on a combo Pike and Musky trip. The weather was bright, clear and calm and not at all was I was hoping for. Casting for Pike on the weedlines wasn't too bad early in the morning, they remained semi-active until the sun really started beating down. We managed to catch one decent Pike on a Suick and a couple more on Rattle Traps, but as the fish sunk down into the weeds, jigging and live bait was the only way to catch them. After making several moves, we decided to finish up our morning by checking out a large weed flat where mixed Cabbage, Coontail and Musky Weed grows in 12 to 13 feet of water. Here Arian Vornbrock hooked into a nice Musky in the 48 to 50 inch range. Sadly the fish eventually got off at the boat, but not before I had a chance to snap a few good Musky pictures. This fish hit on a 1 ounce tandem spinnerbait, black & orange at about 1:00 PM.
Walleye fishing patterns that I talked about last week are still
in effect. Windy conditions, go to shallow rocks or shallow weedlines. On the rocks, we've been able to catch fish on jig and minnow or jigs tipped with night crawlers. Others have had consistent results with live bait spinners and leeches.
During calm conditions, head to toward main lake and fish the larger bars in the 14 to 22 foot range. Cruise the edges and top of the bars looking for small pods of fish and stop whenever you find one. Live bait rigging with six foot plain snells have been working for me, night crawlers have been okay, but during the past few days, leeches seem to have an edge.
Sunfish action has been good, but for some reason I can't get them to really bite until the evening. My best bet has been to locate them on the weedlines as we fish for bass during the day and remember the key spots to return to during the early evening. Usually by about 7:00 PM the Bluegills start hitting and once they do, the action has been great! Small jigs tipped with a cut piece of night crawler is all you need. On Friday, we discovered that the Sunfish were holding deeper on the outside edges of the weedline while the Crappies were over the weed tops in heavier cover. While my crew fished the sunnies, I casted a small jig with a 3 inch twister tail over the weed tops and picked up some bonus Crappies.
Perch action has been fair, with the better size fish coming from rocky bars, humps and weedlines with mixed rock or gravel. Many of the Perch are feeding on small, young of the year Crawfish so obviously the rocky areas are the ticket for that pattern. We've also found some schools of fish on the flats in 12 to 16 feet of water, the problem is that the fish are widely scattered so you have to do some moving if you plan to catch a bunch. If there's a breeze, you can drift on the flat while fishing a jig and minnow. If it's calm, a spinner rig tipped with minnow is probably a better way to cover water.
By the way, The 2008 Lund Alaskan is now for sale. Click here for details.
Comments or Questions?  Recent Questions & Answers
Fishing update July 25, 2010 Northern Pike and Musky are on the prowl right now. It's 5:45 and we're heading out the door to see what kind of action we can drum up. Muskies have been coming in from lots of lakes in the area including Leech, Moose, Deer, Cutfoot Sioux and Cass Lake. I'm sure there are others, but I haven't heard reports yet. On Saturday, I talked with someone who reported seeing nine fish, another reported seeing 19 and one angler actually boated five on Friday. Maybe this is going to shape up to be a great Musky summer? I'll let you know how it goes.
Fishing update July 24, 2010 Smallmouth Bass have been more than cooperative this week, but Walleye, Pike, Musky and panfish are also comoing in steadily. The action is better at certain times than at others, but for any angler willing to spend some time looking for fish, there will be a reward for the effort.
We've had several days of changing weather this week so the Walleye patterns have been widely varied. Working with a group of long time customers from McQuay Air Conditioning on their annual "Fisharoo" has given me a chance to compare notes with several of the areas top fishing guides. Everyone spent time fishing their own favorite patterns and most everyone did well. The top producing patterns this week were live bait rigging on deep water, main lake bars and humps, trolling spinners tipped with live bait on shallow weedlines and jig and minnow combos fished on the rocks.
Jigging the shallowest rocks (4 to 6 feet) was best whenever we had a good wind, but deeper rocks (12 to 15 feet) still produced some fish at calmer times as well. The benefit of fishing the rocks has been the Jumbo Perch that were mixed in with Walleye. For eating, the bonus Perch are hard to beat.
