FishRapper Archived Fishing Reports Section
July 2014 Fish Reports

Fishing Report July 31, 2014 - Sunfish and Bass, Open Water Head Scratcher
Hoping to find some above average Sunfish for a special project, I returned to the scene of my Bass fishing charter from last Saturday. During that trip we had taken a break to gather some eating fish for a fish dinner and I thought the lake had a lot of potential.
We found fish and I still think that the lake has potential, in fact if all I needed to do was gather a basket full for dinner, it wouldn't have been any problem. But on Wednesday I was looking for something special to happen, something more important than a simple basket full of fish. It turned out that we were close, but by the time we wrapped, the circumstances convinced me that I’ll just have to be patient and wait for my next opportunity.
Fishing always throws out a curve ball though and luckily, we still learned something new on this trip. We discovered that the Li'l Guy makes a good search bait for Panfish. Here’s how that happened.
Initially, I did what I usually do; I watched the Humminbird until I spotted some fish on the screen. Once I did, we stopped and attempted to zero in on the school using the conventional, vertical approach. It wasn't too hard to catch the first few fish, they readily struck 1/16 ounce Lindy Jigs tipped with a cut piece of night crawler.
The problem was that the fish were flighty, always moving and one minute they’d be under the boat and the next minute they’d be gone.  In an effort to find more fish, I began moving the boat slowly looking for new schools of fish. At the same time, we tried a variety of baits hoping to discover that there watch a magic trick that we hadn’t learned yet.
By doing that, I was hoping that we could either trigger more strikes or at least single out some larger fish by moving around.
Trolling spinners was an idea, but the water was deep and I didn't want to rig heavy weights. Beside that, I really felt like trying something new anyway and I had an idea.
The Li'l Guy was developed primarily as a Walleye bait, it seemed to me that the hybrid bait could have a lot of potential as a search bait for Panfish. We already know the Bluegills love to strike our spinners as we fish for Walleye, so why wouldn't they strike this bait too?
These baits work best when trolled at an intermediate speed. Instead of trolling at typical spinner fishing speeds of 1.1 to 1.3 MPH, troll the Li'l Guy slower; at speeds of .6 to .9 MPH. That allows me to cover more water, but at a speed that allows the fish plenty of time to react.
The large, crank bait type float provides a lot of attracting power too and the live bait helps trigger the strikes.
Once we rigged them up and began trolling, it didn't take too long to catch some fish. We rigged a couple of them with night crawlers, strung between the two hooks and one of them with a small leech on each hook. They both worked, but I think that the night crawlers worked the best.
I'm convinced that if we'd just kept on trolling around, we would have caught plenty of fish. But by now, time was getting short and we knew what we needed to know. Now it was time to have some fun.
While we were on the prowl for Panfish, we'd picked up a few Bass. It seemed like they would be active, so we re-rigged with Bass tackle and headed for some of the lakes better Bass fishing spots.
On a scale of 1 to 10, the Bass action was about a 5. They were more than willing to strike our worms when we found them, but they were scattered and hard to find. In fact, some of the lakes prime spots that usually produce multiple hook ups, now only produced singles, maybe doubles and many of them were smaller than average. Luckily, we found enough of them to produce a nice highlight reel, but I couldn’t help but wonder. What about those fish that we caught earlier, in deeper water?
Now that we were out of time, it was too late to do much about it, but I couldn't help thinking about those Bass that we caught while we were searching for Panfish. I think that's where I missed my turn; I should have taken some time to work that deeper, open water for Bass instead of rushing back into the “old reliable” spots.
I'll just bet you that the larger Bass were out there chasing those Panfish and while we were working on the spots where the fish used to be, they were out there feasting on Sunfish.
So as usual, I left the lake realizing that I have yet another homework assignment on my hands. Now I have to learn how to be a better drop shot fisherman. After I get that figured out, then we’ll go back out there for a re-match. Oh and Yes, when I figure it out, you will be the first to KNOW!

Fishing Report July 30, 2014 - Expect the UN-Expected ...
That's the secret to understanding the warm water season in Northern Minnesota. In spite of what folks may have heard about the doldrums of fishing the "Dog Days" of summer, this is the time when fish are the most aggressive.
Right now, their metabolism is high and they are hungry. That explains why we can rig up our spinners, pin on a 1/2 night crawler and start catching every kind of fish that swims in a lake. All of them located in the same spot, all at the same time.
On Tuesday, we paid Pokegama Lake another visit. A trip to the lunker hole in search of Mr. Big yielded mixed results. We caught some nice fish and had opportunities to catch others, but from what I could see, I think that we've turned the corner heading out of the “peak Walleye bite” and into a new season.
The typical presentation, Lindy Rigs and large minnows continued producing fish. By now you've heard ... learn more >> Grand Rapids Fishing Reports .
(7/30) Fenwick Fishing Rod Giveaway from Wired2Fish; "Fenwick is a legendary name in fishing rods and was one of the first companies in the industry to build rods based on blank action. They called it “Power” and continue to build technique specific rods for both casting and spinning.
They just announced several new rod designs at ICAST and we are going to give you a chance to win one of the new spinning rods" Click to learn more and enter >> Fenwick Fishing Rod Giveaway . (8/12)

Fishing Report July 29, 2014 - Pulling Blades For Weedline Walleyes
If there's one thing that I've learned this summer, it's that you can't count on anything to stay the same for more than a day or two.
Walleyes that are in deep water today might be in the weeds tomorrow. Walleyes that love night crawlers at 10:00 Am might want minnows at noon and anglers who don't adapt, get left behind.
That's what could have happened to me on Monday when my all-time favorite summer pattern for catching Walleyes was failing me. Luckily, I remembered to take some of my own advice and re-rigged before giving up and moving on.
After several days of catching walleyes easily on my old reliable 1/16 ounce jig tipped with a night crawler, it seemed like a no-brainer for us on Bowstring Lake.
Bowstring Walleyes are typically very susceptible to this approach and my confidence in the presentation is as high as you can get. I was even more convinced when Peter tossed his jig into the lake and pulled out a 15 inch fish on his first cast.
The problem was that from then on, we could easily get the fish to strike the worms. But after feeding out line, taking out the slack and setting the ... there was never anything there. All they were doing was teasing us, picking up the bait, swimming away and then dropping it.
Okay so here we go again, I asked everyone to take a break while I got rid of all the jigs and set everyone up with spinners. Once everyone was ready to fish, I started backing up along the weed line and asked everyone to cast the spinners into the water.
I cautioned them that this might not be the answer, but I added that if it was, it would be ... WHAM! Ashley had a nice Walleye hooked up and into the net within a minute. There it was a nice 16 inch Walleye, perfect for our shore lunch except for one thing. My crew had a few extra rules to play by on this trip.
Paul and Peter love fish and whole heartedly supported the idea of a shore lunch, in fact that was a primary goal. Ashley on the other hand is a vegetarian, she loves to fish too, but she's not interested in killing the fish to have the food. So Ashley's rule was simple; "If Peter wants to eat fish, he's gonna have to catch his own, this one has to go back".
Happily, this little twist didn't bother anyone, including the fish that were now being more than cooperative. That’s all they wanted, forget about the finesse and hit ‘em head on with the “bull in a china shop” approach.  
As we trolled along the weed edges, hook ups were frequent now and by lunch time, there were plenty of Walleyes and Egg Salad Sandwiches for the shore lunch.
The presentation was simple, we used 3/16 ounce sinkers and single hook Lindy Spinners with #3 blades. On Monday, the Walleyes seemed to prefer the White beads that come on the Tulibee or Shad pattern blades.
Key depths were 8 to 9 feet, but it was the presence of weeds that made the system work. The trick is to stay close enough to trigger strikes, without getting so far into the weeds that everybody gets snagged. Trolling at 1.1 to 1.3 MPH was just about perfect and once we were dialed in, the action was good.
By days end, we had a total of 9 solid keepers in the cooler and Ashley had released another half dozen. The boys got their food, Ashley had some fun and they all lived happily... :)!!
(7/29) From The Iron Range, Greg Clusiau wrote; "Another trip had me once again focusing on walleye but for the first two hours it was nothing but “northern city.” Pulling a crankbait, they were jumping on that thing every five minutes or so. It’s fun but not what I was looking for.
I eventually found the walleye and went to work using a crawler harness on a bottom bouncer and put together a very nice limit of 16" fish in short order. Sometimes it pays to ..." Learn More >> Read Greg Clusiau's Full Report .
(7/29) From Lake of the Woods, Mike Kinsela, Border View Lodge; "Another great week of fishing! Cover Big and Little Traverse Bays for the past week has been successful. Generally fishing from Garden Island to Little Oak Island or along the Northwest Angle has been doing well. Monday night the rain gauge was over flowing with at least 6 inches of rain in a couple of hours, it was not needed, we are hoping for dryer weather to come soon.There has been a mix of anchor and jigging, drifting with spinners and even some down rigging this past week. The guides have been able to accommodate groups with their preference each day.
The forecast is showing highs in the 80’s with lows in the 50’s for the week ahead." - 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge .

