Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 30, 2019 "Hot, Muggy and Buggy Transitions To Stormy Night"
A hot, muggy and buggy Saturday transitioned into a stormy night and early morning. It’s stormy right now in fact, 6:00 AM at the time I’m writing and the thunder has already been booming overhead for several hours.
I can’t say that this is the sort of day that I would have hoped for in terms of fishing, but we’ll do the best we can with what we have to work with.
I’ve been following the radar and it looks like the further north we travel, the less impact from the storms we should notice. So I’ve got my fingers crossed that a return trip to Red Lake will work out for my crew today.
I didn’t work on Saturday; at least it wasn’t a “normal” work day. It was a busman’s holiday as I and Susan, along with Joelle and Patrick spent the day in hot pursuit of fish that were pretty enough to be photographed for commercial purposes. We got some, so there will be more pictures than these turning up sometime, more than likely whenever I least expect them too.
We started the day on Winnie because I was interested in getting some of those big “slot fish” for the photos. There was a side mission on the schedule too; we’d meet my friends Jake Premo and Mark Thompson who sort of invited themselves to have me cook them a shore lunch. That shore lunch was really the best part of our trip to the big pond.
Conditions just weren’t conducive for complete fulfillment of our goals, it wasn’t very relaxing. The lake was flat as a pancake, the sun was hot and there were 3 or 4 different bug hatches all going on at the same time. There bite was probably good enough to spend the whole day on the lake, but our hearts were not in it. So as soon as Jake and Mark showed up with the fish they’d caught for lunch, we cooked it, ate it and headed back to Grand Rapids to schedule a “do-over”.
By the way, the 4 small pike that we used for our lunch were very, very tasty. Even though they had caught one larger pike, over the 26 inch threshold, Mark and Jake chose to release it and keep 4 that were under the 22 inch protected slot size.
The idea of filleting fish in that size range may not sound impressive, but those 4 fish easily fed 6 hungry adults. In fact it took a bit of coaxing to get everybody to clean up the last few pieces.
At home, the Hippie Chick commented about how good those pike tasted after being fried in my traditional shore lunch coating. She’d eaten pike that were boiled, broiled, blackened and baked, but never fried the old fashioned way. That’s what I like about pike, they can be used so many different ways that it’s impossible to get bored with them.
It’s interesting that I got to experience the shore lunch from my customer’s point of view. Mark and Jake did the fish cleaning, so it was like a vacation for me. I can see why for many, the lunch is the highlight of a trip. After we were finished, I really didn’t care if we caught another fish or not; the experience was satisfying.
Like I said, I’m back at my real job today, headed north for Red Lake and hoping that the storm was less severe there than it has been here. Whatever happens, this is likely to be the easiest day of the next 3 and I’ll explain why tomorrow. 
— Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Lake Winnibigoshish, Joe Thompson, June 30, 2019 Four Seasons Resort
"The walleye fishing is in the full summer pattern. Main bars, mid-lake humps, and shoreline break-lines are all holding walleyes. Most of the fish continue to be in the 18-23" slot, but they are plentiful. The areas I reported catching northern pike last week were all loaded with walleyes this week. I can't figure out how that many of those northern pike could just swim away and disappear!
Most of the fish are going on live bait; leeches, crawlers, and minnows. Most folks are either Lindy Rigging them or using jig and minnow to catch them.
Northerns are being caught in usual ways. Trolling seems to be the best method of catching pike. Jigs and minnows will work if you can locate some biting Pike.
Perch fishing is still hard, you can find some fish one day and the next day they are gone. Look for new cabbage weeds where the crayfish are hiding. They are also in the deeper water around 30' but there is a lot of that water on the lake. Fathead minnows are the best perch bait right now.
The weather is heating up right now and the fishing continues to be hot. The pool is getting a lot of attention in the afternoons, but the morning and evenings are a great time to be out on the water fishing. If you are in to catching fish, now is a great time to be fishing Lake Winnie.
We have some openings for the next few weeks." — Joe Thompson, Four Seasons Resort 218-665-2231
Justin and Alice Wiese, Wheezy Guide Service June 29, 2019 Leech Lake Area Fishing Report
Walleye: Are still scattered as they are currently in transition. We were finding them in the fresh cabbage in 8’-12’ of water, as well as off the deeper structure in 18’-32’ of water.
For the shallow bite we were having the best luck using a bullet sinker with a spinner rig and either a crawler of fathead on. In the deeper water and structure we using a bottom bouncer with a smiley blade rig and slow death hook tipped with a crawler. Jigs and minnows have still been producing as well, look to the rocks on windblown points.
Panfish: Sunfish Can be found shallow in 4’-12’ of water on the weed flats or along the steep drops and edges of the bulrushes. Crappies can be found swimming with the Sunfish and out just a little deeper anywhere from 8’-14’ of water. A jig and live bait as well as beetle-spins has proven to be most successful.
Bass: Starting to head to deeper weeds and off rock structures. Smallmouth can still be found off their spawn beds on larger bodies of water. Success can be had wiggle-worming or using a Drop-Shot rig. Largemouth are found in the reed beds, shoreline weeds, and out from shoreline structure wherever the bottom is slightly softer. Spinner Baits, Frogs, and Plastics are all working well!" — Cheers Friends! — Alice, Wheezy Outdoors, 218-275-7525
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 29, 2019 "Believing the Un-Believable" — Good Calm Water Walleye Action at Upper Red Lake
It’s amazing how much influence the weather has over the timing of a fishing trip. Amazing too is how much difference there is between “good weather” for one lake vs “bad weather” for a different one.
Take Upper Red Lake for example, you can take all the rules about what would normally be “good walleye fishing weather” and throw them right out the window.
When the sun is out and the wind is calm, clear water lakes in the Itasca region make you work hard for every bite. But on Red Lake, sunshine, calm seas and warm water temperatures is the recipe for a fabulous fishing trip.
Don’t let her get riled up though, the famous walleye chop that usually triggers a hot bite on most good walleye lakes will ..." Read >> Upper Red Lake Fishing Report June 29, 2019
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 28, 2019 "Q&A How to Spin the Spin-Able"
On June 27, 2019 Paul Sivanich wrote in with a question; "Hi Jeff, I am very interested in trying your little Joe spinner technique. Can you tell or show me how you rig it? How much weight do you use? Do you think this would be a productive on a clear water lake with good cabbage beds? This seems like an efficient, easy and productive way to fish a weed line. Thanks so much. P.S. Love your fishing reports. I learn a lot. I love wiggle wormin’!"
A) Thank you Paul for the comments and for the question. The topic is especially timely today because as you can see in the photo of Dustan Smith taken yesterday, the Little Joe Spinners are just now becoming a mainstay presentation for me. In fact, there have been some lakes where the spinners are already working great and others where it's been a little bit too early.
This means that there are many days of happy spinning lying ahead for us over the next couple of months.
The question; "How do you rig it?" can be answered in several ways because selecting the correct style and weight sinker depends on the depth and type of structure you plan to fish. If you talk to other experts, they'll likely give you answers that favor the fishing scenarios they encounter most often. That's what I'm giving you here too, a couple of alternatives that come up most often on the lakes that my customers and I fish.
By the way, there are some articles about fishing the Little Joes already in the archives, so I'm tapping into some of those, rather than re-writing the complete answer this morning.
First off, the model of the spinner that I use the most is Little Joe’s Red Devil Spinner with a single, 2/0 Aberdeen style hook.
I love the longer hooks because they allow me to thread a long night crawler up onto the shank and over the knot. That gives the lure the appearance of having a large, healthy crawler, but when I snip off a little of the crawler’s tail, the trailing end winds up being only about an inch behind the hook.
You can use them with minnows too; some folks like to thread the minnow on to the hook. They run the hook into the minnow’s mouth, out through one gill and then up through the center of its stomach and out of its back. It sounds complex, but it’s not and I’ll make a point of snapping a picture of that today.
