Jeff Sundin September 30, 2021 "Leech Lake Lessons In Humility; Again"
The problem with being a good sport is that you have to lose to prove it, I’ve said that before. And yesterday, I had another chance to “prove it” when I lost to Leech Lake, again. Yes, she provided me with one of her period lessons in humility, one of those days when no matter where I go or what I try, walleyes, at least most of them, give me the Class A snub-job.
If she was a real live person, I could imagine our pre-trip conversation going something like this.
Me) “Good morning sweetie, I’m going to bring some boys over today and we’re gonna catch some of your walleyes, okay?”
Her) “Oh, so you think you’re a good enough fisherman to just drop over with “some boys” and catch my walleyes huh? Hmm, well, okay let’s see what you got, show me what you and “your boys” can do with me today then.”
Too sunny, too calm, too whatever; I won’t bore you with explanations and excuses. I’ll just say that in the amount of time I had, 10 hours on the water, I just could not figure out the right pattern.
The good news? During those 10 hours, I did learn that the best bite going on Leech right now is perch and if I were going back today, I’d spend all the time pursuing them. I learned too that some of the smallmouth bass in leech lake are getting big, “Roly-Poly” would be a good nickname for the one in this photo of Tom, she was in the 20+ inch class.
Oh, and one more thing, I learned that even on a tough fishing day, I still can be “lucky” at fishing. I could have been fishing with 3 guys on a meat trip mission to feed their families for the winter, but I wasn’t. Instead, I was working for Bud and Tom, 2 guys who fish a lot and know all about the ups-and-downs of exploring lakes. If it wasn’t for their understanding and appreciation of my efforts, it would have been an even longer-long day!
Surface water temperature on Leech ranged between 62 and 63 degrees. All of the perch that we caught, along with all of the perch that others were catching, came out of the weeds. Some of the perch were nice but expect to weed through a ton of little ones along the way. We found them in water depths of 4 to 7 feet.
The smallmouth bass, along with a couple of pike and the only walleye we caught, came from mid-lake rock reefs in the main lake. I saw enough fish on my Humminbird to make me think I could do better out there under more favorable conditions. Catching that smallmouth, combined with seeing other fish that didn’t strike also convinced me that if I was headed out there again, I would go wherever I need to go and pick up some redtails or creek chubs. Lindy Rigging with the largest minnow I had on hand was how Tom caught the bass. I think that more of those fish would have fallen for a nice lively minnow on a Lindy Rig.
Maybe it’s the warm water temperatures, maybe I just got hit with a zinger yesterday, who knows? Considering how good Leech Lake has been at other times throughout the summer, I’ve gotta believe that there is still a good, reliable fall bite coming. With luck, it will happen during the time when most of us still have our boats out and available to fish it. I'll do my best to share it with you when it does. 
— Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
More Recent Fishing Reports
Winnie 10-01 • Leech 9-30 • ELY 09-29 • LOW 09-29 • Perch 09-28 • Sundin 9-27 • Crappies 9-24 • Sundin 9-23 • Follow Facebook
Wired2Fish Archives "10 Fishing Tricks to Find Loads of Fall Walleyes on Snap Jigs"
"Seth Feider takes the guesswork out of choosing the best lures for smallmouth bass fishing from late summer through late fall.
This comprehensive seasonal progression video breaks the fall period into distinct water temperature ranges; Feider then tells us what baits work best during each window based on years of hunting big bass on Minnesota's famed Mille Lacs and other productive Great Lakes region fisheries.
His lure selection is narrowed down to the following categories:" View Video and Learn More >> 10 Fishing Tricks to Find Loads of Fall Walleyes on Snap Jigs
Lake of the Woods, LOW Tourism September 29, 2021
"The month of October is an excellent time to fish walleyes and the jig bite has begun on the south end of Lake of the Woods. Anglers report that both walleyes and saugers are cooperating very nicely, along with some perch and pike mixed in. Lots of good eaters, along with some sorting of smaller fish. Pike continue to be active with the cooling water temps.
The walleyes continue to transition to fall locations including at 25 to 30 feet of water, in front of Pine Island and to the west along the south shore have been hot.
Most anglers are anchored up and jigging with a fathead or emerald shiner. Strong jig colors, gold, orange, glow white, pink or a combo. Some anglers trolling crankbaits with success. This is a good method if the jigging bite isn't happening or if water goes flat.
If you like the jig bite, anchor up and jig over the side of the boat for a very enjoyable and typically memorable day. Charters and guides are available with area resorts.
Emerald shiners continue to run into the Rainy River and overall the walleye fishing has been good. Most walleye anglers on the river are anchoring up along a current seam or on the edge of a hole with a jig and minnow.
Try different areas. There are 42 miles of navigable river and lots of boat ramps. In some cases, it is helpful to find your own spots and get away from other boats.
Sturgeon activity has picked up as well with good fall reports. A gob of crawlers and/or frozen shiners on a sturgeon rig (18 inch leader made of 60lb test with a 2-3 ounce no roll sinker) is the ticket. The keep season ends September 30, 2021. The catch and release season continues through April 23, 2022.
Up at the NW Angle, excellent fishing continues this week. In U.S. waters, deep mud of Little Traverse Bay continues producing walleyes in 24 to 31 fee of water. Spinners with crawlers or minnows still producing.
Areas with structure and sandy areas in neck down areas continue to hold fish. 14 to 19 feet are good starting points. Jig and a minnow is the go to on structure and neck down areas.
Big crappies being caught on jigs and minnows in 25 to 32 feet around structure. Muskie anglers report good fish being boated trolling and casting shiny crankbaits.
Travel to and from the Angle via vehicle through the 40 miles of Canada is open. Boating into Canadian waters is now open. Please note, no live, frozen or dead bait allowed into Canada from the U.S. The various plastics on a jig are working well. Contact a NW Angle resort for details.Charter boat transport and float planes are still available through the LOW Passenger Service and Lake Country Air." — Lake of the Woods Tourism, (800) 382-FISH
Lake of the Woods, Border View Lodge September 29, 2021
"Anchored and jigging is the norm, this past week we have done little drifting with spinners. Live Shiner on a jig is doing great. Many big fish were caught this past week, not only Walleye but Sturgeon, Small Mouth Bass, Northern and Perch as well.
The fall leave colors are starting to show up. You can watch our webcam from time to time to see them change.
Schools of Shiner minnows are around the Lighthouse Gap and in the river. There has been a steady collection for live bait on our charters each day.
Here is a late September and early October Guided Walleye fishing deal! Charter package specials from September 26th to October 17th. 3 nights lodging and 2 days of Walleye Master Guided Walleye fishing for $426.00 per person, add 8 meals and its only $526.00 per person.
If you have thought about relocating to a location like Lake of the Woods check out our new employment webpage. We have openings available starting in the ice season. https://borderviewlodge.com/employment/
The forecast for this week looks like another repeat. Temperatures from overnight 50’s to daytime 80’s are forecasted this week along with some showers. Don’t forget your rain gear!" — 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge
Ely Area, Arrowhead Outdoors Fishing Report September 29, 2021
"Walleye - Walleyes seem to be confused by the very unusually warm temps this last week. Walleyes still have yet to setup in classic fall locations. Best reports are still largely coming from shallow water. 6-12 feet of water and jig and minnow has been best. Reports from anglers of trolling still be very effective, continue to come in also.
Smallmouth Bass - Smallmouth bass fishing has been excellent for many this last week. Anglers are finding smallies setting up on mid lake humps near deep water. Here smallies are crushing large minnows tipped on a jig. Depth depends largely on the lake your fishing, but 20-30 feet of water has been most commonly mentioned.
Pike - Pike Anglers reported excellent fishing just before to last warmup, but during this warmup the bite seems to of cooled off. When the bite was good, anglers were catching pike with large suckers fished under a bobber or with spinnerbaits and large spoons. Anglers are finding big pike near neck down areas of bays, near river mouths and large rocky points." — Arrowhead Outdoors, 218-365-5358
Jeff Sundin September 28, 2021 "Trading The Trade-Able"
Perch fishing action always ramps up during early fall, or least it always has during the time I've been working as a professional fishing guide. And for me, this is the one time every year when I can usually take off for any lake with a "decent population" of perch and expect to catch enough fish to satisfy my customers. Even if the cost of satisfaction is trying several spots and a variety of presentations before zeroing in on them.