July 28, 2014 - Cutfoot Sioux Mid-Summer Mixed Bag Surface temperatures pushed to 78 degrees last week. Warm water fishing patterns are emerging. Panfish are holding on the Weed edges and early risers can get in on good fishing action by casting action baits toward the weeds. Walleye fishing on Lake Winnie has been one of the best kept secrets in the Northland. Local resident anglers have been fishing main bars like Bena Bar, Moses and Center. They are reporting catches of ... >> Read Lake Winnie Fishing Report

Fishing Report July 27, 2014 - Bass Fishing on a beautiful day!
It isn't always as easy as it sounds. There are lots of distractions that can keep an angler from focusing on the work at hand. Sometimes the Bass can get a little finicky too. But then again, sometimes, if you're lucky, you can still stumble into the right spot, with the right guy and really have some fun.
A Bass fisherman living in the Chicago area, Rich Prykop usually has to work a little harder to catch fish than we do up here in the land of 10,000 lakes. The fish he sees are a lot more pressured than ours are.
That's why an avid Bass fisherman like Rich who participates in lots of Bass Club Tournaments is such a blast to fish with. Rich already knows the ropes, he's learned how to catch fish in pressured waters and already knows how to fool the finicky ones. That's why in a lot of ways, he's a better Bass fisherman than I am. That means that my work day is easy; all I have to do is think up spots and steer the boat.
That's what I did on Saturday and for most of the day, it worked out well. Especially early in the day, before the sun was high and the lake filled with boaters. The timeline went something like this;
8:00 - 9:00 AM Bass were holding on the outside edges of a shallow weed flat in about 8 feet of water. They were active and easy to catch on most any presentation. We caught several fish on an1/8 ounce jig tipped with a 4 inch worm, some on wacky rigged YUM Dingers and others on "dead sticking" the YUM Dingers.
9:00 - 12:00 Moon Bass began tucking into the heavier weeds along the shoreline. They were still easily catchable, but we noticed that when we worked an area for more than about 15 minutes, the fish tended to become spooky.
Dead sticking was taking the most fish and that's when Rich did some of his best work. I caught a few on a Texas rig during this period too. I thought that the Texas rigged worms should have done a better job, but for some reason, these fish didn't want to go all of the way to the bottom. They wanted to remain near the weed tops, but inside the cover. At this point they were too low for the un-weighted wacky rig and too high for the weighted Texas Rig. A weighted Wacky Rig may have worked, but in the heavy weeds, a weighted rig isn't that much fun to fish with.
Noon - 1:00 was an hour that we spent proving that there weren’t too many fish in the slop. We fished weedless frogs over the Lily Pads and heavy weed mats. There were a few "blow ups", but not many and we never hooked any of these fish. It was time for a break to gather a few eating fish.
1:00 - 2:00 PM Sunfish were holding in 16 to 20 feet of water and we had just begun to gather some of them when the pursuit was interrupted by decent Walleye and the en a Northern Pike. We switched over to spinners, made a couple of trolling passes, but caught only a few more Sunfish.
2:00 - 3:00 Bass were tucked into heavier cover, the lake was getting crowded and noisy and a change of scenery seemed like a great idea.
We blasted to another lake; it's very small and easy to fish in a short time. For our grand finale', we found a school of fish holding on the edges of mixed cabbage and Coontail weeds in about 10 feet of water.
On this spot, Rich's dead sticking with the Yum Dingers was still working, but now my un-weighted wacky rig was back and operating at peak performance.
I guess that we pulled a dozen or so Bass out of this spot before we saw an all too familiar sight; a big black cloud heading' our way. I told Rich that he needed to catch one more Bass before we could leave, he said that this was the first time all day that he felt any pressure, but he did it and we bolted.
We managed to get off of the lake and onto the highway just as the storms hit.
In the past, I've told you a lot about the wacky rigs, but don't recall mentioning dead sticking very often. I linked up a video that does a really nice job of explaining how to do it. In fact, the video portrays what Rich was doing yesterday nearly identically. Click here to see the video >> How to Dead Stick the YUM Dingers

Fishing Report July 26, 2014 - Just The Fact's Maam, Just The Facts
I was on Sand Lake a couple of times this week. Our fishing experiences on this "Big Little Lake" were good in terms of action. But if size matters, then look forward to 2016.
The lake has large population of Walleyes in the 10 to 12 inch range; too small to interest most anglers on the lake today, but this big year class will provide some good fishing in the next couple of seasons.
Larger, "keeper" size fish are a little scarce, but not impossible to find. I've been hearing some "fishy" fish stories from Sand Lake this summer and I was concerned some of them were exaggerated. So I wanted to get a solid, first hand estimate of the actual size of fish that we were keeping.
On Wednesday, I paid particular attention to the fish we were releasing and of those that we were keeping. There were about 45 Walleyes brought into the boat, they ranged in size from 7 inches to 16 inches. None of the fish exceeded 16 inches, which was our largest "keeper".
For the 3 of us, the total bag was 14 Walleyes. We had 3 fish in that bag that measured 13-1/2 inches and the remaining 11 fish ranged in size from 14-1/2 to 16 inches.
On Friday, we fished in the aftermath of thunderstorms that rolled through the area overnight. That chilled the action a little bit and we had to work harder to get them. Still, it wasn't disastrous and we managed to drum up 9 keepers.
The range of sizes was similar, except this time there were a couple of larger fish caught. One of them was 21 inches and one was 24 inches.
The surface water temperatures are holding fairly steady; 78 degrees was the high reading on Wednesday and 76.5 degrees on Friday, after the storms.
We had roughly equal success using either Lindy Rigs -or- 1/16 ounce jigs tipped with night crawlers. But I can see that thanks to the arrival of the Zebra Mussels, we'll need to learn a few new fishing tactics to help cope with changes.
While we were fishing for Walleyes, I noticed that one of my crew was allowing his line to drag on the bottom too much. At the end of the day, there was about 50 feet of "shredded line" on his reel.
The problem was that he'd been dragging his fishing line across small rocks that are now covered with the Zeebs. Their sharp edges had shaved tiny slices off of his line and would have eventually caused it to fail; probably just when he had Mr. Big hooked and heading toward the landing net.
For me, this calls for using lighter weights and encouraging folks to fish further above the bottom. This by the way is something that you should be doing anyway. Walleyes are typically located slightly above the bottom and dragging your bait under the fish is one key reason that many folks don’t catch them. I've been training my customers to stop worrying about finding the bottom for years now, so that's going to be an easy adaptation for most of them. But there's always somebody who can't stand not knowing that they are on the bottom and for these folks, there are going to be a few problems to deal with.
In spite of rumors to the contrary, I don't believe that the Zebra Mussels have had enough time to impact the water clarity significantly. But they are spreading pretty fast and it won't be too long before their population will affect the lakes clarity.

Fishing Report July 25, 2014 - Medicine for What Ails Ya'! Warm Water + Deep Weed Edges = Prescription for Mixed Bag Action Bite

Surface temperatures on most Grand Rapids area lakes have moved into the 76 to 78 degree range. That's good news because it's these warmer temperatures that kick the multi-species action bite into high gear.
For me, this "action bite" is just what the doctor ordered to help fight off a case of the mid-summer doldrums. On Thursday, I got my first dosage and it was better than getting a sip of Granny's Rheumatis' Medicine!
We arrived at the lake to find 76 degrees on the surface. The skies were overcast and the water was calm. As we idled away from the landing, I worked on rigging up the ... >> Read Grand Rapids Fishing Report
(7/25) From Lake of the Woods, Sportsman's Lodge; "Water levels may be up and down, but walleye fishing remains constant. Drifting and using spinners was the method of choice over the last week. Make your way to 22’-28’ of water near Long Point or Zippel Bay or 12’-18’ of water near Morris Point to Pine Island. Don’t forget about trolling in the shallow waters of 10’ or less as walleyes have been found there as well. Make sure you have plenty of jigs and spinners. Hammered gold is still the hot color, tip it with crawlers or leeches and you will be ready to go." - EMAIL Sportsman's Lodge .

“Trolling For Summer Crappie” This week, Fish Ed host Jon Thelen shows you the easiest, most-efficient way to load the livewell with big crappies. His trolling tactic with Lindy River Rockers works on any lake near you, but is especially effective on lakes that see a lot of fishing pressure. His “high-speed” crankbait trolling method lets the whole family get in on the fun of putting together a summertime fish fry. click >> Trolling Summer Crappie

Fishing Report July 24, 2014
(7/24) On Lake Winnibigoshish, Joe Thompson, Four Seasons Resort says; "The fishing on the West Side of Lake Winnie has been a lesson in patience. Like the old saying, "take the best player available", you have to do the same while fishing.
Northerns have definitely taken a giant leap forward on the size scale. We have had several fish over 30" caught the past few days. All the methods of fishing are working for these fish. The best has been on the secondary breakline on the outside edge of the deepest weeds. Trolling or casting, the fish seem to cooperate.
Perch fishing is still very good. You can't just go to one spot and catch all the "jumbos" you want like a few weeks ago. You will need to move around, picking up a few at each location.
Walleyes continue to be very elusive. The Humps seem to be the best spot to catch fish, but the winds this past week have made them very difficult to fish. I think the trollers coming in the next few weeks are going to do well. The fish are probably suspended eating perch minnows and shiners. That remains to be seen. With that being said, the fall looks like it will be our best time for the walleye fishermen.
Our Labor Day special is right around the corner, as well as our fall discount. Pick out a date and give us a call." >> Four Seasons Resort .
(7/24) Gus' Place Resort, Ball Club Lake; "Water levels remain high and stable with the surface temp @ 70 degrees.
Frequent rainfall has stained the water this summer to tea color.
Fishing remains good for Northerns, Perch and Walleye. Spoons and crank baits in 12 feet will produce a solid Northern bite throughout the day as well as an all-day Perch bite.
The Perch are still in shallow (6-8 feet) falling for minnows on bobbers and the Walleye have become widely dispersed from 12 to 30 feet.
The best bet for the Walleye is early & late in the day with leeches on jigs or Lindy rigs.
Crawlers are also taking Walleye. Keep your finger on the line and the bail open; a 5 count is about right.
There is still plenty of good fishing left this summer and we have a few cabins opening up in August." - Gus Sheker, Gus' Place Resort .
(7/24) From The Marcell Area, Frontier Sports, Paul Larson said; "According to the Frontier Sports Fisherman’s Guide calendar, fish activity looked like it was going to be minimal to nonexistent for last weekend and the three or four days after. Unfortunately, this proved to be correct for most anglers that I’ve talked to. Dark, threatening skies of green, purple and even a weird brown purported thunder storms could appear at any time. This coupled with occasional heavy wind gusts shut the Walleye right down and the Crappie as well refused to bite. The only fish that took any notice of my lures were Rock Bass. I’ve seen this same scenario many times in weather like this. Unfortunately there is rumored to be an age old curse connected with this fish. THE CURSE of the DREADED RED EYE! According to legend, when you catch a Rock Bass, three fish that you want to catch are mysteriously subtracted from your total for the trip. Well, Sunday and Monday night, I caught so many Rock Bass, and that was all I caught, that if the curse is indeed true, I probably shouldn’t go fishing for the rest of the year. It’d be a waste of time. They were so anxious to make me miserable; I even hooked several in the back! In the long run it really doesn’t matter. Curse or no curse, this weekend you’ll find me out dragging crank baits in my favorite spots trying to make up for last week. After all you can’t catch fish, no matter what kind, if you don’t go! Bass and Pike have been the mainstays of the fish being caught this week with Crappie starting to get on bite again after all the mischievous weather we’ve just been through. Walleye have been slow for a while. The tackle department and bait shop are fully stocked for the weekend which promises to be much better." Frontier Sports features a complete and fully stocked Sporting Goods department and Bait Shop, Gas, Grocery, Deli and Gift Shop. Frontier Sports is an authorized LIVE TARGET and SAVAGE GEAR dealer. Frontier Sports 219-832-3901 or Email .