Fishing weed edges and cabbage patches is where I use spinners the most. For this, bullet sinkers are the best and the weight you use will depend on the depth and location of the fish within the weed beds. Allow the fish to tell you which depth within the water column to focus on by experimenting with different weights.
From an article last June; “For me, a 3/16 ounce bullet weight is the typical starting point, but I am fully supplied with 1/16, 1/8 and 1/4 ounce weights as well. Experimentation is the key to getting into the perfect …” Read >> June 24, 2018 “Spinner Rigging for Fishing Weed Walleyes”
There are a variety of methods for delivering spinners to deeper water walleyes, but the one that I use most often is the bottom bouncer. The "bouncers" allow you to control your depth precisely; once you know where the fish are located, you will be able to place your spinner right in fromt of their noses every time.
You can use the bottom bouncers all summer long, even today.
Here’s a link to one video that we produced last summer. This video not only does a good job of showing how to rig the bouncers, but also gives great insight into how and where to fish them. View Video >> Fishing Spinners For Walleye During Late Summer
After you digest these, let me know if there are additional questions and tomorrow, I'll pick up where we left off. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Lake Winnibigoshish The Pines Resort June 27, 2019
Fishing has been good and active this week. We continue seeing a lot of walleyes coming in and for many of our guests, the northeast corner of the lake is as far as they ever have to travel. Tamarack Bay, The Dam Bay and the area around Perch Bar have been producing fish.
Water temperatures remain cool, so jig and minnow presentations have still been working. There are more and more anglers switching over to leeches and Lindy Rigging, night crawlers to if the leech bite slows down. There are a few anglers switching to faster moving presentations as well. Trolling with spinners has begun to produce some fish, but this may not be the hot presentation until the water temperature gains a few more degrees.
During the evening, focus on mid-lake bars and humps that top off shallow, in the 14 to 16 foot depth range. During the day we are picking up more walleyes in 20 to 24 feet of water. The daytime fishing tends to produce more fish in the protected slot. So if it’s eating size fish you’re after, pay special attentions to fishing the twilight hours.
No matter which size walleyes they’re catching, our guests are telling us that Winnibigoshish is producing some of the best fishing they’ve experienced here in quite a while.
Panfish action is occurring during low-light periods. Cabbage weeds are the primary location for Crappies while Bluegills remain closer to shallow, shoreline structure. Some folks are reporting that sunfish they’ve cleaned are still filled with eggs, so we’re pretty sure that they have yet not moved into deeper weed edges.
Perch have been active for a while, but recently the average size has improved.
Did you know that it’s not too late to take advantage of our Independence Day Law Enforcement Special? That’s right, we still have a couple of cabins available and the weather is turning perfect for a last minute fishing getaway!
You’re invited to check out our website for cabin availability or give us a call and if you're in the area over the 4th, be sure to stop in and say hi. — Chad & Melissa Mertz The Pines Resort 218-246-8546 or 1-800-342-1552
Terry Thurmer, Lake Mille Lacs Fishing Updates June 27, 2019
"Walleye fishing continues to be exceptional. Smallmouth Bass fishing is improving with warmer weather some pike and muskies are being caught in the bays. Most of the walleyes are being caught on the mud flats the rock points are still producing when the wind is right." — Terry Thurmer, Terry's Boat Harbor,
320-692-4430
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 26, 2019 "Mixing The Mix-Able; Grand Rapids Area Lakes Not Quite Ready For Prime Time"
Spinning the weed edges for a mixed bag of walleye, pike, bass and panfish has become a major part of my routine over the past few years. In fact in some ways, I almost look forward more to the so called "Dog Days" of summer than I do the cool periods during spring and fall.
Tuesday was a good day to put the system to a test because part of my fishing crew was a nice young fellow named Bryce. Nobody mentioned his age, but I guess he’s somewhere between 10 and 12.
For youngsters in that age range, finesse presentations like wiggle worming or Lindy Rigging can be tricky. You know what I mean, it’s because of all those rules… feed line, don’t feed line, find the bottom, but don’t drag it, open the bail, close the bail, set the hook, but night right away; the list goes on.
That’s one of the main reasons I like handing youngsters a fishing rod that’s rigged with a Little Joe spinner. The only instructions they need are to cast the lure into the water and hold on tight; almost all of the “fishing” is handled at my end. As long as I maintain the right speed and continue moving along the right path, the fish will strike.
As you can see by the photo, spinning the weed edges worked fairly well for Bryce yesterday. My only wish was that there would have been a broader variety of fish within reach of his spinner.
The Little Joes did a nice job of catching pike and they produced some nice walleyes too. But the extra action produced by catching panfish and bass didn’t work out the way I had hoped. In fact on Tuesday, we only picked up one bass and our spinners never touched a sunfish or crappie.
At 65 degrees, the water temperature is still too cool for the big explosion of mixed bag action. The lion’s share of warm water species like largemouth bass and bluegills are still fretting over their spawning beds and haven’t moved out to the deeper weeds.
The weather forecast suggests that we shouldn’t have to wait much longer though. Daytime temperatures in the mid 80 degree range are predicted for the entire week. That’s definitely a step in the right direction, once water temperatures rise above 70 degrees, the mixed bag action bite should start firing on all cylinders.
For today, Brice, along with the rest of my crew are in the mood for a walleye or die fishing excursion.
With a forecast of 84 degrees, sunshine and light southwest wind, the choice of lake is obvious to me; is it to you too? — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Fish ED June 26, 2019 "Spinner Fishing Made Simple"
"Join us for another exciting episode of Fish Ed!
This week host Jon Thelen shows you a simple solution for catching midsummer walleyes using the Little Joe Red Devil 2-Hook Crawler Harness.
Jon covers what kind of structure to look for and how to be efficient fishing it.
You also get all kinds of professional tips and tricks that will make you a better spinner fisherman!" View Video >> Spinner Fishing Made Simple
Ely Area, Arrowhead Outdoors Ice Fishing Report June 26, 2019
"Walleye’s have yet to abandon the shallow shoreline waters, but for many the dock bite has slowed. Slip bobber and a leech fished in 5-10 feet of water near shoreline rock piles has produced multiple walleyes over 25”, with one whopper stretching the tape to 30”! Walleye’s have also moved out to mid-lake humps and there too, slip bobber and a leech has been the top producers. Lindy rigging leeches or crawlers out on the edge of humps or mud flats have also accounted for it fair share of walleyes. Mayflies have started to hatch on some lakes so anglers should start fishing with half a crawler on a light jig, over mud flats to continue to catch walleyes. Top colors remain blue, gold, pink and white.
Smallmouth Bass - While poor weather has slowed the topwater bite for smallmouth bass, anglers are still reporting a good topwater bite, but it’s slower then normal years. Smallmouth are still being located in the shallows, near trees or rock piles. If bass are not hitting topwater baits anglers should fish subsurface with senko rigs or tubes. Inline spinners are also worth noting. Anglers fishing clear water lakes are having best luck with natural colors like rusty crawfish, pumpkin green and blue. Anglers fishing dark colored lakes are having best luck on bright colors like white, chartreuse, firetiger and pink.
Panfish - Amazingly anglers are reporting sunfish with spawn still inside of them. Anglers should be looking for spawning sunfish in weedy bays, near pencil reeds, cattails, lily pads or near downed trees in shallow bays. Small baits like wax worms, small crawlers, crappie minnows and small leeches fished under a bobber has been the ticket to success for many anglers. Crappies are still being located near these same bays and are being caught the same way as sunfish.
Lake trout fishing has slowed as they continue to move deeper and chase cisco’s or smelt. Some anglers have had great success trolling flashy spoons on down riggers over 30-60 feet of water. Anglers have reported that they are marking the majority of fish over mud flats.