That goal, satisfied perch fishing customers, is easier to accomplish when the weather is foul. But even under bright skies and calm seas, perch on Leech Lake, Winnie and Cass have provided enough action to keep life interesting these past few days. And as the accompanying photo of my friends Keith and Diane Eberhardt, along with their friend Greg reveals, satisfaction was the reward not just for a few hours of diligent searching on Winnie this Monday, but the culmination of 3 days and 3 lakes worth of searching over the weekend.
At this time of year, locating and catching perch revolves around 2 basic things. Location = weeds and food source = minnows. If you can locate a spot that has good weed growth for cover and hosts a decent population of minnows or small gamefish, you are likely to be successful. The degree of success depends on the lake and its present population of perch.
Trying to rank the lakes using some common denominator is darn near impossible, they’ve all been good in their own way. None of them would be my first choice every day, but all of them could easily be my first choice on any given day when weather and wind was favorable for the circumstances. In terms of comparing both the quality and catch-ability of perch in the 3 lakes I’ve fished recently, there have been some very noticeable tradeoffs.
Cass Lake is hands down the place to go for a legitimate chance at the Itasca area’s largest perch. But Cass Lake is also hands down the place to go for a butt kicking if the weather and wind is not right. If there’s a wind blowing and the sky is cloudy, I’ll be on my way. But if the sky is blue and the water is calm, I’ll be singing Dionne Warwick songs as “I Walk On By”. Seriously, I’ve been there under those circumstances and burned up enough brain cells when Cass’ clear water and fickle fish gave me the brush off. I’ll wait until the weather is crummy, then go over there and get even with ‘em.
Leech Lake offered us a mixed bag of perch, pike and walleye this weekend and I liked that. But anybody who fishes on Leech a lot has had one of those days when you catch 20 little perch before catching 1 nice keeper. That was the scenario that played out for us on that trip, some of the fish were really nice, 11-inch class fatties. But there were also dozens of 4-to-7-inch fish stealing minnows and wasting time. To be fair, the weather was not ideal for Leech, semi-calm, semi-bright, semi-everything. When the weather is better, I’ll give Leech another fair chance because I think it could offer some great fishing later.
Winnie offered us the best all-around perch fishing experience. There was a bit more balance between small fish and “keepers. One way to say it is that Winnie’s small perch are bigger than Leech’s small perch, but Winnie’s large perch are smaller than Leech’s large perch. We caught a decent number of 10-inch fish on Winnie, lots of fish between 8 and 10 inches, but only a few 11s.
Winnie’s water color is more favorable for sunny, calm days right now too. A persistent algae bloom is keeping water clarity steady at about 5 feet, give or take, depending on the region where we’re fishing. That darkness was a definite advantage yesterday when the lake was glass smooth and the sun beat down on the surface.
Schools of minnows using the weeds for cover appears to be the prime attractant for the perch. Whenever we could see minnows with our eyes, we could count on catching perch. Pitching lightweight jigs, 1/16 to 1/8 Lindy Live Bait Jigs tipped with fatheads was our preferred presentation. Ordinarily, I can catch some perch using artificial tails on the jig head, but the perch seem to want meat right now and this is not working for me; maybe later.
Eelgrass, (Wild Celery) pictured in the accompanying photo is one prime location for perch. It is present in most Itasca area lakes and was present for sure in all 3 of the best weekend fishing spots.
There is no limitation on how deep this vegetation grows, so knowing what it looks like on your graph is a great idea. The shallow patch of it that we saw on Monday offered a good side-by-side comparison what I saw both visually and on my Humminbird. View >> Eelgrass on Graph
“Fuzzy Stuff”, I’ve called it, holds perch during full, but other fish use it too. I love it because customers can pitch their jigs into it, hop them and swim them and never get stuck, it’s one of my favorite types of vegetation.
I guess I should mention surface water temperatures. Creeping back up over the weekend, 63 degrees appeared to be the average temperature on Winnie yesterday. Saturday morning, Leech Lake surface water fell below 60 degrees, holding steady at about 59.5 degrees. I’ll bet that it rebounded since then too and I’ll have a chance to check during my trip over there on Wednesday. Cass Lake water was right in between, registering 61-61 degrees during my visit over there.
Today marks the return of a “walleye or die” fishing trip for me. So, as much as I’d like to experiment, I think I’ll do the smart guide thing and play it safe on Winnie. Which by the way, was the subject of this Q&A email that came over the wire this morning.
September 28, 2021 — "Where Has All The Water Gone?"
Q) "I know the whole Mississippi chain is suffering low water, but we had a terrible time launching. We launched at the township (Richard's Townsite) boat launch in Bena. I have a Lund, 21 Pro-V Tournament with a Merc 350 4 stroke and the launch was so shallow I trashed a 500.00 stainless prop. We almost gave up putting the boat back on it's bunk style trailer. I would never go back to Winnie if this was the normal. So, my question, is there a good boat launch anywhere where I could launch my boat? Any help would be appreciated. — Larry Pelcher
A) Thank you for the note Larry. If you were at Richards Townsite on Saturday, then it may have been you that we could see from our boat. It didn't look like fun.
No, this is not the norm for Winnie, and for that matter, numerous other lakes around the region. This is about as low as I've ever seen water levels, I doubt they'll get any better over the next couple of weeks.
Right now, best boat launching on the southwest side is at Four Seasons Resort or Becker's Resort in the Mississippi River at west side. For a fee, you can slide your glass boat in and out with no fear of hitting anything or getting stuck.
Another best public alternative is Mosomo Landing at the Little Cutfoot Sioux bridge on Hwy 46, 17 miles north of Deer River. Resorts in that are with good boat ramps are Williams Narrows Resort and Cutfoot Sioux Inn. For a fee, you can slide your glass boat in and out with no fear of hitting anything or getting stuck.
Personally, I use either Williams Narrows or Four Seasons the most. For $20 I get easy launching, secure parking, a fish cleaning station and clean bathrooms for my customers.
Hopefully we'll get some rain or snow soon, we could all use a break from the drought.
October may be just around the corner, but my fishing season is not. I've got trips scheduled for a few more weeks, so the flow of reports won't stop for a while. Watch for updates from Winnie, along with other notable-notes over the next couple of days. — — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Jeff Sundin September 27, 2021 "Pike Fishing, Selecting the Select-Able"
Like I mentioned late last week, the goal for Karen and Kyle Reynolds was to catch their limits of Northern Pike. We already had 2 of them in the freezer, so to bring them to their legal limits, I only had to figure out where to catch the remaining 18 fish: simple right?
Setting a goal of harvesting 18 pike sounds fairly easy, especially if you’re fishing on one of the north central Minnesota lakes that seems infested with little “scissor bills”. But let’s say you’re selective, and that you want to harvest only the “short-but-fat” 20–21-inch eaters, pike that fall below Minnesota’s zone 1, 22-to-26-inch protected slot sizes; then you’ll have your work cut out for you.
The trick is not to figure out where the biggest fish are, and unless the lower size range doesn’t matter much to you, simply figuring out where the most fish are won’t do a lot of good either.
Right now, there are some lakes in the Itasca region offer great fishing for pike that lie within the protected, 22-to-26-inch slot range. Some of them even off a reasonable chance of catching fish above the protected slot, 26 inches and longer. But if your goal is harvesting “the right fish”, then you have to avoid both types of lakes, save those for “fun”, not for harvest. There are other lakes in the region that offer lots of action. Catching little fish, 19 inches and down is a piece of cake, but those fat 20–21-inch fish are few and far between.
For me, the trick to locating lakes where there is an ample supply of short, but well-fed fish is to figure out the food supply. Lakes that have large populations of stunted crappies almost always produce the kind of fish I’m looking for. So do lakes that have lots of the larger shiner species, big lake shiners, golden shiners or sometimes, even spottails if there are a lot of them, seem to help grow decent eating size pike. The information is readily available of the DNR’s Lake Finder Website.
There are certain periods during late summer when casting or trolling for pike works best. But for me, catching the right fish during most of the season means getting our lures deeper than we can by casting or trolling. Just like fishing for big fish, the larger pike tend to take over the best territory, so finding premium spots that hold the “biggest little fish” is the key. Deep points, rock piles, sunken logs, isolated cabbage patches, any structure where fish can get away from hordes of smaller fish.