In the deeper water, live bait rigs with a six foot leader and tipped with large or jumbo leeches was productive for me on Thursday. We had a good southeast breeze that was perect for working the main (Bena) Bar on Lake Winnie, so we scanned the breakline looking for small pods of fish and worked each one until the action slowed.
I've gotta run for now, but I have some more to add. Check the report again on sunday morning.
Fishing Update July 20, 2010 Turbulent weather gives Walleye anglers lots of "head Scratching moments" on the lake, but the warm water has really helped push the Bass and Panfish into high gear. On Sunday, we fished Walleye hard and steady all day long on Lake Winnie. Moving from shallow water to mid range flats and back out to the deeper humps, we discovered lots of bait in almost all locations. When we found fish, they were in small, scattered packs so we we forced to catch our fish one-by-one, by the end of the day we managed to gather up 14 Walleye, a dozen Perch and a few Pike. In other words, you can catch 'em if you work at it, but don't expect a "hot bite" for a few more weeks.
Smallmouth Bass on the other hand have been more than cooperative! I and the boys from McQuay had a great time on Monday as we worked our way around mid-lake bars finding small packs of Smallmouth. Early in the morning we found several Bass in the 12 to 14 foot range and they were catchable using artificials like a jig and 4 inch grub. By 9:30 or so they were all down in the 22 to 30 foot neighborhood and live biat, primarily rigs with leeches was the ticket for catching them. A small number 4 hook tied on a 5 to 6 foot leader and a 1/2 ounce egg sinker is all you need.
If you're live bait rigging Bass, you can protect them from injury if you avoid feeding line as you would when rigging for Walleye. All you need to do is let the Smallmouth give a few tugs on the leech and as your line tightens, lift the rod tip in a steady sweep, just enough to get the fish swimming.
Mixed bag fishing is going to be the rule of thumbe for a while because sunfish have started showing up on these deeper weed edges too along with a few Walleye and Pike included in the mix.
On Wednesday, I plan to take a couple of dads and their kids out for panfish so I should have a more solid report about panfishing by Thursday morning, just in time for the KAXE radio program at 6:20, if you're up, tune in or use this link to find the radio broadcast archives.
Fishing Update July 14, 2010 Water temperatures are reaching into the high 70 degree range and helping to lock in traditional mid-summer fishing patterns. With un-settled weather and baitfish at their summer peak, Walleye fishing action has slowed during the past few days, but the fish remain catchable for anyone willing to put in some time.
Deep water action on Winnie is steady right now with a lot of fish in the 24 inch range. Slot fish (17 to 26 inches) out-number eaters by about 2 to 1 right now so we are rarely coming off the lake with a limit, but the big fish action is fun and we are getting enough for a good fish fry.
We're in a stretch right now where the news about how to catch them doesn't change much from day to day. My best pattern continues to be main lake humps in the depth range of 20 to 26 feet. Best bait overall has been a live bait rig using night crawlers. We've caught a few fish on leeches too, but I think the fish are taking the crawlers a little better. We have also caught a fair number of Walleye rigging with minnows. Our best results have been with a large rainbow chub or creek chub in the 4 to 5 inch range. On a lot of the recent trips, oyr goal has been to catch at least some "eaters" so I've avoided rigging with the really large minnows, but I think that would work right now as well. On Sunday, we had fairly high winds and we were able to catch several Walleye on jig and minnow as well. On calmer days like Monday though, I didn't do much with jigs.
I'm starting to get more familiar with my new Humminbird 898 and as I learn all of the tricks, I've discovered that I really love being able to scroll my cursor to a fish, or school of fish and mark the spot on my GPS. Once it's marked, just go back to that spot and catch it. I'll be expanding on this as I get more
experienced with it.
Bass action keeps heating up one the weedlines and my buddies who are Bass fishing a lot these days report catching 25 or more on every outing. Overall, it sounds like plastic worms on the weedlines are the best, but there are still fish hittiing top-water baits and spinnerbaits in Bulrush beds too.