Fishing Report July 23, 2014
I'm not too sure what to say about our fishing trip on Monday. We really weren't targeting any particular species; we just wanted to have a fun fishing day. We did do that, but it wasn't fast action that made it good, it was the end result.
There were so many variables in play yesterday that I never really felt like I got my arms around the true answer to reaching my goal.
Don't get me wrong, there were definitely some moments of greatness and if I only showed you the highlights, you'd probably think it was a darn good day. It was just one of those days where the fish came in one at a time. You know, at the end, I was surprised that I had a cooler of fish to clean. I just didn't remember getting that much action.
Maybe it was the calm seas? After a week of cool, windy weather that had encouraged fish to be active, maybe they needed a little breather.
Maybe it was the incoming storm? Sometimes a low pressure system can give the fish a case of lock jaw.
Maybe I guessed wrong about too many spots? If I had chosen a different location, in a different order, then maybe I'd have found a more aggressive bite.
OR MAYBE the fish just have so many options that they can pick and choose when, where and why they want to feed? If you ask me, that's the real answer, the one that lies deep at the heart of our question.
Here's why I think so; Monday was one of those days where everything we tried "Almost Worked". We never made a single stop that didn't produce a fish or two; there were some in the weeds, some out in deep water and there were even a few in the Mississippi River. Except for the very last stop of the day, there just wasn't any one spot that kept producing good results.
Here's a short list of what we did that worked. Fishing with Wacky Rigged Yum Dingers over the tops of the Cabbage weeds produced some good Largemouth Bass. Using the same worms rigged Texas Style on the Mississippi River also produced a few Bass, the fish that we hooked and the ones that we almost hooked were all good quality fish, they were scattered, not schooled up.
Thanks to what was a random sighting of a Walleye that followed my worm to the boat, we caught a few eating fish on the river too.
As soon as I saw the Walleye follow my lure, I asked the crew to re-rig for an experimental pass using Lindy Spinners. That experiment produced one nice Walleye and a couple of smaller, but soon to be tasty, Northern Pike.
I think that if we'd spent more time on this experiment, we'd have produced more fish. But the river water is still rather high and current flow is very fast. It was just a lot of work to hold the boat in proper position. Those, coupled with the now 90 degree air temperature made the idea of getting back onto the lake and into the breeze seem like a better idea. It was!
Back out on the lake, there was a nice breeze that cooled us and helped encourage a late inning rally.
Using Lindy Rigs tipped with Creek Chubs gave us a mixed bag of Walleye and Pike that helped us close out the day with a few grins. When I looked in the cooler, we had 4 nice Walleyes and a half dozen eating size Pike. That set the stage for the end of our day. The shoreline dinner of Blackened Northern Pike was the grand finale'; even if I do say so myself!
So there you go, my patented recipe for making a good day out of what seems to be almost nothing. Just keep futzing around, trying different approaches, finding fresh locations and voila, the story of another beautiful day written into the journal.
(7/23) From Bowstring Lake, Geiger's Trails End Resort; "The Northern have been hitting hard and furious. We even had some pull a few crappies out of the North end. The Walleye are sticking on the humps up here, but with the hot weather coming, I think they will be moving into the deep pretty soon. The Dog Days are coming late this year, but I expect them to show up anytime now and that means that solid fishing patterns for Crappie, Walleye and Pike will be emerging.
August can be a very good time for fishing on Bowstring Lake and we still have some cabins available. EMAIL US for current availability." - See you on the water". - Bill & Erin Charlton, Trails End Reosrt .
(7/23) From The Iron Range, Greg Clusiau wrote; "I clipped on a lipless rattle bait and began trolling the weed line for northern pike. Wow. I almost forgot how much fun that was, especially when using a braided line which telegraphs the strike to the tips of your toes! High winds and rollers really had these fish in an eating mood. I remember when I used to do this to liven up a ..." >> Read Greg's Full Report

Fishing Report July 22, 2014- Big Fish, Big Bait.
It's fascinating how the simplest comments turn into the biggest ideas. Like yesterday when Gary Stuber casually used the phrase "Big Bait, Big Fish".
Everyone has heard that expression and it sounds right, at least until you think about it. I think that there's a better way to say it though, I think it should be; "Big Fish, Big Bait". That's because using a minnow that's almost big enough to cook for dinner will never help you catch a monster fish unless there's a monster fish in the area. You can Lindy Rig with a Super Magnum, award winning Jumbo Leech, but if your lake only contains small, eating size Walleyes, then you might as well just get medium leeches and save the extra money to buy a Chicken pot pie.
In other words, if you're in pursuit of your trophy, "Mr. Big", then remember one simple rule of thumb; don’t select the bait until you've selected the lake.
In the Grand Rapids area, we are blessed to have more than a fair share of these trophy fisheries. I know, there are a couple of lakes that keep getting mentioned, but there are more, in fact, quite a few more.
As always, I’m pressed for time and it's hard for me to go into detail about how to find lakes with trophy fishing potential. I'll do my best to expand on the theme though and as time allows, watch for more information. For today, if you’ll begin learning how to make good use of the lake finder section on the DNR website, you’ll be taking a step in the right direction.
Learning how to navigate the lake finder system efficiently is one of the keys. Here's a tip; Instead of trying to find the lakes using the search tool, start by looking at the "Recreation Compass". It's an interactive map that allows you to click on any lake to obtain more information. Just have a look at the map and when one of the lakes catches your attention, click on it and follow the links to the lake survey pages.
For me, the pursuit of Mr. Big on the two most popular Grand Rapids area lakes has been a blast! But after today, I'm guessing that it will be time to focus my attention on smaller, eating size fish for a while.
If and when I get another swing at the big fish, I'll be looking a little further west. Pike Bay, Walker Bay and Ten Mile Lake are just a few ideas that come to mind. I may let a few other good ideas slip too, stay tuned, just in case.
(7/21) From Lake of the Woods, Mike Kinsela, Border View Lodge; "Multiple Big fish caught this week! What a great week full of sunshine! This week we mixed it up a little more on location instead of heading north all week a few days we stayed south fishing the west side and also drifting spinners just outside the Light House Gap. The days we were able to head north we were on both Little Oak and Sterran with both producing big fish. We are still getting a good jig bite so it has been a mix of jigging and spinners. We are just starting to test the down rigging which we will go to soon.
We are able to use some of our docks again so we hope for less wind and very little rain. This will help the water levels continue to decline. We are still a day by day basis on the docks with a brisk wind docks may be wet.
Temperatures are starting to finally warm up! However along with warm temps we get more chances of thunderstorms. This week will have lots of sunshine however we show chances of thunderstorm activity as well. Tuesday we have a good chance of rain. Friday and Saturday they forecast a chance of thunderstorms. The storms are scattered though so they may miss us all together!" - 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge .

Grand Rapids Area Fishing Report July 20, 2014 - The Pursuit of Mr. Big!
Every fisherman dreams about doing it, you know, coming up with the catch of a lifetime; Mr. Big!
I don't think that it's too much of a secret; I'm one of the first in line, I have been bitten by the big fish bug. It's not that I don't like to catch eaters, I do. It's just that during this relatively short period of time when the monsters are accessible, it seems like a great idea to work on getting as many chances for a trophy as possible.
That's why I'm lucky to ... read >> Grand Rapids Area Fishing Report .

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 19, 2014 - Daikin Fisharoo 2014 That's A Wrap!
For my crew, the final outing of the Daikin Fisharoo 2014 was jsut about the perfect day for a Grand Finale'.
We paid another visit to Grand Rapids where recently, we've been enjoying some very good multi-species fishing.
They say that a picture is worth 1000 words, so a quick glance through our highlight reel ought to take care of telling the story.
Our main presentation was a 1/2 ounce Lindy Rig using their NoSnagg weights, a six foot leader and tipped with medium Redtails or air injected Night Crawlers.
We marked fish in water depths of 20 to 35 feet, but I avoided fishing the deeper end of the range. For me, 20 to 24 feet worked out to be the best all around depth. However, there were several Smallmouth bass in shallower water too and I believe that if we'd focused specifically on Smallmouth, we could have spent the day fishing on the inner edges of the weedline. Ideally, the edge where rocks and Cabbage weeds meet.
Yum Dingers rigged wacky style, with unweighted hooks helped us catch several Smallmouth and one very nice Largemouth Bass as well.
Surface water, well mixed by a strong wind, held surface temperatures steady at about 70 degrees throughout the day.
Overall, the 2014 Fisharoo was pretty darn good. There were a few curve balls, zingers that trapped us into a couple of rough patches. But with such an experienced group of guides, there were plenty of good days to provide everybody with a healthy dosage of good fishing.
Upper Red Lake was the highlight of the week for Walleye fishermen. It was and is very good news that Upper Red Lake remains so consistent this summer. Walleye action was very good there this week and it was there that most of the "eating size Walleye" were gathered for folks who wanted to bring home some fish.
Most of the fish were caught using spinners tipped with 1/2 night crawlers and trolled along the deeper edges of the shoreline breaks. Key water depths were 5 to 7 feet, key speed was 1.2 MPH.

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 18, 2014 - Bad Decisions Gone Good!
On Thursday, day 4 of the Daikin Fisharoo, it was my day to be humble. Luckily, I've learned that I Know how to do that!
Also Quite Luckily, thanks to a little help from our friends, we managed to pull off one of our famous 11th hour rallies. It took some doing, but by the time we headed back to Williams Narrows, everyone was grinning again.
Especially happy was my new best friend "Buddy", who earned the distinction of making the best single fishing decision of the summer.
To a Walleye fisherman, a nice Redtail Chub is a beautiful sight. It conjures up images of slow trolling along a deep, rocky point, waiting for Mr. Big to inhale the prize. But when somebody grabs one out the minnow cooler, pins it on to a 1/8 ounce Lindy Jig and gets set to casually toss it into the lake; well then there's going to be a conversation. We have to talk for a minute about the best use of this highly prized and most valuable bait.
After I explained the values and benefits of fishing with Redtails, I advised Buddy, that catching a Bullhead or a Perch on that minnow was going to bring about further conversation.
On the brighter side, I did assure him that if he caught a nice Walleye on the Redtail, that things would be better, then he would surely become my new best friend; he did, and he is!
The random decision turned out to be a good one, especially for Buddy who captured the money pool for the largest fish of the day. The fat 25 inch Walleye did more than that though, it was really the turning point of our day and from that point forward, we managed to stage a really nice, late inning rally by catching a good bunch of Walleyes using ... Night Crawlers.
Sometimes stumbling into a new friend is really nice, thanks pal!