As far as I’m concerned, the best presentation on structures like these is jigging. Jig and minnow presentations are simple and effective, so are jigs tipped with plastic action tails; l on our trip we used both.
The jig weight depends on both water depth and boat speed. Unlike walleye fishing, I do not want the jigs too close to the bottom, I like them to ride 3 to 4 feet above bottom. So, unless the wind is really strong, 1/8 ounce sizes are my go to choice, sometimes ¼ ounce are called for when the wind is strong or the water is deep, let’s say in the 20 foot range. For pike, I rig a standard Lindy Jig, they have a longer shank hook and I’ll use a leader made with 17-to-20-pound fluorocarbon line.
Pike, on certain days can still snip off the fluorocarbon, but most often they don’t and fluorocarbon doesn’t bend, twist or coil up the way steel does. It’s harder to see too and I think that makes it more effective. Tie the jig head directly to one end of the fluorocarbon, to about 18 inches and attach to your fishing line using a small barrel swivel.
Tip it with a minnow if you like, or use my favorite piece of plastic, YUM’s Pulse Minnow. The Pulse is manufactured as a swim bait, but it just happens to work perfectly on a jig head too. The plastic will catch just as many, or even more pike than minnows will. So, the only reason I ever use minnows is when there’s a chance of picking up an odd walleye, perch or bass.
Most of the time, we jig the lures aggressively, using a sharp snap-fall-snap action. The flashy, fast-moving presentation triggers a lot of strikes. Sometimes though, playing cat and mouse with pike works better. Cast the lure, let it fall and then just swim it in a straight line toward the boat. As the lure gets close to the boat, give it one, sudden and sharp twitch, or snap. You’ll be amazed at how often you will trigger a strike from a pike that was following behind the swim bait.
Set your size limit and stick to it. Our goal of harvesting 18 short-but-fat pike was reached, but it took all day long to do it. We must have caught 100 fish in the process, but by rejecting the really small ones and releasing the protected ones, we were able to gather fish in the 20-to-21-inch range, these are both very filletable and very tasty fish. Not to mention that the uniform size fillets help make perfecting pike recipes easier and more precise.
After the trip, coconut pike delight was on our menu and as usual, it was delicious!
Since the pike trip, I have fished for perch on both Leech Lake and on Winnie. I’ll bring you up to speed about those trips tomorrow, but I’m against the clock right now and gotta get moving toward the lake. If the weather forecast is any indication, anybody going outside should be faced with a fabulous day, I hope that you are one of them! — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Jeff Sundin September 24, 2021 "Tracking Crappie Fishing Trends and Patterns"
Back on September 14th, 2021, in a story titled "Crappies Are Where YOU Find Them", I wasn’t too worried when I wrote, “I worked as fast as I could, searching as many spots as time allowed, but I ran out of hours, before running out of ideas. In lieu of exhausting the entire trip on a failed search for crappies, I opted to spend a few hours poking around in the weeds. A couple of nice walleyes, some decent perch and a bunch of pike validated the idea and gave us something of a late inning rally; it was definitely better than nothing.”
At the time, I was writing about day 4 of the annual “Fun with Dick and Paul”, fall fishing trip. The day we followed a “hot tip” that led to an unsuccessful attempt at finding crappies. I wasn’t too worried at the time because it wasn’t the end of the world if we didn’t have a bunch of crappies, there were plenty of other fish heading south with those boys already. And just because I didn’t land on a school of active crappies that day, didn’t mean that I never would, soon enough, my day would come. It simply meant that in the time we had allotted, we hadn’t located our target species, or at least not active ones.
Reinforcement of the idea that I hadn’t located the right spot came almost immediately in the form of emails and texts from friends. Offering more “hot spots” where I could take Dick and Paul to fill out their limits of specks, they reassured me that the fish were biting, but that I just didn’t know where. They were right, all of them, and I knew that, because I had written about similar instances before. Situations where crappies didn’t turn up in areas where I was expecting them and what I wound up doing to eventually find them.
So, knowing that we didn’t figure out where the crappies were on that trip didn’t worry me. If I’ve learned anything after all these years, it is to read (or remember) my own fishing reports. All I needed to do, really, was to take a drive to any decent crappie lake that wasn’t so prominent on the radar screens of as many anglers. Schools of fish that have not been discovered, or at least not as heavily pressured, always provide better opportunity than ones being pursued constantly.
Fast forward to yesterday, my chance to get even for missing out on the crappies when Dick and Paul were here. I along with long time customers and friends, Kyle and Karen Reynolds took that drive to a lesser-known lake to search for crappies. It took a while to find them, but eventually I did and this time, the fishing worked out better. The search obviously took long enough for Karen to start getting antsy. I could tell when she queried; “you have caught crappies on this lake before, haven’t you?”
It was ironic, she asked me that question at about 10:00 AM and by about 10:02 AM the next words out of her mouth were “OH I Got One!”
Okay, so I went the long way around to say that if you’ve been searching for crappies and haven’t had that much luck, it is not because the fish haven’t shown up in their traditional fall locations. It is either because they are not there at all, or minimally, that they have been so heavily pressured that catching them has become problematic.
The fish we found yesterday were in one of the classic fall locations, stationed along the edges of the lake’s deepest water, but not directly over it. They depth was 27 feet and as you can see by the accompanying image, they were several feet above the bottom.
Fishing vertically, from a fixed position above the school using Lindy Live Bait Jigs, 1/8-ounce size, tipped with small-medium fatheads worked fine. I tried a smaller ice lure, the Tungsten Toad tipped with a tiny artificial tail, but on this day, the small lure encouraged small fish to strike.
The water was just deep enough to worry me about the negative effects of barotrauma, so I opted to switch to the larger lures and bigger minnows to help weed out some of the smaller fish. A few years back, I wrote about using bigger baits to help select larger crappies and it does, and did yesterday, work fairly well.
Most of us who catch crappies in deep water are planning to keep some of them for dinner anyway. So, barotrauma is really only a problem when you’re catching fish that you want to release. So it works even better if we never have to reel them in at all and another trick, shared by a reader works fairly well too at helping to mitigate the barotrauma problem.
The reader advised me that there is a moment when I first feel a strike and set the hook, that I can pause to determine whether or not the fish feels like a good size one. “If the fish feels small, just don’t reel it in, but if it feels larger, bring it aboard”, he said. It takes some discipline, but if you follow his advice, you will see that it is solid. Crappies are notorious for getting off the hook when you give them slack line. When you feel a little fish wiggling down there, stop reeling and let your line go slack and 90% of them will swim away before you drag them up from the depths.
But what if I guess wrong and let a big one get away? That’s part of the fun of fishing, I think. Some of them should get away, probably a lot of them should. That way, we can enjoy some better fishing again in the same lake on future trips instead of chasing around the countryside in search of new “hot bites”.
While we were at the lake, I explored weed beds and shoreline related structure too. We did catch a few rock bass, some small pike, a bass and one walleye. But if there were either sunfish or crappies in the weeds, we did not encounter them there, all of our action was in the main lake basin.
On other lakes, weeds are still hold panfish though, so don’t consider your search exhausted unless you’ve check out both deep and shallow water haunts. Cabbage patches are the best weed cover for crappies, but sunfish love open areas within heavier weed patches. Look for small clearings with gravel or rock on the bottom, gravel points or humps adjacent to heavier vegetation are good spots too.
For today, we have pike on the brain, 18 of them, under 22 inches, for the deep freeze, Kyle instructed. So, I’m polishing up the spinner blades and setting the drags on the Ugly Sticks in preparation for trolling the weeds. Most folks have distain for small pike and won’t care how we do, but if you’re curious, I’ll drop in a few notes on Sunday morning.
In closing, I want to thank the folks who got in touch, trying to help me get some crappies for Dick and Paul. We didn’t take anybody up on their offers, instead, we directed our attention to catching more perch, very popular fish with both the boys’ and their wives. But if it would have been an emergency, I definitely would have taken you up on your offer. So, thank you again! — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Jeff Sundin September 23, 2021 "Lake Winnie Fall Progressions"
I don’t know where this month has gone, but according to my collectable, Beatles model date calculator, we are only “8-days a week” from the end of September! All I can say, as many of my fishing customers have heard before, “Savor the Moment.”