Crappie and sunfish action is still best during the evening hours, but with warmer temperatures, the lakes are starting to get an algae bloom. We should start to see an improvement in the daytime panfish action within the next week or two.
Yellow Perch are hitting right now, but with baitfish populations high, the Perch are scattered. We have found some on the deeper humps, some on the weedlines and others on shallow rocks. For the time being, we have been fishing Perch only when we "stumble into them" as they pick at our night crawlers. By switching over to a jig and minnow, we can zero in the Perch for a while. Whenever the actions slows down, we go back to rigging for Walleyes.
Now that summer has settled in, I'm going to have some time to get caught up and I will be posting some stuff for sale. If you're interested in a boat, my friend Joe Thmpson has his 2025 Lund Pro V listed here already
and I will be posting my 2008 Lund Alaskan as soon as I get her spruced up a bit.
Fishing Update July 9, 2010 Another "Big Walleye" day on Lake Winnie Thursday. After being out of the area for a few days, we fished main lake humps in 22-28 feet of water and the fish were still out there. The wind was a little strong for my liking on the humps, but it was managable. There are huge schools of young of the year Perch minnows on a lot of these humps and almost all of them have at least a few fish. Three of us fishing eached used a different bait, one night crawler, one leech and one jig-minnow. I think overall the night crawlers had the edge in terms of numbers, but everything worked and the jig and minnow actually caught the largest fish.
We fished some two-hook spinners tied up with #4 colorado blades and dressed with night crawlers as well. The spinners didn't out produce the other baits, but these did seem to produce a higher percentage of "eaters", so I think I'm going to start stringing a couple of these up every day for a while.
Perch are starting to show up out on the humps in fair numbers too. Try using a jig and minnow for the the combo bite when you want to add a few jumbos to the basket for lunch.
More reports from friends about the Bluegill action and so far, almost all of them involve the "evening bite". Fish are located in weeds where water depth is 6 to 10 feet. My favorite scenario is to locate a patch of cabbage weeds within a thicker patch of coontail or other heavy weeds. We have been tipping a 1/16 ounce jig with a cut piece of night crawler
and working near the bottom near these cabbage patches.
Fishing Update July 8, 2010 After the storm that blew through last Saturday night, fishing was a little bit spotty on Sunday. Since then weather settled down and the temperatures cooled and fishing action really picked back up. Surface temperatures are now in the mid to high 70 degree range everywhere now so the Sunfish, Bass and Crappie action is poised to be shifting into high gear really soon. So far, our best Bluegill action has been in the evening, but we are starting to get a good "bloom" in a lot of areas and as this develops, we'll be able to get more panfish during the daytime.
Walleye patterns vary now with the lake, but two of the most reliable across a wide variety of lakes have been night crawlers on the weedlines and live bait rigging with Leeches on main lake humps and bars. I have been deciding where to fish based solely on the wind, so if we get light winds or flat water, I head out deep. Stronger breezes, I head for the weedline.
If you're into mixed bag fishing, the weedlines also have some nice Bass going right now. Weeds with rocks nearby or mixed in seem to be the best especially for Smallmouth Bass, but a grass line or mixed coontail-cabbage will work well for the Largemouth.
It's been a whirlwind weuek for me and I just got back from a few days out in the field, so I'm playing a little catch up. I will get a more complete reort together tonight and have it ready for Friday morning.
Fishing Update July 3, 2010 Rising water tempertaures change Walleye locations, shift Bass and Panfish action into high gear. The water surface temperatures are now ranging from 70 degrees to as warm as 75 degrees depending on the lake you visit. On an evening trip to one of my favorite "big Walleye lakes" this Saturday, we found that many of the mid-lake bars are now empty of baitfish and Walleyes. Cruising in deep water revealed that most fish are now suspended in open water. There was already evidence of a hard thermocline developing at about 30 feet and virtually all of the baitfish and predators were suspended between 15 and 30 feet. Luckily we found one main lake point that tapered down into the deep water where a school of cooperative Walleyes gave us some action, but on my next trip, I'll be packing the line-counters, crankbaits and lead-core line.