Stream trout fishing continues to slow for the shore anglers, but hasn’t changed much for the boat anglers. Nice rainbows are still being caught on cowbells, small crank baits and small crawler fished under a bobber. Rainbows have moved out away from the shoreline, but are largely still being found in the first ten feet of the water column.
Northern Pike have remained active in shallow water this last week. Anglers are reporting that spoons, spinnerbaits and live suckers have been accounting for the majority of pike caught this last week. Big pike seem to have moved out to their summer haunts and have become very challenging for anglers to find." — Arrowhead Outdoors, 218-365-5358
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 25, 2019 "Wiggling the Wiggle-Able"
Surface water temperatures remain unseasonably cool. At 67 degrees or thereabouts, they’re lagging behind by a few degrees compared to an “average” summer.
In terms of walleye fishing presentations, the most notable difference between this June and June of 2018 is that trolling presentations have been slow to reach the top of my priority list. Instead, live bait presentations like Lindy Rigs and Wiggle Worming continue to dominate my daily work routine.
Last week I wrote that insect hatches have been slow to emerge. I still have not observed any full-scale Mayfly or Fishfly hatches, at least not above the water. But, beginning last Friday, I did begin to find large clouds of insect larvae on the screen of my Humminbird. On that day, the stomach contents of every walleye I cleaned consisted of the telltale brown goo that’s typical when walleyes are feeding on larvae.
In my mind, this explains why many mid-lake structures host walleyes right now and why the live bait presentations are the most reliable producers. It’s been my experience that walleyes like the leeches and night crawlers best until the bug hatches run their course. After that, the weedlines will fill back up with fish and the trolling presentations will start to dominate.
I had a chance to test my theory last Sunday. After my weekend “office day” to catch up on paperwork and chores, I and The Hippie Chick managed to squeeze in a few hours on one of Grand Rapids’ walleye lakes.
On this particular body of water, wiggle worming was the way to go and spinning the weeds was completely un-productive. The contrast between those two presentations was stark, much more dramatic than it had been on other lakes that I fished last week.
With only a few hours to look around, we really didn’t have time to test out Lindy Rigging with leeches. But jumping back to last week, those two presentations turned out be a toss-up on most days. If we could catch fish wiggle worming, we could also catch fish rigging leeches.
It looks like this week could prove to be pivotal in terms of fish transitioning between feeding patterns. If the predicted warm weather arrives, it could trigger more intense insect hatches and accelerate weed growth. That would probably jump start trolling presentations in certain lakes.
I’ll be on the water every day this week, so there will be plenty of observations to report, so stay tuned. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Lake of the Woods, LOW Tourism June 25, 2019
"Walleye fishing is on fire at the south end of Lake of the woods. Great catches continue both over the mud basin of Big Traverse Bay as well over mid-lake structure.
Most anglers are fishing from an anchored position, and jigging with frozen shiners, others are pulling spinners with crawlers in 25-32'. If jigging slows, move around with spinners. Gold mixed with various colors or bright colors best in the stained waters.
On the Rainy River, there are some eater walleyes coming from holes, current breaks and sand riffs. Trolling crankbaits this time of year a good way to locate fish.
Smallmouth bass relating to rocks, bridges. Pike in and adjacent to bays and current breaks. Sturgeon season opens July 1st for the catch season.
Walleye fishing at the Northwest Angle remains excellent as well. Anglers finding walleyes in transition areas between rocks and mud.
Jigging, spinners and casting rocky shorelines with crankbaits all producing walleyes.
Smallies in shallow rocks, shallow diving cranks effective. Many fish targeting crayfish thus orange has been good color in addition to traditional gold / mix. Saugers, pike, and perch also in the mix. Muskie anglers showing off big fish." — Lake of the Woods Tourism, (800) 382-FISH
Lake of the Woods, Border View Lodge June 25, 2019
"We continue to have great success in Big Traverse. Anchored in 30 feet of water with a jig and a minnow is working great. There were many big Walleye caught again this week.
Warmer temps ahead, this week has highs into the 80’s and lows in the 60’s.
We still have some space available in July and August and we expect an awesome bite all summer long." — 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge
Lake Winnibigoshish, Joe Thompson, June 23, 2019 Four Seasons Resort
"The walleye fishing has been good to great. The keeper size fish seem to be more elusive as the fish migrate out to the mid-lake structure. Finding keeper size fish has been a real challenge this week. We are catching a lot of walleyes in the slot 18-23".
These fish are very impressive in the way they look and fight. I had a trip Thursday and the folks I was guiding commented that these walleyes fight harder than any they have caught before! Without targeting walleyes on Thursday, we managed to catch 8 fish in the slot on jigs and sucker minnows.
The fish are going on rigs and leeches, as well. All of the main bars are holding walleyes. Also, there are still fish on the primary shoreline breaks in 17-25' of water.
Northern fishing has really picked up. In fact, on our trip on Thursday, we had to feed 8 hungry guys. I decided the best way to do this would be to catch northern. They didn't disappoint us. We drifted on top of the main bar which sports random weed growth. There was a mixed bag of perch, walleyes, and especially northern. Most of the fish were perfect size for eating. We kept them between 20 and
22".
When de-boned, northern pike are as good eating as any fish we have; especially, the smaller ones.
Perch fishing has still been very spotty. Most of the numbers continue to come from the Third River Area of the lake. The southeast winds the past couple of days have made that a dicey proposition getting to the spot and back.
Jigs and fathead minnows are the bait of choice for the perch.
We are still a week or two behind normal. So the good June fishing should continue into July. We have openings for the first two weeks of July. Check our availability and give us a call." — Joe Thompson, Four Seasons Resort 218-665-2231
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 21, 2019 "Summer Peak Walleye Period Is Upon Us"
On Thursday, my Humminbird registered the first 70 degree surface temperature that I’ve seen in a while. That was the exception though, not the rule. The 70 degree water reading was taken in a clam, isolated bay at mid-afternoon while the sun was shining. Over most of the main lake, 67 to 68 degrees was more typical and in one area, I recorded a low temperature 0f 66 degrees.
Compared to this date in 2018, those readings are 6 to 8 degrees cooler than they were last year.
I’m sure that there must have been some bug hatches somewhere by now, but if there were, I have missed seeing them. From what I’ve seen on my graph this week, most insect larvae must still be in development, the telltale clouds of bugs located near bottom haven’t appeared yet; not for me anyway.
Even though I can’t see the bugs, they must be coming soon. I say that because the fish, walleyes in particular, are displaying classic, summer peak bug hatch feeding behavior. Soft bottom flats adjacent to mid-lake structures are filling up with walleye and their showing great interest both leeches and night crawlers. Minnows on the other hand are not getting their attention, at least not very well compared to the crawler/leech bite.
Since Monday, I’ve fished a variety of lakes and on all of them; we’ve caught most of our fish by either wiggle worming or Lindy Rigging. Most days the ratio has been about 50/50 but on Thursday morning, walleyes showed a strong preference for leeches. Later in the day, wiggle worming gained momentum again, so I guess the best strategy is to be prepared to alternate these two presentations.
Another presentation that kept coming to mind yesterday was power-corking. Many of the fish I spotted on the Humminbird were located a foot or more off the bottom and they “looked active.” That’s the scenario that usually indicates rigging a slip-float to suspend a 1/16 ounce Lindy Live Bait Jig and a lively leech over their heads will turn them on. I didn’t try it because we were catching plenty of fish by wiggling and rigging, today though, I am going to have the bobber rods set up before we ever get to the lake so I can make testing them a priority.
I mentioned earlier this week that we’d begun catching fish on Little Joe Spinners too. For the moment, I can make that presentation work if there are healthy green weeds present, but I tried spinning some rocks and shoreline breaks yesterday and didn’t find it very rewarding. Apparently the water hasn’t warmed enough to get the real hot shoreline spinner bite going, but if you’re near a good patch of cabbage, I’d definitely give it a try.