Surface temperatures on Winnie entered the ideal range this week, hovering somewhere between 61 and 65 degrees, depending on the section of the lake we visited. But my first reminder of the brevity of this “ideal period” came about yesterday morning when I saw the first 59 degree reading on the big lake. Now, that was just a temporary dip, later in the day temperatures rebounded to 61 degrees, but don’t get used to the 60s, the 50s are coming soon.
There’s already been so much hubbub about walleye fishing on Winnie that I don’t have much new to add. This week’s reports from the Pines Resort and Bowen Lodge, along with my own report from last Friday, pretty much sum up the way things have been going out there.
The one bit of “new news” that I gleaned from our trip on Wednesday was that almost everybody on the lake was switching over to jig and minnow presentations. Even the most die-hard spinner fishermen began putting away the trolling rods in favor of the jigging poles. In fact, I think it was this Tuesday when for the first time since May, no other rods except my jigging rods were ever taken out of my rod locker.
As the accompanying image of Nathan Milus shows, the 1/8-ounce Lindy Live Bait Jig tipped with large fatheads was the bait of choice in my boat. His wife Kim, not to be left out, enjoyed similar results using the same lures.
Another departure from fishing patterns over the past week was the “scattered-ness” of the fish. There just did not seem to be one area, or section of breakline that held more fish than another. This was good for folks who don’t spend lots of time focusing on the scientific aspects of fishing. All they had to do was move ahead, into the wind, pick out whatever felt like a good starting spot and let the boat drift back along the shoreline. As long as they were somewhere near the drop-off, they would catch fish at random intervals.
You would think that I’d love a nice, easy drifting pattern where fish just come along at random intervals, but it drives me nuts! That’s because I keep burning up valuable brain cells trying to figure out where the “best spot” is. Whenever I can’t find one, I feel like I just started fishing yesterday. Luckily, fish come along often enough to distract me from all that worrying and by days end, everybody winds up happy.
Every day now, somebody asks me about where the crappies are. Until now, I’ve had to just tell folks that I don’t know. With all of the attention these Winnie walleyes have gotten, most of my days have been devoted to walleye or die fishing trips. Today, I’ll have a chance to try something different. I don’t know yet what it will be, it could be perch fishing, or maybe crappies, but over the next few days, it will wind up being both.
What I can say is that I was cleaning fish yesterday and a group of fishermen came into the cleaning station. They did have crappies, not a million of them, but there was a dozen or so and they were nice ones. So, someplace on either Cutfoot or Little Cutfoot, there are enough crappies stacking up to make a game of it, at least for those guys.
Tomorrow, I’ll let you know which way we decide to go today. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Lake of the Woods, LOW Tourism September 21, 2021
"Water temperatures cooling to the low 60 degree range and fall colors starting set the strage for what was a fun week of walleye fishing on the south end of Lake of the Woods. The walleye are are now transitioning to fall locations. Walleyes are setting up across the south shore and with more shiners running, this trend will continue.
Three different methods used to catch walleyes this week. Drifting spinners, trolling crankbaits and anchored up and jigging with a minnow, which is becoming more effective each week. Fall is an excellent time to fish walleyes. If you like the jig bite, anchor up and jig over the side of the boat for a very enjoyable and typically memorable day. Jigging with a frozen shiner or live fathead has really started to be effective as well. Give it 30 to 40 minutes in an area and if there is no action, go set up in a different spot.
Congrats to all Minnesota Tournament Trail tournament anglers this past week. The winning team had a 7-1/2 pound per walleye average for 10 fish. There are a lot of big walleyes in Lake of the Woods right now!
Daily limit is a combined limit of six walleyes and saugers (with up to 4 being walleyes). Don't forget about the protected slot sizes; 19-1/2 inch to 28 inch walleyes must be returned immeditely. Anglers are allowed one walleye over 28 inches in posession.
Pike are active and most are caught but unsuspecting walleye anglers. The feedbag is definitely on.
Emerald shiners continue to run into the Rainy River. Some good runs so far, good angler reports and nice walleyes being caught. Fall on the river is nice as a small boat will work just fine. Most walleye anglers on the river are anchoring up along an edge or in a hole with a jig and minnow. There are 42 miles of navigable Rainy River from Wheeler's Point through Baudette to Birchdale with lots of boat ramps. Sturgeon activity has picked up as well with good fall reports.
Up at the Northwest Angle, excellent fishing continues on both sides of the border. In U.S. waters, deep mud of Little Traverse Bay continues producing walleyes in 24 to 31 feet of water. Gold, white and orange spinners with a crawler or a minnow continue to be effective. As water cools, minnows on some days are outfising crawlers.
Areas with structure continue to hold fish too, 18 to 27 feet of water are good starting points. Jig and a minnow is the goto on structure and neck down areas.
Pike and muskie anglers are locating fish on weedy points using double blade spinners and topwater. A lot of fish are caught on figure eight.
Travel to and from the Angle via vehicle through the 40 miles of Canada is open. Boating into Canadian waters is now open. Please note, no live, frozen or dead bait allowed into Canada from the U.S. The various plastics on a jig are working well. Contact a NW Angle resort for details. Charter boat transport and float planes are still available through the LOW Passenger Service and Lake Country Air." — Lake of the Woods Tourism, (800) 382-FISH
Lake of the Woods, Border View Lodge September 21, 2021
"Our Guides are sharing time on the lake in both Big and Little Traverse Bays. There are schools of Walleye all around the lake. Certain areas seem to have more of the 17-18” Walleye Anglers prefer to take home. Having a limit to take home and eating some fresh while you are here is the norm.
We continue to have days to drift with spinners, but are starting to spend more time anchored and jigging.
The fall leave colors are starting to show up. You can watch our webcam from time to time to see them change.
Schools of Shiner minnows are around the Lighthouse Gap and in the river. There has been a steady collection for live bait on our charters each day.
Here is a late September and early October Guided Walleye fishing deal! Charter package specials from September 26th to October 17th. 3 nights lodging and 2 days of Walleye Master Guided Walleye fishing for $426.00 per person, add 8 meals and its only $526.00 per person.
If you have thought about relocating to a location like Lake of the Woods check out our new employment webpage. We have openings available starting in the ice season. https://borderviewlodge.com/employment/
The forecast for this week looks like another repeat. Temperatures from overnight 40’s to daytime 70’s are forecasted this week along with some showers. Don’t forget your rain gear!" — 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge
Jeff Sundin September 20, 2021 "A Break In The Action?"
Murphy’s Law, Corollary #92021; “The more one wants to please somebody, the greater the likelihood that there will be obstacles standing in the way.”
My friends Erling and Karen Hommedahl have been fishing with me for a long time. We’ve fished in the snow, the rain, gale force winds and even occasionally, when its calm and sunny. Most days I can figure out something to do, but looking at today’s forecast, I’m not so sure about this one. This is not good news for me because of all the people on the planet that I wish to please, the Hommedahl’s rank high among them.
If you’ve been reading recent reports, then you already know that most of my time has been spent fishing on Lake Winnibigoshish. You know too that for the most part, the action has been good over there. But thanks to the significant weather changes we’ve experienced over the past 2 days and the line of thunderstorms that are moving through the region now, all previous reports should now be considered null and void.
My guess is that this will be a slow day at the minnow shop, but if you’re thinking about heading out on Winnibigosh and need some current information. Reports on the Lake Winnie page contain, for the most part, the most up-to-date information available. But these few notes from my most recent trip out there might be helpful.
On Saturday, surface water temperatures had fallen into the lower 60s, they ranged between 61.5 and 64 degrees, depending on the areas we fished.
The stretch of water between High Banks Resort and Nodak Lodge is well known for producing larger size walleyes, that is when conditions are right. Saturday’s strong south winds, an incoming full moon and continued turbid water conditions combined forces to create a classic “east side, big fish bite.” There were numerous reports of anglers catching large walleyes that day, we released numerous fish that we within the “protected slot” and each of my customers also decided to harvest fish that were above the 23-inch size threshold.
Like I said that fishing trip is behind us now, but it won’t be the last time those fish show up there this fall. The presence of such a wide range of sizes tells me that migrations from the lake’s deep water, mid-lake structures toward the shoreline have begun.
