Gimme Shelter

 

 

 

 

With the main lake still pretty chilly, look to sheltered backwaters now for crappies, bluegills, largemouths, pike and more. The shallower and more protected the better.

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 doggies too! 

 

 

 

cheers and hooksets!

 

 

 

Walleye Bull Market-Leech Lake

Leech lake has seen it's walleye booms and recessions over the years and things are shaping up for a banner year in my opinion. The years of  "too big to eat" walleye fishing are over. There is a perfect balance of eaters and over-slot fish to keep it exciting. While other Minnesota lakes may be better for numbers or hold bigger fish, Leech, in my opinion is the quintessential walleye fishery. Its red hot one month and humbling the next. Just make sure to keep one eye on the panfish, bass and muskie action too for a more diversified portfolio.

 

Cheers and hooksets!

If you smelt it...

The smelt run is wrapping up now in most of the Great Lakes rivers and streams. Although I have never actually dipped a net for these little fish I can attest to their tastiness as I got to partake in a smelt fry a few weeks ago. Yum!


                                            These butterflied smelt have a tasty fry
                                                 Okay warden...I'm ready to die!




                                                         Cheers and hooksets!

Leech Lake-Finaly Some Open Water

 

I hit Shingobee bay for a few hours this afternoon to try some panfish action as the main lake was still iced up for opening weekend. No Crappies, the Perch were all pretty small @ 6"-9" but I did manage to find some nice Bluegills. The biggest two touched the 10" mark. Most of the bay was 42-44 degrees but I saw 50 up in the frog water. That breeze was chilly. Steamboat bay is mostly ice free now and Kabekona bay will go tomorrow I believe. Come on open water!

 

                                                       

 

 

 

 

 

                                                               Cheers and hooksets!

 

 

Steel Away- Wild Rainbows In May

This last April has been one of old man winters cruelest jokes to date. It finally looks like wild fish and fisherman can finally reconnect in the open water streams of Lake Superior's north shore for their annual rendezvous. Since things are just heating up, I'm predicting good numbers of fish in or near the rivers for most of May.

 

Cheers and hooksets!

Pre-Spawn River Run Walleyes In The Age Of Global Weirding

How about this weather we are having? It seems this phrase is becoming more common all of the time. Global weirding perhaps but our weather patterns seem to be more and more to the extremes. A pre-spawn walleye bite should be as predictable as tax time or the return of the Robins. The past few seasons we have seen a swing from one of the earliest ice outs in recorded history to what is shaping up to be one of the latest. This river thing can be hard to time lately
 but if you hit it right it can be fantastic. The big sallies are just starting to run up on the Rainy river as I type this and the season is scheduled to close tomorrow. Missed it by that much. So we didn't get our 30inchers this year but it's great to get out and give it a go. One month 'till 2013 opener now, if we have open water...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers and Hooksets!

3/13/13 Pick 6: Muskie Casting Lures

Muskie fishing can get out of hand in a hurry. At times, you can cast every lure in your possession to known fish holding structures and come up empty. Other days that one lure stands out above all else and you would swear it's the only thing to catch a fish on. Often this leads us to purchasing a second or third color or variation of this lure for our next outing. Multiply this pattern times ten in a typical Muskie season and you can end up with boxes and boxes full of mostly unused lures. I decided it's time to simplify. Here is a list of my six most productive casting lures from the past few seasons.

                                       1) Musky Innovations Mag. Bulldawg

I resisted using these big, heavy, ugly lures for years just because I don't like to follow trends. However, the sheer monster catching ability of these lures is simply unmatched and a big Muskie will hammer these things when she wont even give most lures a look.

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                        

2) Musky Mayhem Double Cowgirl        

Speaking of trends, these really are the work horses of today's Muskie hunter. The big double blades fish "bigger" then any other lure in your tackle box. The vibration emitted from these lures takes full advantage of the fish's perfectly evolved lateral line system. I like the JR Double model and tend to prefer gold, green, orange and chartreuse combos.   

 

 

                                                                     

                                                 3) Suick                                                                              

                                                                                                                               

The classic Jerkbait that has been around since the 1930's is still a great producer today. I like to work them around emerging weeds in June and early July and again in October and November or anytime over rock structure.                                                                                                                                  

 

 

 

                                                                                                                

                                          4) Mag Bomber Long-A                                                                

This is the dark horse on my list. Most Muskie people would consider this more of a Pike lure but this is my all time producer for early season or pressured fish. I work these with a quick series of snaps from the rod tip, the more erratic the better. These little baits will zing from side to side, up and down. The real key is to throw slack into your line between twitches like you are trying to snap your line. 

 

   

  

                    

                                                                                                                      

 5) ERC Hellhound    

ERC has mastered the subsurface walk-the-dawg with these baits. You can work the Hellhound with a fast or slow retrieve and since it stays a shallow 0'-3' below the surface it is great over shallow rocks or thick weedbeds.                                                                                                                                   

 

 

 

                                                                             

6) Tie: Top Raider and Flashy Serial Killer

 

This large spinnerbait is perfect for when you need to grind a lure through weeds where the fish live. This is a great way to get a reaction strike when weed fish get pressured. This is also the best spinnerbait I have seen for fluttering down a drop-off.                                                                        

 

If I force myself to include a topwater then I choose the Top Raider. There are a lot of good tail rotating lures out there but the Top Raider gets my vote because of it's rock solid construction.                    

 

Cheers and hooksets!