As the water has warmed, panfish have been wrapping up their bedding/spawning period and are showing up in deeper water. We’ve caught some sunfish in water depths of 10 to 12 feet over the tops of wild celery, in cabbage patches and near newly developed coontail weeds.
Crappies are located in or nearby the same areas as the sunfish. But the specs are in their late evening, early morning pattern; I can catch a couple during the day, but have been unable to produce significant numbers. It won’t be much longer before the water temperature gets warm to enough to raise their metabolism and encourage a daytime bite. But for now, plan on getting up early or staying up late if your expectation is to catch them in good numbers.
I’ve heard good reports about smallmouth bass fishing and I’d love to be out there chasing them, but walleye fever still afflicts most of my customers. If you’re thinking about bass fishing this weekend, try jerk baits, wacky rigged worms and inline spinners over shallow rock reefs, bars and stretches of rocky shoreline. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Wired2Fish June 19, 2019 "Wacky Rig Drop Shot Rigging Tips for Pressured Bass"
"Few presentations produce more bass in more places than the drop shot rig. That said, bass get conditioned to conventional rigging methods such as inline nose hooking and Texas rigging, and this is when California pro Cody Meyer switches things up.
Meyer shares details on the power of wacky rig drop shot rigging with sexy underwater video supporting his case from a fish's eye view.
Cody goes on to share his approach to leader length and tungsten weights, the optimal rod/reel/line setup and how to increase hooking percentages with the 'reel set' technique.
Taken together, these pointers will keep you catching bass on heavily pressured waters and even behind other anglers." View Video >> Wacky Rig Drop Shot Rigging Tips for Pressured Bass
Lake Winnibigoshish The Pines Resort June 20, 2019
Surface temperatures on Winnie remain cool, 65 to 67 degrees has been the most common range over the past week. That’s 5 to 6 degrees cooler than it was at this same time last summer. The water clarity is already greater this season than it was last year as well. With forecasts of more below average air temperatures, it’s likely that water clarity will intensify even more.
As much as the super-clear water makes conditions tricky for fishing mid-lake, open water structure, the advanced clarity makes weed cover more attractive than ever to the fish. Expansive stands of healthy, green cabbage weeds have developed in numerous areas of both the Dam Bay and in Tamarack Bay.
Walleye, pike and Musky already inhabit many of these weed patches and the passing of June’s full moon represents a pivotal time for bass and panfish. Spawning activity has peaked and they are moving toward many of those same cabbage patches as well as other types of emerging vegetation.
At The Pines Resort, there are more than a few guests who never move beyond Tamarack Bay to fish; they don’t have to. They already know that moving from weed patch to weed patch will produce fish of all shapes and sizes. We think that this summer, those beautiful, green weeds will be more important than ever.
How anglers approach fishing the weeds plays a huge role in what kind of fish they will catch.
For somebody who loves fishing with a jig and minnow, fishing a weed patch in mid-June is liable to produce primarily northern pike, perch and maybe an occasional walleye. Meanwhile, folks fishing two boats over might be wiggle worming in a similar weed patch catching primarily walleyes. At the same time, there’s a group fishing three boats down the line, casting small spinnerbaits and plastic action tails catching crappie, bass and northern pike.
In one of his reports last week, Jeff sundin mentioned fishing a weed edge using jigs and minnows and catching primarily northern pike. His group switched over to night crawlers and began catching walleyes in the exact same weed patch. We see scenarios like that in our bay too and it’s why we encourage folks to be creative; don’t get stuck on any one favorite presentation.
Some suggestions for fishing cabbage weeds include:
- Trolling Little Joe spinners tipped with either night crawlers or medium size fatheads. Rigging is easy, use bullet sinkers; they will slip through the weeds more easily than other types of weights. You’ll want to let your spinner tickle the weed tops, but not plow through deeper portions, so you’ll need a few each of the 1/16, 1/8 or 3/16 ounce sizes.
- The aforementioned wiggle worming is also an excellent presentation for fishing walleyes in cabbage weeds. A 1/16 ounce live bait jig tipped with a whole night crawler can be wiggled in and around heavy cover. Here’s a link to more detailed information about the presentation. >> Wiggle Worming 101
- Dead sticking leeches can be a super-effective way to catch walleyes in the weeds too. This presentation works best on calm days when the bait can be allowed to settle gently in gaps or pockets between weed stalks. The rig includes an un-weighted, #4 live bait hook tied directly to your line. Cast the leech into likely looking open spots and let it do all the work, walleyes have a hard time resisting that naturally swimming leech.
- The dead sticking presentation can be turned into a modified Lindy Rig by adding a bullet weight, swivel and 3 to 5 foot leader with a #6 or #4 live bait hook. You could fish this presentation using your choice of leeches, crawlers or lively, large minnows. The modified Lindy Rig allows you to cover a little more water and is less prone to snagging weeds.
The trick to fishing in and around weeds is to not try and fight them. Using lures that slither through them helps, so does learning to use finesse when fishing in heavy cover. At the first sign of your lure contacting the weeds, don’t pull back! Instead, let your line goes limp; the slack line will allow your lures to fall away from the plant. Then you can give your line one pop straight up, the brisk vertical motion makes your lure snap up and away from the plant so you can go back to fishing.
If you’ve read today’s report and decided that you’d rather fish some of your favorite, mid-lake structure, you still can.
Walleyes have continued to be active on the big lake’s larger bars and fingers that extend out from the shoreline. They’ve been active in Cutfoot Sioux as well; folks are finding them on weed edges and points in the 12 to 16 foot depth range.
There have been a lot of larger fish caught this season and it’s been tougher to find schools of smaller, eating size fish. The best remedy for that is to spend more time fishing during the evening and even into the dark. There’s a noticeable shift in the size structure during prime-time, a higher percentage of eater fish show up during these primary feeding runs.
We want to remind all law enforcement officers that we have a special 15% discount for you over the upcoming 4th of July holiday. Maybe you've been thinking about a fishing getaway, but haven't made a plan, well here's your chance. — Chad & Melissa Mertz The Pines Resort 218-246-8546 or 1-800-342-1552
Wired2Fish June 19, 2019 "Piscifun Tackle Backpack Giveaway"
"Great anglers need to be efficient with space and how they best carry their tackle. Some use a coffee can or a Walmart bag while others have streamlined their tackle into tackle bags and backpacks.
It seems that backpacks are becoming more en vogue due to the ease of carrying but more importantly how dynamic and economical they are with tackle space.
Walker Smith recently reviewed the Piscifun Tackle Backpack, and gave it rave reviews. High quality, waterproof, and durable plus double stitched seams make it perfect for even the roughest and toughest conditions and anglers.
For our next giveaway we will be giving 5 Wired2Fish readers the chance to win these awesome impressive backpacks." Enter Here >> Piscifun Tackle Backpack Giveaway
Ely Area, Arrowhead Outdoors Ice Fishing Report June 19, 2019
"Walleye - Walleye fishing this last week slowed for many as walleyes tradition from shallow water to deeper mud flats. Many anglers have struggled to find them. Anglers are still reporting some great catches happening right off their docks during the evening hours in 5-10 feet of water. These reports are very common on the deeper lakes in our area. On shallower lakes, anglers are finding walleyes at the base of rocky points in 20-25 feet of water during the day, but as the sun goes down the walleyes move up shallow. Leeches are taking the top spot for live bait choices, followed closely by minnows. Lindy rigs and spinner rigs are working best in deeper water, while jig and leech/minnow or slip bobber and a leech has been the top choice when walleyes are shallow. Gold, pink red and blue have been the top colors.