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 17, 2014 - Weedline Patterns For Mixed Bag Fishing
On Wednesday, the weather was gorgeous, sunny and calm with nothing but Blue skies over head. The surface temperature at 9:00 AM was 68 degrees and rose steadily throughout the day. By 5:45 when we left the lake, the surface reading was at 75 degrees.
Our Walleye fishing pattern wasn't very much different than what you've been reading about this week already. The most notable difference was that under the blue skies, Walleyes had moved to the deeper end of the fishable range. They were holding in water depths of 26 to 34 feet. For a while, I managed to find enough fish on the shallower side to make a morning out of it. But I could see that they were moving deeper.
Lindy Rigging with live bait over 24 to 26 feet of water produced plenty of opportunities and if your name was Jim, produced good catches of fish too.
On this trip, the feeding preferences were minnows (Redtail Chubs) by morning, night crawlers by midday and Leeches? Nope, not this time.
While I was cooking our shore lunch, I fretted about working those deep fish. Anything past about 26 feet is pushing it, but the fish that are holding in 30+ feet of water are just plain too deep.
Instead of rigging, I decided that after lunch, we'd spend some time fishing the weeds with spinners instead. I can't really say that it turned out to be a winning strategy for Walleyes, but there was something good that came out of it.
Panfish and Bass showing up on the deep weed edges was the "New News" for me. I had just commented about the general lack of Panfish picking on our spinners as we fished for Walleyes. I guess that this was the day for a change because the next weed bed we passed by, Wham! Sunfish, Largemouth Bass, Rock Bass ... you get the idea.
The patches of deep Cabbage in 10 to 12 feet of water looked particularly good, but Coontail and Eelgrass held some fish too.
Now the trick is going to be finding the right crew at the right time so that we can go back and perfect the system.
For today, it's back to the Daikin Fisharoo to help entertain a fresh group of guests that arrived yesterday. Walleyes will be on the agenda for sure and eaters for the fish fry will be given extra attention.
I'll get back to the panfish as soon as I can and when I do, you will be hearing all about it!
(7/17) From The Marcell Area, Frontier Sports, Paul Larson said; "After an informal visit by the Polar Vortex last weekend, fishing has been gradually improving. Last weekend saw heavy rain, gusty wind and everything else in between. Some anglers were still able to eke out some nice catches of Walleye in spite of all that. I found the Walleye to have moved out to the 16 to 18 foot depths when the week before they were relating to the weeds more and were in depths ranging from 8 to 13 feet. I picked up a few using LIVE TARGET jointed Perch and Rainbow Smelt crank baits during the small break in the storm Monday night. Anglers have been reporting success using leeches and slip bobbers out from the weeds but have found very few fish on the humps so far this summer. Bass continue to be aggressively smashing jerk baits and plastics. The frog season is here and the LIVE TARGET Frog has been catching a lot of fish, just like it has done for the last two years. The Crappies are out in the weed beds now and good numbers of fish are being taken using small jigs and minnows or plastics. The Northland Thumper jig with a white Gulp! grub is really doing well. This summer it seems to be all about the weather. A more stable weather pattern seems to be in place with much warmer temperatures on the way, so you can wave goodbye to the Polar Vortex while pulling in that big Walleye this weekend and be sure to drop by when you’re in the area!..." Frontier Sports features a complete and fully stocked Sporting Goods department and Bait Shop, Gas, Grocery, Deli and Gift Shop. Frontier Sports is an authorized LIVE TARGET and SAVAGE GEAR dealer. Frontier Sports 219-832-3901 or Email .

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 16, 2014 -Summertime Walleye patterns

On Tuesday my crew for day 3 the Daikin Fisharoo included the "Top Brass, The VIP's, the Cream of the Crop"!
Luckily, this was the perfect crew for what I've come to know as the fun day of the Fisharoo. It was what it is supposed to be, a day to visit Grand Rapids' Trout Lake and ... read >> Grand Rapids Fishing Report .

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 15, 2014 -The Aftermath, Again!
Remember what I wrote yesterday morning? "This may have been the beginning of something beautiful, but we'll have to watch what happens next.
Sometimes a mid-summer cold front temporarily moves fish out of the shallowest weeds and onto the first breakline adjacent to the weed bed. At first, it's a benefit for anglers because now it's much easier to put a lure in front of the fish. That means more fish get caught.
Later though, when the weather settles back down again, these same fish have a habit of tucking back into the heavier, shallower weed cover and holding tight. Then it becomes a lot harder to get at them and it gives anglers the impression that they have disappeared from the lake."
Well, a lot of those weedline fish that appeared out of nowhere on Sunday, moved back into their hiding places on Monday.
For today, while we're waiting for the weather to settle back down, I'm going to try one of the old "post cold front tricks"; moving my operation to a couple of lakes where the fish are known for inhabiting deeper water.
It's a risky move on my part because if the sunny weather combines with flat calm seas, these deep water fish could hold tight too. But, if I get lucky and stumble into some feeding fish, my crew will be in a better position to find some of the areas larger, more photogenic fish.
In case you missed it, I wrote something about fishing on the beautiful "Aftermath" days that follow these major weather fronts. Learn more by clicking >> Fishing Report June 13 A Beautiful Day
(7/15) Fish ED on Devils Lake; "This week, Fish Ed Host Jon Thelen travels to Devils Lake in search of mid-summer walleyes. Jon explains ho to fish the new Lil' Guy. Lindy's new hybrid trolling bait is more aggressive than a spinner, but can be trolled slower than a crankbait. It's perfect for the times when fish are in transitions from one feeding pattern to another. Click here to learn more about >> Fishing the Lil' Guy for mid-summer Walleyes .
(7/15) Ball Club Lake, Gus' Place Resort; "Very little has changed over the past week on Ball Club lake with lake levels, water temp and fishing patterns.
Fishing remains good for multi-species angling.
The one variable I have noticed over this past week has been the increase numbers of small Walleye (around 12 inches) being caught. I have been encouraging anglers to do their best to release these fish unharmed for at least another year.
If you want to have fun and a good meal at the end of the day, now is the time to get out your spoons and troll for Northerns, some afternoons they are practically jumping in the boat." - Gus Sheker, Gus' Place Resort .
(7/15) From Cutfoot Sioux and Lake Winnibigoshish, Eagle Nest Lodge; "It's a beautiful September day here!  Crazy weather!!!
The lake isn't going down any...still a good foot high...and the rain keeps coming.  I would think we would get a pattern change soon.  And the wind!!  So, most of our guests have been staying close and fishing Cutfoot.  The crappie bite has really slowed down, but the northerns have been biting pretty well.  No monsters, but plenty of fish.  And we are starting to see more keeper walleyes in Cutfoot in 10-14 feet of water.  They are using mostly leeches on a lindy rig.  A few are still catching with a jig and minnow.  We've seen a few mayflies, but not the big hatch." Take care, Bryan and Sue Harris, Email Eagle Nest Lodge .
(7/15) From Lake Winnibigoshish, John Seekon, The Pines Resort; "Anglers that are willing to shake some old habits and try new methods are finding eating size walleyes. Instead of trolling the same old crankbaits, success is being found on smaller crankbaits with a little more wobble in them. Trolling outside of the weeds in 16 to 20 feet has rewarded some anglers with more keeper sized walleyes.
For shallower walleyes spinners have been producing in the weeds at the depths of 8 to 14 feet. Try both crawlers and leeches, as it seems to change by the day. Northern pike are being caught on anything orange in 10 to 12 feet. Bigger perch are being caught on jigs and minnows in 12 to 15 feet on the weed edges." Email The Pines Resort .
(7/15) From The Iron Range, Greg Clusiau wrote; "I had caught some nice crappie and a bluegill or two but my partner was having trouble getting bit until he switched over to what I was using, a 1/16 oz. orange jighead tipped with a yellow twister tail. It made all the difference in the world. A note regarding jig weights: I’ll use heavier jigs like a 1/16 oz. during the day when fish are deeper and often switch to a lighter weight 1/32 oz. as fish move up shallower toward evening.
How odd that working a similar bait through a school of fish would produce nothing but change color and wham! It happens all of the time.
One thing I should mention about the plastic tail is that it was ..." Learn More >> Read Greg Clusiau's Full Report .
(7/15) Lakemaster SmartStrike: 2014 Map Cards - Conduct searches for the best fishing locations in your lake with the new Humminbird® SmartStrike™ - map card now available in 9 editions that parallel the LakeMaster card coverage.
The intuitive, fish-finding power of smartstrike takes you straight to the action by showing you where the fish are biting at any given moment. This powerful software program contained on the SmartStrike map card allows anglers to utilize Humminbird LakeMaster® High-Definition map data* and extensive search algorithms to pattern and locate fish like never before.
Based on search parameters like fish species, season, time of day, and temperature, the SmartStrike engine searches depth ranges, type of structure, proximity, and more to quickly reveal and highlight the results on the lake map. learn more >> Lakemaster SmartStrike: 2014 Map Cards .

