Your Leech Lake, MN muskie and walleye fishing portal-
presented by Captain Phil Bauerly
Showing posts with label leech lake crappies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leech lake crappies. Show all posts
Monday, May 13, 2019
Outright Angling Fishing Report May 13, 2019
Walleye fishing is here, and Leech Lake area guides, resorts and other local establishments are off and running. The fishing has been great, with the classic jig-and-minnow doing most of the damage in 5-14 feet of water, just as many predicted.
Details matter, and paying attention to boat speed, jigging cadence, jig color etc, is key to putting more of these delicious-state-fishes in the boat right now. Don't miss the best walleye bite of the year, local resorts and guides still have some limited availability this month.
Crappie fishing remains strong, with good numbers of fish showing up at the end of our lines, along with some real trophy slabs. The shallow extremities of the lake are great places to look for these fun and tasty fish.
With bass and muskie fishing right around the corner, angling opportunities will be quite plentiful here at Leech Lake. Pick a species or two and plan your next outing, I would love to have you aboard.
Well, things are shaping up nicely for the MN fishing opener here on Leech Lake. With decent weather and temps forecast for this week, we should see water temps approaching 50 degrees for opening day. Walleyes will likely be finishing up their spawning rituals later this week, so the careful handling of larger females is good practice.
Major main lake points and adjacent flats are typically good areas to check, depths of 5'-12' are typically most productive. If this isn't working, try moving to the shallow, warmer water at the north end of the lake where baitfish and walleyes often congregate on 5'-10' flats. I like to avoid the crowds and find fish that haven't been bothered as much. If you have side-imaging, you can often key in on these spooky fish much quicker, and make long casts in this cold, clear water. Pitching 1/8 oz jig and minnow combos is the classic technique, but soft plastics and even hard baits can produce well too.
Crappies can be a nice bonus this time of year, and many slab crappies have already been caught all the way around the shallow perimeter of Leech Lake this spring. We are seeing crappies staging in deeper water during the cooler mornings lately. If you have side-imaging, you can locate these fish a bit faster. Later in the afternoons, try the shallow shorelines and pencil reeds in 3-5 feet of water for these favorites. We typically harvest a couple of nice crappies per person, and release the rest for future generations. Wow will they put a smile on your face!
Have a safe and fun opener everyone, we'll see you out there!
Cheers and hook-sets,
Capt. Phil Bauerly
outrightangling.com
Don't get me wrong with this title, I do enjoy early open water fishing for crappies, bluegills, suckers, perch and stream trout. However, big water walleye fishing is in my veins and the grand tradition of "walleye opener" can't come soon enough for me. To build on the anticipation, Leech Lake is one of the best early season walleye lakes anywhere with loads of 15"-20" fish right now with just enough bigger fish to make things really interesting for fisher folk.
The next 3-4 weeks should be silly good for crappies if we can pry ourselves away from the walleye haunts.
Bluegills picnic in the shallows on warm afternoons, they will start making beds and staying shallow as long as water temps continue to rise.
We have a few trout streams in the area as well, if you don't mind bush whacking a bit.
With about a month to go in the season, Walleye fishing here on Leech lake has now settled into it's typical late winter doldrums for the most part. Mobile anglers can still catch their limit and then some by staying mobile and concentrating their efforts at dawn, dusk, and during pre-frontal conditions. Small presentation details are critical now as well. Gold flutter spoons, hand picked shiners and glow teardrops are some good options to try out when the bite gets slow. More than any other time of year, punctilious presentations prevail for mid to late winter Walleyes.
Turning your attention to panfish now can really help fill in the lulls in the Walleye bite. Perch, Tullibee, Crappies and Bluegills often bite mid day and might even make you forget about old Walter.
I'm seeing quality Perch now and it should only get better in the coming weeks.
Mid winter Crappies can be quite easy to find provided you are mobile.
Selective harvest can help ensure good fishing for future generations.
Leech lake fishing remains solid with a nice balance of eater sized Walleyes and chunky slot fish. Mobility has been key during early ice as fish move on and off of key structural locations. Being able to fish 2-3 locations during prime times has been crucial when fish are in a neutral feeding mode. Mid-depth humps and shallower flats have been most productive. It is often important to know where and how fish move on and off of these structures to be able to intercept them. I believe that the next few months will be just as productive. Sure, the Walleye bite often slows a bit by mid-late January but fishing during prime times can still be quite productive. Adding in other species like Perch, Pike, Crappies and Bluegills can keep the action going during mid-day. Gold spoons have been my presentation of choice with the bobber rod/dead stick going ignored most of the time, but I expect that to change as the winter progresses.