Smallmouth Bass - The classic post spawn top water bite has slowed thanks to a string of days with poor weather. Still, anglers that made the adjustment and went subsurface with tubes or wacky rigs reported great catches, but just lacked the number of big bass they were catching the week before. Anglers should continue to target bass around down trees, rocky flats and near creek mouths along the main lake shoreline. Anglers should use more natural color baits on clear water lakes and bright colored baits on dark water lakes.
Panfish - Sunfish have been moving shallow and for anglers targeting them, have been easy pickings. Anglers should be checking shallow bays and close to the shoreline for gills. Sunfish are simply looking for food and warm water to spawn in. Wax worms or small crawlers fished under a bobber has been very productive for many anglers looking to catch sunfish. Crappies are starting to move around and anglers are finding them around shallow downed trees or shallow emerging weedbeds. Minnows fished under a bobber or swimming small tubes near brush or weeds, have been accounting for the majority of crappies caught this last week.
Lake Trout - Lake trout continue to be found in 20-70 feet of water and have been hammering white vixen and white tail dancer crankbaits trolled over deep water. Trolling spoons fished with down riggers has also been accounting for its fair share of lake trout. White, silver and red colored spoons have been working best.
Stream Trout - Stream trout fishing has cooled off on some lakes while others have heated up for both shore and boat anglers. Small crawlers fished under a slip bobber has been the top producing presentation, but small spoons, cowbells and jig and twister are also catching their fair share of trout. Brook trout continue to be caught shallow on flats or near down trees, which makes them easy to access for shore anglers. Rainbow trout are largely being found in the first 10 feet of water, just about anywhere in the lake, so anglers fishing from a boat have simply been trolling small spoons, cowbells or small crank baits and have been reporting nice catches.
Northern Pike - Big pike have remained active in shallow water this last week. Anglers fishing with large suckers or lite northerns (medium size suckers) under a large bobber, have caught several new personal best right off their docks. For anglers that want to fish from a boat should focus on creek mouths and the mouth of shallow bays in 5-10 feet of water." — Arrowhead Outdoors, 218-365-5358
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 19, 2019 "Summertime Cabbage Patch Presentations Heating Up"
Vegetation, despite the cool weather, is flourishing thanks to the added water clarity of Itasca area lakes. Large beds of healthy cabbage are beginning to hold fish of all species and a couple of my favorite summers fishing patterns have begun to be productive.
Whenever they both exist in the same lake, Crappies and Cabbage go together naturally. The large leafy plants provide a perfect combination of shade and cover, plus the plants are spaced far enough apart to give fish numerous ambush points for feeding. Post spawn crappies ALWAYS use cabbage patches if the lake they live has them. In fact, this one of the easiest fishing patterns to figure out, anybody can do it.
Timing is the caveat, later this summer, the water will warm and the fish’s metabolism will race. When that happens, these fish will bite better during daylight hours. Unfortunately though, crappies during this post spawn period have the irksome habit of making you get up early and stay up late to catch them.
I explained this to my customers on Monday while I was showing them a few spots to try catching crappies on their own. I mentioned that there have been times when I was launching my boat to start a fishing charter at the same time panfish anglers were loading their boats on trailers to go home. Suzanne asked; “how early are you talking about, what time would we have to get up to catch them?”
“Well, I was writing my fishing report at about 5:00 AM today and it was already light enough to see, so I guess that’s what I’d shoot for; “ I replied. “You wouldn’t have to do it that way though; you could make a point to stay out late instead, fishing during the evening twilight period is also good. One good rule of thumb is that when the mosquitos are biting, the crappies probably are too;” I added.
How well the pattern works for you depends on how many crappies there are in your lake. Don’t expect to find crappies in the weeds unless there are crappies, in good numbers in the lake to begin with. Another variable that will impact the effectiveness of the system is how widespread cabbage patches are in your lake. The more places there are to look, the longer your search might take, but there’s a way to speed up the process; let the fish show you where they are.
The early hours on a calm morning are magical. Anyone who wants to know what’s going on in the lake simply has to go outside and look. Minnows will be hovering over the tops of every patch of vegetation; you’ll see them dimpling the surface. Panfish, bass and pike will occasionally strike the baitfish and you’ll see the boils in the water when they do.
Crappies are easy to pick out because they cruise just below the surface, leaving a gentle wake in their path of travel. Granted, it takes a certain kind of morning for this method to work. But go out at dawn anytime there’s period of calm, stable weather and you’ll see exactly what I’m talking about.
Another way to locate crappies is to simply stumble into them while you’re fishing for something else. Truthfully, that’s the way I find a lot of fish, it’s sort of like looking for my wallet and finding my car keys instead.
That’s what happened on Tuesday, we were trolling Little Joe Spinners through the cabbage, looking for walleyes when we stumbled into a patch that held crappies. Now we didn’t get very many of them, but catching the ones that we did gave me an idea about where to go if I planned to fish them at twilight.
At 66 degrees, the water was still a little cool for trolling spinners, but the fast paced presentation has begun to work for me. On Tuesday, we managed to bag a total of 12 walleyes; 6 were caught wiggle worming and the other 6 were caught using the Little Joes.
The weedlines were not heavily populated; I think there are still a lot of bass and sunfish in shallow water. But there were other fish in the mix including a few sunfish, rock bass and some northern pike. Give the weeds another week or so and I think we’ll begin seeing the mixed bag bite really take off.
Speaking of mixed bags, I’m reminded about a special bonus that I almost forgot to mention. If you are willing to get up early to try the cabbage patch presentation, you will also be rewarded by “stumbling” into walleye, sunfish, pike and bass. They will all be equally active and it’s common to catch all of them as you move along any given stretch of vegetation.
You could fish the pattern a number of ways, but my favorite way to fish the cabbage is casting small jigs tipped with plastic tails. There are a variety of artificial tails to choose from, but something simple like YUM’s 2 inch twirl tail grub is really all you’d need.
I position the boat within casting distance of the weedline and creep along the edges slowly at about .2 to .3 MPH.
Cast the jig into pockets of open water between the weeds. Let the jig fall, and then retrieve it using a swim-fall-swim-fall approach. The plastic tail twirls or swims on the drop and that’s when you’ll get most of your strikes. In fact you will occasionally see your jig disappear as it’s dropping, when that happens, set the hook! — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Lake of the Woods, LOW Tourism June 18, 2019
"The south end of lake of the Woods is healthy and full of walleyes. It's been a great week of fishing catching and fish frying.
Anchored up and jigging and drifting or trolling spinners the most productive in depths ranging from 14-32'. Walleyes on both structure and over mud in basin from Pine Island to Knight/Bridges to Archie's Reef and spots in between. Gold, pink, glow and orange good starting points.
The Rainy River holds a nice population of resident walleyes, but most walleye anglers are fishing out on the big lake these days. The river Nice for change of scenery, smaller boats, blow days, etc. Walleyes and saugers being caught in normal river areas such as holes, current breaks and sand riffs.
Smallmouth bass relating to rocks, bridges. Pike in and adjacent to bays and current breaks. Sturgeon season opens July 1st for the catch season again.
Up at the NW Angle, walleye fishing is strong on both sides of the border. Anglers finding walleyes on flats, rocky points and over mud in 6'-30'. Jigging and spinners with minnows and crawlers doing well. Parakeet, pink and white and gold strong colors. Lot of fish. Saugers, pike, perch and bass also in the mix.
Muskies opener produced good numbers of quality fish." — Lake of the Woods Tourism, (800) 382-FISH
Lake of the Woods, Border View Lodge June 18, 2019
"A quality bite has moved a bit further North. There is still some action around the Knight and Bridges areas, and there are fish along Pine Island. The Knight and Bridges Island areas are capable of holding a large number of quality fish, but once those fish are removed or relocated, they do not replenish very quickly. Understanding these patterns on the big lake greatly increase chances of success, the Walleye Master Guides at Border View Lodge have decades of experience.