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 14, 2014 - Weather Cools Down, Weedline Action Heats UP!
Just in time for the kickoff of the annual Daikin-McQuay Fisharoo; cool, windy conditions shifted the weedline Walleyes into high gear. The 2014 version provided plenty of action, lots of eating size fish and even some bragging' size fish.
The kickoff of the event, hosted at Williams Narrows Resort on Cutfoot Sioux, typically takes place on Lake Winnibigoshish. Because of the very heavy Northwest winds, fishing on Winnie wasn't going to work out this time. Instead, each of the guides transported their crews to smaller, more manageable waters.
From all reports, it really didn't matter that much which lake(s) we visited, the results were similar at each of them.
Shoreline related breaklines, especially those adjacent to good weed growth all produced fish. Most of the guides spent their days in water depths of 7 to 11 feet. For me, the magic number was 10 feet.
Comparing notes with some of the other guides about the most prevalent presentations, it seemed that trolling spinners was most commonly reported. But not everyone used that approach. In my boat, we caught some Walleyes using a jig and minnow, some on 1/16 ounce jigs tipped with night crawlers and still others using Lindy Rigs tipped with leeches. Some of the other guides leaned heavily on jig and minnow combinations too.
This may have been the beginning of something beautiful, but we'll have to watch what happens next. Sometimes a mid-summer cold front temporarily moves fish out of the shallowest weeds and onto the first breakline adjacent to the weed bed. At first, it's a benefit for anglers because now it's much easier to put a lure in front of the fish. That means more fish get caught.
Later though, when the weather settles back down again, these same fish have a habit of tucking back into the heavier, shallower weed cover and holding tight. Then it becomes a lot harder to get at them and it gives anglers the impression that they have disappeared from the lake. This leads me to an interesting point...
We were fishing on a lake that has a slot limit. For most of the summer, the most common complaint that I've heard about the lake was that nobody could catch any keepers, all of the fish were too big and the little ones were gone forever; except that wasn’t the case on this Sunday.
If I had any complaint at all, it was that we caught too many little fish. For us, 12 and 13 inch fish were common. They were too small for me to bag, but in another year, these same fish will be in trouble if they strike our baits again.
What I'm trying to say, in a nice way, is that I'm lucky, I've been through all of this before and it has a happy ending. It's just that under the present circumstances, it’s impossible to base your judgment about the quality of a fishery on anecdotal evidence from the lake.
So if you're one of the folks who have been grumbling about slot-limits, the DNR and the like. Take a minute and think about something; the conditions are just too darn changeable right now, we have one front coming after another, the water is too high and the fish have more food than they know what to do with. There are so many variables that nobody can pin down just one fact from all of them and call it "the problem". For right now, the fish are acting really fickle and until we get into a period of more stable weather, none of us will really know the whole picture. I know that I don’t, but I do know that I’ve heard all of this before and somehow, the fish always show back up again.
I think that it’s up to folks like us to help encourage folks about fishing. Not to give them reasons for souring on the sport.
So please, if you've been grumbling, try something new. Just for a few more weeks, bite your tongue, hold your breath and use your best judgment about the words you choose. It could be fun!
(7/14) On Lake Winnibigoshish, Joe Thompson, Four Seasons Resort says; "The fishing at Four Seasons has taken another turn.  This week, our guests enjoyed something that happens once in a Blue Moon!  We had a reliable crappie bite!  The mouth of the river in the evening was where it was at.  Guests were not coming in with limits, but the bite would happen between 8:30 and 9:00 pm and that was enough time for most boats to come in with about 10 nice crappies. 
Perch continue to dominate our fishing success.  Nice perch are being caught in most hard bottom areas where you find crayfish. 
The walleye front is improving.  The humps have been reliable using leeches and crawlers.  Some fish have been caught on the main bars, as well.   The calmer conditions have definitely helped the walleye fishermen.  Most of the fish caught have been in the slot, but some keepers have been coming in.
Northern fishing has been steady.  All normal methods of catching pike are working.  Not alot of big fish so far, but many of the "good eating size"  coming in.  Have our expert fish cleaners de-bone your northerns for you.  A mighty tasty meal, right there.
All in all, fishing has been very good if you are open minded about what you catch.  The fall is still shaping up to be our best fishing of the year.  Make your plans now to get in on the action!" >> Four Seasons Resort .

Minn Kota Goes Small with New i-Pilot Micro Remote. RACINE, Wis. (July 2014) – Continuing its tradition of angler-minded thinking, Minn Kota® announces the newest i-Pilot® accessory, the Micro Remote. The remote can be seen at Minn Kota’s ICAST booth, #1041, starting Wednesday, July 15. The Micro Remote provides quick command of speed, steering, Spot-Lock, Advanced AutoPilot™ and prop on/off, all from a compact design. It is waterproof, floats and comes standard with a neck lanyard. The Micro Remote is compatible with both i-Pilot and i-Pilot Link™ systems, and learn more ... >> I Pilot Micro Remote

(7/14) From Lake of the Woods, Mike Kinsela, Border View Lodge; "This week has been absolutely gorgeous with lots of sunshine and fish! The wind has not been too terrible. It started to pick up yesterday afternoon a little and into today. With the wind pick up today our boats headed west to Zipple Bay. The blowing wind puts our docks a little more under water. Each day is different when it comes to the water level and dock usage. Some are still usable and when needed we use the floating docks to keep dry feet.
We have gone north most of the week fishing Little Oak and Sterran. Little Oak has been great drifting spinners and jigging on Sterran has produced some big fish. The inconsistent weather causes some scattering with the fish so hopefully the weather steadies so they can school up more.
The forecast shows some rain the next couple days with sunshine coming our way Tuesday through the rest of the week. There is a slight chance of Thunderstorms towards the end of the week. Temperatures start out this week in the 70’s but get close to 80 the end of the week!" - 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge .

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 13, 2014 - Leech Lake Fishing Report
On Saturday, veteran fishing guide Jeff "Cubby" Skelly and I had a little free time on our hands. The weather had been stable, it was a nice day and there were some things that we both wanted to learn about his new Humminbird Onix 10. Neither of us has had experience with the Onix units, so this seemed like a perfect time to get together and play around exploring Leech Lake.
When we arrived at the lake, surface temperatures in Portage Bay ranged between 72 and 74 degrees, it was sunny and calm.
There wasn’t much traffic, but there was a Walleye tournament going on out there and in our travels, we spotted a handful of the boats. From a distance, what we could see was that most of them were fishing rocks and most of them were either trolling spinners or fishing live bait rigs. There was one boat trolling open water with crank baits but if there were others, we didn’t stumble into them.
We spent most of our time looking, rather than fishing and where we explored the most was on mid-lake rock bars and sunken islands; they all had something in common, FOOD.
There is a big time Mayfly hatch going on over there right now. On the surface, the large bugs were everywhere and at every stop, the screen of the Onix revealed clouds of larvae, tiny minnows, small Perch near the bottom. At almost every stop there was also an occasional small pack of larger fish that we presumed to be Walleyes. We didn't have much first hand evidence because these fish were not interested in our presentation.
By mid-afternoon, we'd had enough of the rock reefs and decided to try the weeds instead; this was a little bit more encouraging.
Tolling spinners tipped with 1/2 night crawlers produced 4 Walleyes, 2 Pike and a few small Perch. That may not be front page news, but it was enough to raise our eyebrows. For the short amount of time we spent, it was an encouraging signal that Leech Lake may be on the verge of a solid "weed bite" in the near future.
Comparing notes with other friends and fishermen on the lake, the consensus seems to be that trolling, whether using spinners or crankbaits has been the most productive presentation. The caveat is that probably 2/3 of the fish landed are Pike instead of Walleyes.
Much like other area lakes, Leech Lake is so jam packed with food right now that it's nearly impossible to make any accurate judgment about the potential for a "hot bite". Once the Mayfly hatch runs its course; fishing will improve a little bit. Also, now that the bait fish supply has finally peaked, each day that passes will represent a slightly diminished food supply in the lake.
That may not seem like much to hang your hat on, but these fish are getting used to feeding a lot, they are fat and happy right now. Once they catch up to the food supply, they'll still be hungry and feeding isn't going to be this easy; our baits will begin looking better to them and our chances of winning will steadily get better.
No matter what we caught or didn't catch, I was already a winner yesterday. That's because I got to spend a day on the water with my old pal Cubby as he chauffeured me around the lake in his new Lund 2010 Pro-Guide, which by the way, was a really nice ride! We'll have to try that again sometime!

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 12, 2014 - Mid-Summer Mixed Bag Fishing Pattern
Historically, July weather provides anglers with some really nice, warm weather. Yes, it does get hot and sunny sometimes and if you fight it, it could give you some gas. On the other hand, if you go with the flow, this is your best chance of the year to take advantage of fantastic multi-species fishing.
Warm water temperatures raise the metabolism of all fish and helps encourage them to become more active, feeding heavily for longer periods each day.
Warmer water fills with Algal blooms that include zooplankton. To the naked eye, it just looks like "Green stuff", it may even look a little icky. But these Algal blooms, which are really microscopic critters, are an important part of the food chain and one of the reasons that mid-summer fishing can be so good.
Sunfish, Bass and Musky do best in warmer water, but Walleye, Pike and Perch can become very active at times, especially the fish that live in the weeds.
With water temperatures moving toward the mid 70 degree range, I'm guessing that it will soon be time to enjoy one of my favorite multi-species patterns.
Working the weed lines by casting small jigs tipped with artificial tails is a real blast! Best of all, it's so easy to do that virtually anybody can catch fish doing it.
Here's what you need; a 6-1/2 to 7 feet light or ultra-light rod, 4 pound test line, an assortment of 1/16 ounce jigs and some 2 to 3 inch plastic action tails.
Small action tails like YUM's 2 inch Money Fry or their small Panfish Size Wooly Curltail are perfect for fishing Panfish on the weed edges.
To get started, I select a stretch of shoreline that has a good weedline. I'm particularly fond of Cabbage weeds because they are so easy to work. But Coontail, eelgrass and Northern Milfoil are good too. In fact, most of the time they are all mixed together anyway, so the real point is to simply find healthy weeds.
I use my MinnKota to creep along the outside edges of the weeds as we cast our small jigs into any pocket or gap we can find. Allow your jig to flutter down into the cover and then swim it back toward the boat using a slow, lift-fall, lift-fall retrieve.
During overcast periods this pattern will produce fish throughout the day. When sunshine is in the forecast, plan your trip to begin earlier in the morning, that's when the fish will be most active.
For me, the best part of the system is that you never know what you'll catch next. We have caught every kind of fish from Perch to Musky and everything in between.
I promise that if you take my advice, you won't have to try this too many times before you start giggling.
(7/12) From the Grand Rapids Area, Reed Ylitalo wrote; "Yesterday was an experience of a lifetime for anyone. Especially a young professional hunting and fishing guide.
I took the opportunity to work with Gander Mountain and participate in the new guide series clothing wear and also some great new Gander Mountain products such as rod and reel combos.
We started out in Walker bay on Leech lake. The fish were there but would not eat. Fished there most of the day and then came back to a Grand Rapids area lake picking up nine Walleyes between 23 and 25 and half inches to finish a great shoot for the new Products.
The best baits were a A quarter ounce bullet sinker with a six-foot snell and a leech. The bottom was a edge of cabbage and rocks. Using electronics properly was huge stand top and hover over the big fish. I was finding most of the walleyes in 24 to 26 feet of water." - Reed Ylitalo, Wings and Walleyes Guide Service .