Cashing in on the big fish bite isn’t an everyday occurrence, it takes the unique blend of weather, water conditions and wind to churn up the shoreline. But when you observe these elements all coming together, you would be well advised to head that way, because when they do, it almost never disappoints.
If you’re heading out on the lake today, watch the weather, stay close to the calm side and take it slow. If we do decide to fish today, I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow morning. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Lake of the Woods, LOW Tourism September 16, 2021
"There was some great walleye action this week on the south end of Lake of the Woods. A variety of sizes, along with numerous pike, includiong some big ones mixed in.
With water temperatures ranging from the upper 50s into the low 60s, Walleyes are starting to gravitate to fall patterns. Walleyes being caught in various depths, ranging from 13 to 34 feet of water.
Most anglers are still drifting with spinners or trolling crankbaits, but the jig bite is picking up steam. Reef fishing is starting to pick up. Jigging with a frozen shiner on or near reefs is a fall "go-to" and things are just starting.
September and October are excellent months to fish walleyes. If you like the jig bite, anchored up with a jig and minnow, this is a fun time of year.
Emerald shiners are continuing to run into the Rainy River. Some good runs so far and walleyes are showing up. Anglers are catching fish in the river. Fall is here.
Most walleye anglers on the river will anchor up along an edge or in a hole with a jig and minnow. Fishing is taking place from Wheeler's Point to Baudette to Birchdale.
Fall is a great time to fish sturgeon, bass and pike on the river, although the vast majority of anglers are after walleyes.
Excellent fishing continues on both sides of the border at the Northwest Angle. In U.S. waters, deep mud of Little Traverse Bay continues producing walleyes in 24 to 31 feet of water. Gold, white and orange spinners tipped with a crawler or a minnow is effective. Minnows on some days are starting to be preferred by the walleyes. Try both.
Areas with structure continue to hold fish. 18 - 27 feet are good starting points. Jig and a minnow is the goto.
Pike and muskie anglers are locating fish on weedy points using double blade spinners and topwater. Some nice fish boated this week.
Travel to and from the Angle via vehicle through the 40 miles of Canada is open. Boating into Canadian waters is now open. Please note, no live, frozen or dead bait allowed into Canada from the U.S. The various plastics on a jig are working well. Contact a NW Angle resort for details. Charter boat transport and float planes are still available through the LOW Passenger Service and Lake Country Air." — Lake of the Woods Tourism, (800) 382-FISH
Lake of the Woods, Border View Lodge September 16, 2021
"As the anchor and jig bite gets going, we find ourselves spending most of the time drifting with spinners. Our Guides have been back into using frozen Shiners. Using a crawler and a frozen shiner on a 2 or 3 hook crawler harness works well. Starting the day in a warm hoodie or jacket is a good idea as the overnight cool temps are sticking around longer in the day.
We are seeing more schools of Shiner minnows around the Lighthouse Gap and in the river. Again, we continue to predominantly fish both Big Traverse and Little Traverse Bays with the wind speed and direction as the basis of fishing options available. We continue to have a mix of small to trophy size Walleye, and there were many large Northern caught last week.
Here is a late September and early October Guided Walleye fishing deal! Charter package specials from September 26th to October 17th. 3 nights lodging and 2 days of Walleye Master Guided Walleye fishing for $426.00 per person, add 8 meals and its only $526.00 per person.
If you have thought about relocating to a location like Lake of the Woods check out our new employment webpage. We have openings available starting in the ice season. https://borderviewlodge.com/employment/
The forecast for this week looks like a repeat of last week. Temperatures from overnight 40’s to daytime 70’s are forecasted this week along with some showers. Don’t forget your rain gear! FISH ON!" — 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge
Reader Comments September 15, 2021 Labor Day Weekend Walleye and Crappie Report - Shared With Permission by Brandon Flaata
"On 9-13-2021 Brandon Flaata wrote; “Hi Jeff, I know like many things, what happened yesterday is likely not what happens tomorrow. Regardless, I wanted to share my fishing (experiences) on (withheld) Lake over Labor Day Weekend in case you make a trip that way soon and it helps you.
Saturday and Sunday I focused on walleye. Many reports (that I received) had told me the Walleye had moved off mid-lake structure already. So, I focused on southern shoreline structure since it was windy both days. I was staying at (withheld) Lodge, so my focus was on the southern half of the lake and (withheld) Bay.
Fishing was very slow, but I managed to catch a few walleyes on rocky shoreline structure with Lindy Rigs and a fathead (minnow). Very few fish were showing up on my Humminbird, otherwise I would have changed to a jig and minnow if I found an area where it felt like there may be a school of them. No walleye caught was over 12 inches".
Monday the wind was much calmer and had shifted from a northwest wind to a south wind. I decided this was my opportunity to hit some spots around the southern part of the islands (where) I have historically caught some fish. Being the last day I was now targeting anything that would bite.
There is a small rock point I fish often and do well with walleye, but today I found crappies piled up. With every pass at the end of that point using a lindy rig, I caught a crappie that was 11 to 13 inches. I anchored with my trolling motor and tried jigging since they were piled up in a very specific 40-foot area, but couldn't get them to bite on that, so I went back to the Lindy. All in all, I managed to catch around a dozen nice crappies and one bonus walleye in a few hours.
Through the weekend the water temps were sitting in the upper 60s - mornings around 67 and topping around 69 in the late afternoon. The one surprise was catching a walleye in the deep hole in front of (the) Lodge. I was waiting on some family to come down to the beach to enjoy the afternoon, so I decided to take a spin around that hole.
I caught a few walleyes, all of which were actually over the slot! If I knew walleye were there, I likely would have spent more time staying closer to the lodge. What surprised me more about them being there is that hole is simply a bowl and mud bottom - no weeds or rock structure - and the sun was shining.
I'm not sure what I learned with that experience, but it will certainly force me to keep my options open and try areas I don't initially anticipate fish to be holding, because you just never know.
I fish (the) Lake a few times every summer, and each trip always seems like I'm learning the lake all over again. The fish are never where they were the previous trip. If there are any learnings you can share with me or ones you have found useful when you head out there, I'd certainly love to digest the knowledge!" - Brandon Flaata
Jeff Sundin September 14, 2021 "Crappies Are Where YOU Find Them"
Scrolling through the fishing report archives, you’ll notice previous reports about the ups-and-downs of fall crappie fishing. I recall one of “the downs” was about me being surprised when crappies failed to show up at some of my favorite early fall locations. Later, I wrote about the subject after finally figuring out that the reason those crappies were not showing wasn’t because of a delay in seasonal transitions. No, their failure to show up was because they simply were no longer in the lake.
At the time, I wrote, “The cyclic nature of crappie populations has been well known for decades. As soon as a great year class comes along, anglers figure out where they are and then fish them hard. The local population gets depleted, and then those anglers lose interest and move along to wherever the next good bite happens to be.
The cycle itself hasn’t changed, but the timeline has. These days, more anglers are more proficient at both finding and catching crappies, so the boom-bust cycle is accelerated. What that means is that no matter how great the crappie action on your favorite lake was last year, there’s no guarantee that it will produce again this year.”
Those experiences led me to begin a new lifelong project, a perpetual search for fresh crappie fishing territory. I’ve spent a lot of time chronicling my search for fresh crappie territory, so if you’re interested, scroll through the fishing report archives and you’ll find more stories on the subject.
Today, I want to look back and parse out a few words from that original story, these words. “… no matter how great the crappie action on your favorite lake was last year, there’s no guarantee that it will produce again this year.”
On Monday, I learned that I should have written this instead, “No matter how great the crappie action on your favorite lake was a few days ago, there’s no guarantee that it will produce again right now.” In other words, these days crappies come and go even faster than they did a few years ago! So now, the only way that any of us can truly be assured of finding fast, reliable crappie action is to be the one, or one of the ones who locate a fresh school of fish before the masses figure out where they are and how to catch them.
Case in point, Monday September 13, 2021, Dick and Paul would like to catch some crappies and my goal was to help them do that. Knowing that I’ve been doing nothing but walleye fishing for almost 2 weeks, I was smart enough to ask for help. So I dropped a note, seeking help from a friend. He responded almost immediately, advising me about a couple of spots where he’d been catching crappies lately and shared some of the key details. Sounded good to me and I told the boys, we have a plan, at least on paper.