We have been mixing a combination of drifting and jigging which is producing great success. We have been drifting in 12-16 feet or jigging in the 30 plus areas North of Garden Island.
Don’t be the guy following the fisherman around, fish with the people who know. The equipment at Border View Lodge and Walleye Master Guides make a difference, we are equipped to fish many different styles as the fish pattern changes. If you have only been stuck with a jig (pun intended), it may be time to fish with the Walleye Masters and try different tactics.
Perfect June temperatures are forecasted for the week, highs in the upper 70’s and lows into 50’s overnight." — 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 16, 2019 "Planning the Un-Plannable"
Most folks have probably forgotten about the popular 1970’s blues band Wet Willie. But not me, in fact over the weekend I found myself humming this line from their song Airport; “... you’ve got the right plane baby, but the wrong airport.” That is to say, you were in the right place, but at the wrong time.
Obviously, there must have been something that triggered the memory and by now you’ve likely figured it out. If you guessed that it was me, going to the right lakes, but at the wrong times, then you were correct.
It all started when Ron Rupp gave me his instructions to prepare for our fishing trip. “This is not a meat trip; we don’t have to bring home fish. I just want to do something special, maybe something you can’t do under ordinary circumstances.”
Instruction like that is music to my ears, I don’t get that sort of green light very often, but when I do, I try to make the most of it.
And make the most of it I did. Instead of a simple 8 hour fishing trip, an un-planned chain of events helped stretch this into a 2 day expedition that encompassed 3 lakes. This fishing trip wound up being a success in ways that can't even be measured, not in pounds of meat, photos of trophies or bragging rights in the boat.
The weather, in this particular case was the culprit for tripping me up. Saturday’s forecast of cloudy, breezy weather gave me confidence that walleyes in some of Grand Rapids clearest water lakes would be active. But by the time we cleared our AIS inspection at the first lake, the sun was already beginning to peek out and there was barely enough breeze to drift the boat.
I went to my favorite spots and we had a few bites, just enough to make me give the lake a few hours. But on lake #1, the walleye bite wasn't happening and by 11:00 AM, I pulled the pin.
At our 2nd AIS inspection, the news was a lot more encouraging. “Oh yeah, they’re catching walleyes out there, guys have been saying that the fishing has picked up;” the inspector said.
At our first stop, a 13 foot deep weedline, it looked like we had it made. Conditions here were perfect at the time, there was a west wind and the sky was cloudy. Drifting along the weed edges at about .6 MPH we cast our wiggle worms into the water and caught 3 walleyes in less than 10 minutes. Now we’re talking I thought, this will be easy, all we have to do wiggle-catch-release and repeat.
WRONG.
As the sky became brighter, the breeze became lighter and eventually, the lake’s surface was like a mirror. We knew where the fish were, I could see them on my Humminbird. But every fish we caught was because of sheer stubbornness, by grinding away until one of them would feel sorry for me and strike.
By mid-afternoon, I was contemplating a move to yet another lake, but Ron stepped in with an alternate plan. He remembered a comment that I made earlier about me having scheduled Saturday off so that I and the Hippie Chick could scope out a lake where I’ll be guiding later this week. “How about if we give ourselves the evening off and I tag along with you tomorrow;” he asked?
One thing led to another and a plan came together, we’d make it a family fishing and exploration day. It wouldn’t really matter if we caught fish or not, we’d just go have a nice day on the water.
We already knew going in that we probably weren’t in line for catching trophy fish; the lake doesn’t have that sort of reputation. But if we got lucky, we’d have some action, maybe get some fish for a meal, I’d learn whatever I could to help serve my customers next week and Ron would get a chance to practice Wiggle-Worming.
Practice he got, there were a lot of fish tugging on those night crawlers, but I’m not certain he was all that concerned about that. In fact from my vantage point it looked like he was having a lot more fun looking after the girls. Susan and our daughter Joelle both wound up getting the red carpet treatment from the ship’s mate. Netting fish, changing bait, untangling lines, I don’t think he cared if he was fishing or not, Ron was in his element.
Obviously, this hasn’t exactly been a hard core fishing report, how can it be? It wasn’t really about who caught what and how deep they were fishing and what bait they were using. It was just one of those “easy days”. Conditions were good, fish were biting and the crew was happy; everything just seemed to fall into place. You really can’t teach somebody how to go out and create days like this, they just happen.
Ordinarily, my conclusion might be something along the lines of how we were being rewarded for working hard and having paid our dues on Friday. But I think there’s more to it than that; you have to admit that the timing of our adventure, not to mention the timing of this particular report is curious.
I think most everyone agrees with my wife when she says that you can never have too many fathers in your life. And look what we found, a fatherly figure doing fatherly things on a fatherly weekend. How did we ever get so lucky?
Tomorrow, I'll return to reporting who caught what and how they caught 'em. For today though, how about if I just end with Happy Father’s Day! — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Lake Winnibigoshish, Joe Thompson, June 16, 2019 Four Seasons Resort
"Walleyes have transitioned to the deeper structures, for the most part. Most of the walleyes are being caught on the shoreline drops 17-25' or one of the main bars. I haven't heard any good reports from the smaller mid lake structure as of yet.
Shiner minnows and jigs continue to dominate the bait selection. Leeches and crawlers are doing the trick, as well. Most of the fish are in the slot, 18-23", but some overs and unders are possible.
Northern fishing is fairly good right now. I think the backwater areas are your best bet for pike. Jigs and minnows or your favorite hardware will catch pike. The size range is good. This is a good way to supplement your fish for the fish fry when most of the walleyes are in the slot and have to be thrown back.
Perch fishing is still a crapshoot. You can be on them and they are biting as fast as you can get your line down there, and then the wind can change or increase or decrease and the perch will be gone. We’ve been having a hard time figuring them out. We know that they should be gorging on the crayfish in the new weed growth, but that just doesn't seem to be the case.
All in all, fishing has been good. Every boat that goes out catches something. The water level hasn't gone down at all. It is still at a 25 year high. That could have something to do with the perch.
The bulrushes in the mouth of the Mississippi still haven't cracked the surface!
The weather is getting nicer and the fish continue to cooperate. The next couple weeks are a great time to come to Winnie and get in on the action. We have openings through the end of the month and also into July. Check out our availability and give us a call." — Joe Thompson, Four Seasons Resort 218-665-2231 Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 14, 2019 "A Good Time To Tim "Stickleback" Fischbach"
You wanna know how you can tell when a man is on a roll? One way that I know is to watch what happens when he's fishing. Specifically, one way to recognize a “lucky streak” is when he’s catching fish despite odds being stacked up against him. A good example came on Wednesday after I’d poo-pooed the idea of using stickleback minnows as walleye bait.
After being asked; “hey Jeff, what about using this stickleback, do they work?" My response was something along the lines of “nothing’s impossible, but I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to get one.” Lucky I said nothing’s impossible because Tim Fischbach put that stickleback on his jig, threw it into the lake and caught a nice fat walleye. That’s when I knew for sure it was a good time to be Tim.
Tim Fischbach and Larry Lashley have been fishing with me for a long time, about 30 years to be exact. As a matter of fact, fishing 6 days every summer, they’ve spent a solid half of a year sitting in one of my boats. Over those years we’ve experienced plenty of ups and downs and I can’t say that their past few days of fishing will go down in the record books as one of the best trips ever, but overall it was decent.
The weather has been mixed up and the fish have made us work to catch them. Especially after a cold front triggered a series of thunderstorms late on Tuesday and gave us a cold, blustery day on Wednesday. As scattered as the fish were and as tricky as the bite became, there was still a bright spot. That was when I noticed it was an especially good time to be Tim “Stickleback” Fischbach. It was one of those trips that walleyes like the way he was doing things and came out of their hiding spots a little more easily for him than they did for the rest of us.