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 11, 2014 A Mixed Bag Delivers Many Happy Returns
For those of you who have been reading these reports for a while, YOU KNOW something about me!
It's really no big surprise that you do; I haven't tried to keep it a secret. Here’s a bulletin for the new visitors to this page, "A Startling Expose'!"
I Love Catching Fish and I don't care what kind of fish they are! That's right, in my book, it's all about having a good time and during mid-summer, there are a lot of ways to do it.
I'm just like you; I love to eat fish too. But I also know that if I just go out and have a good time on the lake, the fish eating part will take care of itself. I'll be coming back to this point later, but first a quick report about yesterday.
On Thursday, my easy going, laid back customer Jeff Kuehl allowed me to go with the flow and while it may not have been the dream trip of a lifetime, Lake Winnie took care of us fairly well.
We spent some of our time fishing the deep weeds, some of it fishing on the humps and some of it on the Bena Bar. While there wasn't any particular "hot spot", but we were able to locate a number of places that produced some action.
Lindy Rigging on the humps produced 13 Walleyes; we were able to keep 3 of them and got some good pictures of the "slot-fish" before they were released.
We caught all of them on night crawlers, injected with a bubble of air using a worm blower. But LISTEN though; the reason that we caught our fish only on crawlers was that we never used anything else.
That was my fault because early in the trip, Jeff was using a leech while I fished with a night crawler. It just happened, when he saw fish eating worms, he switched to crawlers too. At that point, I should have switched to using a leech. That way I would have known if one of the baits was better than another.
The reason that I brought that up is because later, in the fish cleaning house, Mike O'Reilly reported that he and his friend Adolf had been fishing the humps too and had concluded that leeches were working better than crawlers. Ironically, our fish counts were identical; so I guess that means both baits should be used until you find the one that's right for you.
In the weeds, we fished withsingle hook spinners, Golden Shiner Color tipped with minnows. There were lots of Perch, mostly small, but we did keep some of them. There were a few Pike too, but not many.
From what I could see, Winnie's deep weed flats are showing signs of life, but they aren't quite ready for prime time yet.
Getting back to my opening point, what reminded me about summertime mixed bag fishing was the report that I got from Bowen Lodge yesterday.
I think that while we're waiting for the next hot Walleye pattern to emerge, I wish that I could just be more like the Huddleston’s and get in on some fun. I think it’s time for some silly, mid-summer, mixed bag giggly fishing.

July 11, 2014 - Cutfoot Sioux Mid-Summer Mixed Bag The Huddlestons, Orlando Florida were here last week. New to the lake, they didn't have any pre-conceived ideas about where to fish. That turned out to work in their favor because of looking for fish where they were "supposed to be", they found them where they actually were instead. They kept track of their catch during the week and recorded catching 7 species of fish and a total count of 220 fish. They caught ... >> Read Bowen Lodge Fishing Report

(continuing) Mike Bisping wrote; "On occasion, I fish a small 400 acre lake for walleyes in the Backus-Hackensack-Longville area.
As you might expect, the lake is stocked by the DNR and I find that a lot of the fish relate to the weedline in 10 to 15 feet of water once it gets established.
Typically, I experience the "summer peak" bite around the 4th of July give or take a week either way. During this time, the fishing is good, especially for larger fish. However, I struggle to find the walleyes before and after this time period.
Do they eventually head out to the feature-less main lake basin and follow schools of baitfish? Do they still relate to the weed line, but only bite sporadically due to the abundance of forage? Are they recovering from spawning and not biting earlier in the year? I have not been able to put the pieces of the puzzle totally together.
A) Read Reply >> Tactics for locating Walleyes in stocked lakes .

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 10, 2014 A Day To Recover
For me, Wednesday was a day to catch up on paperwork, chores, cleaning the boat and getting caught up on some of the cool stuff that's going on in the world of fishing!
Just when you think that the gizmos and gadgets have gone as far as they ever can, someone comes along and ... Look at this Humminbird's AutoChart Live allows anglers to create custom contour maps of any body of water.
Just when you think that the gizmos and gadgets have gone as far as they ever can, someone comes along and ... Look at this Humminbird's AutoChart Live allows anglers to create custom contour maps of any body of water.

Imagine fishing a body of water where you possessed the only accurate contour map in existence. How about having the ability to create your own ultra precise lake map, automatically and as you fish? What if you could make this map and watch it live right on your screen? Humminbird has once again gifted anglers with exclusive technology that will have an immediate, dramatic and positive impact on their fishing. AutoChart® LIVE is a remarkable DIY mapping program that allows anglers to ... Read >> Humminbird Autochart Live

July 10, 2014 - Lake Winnibigoshish Walleye, Perch and Pike Report Water temeratures are warming into the low 70 degree range. As we enter the mid summer period, panfish are beginning to provide entertainment for our guests. Perch fishing on mid-depth sand flats is reliable too. Fishermen are following the breaklines in 14 to 16 feet of water, trolling spinner/minnows. Walleye fishing continues to be good, daytime fishing on the bars and mid lake structures produces larger fish. Anglers looking for eaters should take the advice of local fishing guide ... >> Read Lake Winnie Fishing Report

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 9, 2014 - Opposites Attract and The Do Over Done Good The conclusion that I've come to is that the more things stay the same, the more they are different; many of my friends agree!
I already told you that on Monday, we caught almost all of our fish using Floating Lindy Rigs and Redtails on the weed edges in 11-12 feet of water.
On Tuesday, the fish didn't care if they ever saw another Horny Head Chub or not. Oh, by the way, the weed edges had been evacuated too. Just like always, whatever I learned yesterday could be thrown right out the window!
Talking with my friends who fish a lot, we've come to a consensus. Constantly changing weather, high water and massive amounts of baitfish have added so many variables that there's no real choice; these days, the secret to winning is to find a new pattern almost every single day. Luckily, most days we do.
Tuesday, the day that was re-scheduled to be the do over for last Sunday, I got lucky and stumbled into the right pattern early.
After fishing a couple of shallow, weedline spots, it was obvious that the fish weren't where they were before. Within the first half hour we knew that if there were fish in shallow water, I'd have explore new territory to find them.
That's what I was trying to do when it happened; I was watching my Humminbird as we rolled toward a shallow, rocky bar. As the boat approached the outer edges, the screen revealed some fish, so I backed out and started looking at the deeper water. One, Two, Seven, Nineteen.... there were scattered packs of fish all around the bar in 20 to 24 feet of water.
My exact words were; "I can see how this is gonna go". So here we go again, UN-Rigging everything that we had already just set up for the shallows and re-rigging for some deep water fishing instead.
I passed out the parts for my standard setup, a big bead in front of 1/2 ounce No Snagg sinkers, then swivels and finally, plain single hook rigs. This time, we set up 3 of them for leeches and night crawlers and 1 rig with a larger hook for minnows.
Once the crew had all of the assemblies completed, we tipped the hooks with a variety of baits. On one rig a night crawler, 2 of them with leeches and the 4th rig, a Redtail, just in case.
At first, I was having some doubts. The screen of my Humminbird was showing plenty of fish, but they were allowing us to pass through without striking our baits. Maybe they were Suckers? Maybe we were too late? I remember commenting that if these fish would all decide to bite, I thought we could have some fun on this spot.
Luckily, I didn't give up, because finally we got a couple of them to bite and once they started, they really got started. They were definitely Walleyes; they were deep and wanted Red meat.
I don't think that the fish cared whether we used leeches or night crawlers; they ate either of those baits. Knowing that using leeches, we wouldn't have to feed them as much line, I opted to have the crew stick with those. That way we could help address an important consideration, reducing the risk of hooking fish too deeply.
While we're fishing on lakes that have protected slot limits, releasing larger fish safely is a concern. In my opinion, it's easier to control how long we have to feed out line with the leeches. In fact, at times the fish can be aggressive enough so that we don't have to feed line at all.
Anglers, including me, have a tendency to feed out more line with crawlers or big minnows. That's because we get tired of reeling in half of a crawler or a minnow that's had its pants pulled down. The problem is that if we feed the bait too long, we have to figure out how to get the hook back without hurting the fish. There's a trick to doing that and I know what it is. Soon, I'm going to have an opportunity to capture the procedure on camera and when I do, I promise that it will be worth your time to watch.
Back to fishing; luckily the bar we were fishing was a large one and there were enough fish to allow repeated drifts. We were able to stay within a quarter mile for most of the day and eventually, the do over had been done well. Now, I’m sure that it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
(7/9) A couple of email questions from Jace Swanson; "Hey Jeff, Do you use monofilament or fluorocarbon line when you tie your snell for a Lindy Rig? What is your recommendation for a good rigging rod that won't cost me over $150?
A) Jace, For Walleyes, I still use mono most of the time, mainly because of it’s low cost. I use Cabelas Pro Line Camo 6 lb. It is very good line and super cheap. If I’m rigging with big minnows, then I use fluorocarbon, a larger hook and heavier, 17 lb. test line.
For an affordable rigging rod, I simply don’t know how you could ever beat this; Here is a link to TFO's Gary Loomis Signature Series Spinning Rod - The model number is TFG SSS 703-1 and it's a 7 foot Medium Light Power rod designed for 4-10 pound line and 1/8 - 1/2 ounce lures. Retailing at $99.95 these spinning rods provide an awful a lot of value for the price.
(7/9) Gus' Place Resort, Ball Club Lake; " This summer the lake surface temperature seems to be stuck in the 60s. Typically by the 4th of July the water is in the lower 70s, but not this year. I think the biggest effect has been slow weed growth in the lake and that makes finding those honey holes a little harder.
Water levels continue to rise slowly and have come up another 2 inches in the past 3 days and most of the fish taken also continue to be caught in less than 20 feet @ around 12-14.
Last week was the 4th of July holiday and of course a busy time at the resort, camp was full with many new and repeat guests. One of my new guests was Steve R. When I checked Steve into his cabin he told me that he had been staying at a neighboring resort and lake for the past 18 years and Ball Club Lake had always been on his “bucket list” and he was finally glad to be on board fishing. Steve inquired about the large Crappies in the lake, I gave him info on the recent patterns and ended up with a comment about how I thought the spawn was over, the Crappie are moving back out and I thought he had missed the peak Crappie bite.
I do my best to give accurate fishing information to my guests, after all I do want them to catch fish.
Just about the time I think a I have a few patterns figured out that will help my customers, someone comes along and throws the whole mess out the window.
The very same day I told Steve that I thought the Crappie were done this year, at the end of the day he came in with a nice mixed bag of Walleye, Northern, a few Perch and yes, Crappie and he did the same thing the next day.
One thing that I have learned over the 14 years at the lake is;… All fishing news is old news." - Gus Sheker, Gus' Place Resort .
(7/9) From The Marcell Area, Frontier Sports, Paul Larson said; "It’s been a long wait, but the Walleye and Crappie bite is on!
Both species were in the weeds in 8 to 13ft of water. The lake I fish is one of those deep clear water lakes that are quite numerous in this area and finding the Crappies or getting the Walleye to bite has been very frustrating, that is until yesterday.
It appears the fish have gotten used to the unusual mood swings our weather has been prone to this season.
I, like many other folks in the area, spent the spring and early summer trying to find the Crappies with minimum success. Monday I found them where they’re supposed to be and was once again trolling crankbaits, specifically the LIVE TARGET Jointed Perch and catching some nice sized fish, both Walleye and Crappie.
Northern pike fishing has been very good and Bass fishing is still excellent.
Sunfish in some lakes in the area have not spawned yet and maybe won’t at all this year. Be that as it may, fishing is definitely picking up. It’s about time. It’s been a while since I’ve had fresh Walleye for breakfast and I was worried I might become Mercury deficient.
It looks like the weather will be cooperating for the rest of the week so get out there and enjoy!"
Frontier Sports features a complete and fully stocked Sporting Goods department and Bait Shop, Gas, Grocery, Deli and Gift Shop. Frontier Sports is an authorized LIVE TARGET and SAVAGE GEAR dealer. Frontier Sports 219-832-3901 or Email .