We arrived at the lake, launched the boat and drove to the first spot, … where there was another boat already parked over the top of “crappie hole #1.” Okay, no problem, I said, I have some of my own ideas about the lake, so we’ll just go do our own looking. That’s when I discovered my buddy, in his boat, parked over the top of “crappie hole #2.” We moved down the shore, located a different pack of fish and dropped our jigs in the water. Dick caught a decent crappie almost immediately; I missed a couple of others and then the action died.
I could have gotten stubborn and spent the whole day searching that lake for a different school of fish. But there were still more ideas in the hopper, so I high tailed it to another lake, Bowstring to be exact, where I had both a “hot tip” and ideas of my own. In fact, I was so excited to get to one of my favorite crappie spots that I skipped right over some likely spots along the way. And when we got there, the fish … were gone. “A couple of weeks ago, we caught a nice batch of them right here, but that was then, and this is now,” I said.
I worked as fast as I could, searching as many spots as time allowed, but I ran out of hours, before running out of ideas. In lieu of exhausting the entire trip on a failed search for crappies, I opted to spend a few hours poking around in the weeds. A couple of nice walleyes, some decent perch and a bunch of pike validated the idea and gave us something of a late inning rally; it was better than nothing.
If you were tempted to feel bad for me, or if you think that I’m grousing about the situation, stop, don’t worry, it’s okay. I’m just sharing the information that I have at hand in the hope that it will serve you later, when you’re searching for your own school of fish.
Obviously, Bowstring Lake is not empty of crappies, I just never found the right spot yesterday. But the experience did reinforce an important idea, if I want to catch crappies consistently, I am on my own. My success will depend on my own ability to locate fish and then make them bite.
My buddy tried to help me out, he really did and that was great! But when you think about it, no amount of help from friends is enough. Friends have friends, and their friends have friends and eventually, there are enough “friends” who know about a particular school of fish to reach a point where the spot is almost always occupied by somebody, so chances of fishing there are minimal.
In terms of fishing pressure, no one person ever takes “too many” of the fish by themself, but collectively, “friends” will work on the schools until the fish finally disappear.
I don’t guess that I’ll be the one to ever solve the so-called “problem”. I’ll just have to keep pretending I’m like Amerigo Vespucci, an explorer, searching constantly for new territory. I guess too that I’ll need to keep adjusting my mindset that when it comes to fishing for panfish in the fall, nothing lasts forever. Just because I had a favorite spot last year, doesn’t mean that it will still be a good one this year.
Today, day 5 of Fun with Dick and Paul will likely take place on Winnie. We could still use a few walleyes and perch to fill out their legal limits and there’s always a chance that I could drill into a fresh crappie spot over there too. No matter what, I think keeping busy will outweigh being “species selective” on this one. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Jeff Sundin September 13, 2021 "Prime Pattern For Portly Perch"
Day 3 of fun with Dick and Paul was slated to be a calm, sunny day, not the sort of day that trips my trigger for walleye fishing.
Knowing that both Mrs. Williams and Mrs. Kautza have strong fondness’s for perch and being a crowd pleaser at heart, I considered it my moral duty to use the day to try and please them. So, as we drove out of the Timberlake Hotel, heading in the direction of Cass Lake, I muttered, “I’m not going to try and get too cute today; I’m resolved to the idea of catching perch, so those fish better be there and if they are, we’ll all be happy.”
At the landing, most of the parking spaces were full. I mentioned to the AIS inspector that it looked like lots of folks thought this should be the place to be. “Lots of folks do think this is the place to be, she replied.” So, after the usual pre-trip inspection, we headed for the first spot with heightened optimism. Along the way, my Humminbird revealed that surface water temperature was 65 degrees, ideal for the early fall perch pattern I was hoping to take advantage of.
The best perch of the entire trip came on the first drop, at the first stop. Paul dragged out a pot-bellied perch in the 13-inch range and it looked like the game was on for sure. After that though, the rest of the action at that spot consisted of smaller perch, small pike and a couple of lost walleyes. Maybe this weed bed would work better later, after the small pike take their afternoon naps, I reasoned.
A move to a patch of eelgrass where we’d caught perch before worked out better. There were perch of varying sizes, anything from 4-inch fish, all the way up to 11 inches, nothing much larger than that. There were also a few pike and 2 wandering walleyes that we harvested as a bonus. Even perch prefer more wind and less sunshine, so the action was not fast, in fact it took all day long to get the fish we wanted. But, there was enough action to keep the fishing interesting, and enough quality to make the effort worthwhile.
The eelgrass, AKA wild celery grows to a depth of about 7 feet, and you’ve read before that wherever I find it, there are usually some perch in the area. “Fuzzy Stuff” is one term that I’ve used to describe it before, that’s what it looks like on your graph, like somebody scribbled in a pencil sketching of grass on the bottom. One thing I like about it is that folks don’t get snagged too much when they’re using a jig and minnow. We do feel the grass, and we do get hung up a little bit, but the jigs typically pop out easily and rarely get clogged up.
Over the past week, there have been similar spots on Winnie where perch are holding in the eelgrass too. Leech lake has a lot of it as well and while I haven’t been there recently myself, it wouldn’t be a surprise to learn that somebody has found some of those portly portage bay perch in a similar pattern.
For you, there may be other spots and other lakes that come to mind, places where you’ve encountered a similar situation. If so, this is probably a good time to check them out. If you haven’t fished the pattern before, keep an eye open for patches of wild celery and when you find one, drop in a jig and minnow to see if there are perch, or any other fish on hand.
Today, day 4 of Fun with Dick and Paul, I hope that crappies will get some attention from us. So far, the action for them has been spotty, so I’m not sure how many we’ll find or where we’ll find them. But we definitely will give it a good effort and whatever I learn, you’ll learn too. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Jeff Sundin September 12, 2021 "Lopsideness, Presenting the Presentable"
Beginning with less fanfare than usual, the fall 2021 session of “Fun with Dick and Paul” is already about to enter day 3.
There’s less fanfare this year, I guess, because we opened the trip by fishing on Winnibigoshish and there’s been so much news from the lake already, that it didn’t seem like we had much in the way of a “breaking news” story. But there was dramatic reinforcement about one fact of fishing Winnie on Saturday; when the chips were down, she saved my butt.
Our first lake of choice didn't pan out, while the original idea looked good on paper, the fishing action was minimal. So now in hurry up offense mode, we headed for the relative safety of Winnie, hoping that she would, as a I said, save my butt.
Arriving at William’s Narrows Resort no earlier than 3:00 PM and fishing the big lake no later than 5:40 PM, including travel time, we were able to head for the Gosh Dam Place with enough walleyes for their fish fry for 4 people. After we were finished eating, I still had a few fish left over to freeze for Dick and Paul’s ride home. That’s not bad under the circumstances, not bad at all, I don’t think.
I remember the comments submitted by Eric Stone a couple of weeks ago, particularly this one. "There were plenty of 10-to-13-inch walleye, we must have caught over 150 'eyes in the 10-to-13-inch range. Like every other year, we hear from locals that we will get plenty of 15 inches 'eyes next year. This seems like a laughable excuse because we come at the same time every year and always find the same thing (mostly small fish); but fishing is still good."
Admittedly, Eric is right about the massive number of small fish in the lake right now. The 2019-year class of walleyes does seem to dominate the action and the 11-to-13-inch fish from that year clear outnumbers the larger, 2018-year class of fish significantly. As you can see by the accompanying photo, even fingerlings from the 2021 year class are present and "biting".
That said, many of the better anglers on the lake have already set their lower-end size for “keepers” at 14 inches. And over the past 10 days or so, there will be more (2018-year class) 15- to 16-inch fish in a typical one-day creel than there will be 14-inch fish. Recently, there have also been more fish in the protected slot moving in and out of shoreline breaks. We catch at least a couple of 20-to-23-inch fish every day, sometimes more and sometimes larger, “overs” as well.
We already knew that 2014 thru 2017 offered little in the way of a strong year class of walleyes, so it should not surprise anybody that there still is a shortage of fish in the 16-to-20-inch range. With all of the pressure on fish from the 2018-year class to provide protein for everybody that wants a fish fry, it is understandable that it isn’t easy for the current crop of “keepers” to keep up with demand. However, in the very foreseeable future, remaining fish from the 2018 year class of walleyes, combined with the massive 2019 year class will provide anglers with an excellent couple of seasons.