Based on our earlier than average warm spring, it looks like the fish remain on a schedule that's a couple of weeks ahead of what you'd normally expect, so I think it might be a good time to start watching for some of your favorite patterns that normally occur in late July or early August.
Many of the weedline spots that we fished only a week to ten days ago
are now full of aggrssive Largemouth, Rock Bass and Perch so it looks like the mid-summer weedline panfish bite could be gearing up as well. During the next three days I'll be doing some more panfishing and I hope to have some good reports about that by next Thursday morning's radio program on KAXE.
Fishing Update July 3, 2010 Fishing during the windy weather during the past couple of days has forced me back into the shallows. We had some action fishing Walleye in 8 to 12 feet of water using night crawlers, by about 1:00 PM the effects of high sun took over the Walleye bite got tougher. We switched lakes and spent the afternoon fishing for Northern Pike which were a lot more cooperative. Fishing in the heavy wind, on the weedline in 8 to 10 feet of water, the pike were willing to take 1/4 ounce jigs rigged with a 12 inch fluorocarbon leader and dressed with several varieties of artificials including a 4 inch white "gulp" minnow, 4 inch white tubes and the 4 inch "ripple shads". You can use minnows too if you want, but they really aren't needed right now. If we go back to calm conditions, the live bait will become more important.
With water temperatures now hovering at about 70 degrees again, it's getting near time for a decent population of Walleye to set up shop in the heavier weed beds again. So far, there are small packs in a widely scattered variety of locations, but as it warms up, expect to see a lot more Walleye activity in the weeds.
An update on the "Pick it or Ticket" campaign that the DNR is conducting. many of you already know that I have been doing my best to spread the word about alternative ways to handle bait and captured fish without using my livewells for several years now. As careful as I have been, I still had a DNR Conservation Officer, lights flashing and loded for bear, pull me over on Friday. The reason, even though my livewell was empty and my boat plug pulled, there was a little bit of water coming out of the drain hole at the bilge. I was told that the bilge must be drained dry at the landing before proceeding down the road. In other words, no matter how careful you think you've been, you better double check everything because it's just a matter of time before you get stopped.
Here's a link to an article about keeping your bait alive without using any lake water.
Fishing Report July 1, 2010 Musky fishing didn't go as well as we had hoped yesterday. We traveled into the Bemidji area and fished on one Bemidji's great Muskie lakes for a few hours in the morning and came up without a follow or even a sighting. We did come across another Muskie fisherman who had seen one fish, but he also reported that so far, the Musky action had been slow.
As a form of dampening our disappointment, we switched over to Walleyes and found them to be more cooperative. We fished in 8 to 10 feet of water with night crawlers and managed to catch 18 to 20 fish of mixed sizes. Some were small, 12 to 13 inches, but most were between 15 an 19 inches. We tried jig and minnow for a while, but caught only small Northern on that presentation.
New Boating Law For Minnesota Boaters Takes Effect Today July 1, 2010 There are several new state laws intended to cut down on the transportaion of invasive species. Among them is the requirement that all drain plugs be pulled from livewells, bilges and any other device or container that can circulate lake water. Here's a link to the full story on the DNR Website .
Fishing Report June 30, 2010 The ups and downs of Walleye fishing have been evident this week as mid-summer patterns emerge and the typical stormy weather of late June creates the opportunity for some head scrathing. Hmmm, should I fish deep? Go to the weeds? Should I use Leechs, minnows or night crawlers? I've been asking myself all of these questions an an hourly basis since the storms blew through last Thursday and so far the answer has been yes. If you want to catch Walleye consistently right now, you need to use every trick you can think of. During the past few days the two best patterns for me have been weeds and mid-lake humps surrounded by soft bottom. I'm sure that there are some exceptions, but the rock spots that I've checked have had little, if any life around them over the past few days.