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 8, 2014 - Trial and Error Leads To Late Afternoon Rally

Fishing with my good friend Bill Morgan is always the same. He generally winds up catching 'em sooner or later. But fishing during the turbulent days of mid-summer, he has watched me burn up more than a few brain cells while I was trying to figure out what to do.
That's how it was on Monday when Bill, joined by another friendly face from the past Jeff Heinrich, took a tour of the Northland with me.
Our first stop in the morning was a small lake west of Deer River. I hadn't been there in a while, but it can be good during mid-summer, so it was worth a try.
After a few hours, it was obvious that we hadn't stumbled into a "hot bite", but we did at least have enough to cook a "hot bite". We headed for shore and whipped up a quick shore lunch while I speculated about our game plan for the afternoon.
It made a lot of sense to keep heading West, so that's what we did. The target was another small lake in the Leech Lake neighborhood.
At the landing, the surface temperature was 74 degrees, the weeds were getting thick and the lake had that "summery" feel about it. I couldn't stay to find out, but I'll bet that there would have been a good panfish bite in the evening. It just gave me that feeling. We were there to find some Walleyes though and we did our best to get after them.
I looked at a lot of spots that led into deep water. Points, sunken islands and a couple of deep water flats. There wasn't much evidence of any major schools of Walleye in deep water. So I decided most all of our fishing spots would be located in and near the weeds.
We tried a variety of presentations, some slow, some fast. Lindy Rigs tipped with leeches were getting bit, but the fish were fickle and didn't want to hold on to the baits. I was stubborn for a while and kept trying to make them work, but it wasn't coming together. It was a bit later that I finally swerved into the correct answer. I had rigged Bill up with an 1/8 ounce Floating Lindy Rig and tipped it with a small/medium size Redtail Chub. Now things started to happen.
The weedline was holding a 50/50 mix of Walleye and Pike, the pike were mostly small except for one whopper. The Walleye were just right, 15 to 16 inches.
The location was not typical. The fish were holding near a shoreline point. But they were not on the point at all, they were only holidng in an inside corner, a small notch in the weedline. There was a patch of weeds, mixed coontail and eelgrass that held the fish. Pulling the rigs through these weeds is a real test of your sense of feel; the weeds feel a lot like fish striking and vice versa. If I'd stumbled into the answer sooner and we had more time to perfect the system, we (all 3 of us) might have made fewer mistakes. The outcome could have easily been a limit of Whitetails for both Bill and Jeff. Considering the conditions though, we all thought that it turned out to be a decent showing in spite of our flaws.
(7/8) From The Iron Range, Greg Clusiau wrote; "A huge largemouth bass broke water trying to shake the hook. At that precise moment my 7' Loomis rod was thrust straight down into the water trying to eliminate any slack line. The rod, which has aided me in catching everything from lake trout to musky was really put to the test. I was surprised at the power of this fish.
Nearing the boat I guided it into the landing net. It was a beauty and one of the largest bass I had ..." >> Read Greg's Full Report .

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 7, 2014 - Stormy Weather Forces "Do Over"

It's funny; sometimes the more that I wish I was wrong, the more right I turn out to be.
After 30 years of being a fishing guide, you'd think that I could quit worrying about the effect that stormy weather has on Walleye fishing. You'd think that I could learn how to shrug my shoulders and say... "Sorry boys, that's why they call it fishin', not catchin'". But I still can't do it; especially when I know that my customers are looking to me for solutions, not excuses.
I spent the wee hours of Sunday morning tossing and turning as I listened for a new clap of thunder each time a lightning strike lit up the sky and the walls of my humble abode. I remember thinking; "This isn’t going to be too good". Still, I was hoping to be wrong, the wronger the better!
Sometimes a series of strong thunder storms can kill the Walleye fishing deader than a door nail, sometimes it doesn't, It depends a lot on how good (or bad) the fishing was before the storms pass through the area. Just lately, it hadn't been all that good, especially on the group of lakes that I had to choose from.
Long story short, we tried two good lakes and caught a couple of fish at each one. We tried our hardest to get the fish going good. But this time I was a little bit too right, it just wasn't happening.
Luckily, this week I had a safety valve, a morning that I had been saving for paperwork is now going to  get turned into a fishing trip instead and with luck, the "do-over" will be a little bit more fun than the aftermath of the storm was. - You will be the first to find out!
(7/7) From Lake of the Woods, Mike Kinsela, Border View Lodge; "Oh the water! We are still up a couple of feet from normal and the docks are wet at the bottom, a North wind brings the water up some and has covered the docks from time to time. We have been using the floating docks on occasion to keep our feet dry.
We have been traveling around the lake the last couple of days. The past week we have covered areas from Garden Island, Little Oak, Archies Reef and Pine Island. Mostly drifting with spinners and doing some jigging. We would like to see more consistent weather, especially wind direction which may help the Walleye’s school up better.
The forecast is showing more of what has become our typical weather pattern for the summer. Possible thunderstorms and highs in the 70’s and low’s in the 50’s. We know it will change." - 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge .
(7/7) On Lake Winnibigoshish, Joe Thompson, Four Seasons Resort says; "The perch continue to be the story this year. They are still roaming the flats on the shore side of the primary breakline. Jigs and fatheads are the best bait. Northerns are starting to heat up. The weeds are growing fast, and the pike are starting to inhabit them. Spoons, jigs and minnows, and crankbaits have been effective for catching these fish.
Walleyes are still playing hide and seek with the fishermen. Some fish are being caught on the humps when they are fishable. With the windy conditions, these structures are very hard to fish properly. The main bars don't seem to be holding fish like normal. I'm not sure if the high water has anything to do with it or not. 
That means there will be that many more walleyes to catch this fall! Make your plans now to take advantage of our Labor Day special, or our fall special. We are taking reservations daily, so don't miss out on your favorite cabin!" >> Four Seasons Resort .
(7/7) From Lake of the Woods, Mike Kinsela, Border View Lodge; "Oh the water! We are still up a couple of feet from normal and the docks are wet at the bottom, a North wind brings the water up some and has covered the docks from time to time. We have been using the floating docks on occasion to keep our feet dry.
We have been traveling around the lake the last couple of days. The past week we have covered areas from Garden Island, Little Oak, Archies Reef and Pine Island. Mostly drifting with spinners and doing some jigging. We would like to see more consistent weather, especially wind direction which may help the Walleye’s school up better.
The forecast is showing more of what has become our typical weather pattern for the summer. Possible thunderstorms and highs in the 70’s and low’s in the 50’s. We know it will change." - 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge .
(7/7) Fish ED on Lake MilleLacs; "This week, Fish Ed Host Jon Thelen travels to Minnesota’s giant walleye factory, Mille Lacs Lake, and shows you how to run and gun for walleyes in clear water. His slip-float technique helps you put more big ‘eyes in the boat during those calm days on clear water. Click here for >> Clear Water Walleyes on Lake MilleLacs .
(7/7) From The Marcell Area, Frontier Sports, Paul Larson said; "It’s been a long wait, but the Walleye and Crappie bite is on!
Both species were in the weeds in 8 to 13ft of water. The lake I fish is one of those deep clear water lakes that are quite numerous in this area and finding the Crappies or getting the Walleye to bite has been very frustrating, that is until yesterday.
It appears the fish have gotten used to the unusual mood swings our weather has been prone to this season.
I, like many other folks in the area, spent the spring and early summer trying to find the Crappies with minimum success. Monday I found them where they’re supposed to be and was once again trolling crankbaits, specifically the LIVE TARGET Jointed Perch and catching some nice sized fish, both Walleye and Crappie.
Northern pike fishing has been very good and Bass fishing is still excellent.
Sunfish in some lakes in the area have not spawned yet and maybe won’t at all this year. Be that as it may, fishing is definitely picking up. It’s about time. It’s been a while since I’ve had fresh Walleye for breakfast and I was worried I might become Mercury deficient.
It looks like the weather will be cooperating for the rest of the week so get out there and enjoy!"
Frontier Sports features a complete and fully stocked Sporting Goods department and Bait Shop, Gas, Grocery, Deli and Gift Shop. Frontier Sports is an authorized LIVE TARGET and SAVAGE GEAR dealer. Frontier Sports 219-832-3901 or Email .