It won’t be too long after that, when we will be presented with another period of “lopsidedness” in the year classes. The period when 2018 and 2019 fish enter the 18 to 23 inch protected slot. That period will be a lot of fun for those of us who love "CPRing" Winnie’s big fat slot-fish, I think it will be a blast! But anglers remembering the boat loads of small fish we are catching now are liable to grumble about a relative shortage of smaller fish compared to fish in the protected slot.
Oh no, we don’t have to worry about that, some will say. “We have a good handle on management and with 2020 and 2021 year classes looking fairly good, the period of bounty will continue for years to come.” Right, maybe, but as a student of history, I’ll politely disagree. In my opinion, there are so many hungry walleyes in Winnie right now, that survival is going to be an uphill battle for fish from the 2020 and 2021 year classes.
I think you should mark this date on your calendar, September 12, 2021. This is the date that Jeff Sundin went out on a long, skinny limb and predicted that we have about 2 more seasons of “Easy Fishing” for eaters. After that, we’ll still be having a lot of fun, but stories recounting the days of catching a 150 little fish will be temporarily behind us.
So, I say enjoy it while it lasts and when you see anglers like Dick and Paul on the lake, give them a gigantic thumbs up. Why would I do that, you’re asking? Because Dick and Paul are selective, in fact I think the most selective anglers that I ever fished with. They enjoy catching numbers of fish, but not necessarily harvesting all of them. If the fish they catch are not “just the right size”, they’re gonna be released and this measured method of harvesting fish is wiser than you may realize.
I’ve written about this before, but it is worth repeating. On a lake which has a protected slot, waiting for the fish to reach sizes as close to the slot as possible makes a lot of sense. Why harvest a 13-inch fish today when there are already 16-inch fish in the lake? Next fall, that 16 inchers will be poised for entry into a long period of “protective custody”, but that 13 inch fish would have been a perfect eater.
Stacking, a term used in certain DNR Fisheries circles to describe what happens when there are too many large fish in any given body of water, begins to cause trouble. It’s not easy for me to explain the theory entirely. But in layman’s terms, the lake already has so many fish in it, that nothing ever triggers it to produce another large year class of fish. Some have said that this was part of the trouble for Winnie when the 2014 through 2017-year classes never materialized. The massive class of 2013, some of which are still being caught today, were responsible, in part, for holding up production of another strong class of walleyes.
In other words, by harvesting fish in the smaller size spectrum now, we anglers could actually be both accelerating the decline of “eaters” in the lake, while at the same time, decelerating the lake’s ability to produce additional strong year classes of walleye in the future.
By now, many of you have likely discounted me as being full of Bas in B, S as in S, but hold on a minute. Maybe this information is correct, and maybe it’s not, but don’t shoot the messenger! I have only reported here what I’ve been told by some of Minnesota’s better fisheries biologists. I think it is worth considering and if nothing else, being more careful about which fish we harvest now, will at the least extend the amount of time that we have to enjoy this fine fishing!
I’m just saying, that would be fun for everybody, not only Dick and Paul! — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Ely Area, Arrowhead Outdoors Fishing Report September 11, 2021
"Walleye - Here today, gone tomorrow, has been the story for walleye anglers this last week. Anglers reported having great success one day, in shallow water or deep water, then return the next day to find nothing. Walleyes are clearly on the move, but are biting in you can get your bait in front of them.
Anglers are finding many walleyes in shallow, 10 ft or less, during the early morning or evening hours. There also remains a few reports of cabin owners catching walleyes right off their dock. Here, jigs tipped with crawlers or spinner rigs tipped with crawlers has been most effective. Deep water trolling and leadcoring has maybe been the most effective way to catch walleyes this last week. Anglers have been trolling large crankbaits 20-40ft down over 20-60 feet of water. During the day, walleyes are relating close to the bottom and can be found near points and shallow mud basins, but during the evening hours they will move out and suspend over deep water, chasing ciscos.
Smallmouth Bass - Bass anglers have been finding more and more bass sliding out to sunken islands and more and more reports of big minnows working better and better have been coming in. Falling water temps have the Bass getting ready for winter, so anglers looking to catch some of the biggest smallies in the lake, now is the time! Smaller smallies continue to be found shallow in bays or around islands. They continue to hit spinnerbaits, in-line spinners, soft plastics and topwater, but bite is quickly cooling off.
Pike - Pike are enjoying the recent drop in water temps and have started to return the shallows. Cabins owners have begun catching quality pike right off their docks again, with large suckers fished under a bobber. Anglers looking to target them should start focusing on rocky points and mouths of shallow bays. Large spoons, large spinnerbaits, topwater and large suckers are all very effective on pike this time of the year. Early morning is typically best for bigger pike right now.
Lake Trout - Lake trout anglers continue to report good fishing for them this last week. Trolling spoons behind down riggers has been the best technique, but leadcoring deep diving crankbaits has also been very effective. Anglers fishing from a canoe have been jigging heavy 1 1/2 to 2oz bucktails, tipped with either a gulp minnow or sucker minnow, over 30-80 feet of water. Anglers should focus more and more on rocky shorelines." — Arrowhead Outdoors, 218-365-5358
Lake of the Woods, LOW Tourism September 8, 2021
"Another great week of walleye fishing on the south end of Lake of the Woods. The 20 to 34 foot water depth range is still holding schools of walleyes in a vartiety of sizes.
Most anglers are still drifting with spinners or trolling crankbaits. But, as the water begins to cool, the jig bite will pick up. There are already a good number of walleyes across the south shore and with more shiners running, this trend will continue. Reef fishing will get better as the water cools too and depending upon the day, fish might be staged on top, on the sides or adjacent to the reef in the mud.
More and more emerald shiners are showing up in the Rainy River. There have been some good runs so far, and they will intensify soon, Mother Nature makes the call on when and how things happen. The geese are flying, the water is cooling and more anglers are catching walleyes in the river. It's not a slamfest yet, but the numbers of walleyes are definitely increasing. Fall is here.
Most walleye anglers on the river will anchor up along an edge or in a hole with a jig and minnow. Walleyes are still hitting crankbaits and spinners and these can be effective in locating fish.
September and October are excellent months to fish walleyes, but fall is also a great time to fish sturgeon, bass and northern pike on the river.
Up at the NW Angle, great fishing continues on both sides of the border. In U.S. waters, deep mud of Little Traverse Bay continues producing walleyes in 24 to 31 feet. Gold, white and orange spinners with a crawler or a minnow is effective. Minnows on some days are starting to be preferred by the walleyes. Try both.
Areas with structure typically holds some fish. 18 to 27 feet deep are good starting points. Don't be afraid to try numerous "goto" spots until you find fish.
Pike and muskie anglers are locating fish on weedy points using jerkbaits and topwater. This action typically increases as waters cool.
Travel to and from the Angle via vehicle through the 40 miles of Canada is open. Boating into Canadian waters is now open. Please note, no live, frozen or dead bait allowed into Canada from the U.S. The various plastics on a jig are working well. Contact a NW Angle resort for details. Charter boat transport and float planes are still available through the LOW Passenger Service and Lake Country Air." — Lake of the Woods Tourism, (800) 382-FISH
Lake of the Woods, Border View Lodge September 8, 2021
"We are excited to see some shiner activity the last couple of weeks. The schools seem to be getting larger. We do not take any at this time, it is too soon and the water temp is a bit warm to treat them properly and make good bait out of them frozen. Typically, these are the ones that get mushy when they thaw.
There are options on how to freeze emerald shiners with salts etc, but the best ones hold up after the water temp drops to about 45 degrees. Of course, there are many opinions on the matter, to us experience is what tells us when and how to make frozen Shiners usable as bait.
We continue to fish both Big Traverse and Little Traverse Bays with much success drifting with spinners. We continue to have a mix of small to trophy size Walleye.
Here is a late September and early October Guided Walleye fishing deal! Charter package specials from September 26th to October 17th. 3 nights lodging and 2 days of Walleye Master Guided Walleye fishing for $426.00 per person, add 8 meals and its only $526.00 per person.
If you have thought about relocating to a location like Lake of the Woods check out our new >> Lake of the Woods Employment Page. We have openings available starting in the ice season.