With the lack of heavy snow cover, sight fishing for shallow water Walleyes has been a real treat. Big fish often prowl 8'-12' troughs running up into the shallow flats during mid day. Playing keep-away with small Perch passes the time until larger figures swim into view. Walleyes come a long ways to investigate aggressively jigged, flashy spoons and gobble them like Cookie Monster.
Walleyes from 24"-28" are pretty common catches these days thanks to
protective slot limits and selective harvest.
Here is Brian with a true daily double.
Big Panfish are not protected so it's up to us to sustain these beauties.
Scouting ice and fishing the past week has been going really well with Walleyes coming from most of my usual locals and presentations. I'm catching Walleyes in all depths from 8'-28'. The main part of Leech as well as Walker Bay have fishable ice but we must be safe and check as we go. A decent number of guide trips are scheduled now and I will continue to scout on my days off.
Oh yeah, I have been able to locate some really nice Crappies too.
My 2-up snowmobiles are tuned up and ready to go for custom portable-house excursions and I should be able to get my day house out by next week for rental as well. Please contact me if you are interested in experiencing what the Leech lake area has to offer. See info at the bottom of the page.
This has been a weird year for early ice fishing to be sure. Leech lake and area lakes just got going on some early ice building when we got seriously snowed on. As much as we have been complaining about the lack of safe ice, it isn't even Christmas yet. Pulling a sled over and through slush and deep snow paid off a little as I iced my first few quality Leech Lake Crappies of the season. Small spoons and tungsten jigs did not tempt the fish. It took a lively minnow on a plain hook to get any action at all on these post-cold front fish.
I captured one such capture (and release) on video.
What is it about Crappies? Pure Joy I tell ya! If reeling in a slab doesn't put a smile on your face well...I wonder if you have any love for yourself at all? Anyway, I have a few ideas about how to ice the big floppa this winter.
A 2# chunk from Sunday.
First, one must fish lakes where big fish are. With most lakes it's: survey says......nnnngggggtt. Sadly, there just are not that many lakes left out there with catch able numbers of big-uns. Ninety percent of the lakes around have either been over harvested and contain stunted genetics or just don't have the habitat and forage base required to sustain big specs. Comb the MN D.N.R. Lakefinder website for lakes in your area that hold decent numbers of larger fish. Unless you have some great local intel (may require waterboarding) you could spend years finding your own honey hole. These surveys don't lie. Eventually you will find the lake that is more like: survey says....ding, ding, ding! Granted, there are lakes out there with huge crappies that just don't show up on the surveys but if they are on the survey, and it's a current one, then they are probably in the lake. And, the smaller the lake, the more faith you should put in the survey in my opinion.
Secondly, finding the fish in the lake. I believe the old adage that ninety percent of the fish are in ten percent of the lake, especially with crappies. So?..get maverick-ie and drill-baby-drill! Hole hopping is usually necessary, especially if you want big fish. Early in the season, a deep weed edge can be magic. As O2 depletes from the shallows weeds will die off. Unless you have really nice clumps of green coontail, the fish will eventually move out over deep water. If it's a deep lake, I would look for "confined open water" from 25'-50' deep and search there. In lakes with the deep basin topping out at 25-40 f.o.w., I would check the core of this basin first and then move toward the rim. Either way, the fish might be tight to the bottom or suspended, maybe even half way up the water column. Another place to check is the first real drop-off into deep water outside of a spawning area. Crappies will stage in these areas, especially in late season.
Finally, getting them to bite. Some die-hard crappie anglers will swear by the minnow while others prefer jigs or spoons tipped with waxies or plastic. I say, you really need both. For searching, a spoon or jig tipped with larva or plastic is usually the way to go. However sometimes a minnow is the only way to make old paper mouth open up. You might even have to experiment with weighted hooks, plain hooks, and split shot combos to seal the deal.
When you finally hit the mother-load, consider putting most of the big fish back in the lake. It's pretty satisfying slidin' a donkey back into the soup, knowing that next year you could have 15 or 16 inches of big floppa on the end of your line.
I got out with my friend Brian on another local lake inteding to C.P.R. some big Crappies. We had a tough time at first hole hopping the rim of a huge basin. At lunch time we decided to try next to our first two holes and it was game on. We set up his big hub shelter, had a brat and reeled in two dozen slabs with half being between 12" and 14-1/2". I love lake hoppin'.
I tried a new lake today for some Crappies. I'll just say it exceeded my expectations. I got to lip multiple fish (like 8) over 14"! The biggest went 14-1/2" and all went back in the drink.
Have a very Merry Christmas and a Crappie new year!
Man we have some great fisheries in the north country!