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 6, 2014 - Summer Traditions
Warm weather for the holiday weekend lifted the spirits of most anglers, boaters and jet skiers. Watercraft traffic on the lake was at its peak this Saturday; fish were cooperative in spite of heavy traffic.
Taking the Independence Day holiday off to celebrate my daughter's birthday meant that I had a free day on Saturday. Free to fish with her and the future "in laws". Annalee, her fiancé Austin Jones and his parents Randy and Mavis Jones, we would all hop into the boat together.
Our destination, Trout Lake in Coleraine, MN is well known for its large Walleye and Smallmouth Bass. During recent years, it's steadily improving water clarity has forced the addition of the word "fickle" into the vocabulary of most anglers who fish the lake. On Saturday, we ... read ... >> Grand Rapids Area Fishing Report

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 5, 2014 - Remember this familiar old expression? "If you don't have something good to say, then don't ....." Hold on a second! I have a better idea, just say something beautiful instead!
If you're up for seeing something wild and beautiful, then you can take a drive today and spot some of the Lady Slippers that are in bloom. Like the pair pictured, some of the most gorgeous ones are hiding. But there are lots of them within plain view and all you need to do is watch the ditches as you drive around the Deer River area.
After taking a day off to celebrate my daughter's birthday on Friday, I'm a little short on "new news", but long on time. This seems like the perfect time to pick up where I left off in my attempt to answer this ...
(continuing) Mike Bisping wrote; "On occasion, I fish a small 400 acre lake for walleyes in the Backus-Hackensack-Longville area.
As you might expect, the lake is stocked by the DNR and I find that a lot of the fish relate to the weedline in 10 to 15 feet of water once it gets established.
Typically, I experience the "summer peak" bite around the 4th of July give or take a week either way. During this time, the fishing is good, especially for larger fish. However, I struggle to find the walleyes before and after this time period.
Do they eventually head out to the feature-less main lake basin and follow schools of baitfish? Do they still relate to the weed line, but only bite sporadically due to the abundance of forage? Are they recovering from spawning and not biting earlier in the year? I have not been able to put the pieces of the puzzle totally together.
A) Read Reply >> Tactics for locating Walleyes in stocked lakes .

Deer River Area Fishing Report July 4, 2014

Happy Independence Day! AND Happy Birthday Annalee!

Grand Rapids Area Fishing Report July 3, 2014 - If you're like me and the idea of catching big fish haunts you a little bit, then you're going to like this news. If you ask me, it's time to declare a ... >> Read Grand Rapids Area Fishing Report .
(7/3) Gus' Place Resort, Ball Club Lake; "Fishing patterns have changed little over the last 2 weeks with the exception that the Walleyes are starting to disperse and moving a little deeper toward the 20 foot range. Most walleye are falling for Lindy rigged leeches 14-20 feet, moving slow under 1mph. Overcast, windy days are producing the best Walleye bite.
Yellow Perch and Northern are taking live and also artificial baits 6-12 feet along the drop, if you can find the weeds it is a real plus, but high water and cool weather has retarded this years weed growth and many of the forage minnows have moved into the grassy shoreline.
Casting the shoreline with Shad Raps in silver & blue and also perch pattern has been catching nice 5 lb. Northerns and occasional Walleye. Despite this year’s high water, the bite remains very good on Ball Club lake." - Gus Sheker, Gus' Place Resort .

Rebel Releases New Lures Made For Kids - MicroCritters feature kid-friendly shapes and barbless hooks for safety. Rebel Lures knows kids; crickets too for that matter. The company has long manufactured lures that kids naturally gravitate to, like little crawfish, minnow imitatations and amphibian floater/divers, So it’s a natural that Rebel takes the first serious step to creating an industry niche for kids’ tackle. Unlike what’s currently available, though, Rebel’s new kids’ line of lures is not just cheap, downsized versions of larger baits. Rebel engineers looked at the problems kids face when making ... learn more >> Rebel Kid Series Lures

(7/3) On Cutfoot Sioux and Lake Winnie, Eagle Nest Lodge; "Happy July. We're glad to be done with June! The lake is over a foot high! That's a lot of water.
Our guests have been catching a few fish, in between downpours and gale force winds. Cutfoot Sioux still seems to be solid for walleyes. Some are still catching them along shorelines, but the bar and little humps seem to be turning on. We haven't had the big mayfly hatch yet, although guests are seeing clouds of bugs in the water...I think they are on the way. Big perch and some crappies are still biting in shallower water. And northerns are pretty aggressive now. With the high and cooler water, the weeds seem a little behind, but it's hard to tell from here." Bryan and Sue Harris, Eagle Nest Lodge EMAIL .
(7/3) On Lake of the Woods, Sportsmans Lodge; "Lake levels continue to go up and down but the fishing remains great! Hammered gold spinners tipped with a minnow or leech in 10'-14' of water near Garden Island has been hot.
Shorelines around Little Oak Island and Falcon Island using hammered gold spinner or gold ball 3/8 oz jigs tipped with a leech or minnow have been good. Muskie opener was good! Nice 40"-50" fish were found.
We still have some rooms available for the 4th of July weekend. Great fishing and lots of area family friendly activities are ready for you!" Jacki Lavalla, Sportsmans Lodge EMAIL .

Fishing Report July 2, 2014 - July? Are You Sure? - On Tuesday, I paid a visit to Island Lake where Rich and Diane Stribe were staying. Rich is a great guy and a repeat customer too; in fact he just fished with me about hmm... 25 years ago . So we had a little catching up to do.
At the landing, I was barely out of my truck before Rich and Diane began commenting about my attire, a pair of shorts and a sweater. No, even I am not that tough, I assured them that I'd be wearing my rain paints and the finest plastic rain coat that money can buy ... in an emergency.
After forgetting my rain coat at home, I’m glad that I had picked the emergency substitute on my way up on the way to the lake, but 2X? Really? You’ve got to be joking, I felt like Jethro Bodine, stuffed in there like a sardine.
On the lake, the cold front had arrived, forcing the surface temperature down to 68 degrees. That's a drop of 4 degrees since my most recent visit. The wind, now coming from the Northwest had the surface churned into a "Walleye Chop" and there was a light drizzle passing through. It was chilly and in no way resembled any kind of day that you'd expect in July.
Island Lake was at the epicenter of a series of storms that struck last Saturday. We all knew it, we were all there when it struck. Numerous lighting strikes, lots of thunder and big waves had the neighborhood pretty shook up. Apparently, the fish hadn't fully recovered from its effects, at least not everywhere on the lake.
I'm guessing that we fished a half dozen spots, picking away at little Bass and Perch before I found something interesting. It was a shallow rock flat adjacent to a patch of Cabbage weeds. There were fish on the breakline and these fish were cooperative.
Fishing in 8 to 10 feet of water, we managed a half dozen keeper size fish, a handful of "slot-fish" and some Smallmouth Bass. It was a good showing for this spot and we were really lucky to have found it. For reasons known only to the fish, this was the only good place to wet a line that I could find.
I knew I shouldn't have done it, I should have put up a fight, but what could I do? It was time for a break and the next thing I knew, we were sitting inside having a nice, warm lunch. I was getting spoiled rotten! It was nice, really nice, but it sort of ended our momentum and after lunch, we were back to picking away at small Bass and Perch, even at the "honey hole".
I'm guessing that eventually we would have found another spot, but the effects of the cold drizzle had set in and for me, it was too late. Everyone was ready to call it a day, even if it wasn't the world record best day ever. For me though, it was a lucky day, a beautiful day.
We caught just enough fish to be satisfied with the outcome. It was chilly, but not miserable and the jokes were outstanding! I could not have asked for a better crew and I couldn't have enjoyed myself more, even stuffed into my plastic Korean emergency rain coat, it was a blast. Thank You!!

Fishing Report July 1, 2014 - Closing Out June With A Rally! - Remember my closing comments from the report on Monday morning? "After a couple of industrial strength, blue collar working days of fishing, I'm hoping that paying a visit to a couple of these deeper lakes today will help me send my friends Kevin and Al home with memories of our fantastic, day 3 grand finale'!"
Well thanks to a really good lead from a really good friend (You Know who you are and Thank You!) I think we managed to do just that.
The winds were strong enough to blow the sound of my voice clean away from their ears. Still, Kevin and Al managed to capture and decipher the ramblings of their Multi-Tasking Captain and focus their attention on presentation. The fish liked what they saw and rewarded us handsomely.
Commenting too much about their location might be a waste of your time. That's because with so much wind, both the Walleyes and the Smallmouth Bass were acting abnormally aggressive, especially during the first half of the day. Normally segregated on this lake; these schools of fish were all mixed together and competing for food on the rocks.
The real takeaway was their wild mood swings about baits. We saw it with our own eyes and I can honestly say that there were moments when the fish would abruptly change from one bait preference to another. Note: There was never a time when any one of the baits stopped working completely; they would just really taper off compared to others. Luckily, I had enough of everything on hand to accommodate their whims.
In the morning, Leeches were working just fine for the Walleyes. But once the action tapered off, I decided to try Lindy Rigging with a large Creek Chub. I never even got the first one to the bottom before it was inhaled by a nice Smallmouth. The same thing happened to the second one, then a Walleye and then another and soon it was time to set up Al with a minnow rig. From then on, minnows were king, for a while.
Meanwhile, back in Multi-Tasking Central, I had set up a Lindy Rig with a night crawler. Down it went and away it went. Just like the episode with the Creek Chubs, it was like flipping a switch, now they wanted crawlers. I asked; “do you wanna try a worm?” Kevin took me up on that offer and for a while, worms were the name of the game.
Eventually, everything sort of settled back into a balanced blend. The mood of the fish settled down during late afternoon and when it did, the bait preferences weren’t as dramatic. Now we caught a few of everything on a little bit of everything.
Fishing these deeper, clear water lakes during this summer peak pattern are a blast, but there is one caveat, it’s not a way to find “eaters”; it’s more of a Catch-Photo-Release experience.
For us, catching keeper size fish was not the primary goal, so it didn’t bother us at all that most of the fish were over 20 inches. In Minnesota statewide, each one of us would only have been allowed one fish. Since we had already kept enough fish for eating during the first two days, we were free to enjoy the experience, unencumbered by frustrations about releasing these gorgeous fish.
Okay then, luckily we did it; we managed to end the trip with a rally and close out the month of June with a 55 gallon drum full of huge smiles! I think that maybe we’ll have to try that again one of these days!
By the way; Speaking of fishing for Walleyes in clear water ...
(7/1) Fish ED on Lake MilleLacs; "This week, Fish Ed Host Jon Thelen travels to Minnesota’s giant walleye factory, Mille Lacs Lake, and shows you how to run and gun for walleyes in clear water. His slip-float technique helps you put more big ‘eyes in the boat during those calm days on clear water. Click here for >> Clear Water Walleyes on Lake MilleLacs