Temperatures from overnight 40’s to daytime 70’s are forecasted this week along with some showers. Don’t forget your rain gear!" — 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge
Wired2Fish September 2021 "Humminbird Introduces New Upgrades to ICE HELIX Lineup"
"The same Humminbird technology that has been dominant on the water is now fully integrated into the ice fishing product line, thanks to a handful of new product introductions. Ice anglers will now have access to an upgraded HELIX® lineup with bundles that include Humminbird MEGA Live Imaging™ and Humminbird MEGA 360 Imaging®. In addition, anglers will have access to a purpose-built Premium Ice Shuttle, new lithium batteries included in select bundles as well as adapter and conversion kits to fit nearly every on-ice electronics need.
Humminbird has created a turnkey option for the ice angler looking to harness the power of the award-winning Humminbird MEGA Live technology. With Humminbird MEGA Live, the angler can see fish, bait and structure in real-time with no gaps in sonar coverage, powered by the unmatched detail and clarity of ..." Learn More >>Humminbird Introduces New Upgrades to ICE HELIX Lineup
Jeff Sundin September 7, 2021 "Rolling Into The Fall Fishing Season"
Before the Labor Day holiday, Lake Winnie had been my home away from home. In fact, I don’t think I fished any other lake since August 25th, when I fished with the Shouse family on Big Sandy Lake.
Fishing patterns on the big lake had been incredibly consistent. Surface water temperatures hovered around 67 degrees, many fish were stacked up along the shoreline breaks on all 4 sides of the lake, others were located on isolated rock structures and still others were holding on deep, mid-lake bars.
Variable wind conditions were the only consideration in deciding which direction to go each day. If proper speeds and depth could be maintained, trolling spinners was good as gold. Whenever trolling became problematic, jig and minnow presentations picked up the slack. But for many, jig and minnow fishing took a lot of skill and the lake, in my mind, still had not arrived at the full-scale jig and minnow period.
As the accompanying photo shows though, Mike Nolan’s grandson Clark, turned out to be a handy man with a jig and minnow. Walleyes like the one he’s presenting are turning up on a more regular basis every day. In fact, walleyes of every shape and size are showing up in shallow water and the size-phenomenon that we experienced last fall appears to be playing out again.
Instead of catches dominated by small, 10-to-12-inch 2019-year class walleyes, 14-to-16-inch 2018 year class fish are becoming more plentiful all the time. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a lot of small fish biting, but harvesting nice size “keepers” in the 14 inch and larger range is now a goal that can be achieved by most anglers.
Panfish had not yet entered the fall mode last week, there were more crappies located in the weeds than there were in open water. Sunfish were still making anglers stay out late to catch them, staging short-but-sweet feeding runs just before sunset. And perch were scattered, some using weeds, others holding on rocks and still more roaming the big lake’s massive sand flats.
As water temperatures cool, we should see an uptick in daytime action and there should be noticeable shift in panfish location. I’d love to see them moving toward open water soon, but I’ve learned to be careful what I wish for. If the weather cools down too fast, it will send the action into a short-term tailspin. I’d rather watch the fall patterns develop more slowly, gaining momentum daily rather than suddenly be thrust into the cold water period. That’s not up to me though, I’ll adjust to whatever Mother Nature dishes out.
I’ve used the past 3 days to get as rested as I can. But with Labor Day behind us and the family vacation season winding down, boat traffic on the lake will take on a much more serious look. Die hard anglers, hoping to cash in on fall fishing action are arriving now and many of them will be fishing with me. In fact, I’m looking forward to spending almost every one of the next 40 days entertaining customers in the boat. I’m sure some days will be better than others, but all of them will provide valuable information for fishing updates as we roll into the final 1/3 of our fishing season.
When folks get in the boat with me, they often notice that I don’t spend much time using my cell phone. For me, it makes sense to devote my attention to providing them with the best possible service, instead of worrying about random distractions delivered to my inbox. Admittedly though, when it comes to staying in touch with legitimate business inquiries, getting in touch with me can be frustrating.
This weekend, we took one step that should help make contacting the office phone easier. I replaced my antiquated “land-line” with a mobile phone. So, not only I will know when prospective customers call or send text messages, but I’ll also have documentation about when the inquiries arrive. It still won’t be easy to contact me at work, when I have customers in the boat, and I apologize for that. But it will make customer inquiries easier to initiate and allow me to be more prompt about returning phone messages.
Everything you need to know about getting in touch can be found here, at the contact page of the website. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Jeff Sundin September 3, 2021 "These Things Must Be Handled Delicately"
“These things must be handled delicately.” So said the wicked witch to Dorothy as she attempted to figure out a spell that would allow her to gain possession of the ruby slippers. When my kids were little, we used to watch that movie, the Wizard of Oz repeatedly and this was one of my favorite scenes to reenact with them. Over time, I’ve learned that sharing my opinions about fishing is like that too, these things must be handled delicately.
It’s only natural that when anglers have a good fishing experience, they want to call attention to their success. So, sometimes, friends and fellow anglers get in touch to share their fishing stories with me and usually, I love it! Sometimes during the conversations though, I shrink, becoming a quiet listener who replies with your basic, “that’s nice”.
Like the recent conversation with a friend who gleefully reported catching some nice sunfish. “We caught some little ones, but some of them were good keepers, you know, those big, dark bulls that fill up your whole hand!”
This was one of those times where there wasn’t much I could say. He was so excited about catching those fish that I could not burst his bubble. How do you tell somebody that they are doing something that should be avoided, without hurting their feelings or worse, making them angry?
Well, if your me, you write little reminders like this one about harvesting sunfish; which ones we should and which ones we shouldn’t. For anybody who wants to be educated, there are so many articles out there already that there’s no need to re-hash the same content over again. Instead, below are some links that take you resources that will help explain why releasing large, male sunfish is a fantastic idea.
I am not the fish police and It’s none of my business what anglers want to fish for. If it’s legal, I believe that everybody should be free to choose which fish they harvest and when they choose to harvest them. But sometimes, mostly quite innocently, folks make decisions that work against their own long term fishing interests. So, for anybody who wants to catch more big sunfish in the future AND would like to learn how to improve the chance to do that, check out these related stories and DNR Links.
MN DNR Quality Sunfish Initiative • What's the Value of A Big Bluegill • Finding Better Bluegill Lakes • Which Bluegills Should I Harvest? • Quest For Quality Bluegills
If your plans are to simply harvest the biggest sunfish you can get, no matter what, then have fun. There’s no way that I could ever influence your thinking about that anyway and I’m not going to try. Please just don’t complain to me when you can’t find those big bulls anymore, it will be too late to worry about by then. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Ely Area, Arrowhead Outdoors Fishing Report September 1, 2021
"Lake Trout - With cooler water temps, there has been a sudden jump in lake trout reports. Angler have been catching quality lakers trolling deep diving crankbaits or trolling, trolling spoons with either leadcore or down riggers. Anglers have been finding them anywhere from 35-50 feet down in 40-90 feet of water. Look for schools of bait and you will find lakers!
Walleye - Walleye fishing has been good to excellent for many anglers this last week. Reports continue to come in, of anglers catching nice walleyes right off their docks during the evening hours, on many area lakes. Here jigs tipped with either half a crawler or with a minnow has been most effective when fished in 10 feet of water or less. Other anglers have reported catching good numbers of walleyes jigging with jigs tipped with pike suckers around sunken islands in 25-30 feet of water.
Trolling large crankbaits, with leadcore, over large, deep water flats, in 25-30 feet of water has also been very effective for anglers.
Smallmouth Bass - Bass anglers continue to find more and more smallies setting up, out on deep mid-lake humps. Here anglers are, more often then not, catching them while looking for walleyes. These smallies have been hammering larger minnows like big pike suckers, tipped on a jig. For the rest of the smallies that haven’t moved out, they are hitting hitting spinnerbaits, beetle spins, crankbaits and even some topwater bait, yet. Anglers should expect the topwater bite to really cool off as water temps continue to drop.
Crappies - Crappie fishing is where the best fishing is being found right now. Anglers fishing all over have been reporting excellent crappie bites happening. Schools of crappies are being found in and around just about anything they can relate too. Downed trees, lily pads and cabbage beds have all been holding good numbers of crappies. Small jig, tipped with a minnow, jig and twister and small beetle spins have been very effective." — Arrowhead Outdoors, 218-365-5358
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