As you head out on to the lake, you're going to notice that there are baitfish, insects and young of the year hatches of gamefish every place you look. With all of the extra food in the lakes, the fish can afford to be kind of choosy right now and this will show up as a "boom and bust" cycle. Great fishing for an hour or two and then a strruggle to find more active fish. Some days are better than others and also some times within the same day are better than others.
On calm days, we've been able to fish mid lake structure in 22 to 30 feet of water. Until yesterday (tuesday), we've been able to catch Wallye using jig and minnow on the deeper structures but yesterday it was a total switch to Leeches for us. Fish came in the boat steadily until about 1:00 when fish reacted to the sunny sky and calm seas slowing the pace to a crawl. Low light periods would be the best times to fish for the next few weeks, morning, evening or if the weather is cloudy. Experiment with presentations and remember even though the fish seem to be less active, they are actually feeding more now than they will any other time during the year. The trick is to get to the right spot at the right time, so keep moving and looking for an active school of fish. Start covering ground faster by using spinners and crankbaits more as the water warms up.
Perch fishing has been an option on some of the Deer River area lakes. They are well fed too and the better size fish have been finicky, but we've found some nice fish in the weeds at depths of 6 to 8 feet. Jig and minnow is still the best way to catch these and to help weed out small fish, I use a large minnow 3 to 4 inches is perfect and with the bigger bait, you always have a chance at an extra bonus Walleye.
Todays agenda includes some Musky fishing so I haope to have a good report about that tomorrow morning. When you want to hear the latest updates, listen to KAXE Radio 91.7 FM Grand Rapids every thursday morning at 6:20 for the Early Bird Fishing Guide Report.
Comments or Questions?
Fishing Report June 24, 2010 Heads up for all of you "trophy Walleye" hunters. Whether it was influenced by the up-coming full moon, storm fronts moving into the area or the great food supply concentrated by insect hatches and young of the year minnow hatches, the big Walleye bite has been happening this week. On Wednesday we fished a lake where "eaters" have been common this season, but this time for reasons known only to the fish, we boated multiple 26 inch plus Walleye including two over 29 inches, two over 27 inches and many fish over 24 inches. If catching big fish is your game, you might want to drop your tee time this weekend and hit the lake instead!
Our best bait was night crawlers although we still caught a few fish on a jig and minnow. During the past several days Leeches and Crawlers have alternated betrween days, so don't rule out fishing with leeches either. Our best depth has ranged from 22 to 26 feet, but we have found a handful of fish up in the 12 to 14 foot range as well. Unless the wind is really pounding into the rocks, the shallow bite has been slow, so if you're out on a calm day, I think you can safely spend most of your time fishing deeper, main lake structures.
Fishing Report June 23, 2010 Summer weather, summer patterns prevail. The past week has been full of surprises, mostly good ones, but we have hit a snag or two during the stormy weather that blew in last weekend. Un-stable storm clouds forced us off the lake for a few hours last Thursday, but the fish didn't seem to go off the bite. In fact,
Walleye fishing
has held up fairly well as long as we've been prepared to change tactics frequently. On calm days the main pattern has been to fish deeper mid-lake structure or heavy weeds. When the wind blows, there are still good numbers of fish willing to bite on the shallow weed edges, rocks and gravel bars. The two main patterns I've been watching are the main lake areas where insect hatches dicate Walleye location and the shallower rock structrures that Walleye use on the breezy days. Insect hatches are occurring on several area lakes and where we find the most larvae, we find the most fish. Main lake bars, humps and sunken islands with soft sand or marl bottoms are better than hard, rocky structures, but we have found some fish on deeper rocks too. Leeches and Night Crawlers have become the "go to" choice for Walleye on this pattern.
When the wind blows and we go to the rocks, jigging has been holding up well and since we can get a variety of fish that way, I've tried to keep it up as long as possible. When we want to isolate Walleyes from the other fish on the rocks, we switch from jig and minnow to night crawlers presented on small 1/16 ounce Sneaky Pete jigs.