Typical of most June trips, we fished more with a jig and minnow than we did with any other presentation. But on Thursday, there was a dramatic shift, the walleyes showed a distinct preference for wiggle worming. In fact after fishing a jig and minnow along a weed edge in about 12 feet of water, we’d caught 6 or 8 pike and a couple of rock bass, but no walleyes.
I decided to try wiggle worming before leaving the spot and luckily, I did. Switching from minnows to night crawlers instantly transformed the weedline from a pike spot to a walleye spot. After that, we didn’t have much trouble catching walleyes.
The only special thing I had to do was hold the boat near the outer edges of the weeds to avoid rock bass and perch nipping at the tails of our crawlers. The pecking order was walleye in 12 feet, perch at 10 feet and rock bass at 8 feet. The pike were in still in there somewhere, but apparently disapproved of us using night crawlers and we only caught a few of them after the switch.
It was fitting that the wiggle worming episode occurred today, because it was actually Larry who coined the phrase ‘wiggle worming” in the first place. Before that, I can’t even remember how I used to describe the presentation, but I’m sure that it was a lot less catchy. Learn more about >> Wiggle Worming
After we were satisfied with our walleye catch, I burned up a couple of hours looking for crappies, but that didn’t work out as well.
Crappies have already wrapped up any spawning that they were ever going to do this season. Now that they’re not up in shallow cover anymore, the next place to find them will be in the weeds, but in the time I had to work with, I didn’t figure out which weeds. I’ll have to work on that more next week.
My guess is that wiggle worms are in my future today too and I will let you know as soon as I find out.
In the meantime, thanks to Larry and Tim for another great year. It’s amazing how long it took to come up with a good nickname for Tim, but rest assured the term “stickleback” is definitely gonna stick. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
June 14, 2019 — "Tips For Panfishing With The Grandkids"
On Thursday, Jeff Wilkening wrote; Q) "Jeff, I have the grandkids coming up to the lake this week, would you share any pointers on Panfishing?"
A) Good morning Jeff, I'm not exactly getting a lot of time to fish panfish at the moment, this time of the season everyone has walleye fever. I'll try to keep my eyes and ears open today, but here a few trends that may be helpful for you and your grandkids.
Crappies are done spawning and they're easiest to find in Cabbage Weeds right now. The only problem is that they're prone to be active during twilight periods right now. They're probably either going to make you get up really early or stay out pretty late to get them. That said, there are some really nice cabbage patches on your lake, one is located on the west shore, south of the resort. Another surrounds the sunken island in the main lake, near the east side.
Anchoring along the edges of good stands of cabbage and fishing with floats will be easiest for the kids. A small jig tipped with crappie minnows is fine, but if they're a little older and can cast jigs tipped with plastic tails, that wouldn't be a bad way to go either.
Creeping along the weed edges, casting 1/16 ounce jigs into the weeds and retrieving them slowly will produce a lot of crappies, but there will be pike, walleye and bass chasing them too.
Mid-June is typically when you'll find Sunfish in shallow water fanning beds and or spawning. It's a good time to sight fish for them. Cruising along the shoreline looking for fish and or beds will probably be really fun for the kids and it's a good time to teach them about which sunnies they should keep and which ones they should release.
Videos about catching sunfish in shallow spawning cover are easy to find, here's a link to a good one that was filmed in the area near my home and covers the basics pretty darn well." View Video >> Early Summer Panfish
Garett Svir, Slab Seeker Guide Service June 13, 2019
"Water temps came up quick in Ottertail Lakes Country with the recent warm spell. We are now touching the 70 degree mark on most area lakes.
The bluegill spawn is really just starting. Should start seeing more fish on beds soon, especially around the full moon on the 17th. This is historically the peak of the bluegill spawn throughout Minnesota. Bed fishing bluegills is fun but comes with great responsibility. The fish are really susceptible to over harvest during this period. Remember to limit your harvest instead of harvesting your limit.
It's especially important to release the large males as they protect the nests and keep smaller fishing from spawning too early. Those large males also pass on their genetics so we have large fish in the future.
The crappie spawn is now wrapping up on most area lakes. Look for fish on the weed edges and on the tops of cabbage and curly pond weed adjacent to spawning areas. This time of year we'll either fan cast or troll, that's right I said troll. Look for crappies on weed edges and over the tops of the weeds. Trolling is a super effective way to cover water and put together some fantastic days for post spawn crappies.
I like to run slowly with the bow mount at 1.2-1.4 mph, make a long cast behind the boat and reel in until you can barely feel your jig touching the tops of the weeds. Use long light action rods that are soft enough to not rip through the paper lips. My favorite things to troll are small twister tail grubs in a variety of colors as well as small minnows.
Bass fishing has been fantastic as well. We've been having the most success in those 8-12' areas. We've been working shoreline areas with swim jigs to locate fish and then have been slowing down and fishing wacky rigged Senko Worms on spinning gear once fish are located. This is also a great time of year to throw a spinner bait if you can keep the pike off.
Walleyes can be caught using a variety of methods right now, pick your favorite. Some anglers are already trolling spinners and night crawlers with great success in the 12-15' depths around the weeds. Use a worm weight to sneak around the weeds. Many anglers are also pulling leeches around main lake structure with rigs and putting fish in the box.
I also heard some great reports from Ottertail Lake fishing jigs and plastic fluke style minnows in the weeds. Pike seem to have moved out to main lake structure, look to channels, funnel areas and neck down areas on the map for best success. A Prescott Spinner with a small sucker minnow will put alot of fish in the boat right now if you're looking for action.
It's a great time to be an angler in Lakes Country, get out and stick some fish." —Garett Svir, The Slab Seeker Fishing Guide 320-428-5174
Matt Klug, Lake Mille Lacs Fishing Updates June 13, 2019
"Fish are still being caught shallow but fish are also being caught out on the mud flats. Crawlers on slow death rigs have been working very well for me in 20-30 feet of water. A jig and a minnow or plastics in the shallows are producing big fish as well.
Smallmouth spawn is in full swing and will be over soon. They are in 6-8 feet of water and scattered all over. If you can get out on a calm day you will see the beds and be able to pick them off fairly easily.
I very limited availability for June and several openings in July." — Matt Klug, MK Fishing Guide Service 320-260-5494
Dixon Lake Resort June 13, 2019
"Dixon Lake is always a great little lake to try for all species of fish. Dixon and Winnibogoshish are contacted by the third river, so share the same fisheries. The crappies are hitting right now on crappie minnows and or white jigs.
The sunfish, though a limit of 5 here on Dixon are hitting up in the reeds on a bit of crawler.
Walleyes are still shallow and making a pretty good show lot of slot fish, but still some for the frying pan. Leeches or minnows. Did I mention the Large Mouth Bass fishing? Such a showy fish when on line fight up a storm. Had a 7 pounder caught and released.
The northern are a plenty and will keep you busy. The north end of Winnie is only 5 miles away and fishing up in the third river is still spot on with lots of action on walleyes, crappie and sunnys. Happy Fishing.
Dixon Lake Resort has plenty of cabin openings to fit in your summer family vacation. We have cabins from one room to a 4 bedroom 2 bath. Miles of ATV trails, fun children activities, Bar/Restaurants and great fishing." — Dixon Lake Resort has shelter rentals, including sleepers. Reservations 218-659-4612
Ely Area, Arrowhead Outdoors Ice Fishing Report June 12, 2019
"Walleye fishing continues to be best for anglers fishing in shallow water. 5-10 feet of water with basketball size rocks on the bottom, is where the best bite is occurring. Jig and minnow or slip bobber and leech has been accounting for the majority of these shallow water walleyes. With water temps rising as high as 70+ degrees, some walleyes have already begun to transition to deeper mud flats looking for may fly nymphs coming up out of the mud. Anglers targeting those walleyes are having luck pulling spinner rigs tipped with leeches or crawlers.