Perch fishing hasn't been bad this week either. There are a number of shallow rock locations where newly hatched Crawfish have atrtracted good numbers of Perch. On Lake Winnie, we've caught some really nice fish on rocks in the 6 to 10 foot depth range. Jigging works great for this, but don't jig too agressively. Slight twitches and hops will out perform hard snapping or fast movement. I like to weed out the smaller fish, so we stick with fairly large "Walleye-Size" minnows, when the larger Perch are your goal, this will really help.
Crappie and Sunfish appear to have switched over to a mid-summer type of pattern. During the daytime, the presence of fish doesn't necessarily mean that you'll catch them. We spent several hours on Monday looking for Bluegills and found some, but were disappointed when they turned out to be very hard to catch during mid-day. Comparing notes with some of my fishing buddies, it sounds like the Crappie are behaving the same way. Since we've spent most of the week chasing Walleyes, I'm not 100 percent up to speed, but an educated guess would be that we're in the classic early summer, evening bite stretch of the panfish season. As the sun goes down, the panfish typically get more active and if I had some really devoted panfish fans, I'd suggest fishing during the late afternoon and evening. As the water temperatures rise and weed growth thickens, the daytime panfish action will pick back up again.
Finally, the major news of the week has been getting my new boat rully rigged and into service. This is my seventh Lund Alaskan and for the first time, I moved away from the Camo pattern and picked up a very nice looking red version. Speaking strictly from the perspective of a fisherman, this boat rigged with the Mercury 90 HP Optimax is the fish-catchin'ist workhorse on the market. Fast enough to get to the spot, but I don't have to sacrifice trolling speed or boat control. I have ultimate flexibility of where to position the anglers and we can drift, troll or cast in complete comfort. I'll give you some updates on some changes I've made as I get the new rig "trained in" this week.
“Jeff Sundin is a full time, professional fishing guide and founding member of the Northern Minnesota League of Guides. Use the link for more fishing articles and fishing reports. Be sure to listen 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. Check back for a weekly fishing update (usually on Wednesdays). Use this link for information about my favorite Minnesota Fishing Lakes. |
John Armstrong has been the master mind behind the McQuay "Fisharoo" for the past 22 years. John, AKA "Rosebud" announced his retirement from McQuay this year. We'd be sad to see him go, but something tells me we'll see him around at the Fisharoo next year.
Close but no cigar, Here's a peek at Arian Vornbrock's "almost landed Musky" just before the famous last head shake.
One of the higlights of a week fishing the "action bite" was this great family moment for friends who also happen to be long time customers, the Goettls.
We boated and released many Smallmouth in the 3 to 5 pound range. This solid 19 incher was typical of the fish we caught during our trip.
A bonus Walleye like this 28 inch beauty makes the mixed bag style of fishing all the more fun.
Deep water action on Winnie is steady right now with a lot of fish in this 24 inch range. Slot fish (17 to 26 inches) out-number eaters by about 2 to 1 right now so we are rarely coming off the lake with a limit, but the big fish action is fun.
Part of the Snyder clan pictured with Zach Dagel as we head across Lake Winnie to the favorite fishing hole.
Fishing with a jig and minnow, Vicky Latimer caught another Lake Winnie walleye in 24 feet of water.
Schools of small Perch are the main attraction on main lake humps and bars. (click for larger view).
Early evening Bluegill action is good! Darrel handley caught a bunch of these between 7:00 and 8:00 PM.
Kari and August Manzardo show off Kari's 27 inch Walleye.
August Manzardo shows of his own 26 incher caught in 28 feet of water using night crawlers.
Broken sky and breezy weather produces a decent shallow water jig and minnow bite.
Tim Reardon had a lifetime total of one Walleye until his recent visit to Lake Winnie. I think we lost count, but the total is better now.
Above: Bob Halver of Grand Rapids with one of many trophy Walleye we caught on Wed. 6/23/10. Whether it's the up-coming full moon, weather or just plain luck, the big fish bite was on this Wednesday.
Below: Bill Linder and Jeff Sundin
with more large Walleyes during the same trip.
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