Smallmouth Bass - As many of the smallmouth bass in our local lakes finish up spawning, the top water bite is really starting to kick in. Whopper Ploppers, Hula poppers and Pop-R’s have been the top producers of some of the most explosive bites of the year. If the weather has the bass off the topwater bite, anglers should throw wacky rigs or a simple jig and twister for bass. Anglers should use bright colors on dark water lakes and more natural colors on clear water lakes. Keep it simple!
Panfish - With the fast warm up in water temps crappies have spawned and begun moving back out, but anglers can still find some spawning crappies on some of the larger, deeper lakes. Sunfish have begun to move shallow to start their spawn and anglers are having a great time catching them. Slip bobber and a jig tipped with crawlers or waxies has been very effective on the bigger gills.
Lake Trout - Lake trout are finally being pushed deeper as water temps rise and are becoming easier to locate for many anglers. Lakers are being caught in 15 feet of water, down to 70 feet. White crank baits, flashy spoon and tubes fished over large mud flats or near sunken islands has accounted for the majority of lakers caught.
Stream Trout - Stream trout fishing has cooled off this last week, as the freshly stocked trout have either smarten up or been taken home for dinner. Still anglers are catching some quality trout off shore or in a small boat. Small flies, jig and twister, small spoons and a simple crawler floated under a bobber remains very effective.
Northern Pike - Despite warmer water temps this week, several very large pike were caught. Large creek shiners and dead smelt fished under a bobber near the mouth of shallow bays resulted in some excellent days of fishing for anglers fishing for pike. Pike have also started chasing spoons, large plugs and spinnerbaits in shallow water bays in 10 feet of water or less." — Arrowhead Outdoors, 218-365-5358
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 12, 2019 Fishing Lodges, Motels, B&B and Private Rentals "Linking the Linkable"
You would think that it's no big deal to find lodging for somebody who wants to visit north central Minnesota for a fishing trip. But lately, I've been fielding inquiries from customers who need places to stay and like always, it takes a lot of searching to match the people with the "right" place to stay. By that I mean the one location that suits their length of stay and best serves their personal needs.
Because there are some folks who can't always plan far enough ahead and others who can't always stay for a full week at a time, it's especially difficult to locate short term lodging, especially on a lake. That's why I decided to ask for your help this morning.
Let's say for instance that you have a nice place for folks to stay during a fishing trip. Or maybe you've stayed someplace that you really liked and want to share the experience; then let's get together. Shoot me an email to share news about your favorite fishing lodge, bed & breakfast or private rental. I'll set up a link on the website that makes it easy for folks to find. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 11, 2019 "Following Up On The Big Sandy Flowage Report"
I ended yesterday’s report about fishing on the Big Sandy Flowage rather abruptly. But not before I shared my impressions about how it “feels” to be part of a family fishing trip on the Big Sandy Flowage.
I ran out of time before I could get to the meat and potatoes, so today I’ll pick up where I left off.
Surface temperatures on the flowage were warm, running 68 to 70 degrees, even after the cold front and rain showers that occurred throughout Sunday morning. The root beer colored water reminded me a lot of the area’s I’ve fished on Rainy Lake. The water is dark, but it’s clear, not murky and to me it’s beautiful because it softens the Sun’s brightness and encourages walleyes to be active, even during the daytime.
That helps explain why we didn’t need to fish very deep to catch fish. The depths we fished ranged between 10 and 16 feet, but I’d say that the sweet spot was 12 feet. I love that too because I don’t like fishing in deep water when I know that I’ll need to release a lot of fish. In such shallow water, we can get protected fish into and out of the boat fast, minimizing the risk of harming them along the way.
The structures where we caught walleyes included both free-standing mid-lake bars and also shoreline points that extended from shore out into deep water. There are a lot of them that top out at 10 feet or less and are surrounded by water depths of 20 to 25 feet. The larger the bar, or the further the point extended into the mid-lake basin, the more fish they seemed to hold.
The fish were pretty active, so there were probably a lot of presentations that would have worked on Sunday. We only fished 2 presentations; Wiggle Worming and jig and minnow. There were times when I convinced myself that one way was working better than the other, but in the end it was pretty well balanced. Either way, all we needed to get into the strike were 1/16 ounce Lindy Live Bait Jigs.
I mentioned that the water color reminded me of Rainy Lake and because of that, I selected colors that I’ve had good luck on up there. In the bog stained water, orange, pink and gold combinations always work well for me and they did on Sunday too. OH, and don’t forget about black, that is a sleeper color in dark water that a lot of folks overlook.
Northern Pike were active down there too and I talked with some men who’d been fishing them. They told me that their luck had been good; they weren’t taking advantage of the 10 fish pike limit because they didn’t feel confident about cleaning them. Instead, they were holding out for fish over the 26 inch size threshold and they were successful in catching a couple.
On our trip, we didn’t have time to fish for panfish, but there were a lot of folks doing that. I have a couple of more dates booked down there and I’ll try to pay special attention to panfish on my next visit.
Like I mentioned yesterday, the campground was filled with young couples and their kids. The atmosphere was happy and it reminded me of the sort of place I would have loved to bring my kids. In fact, I wish I’d thought of it when they were still my “kids”.
However, just because they’re grown up now doesn’t mean that I can’t still take them there and I’ll bet you’re gonna see more family photos of the Sundin’s coming from the McGregor area!
Like I said yesterday, the lake isn’t exactly a taxidermist’s dream come true. But if you’re the type who likes a little action and can be satisfied with a simple family fish fry at the end of your day, then I think you should put Big Sandy on your list. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Lake Winnibigoshish, Joe Thompson, June 11, 2019 Four Seasons Resort
"The walleyes continue to relate to the shorelines. When the wind blows we are catching fish on the primary breaklines in 10-14 feet of water. When it gets a little calmer, we are finding the fish on the secondary breakline in 17-20'.
Jigs and shiner minnows are still the preferred bait of the walleyes. Leeches and night crawlers are starting to tempt their taste buds, though. The water temperature is slowly but surely climbing into the 60's. Look for the midlake structures to start up in the next week or so.
Northern fishing has definitely improved this past week. Not only catching them by accident fishing for walleyes, but also targeting them on artificial. The largest fish caught this week was a giant 35" pike by Larry Renze from St. Peters, Mo.
The real story is the perch are starting to show up in numbers. I found a spot in some new growth weeds and it was as fast as you could get your line down, you had a perch. They were not super jumbo's, but we kept the 9-10" fish. The perch fishing should only get better as the water warms and the weeds start to attract the crayfish.
June fishing is hard to beat on Lake Winnie. We have some openings for the rest of the month. If you are thinking about a fishing trip, check out our website and give us a call. — Joe Thompson, Four Seasons Resort 218-665-2231" — Joe Thompson, Four Seasons Resort 218-665-2231
Lake of the Woods, LOW Tourism June 11, 2019
"On the south end of Lake of the Woods, summer limits of keeper walleyes and saugers with big fish mixed in; plenty of fish to eat and take home.
Most walleyes coming from 24-32'. Various techniques working as water warms including anchored up and jigging, drifting with spinners and pulling crankbaits.
Resorts finding fish all over lake. From Pine Island to Knight and Bridges Islands, north of Garden Island, Zippel Bay, and Long Point. Some walleyes found shallow when wind is right or bait prevalent. Gold, pink, glow and orange good starting points.
The Rainy River has been offering mixed bag, nice options. Walleyes and saugers being caught in go to areas such as holes, current breaks and sand riffs. Trolling shad raps a good technique to find fish. Smallmouth bass relating to rocks, bridges. Pike in and adjacent to bays and current breaks with spinner baits a good choice, especially around weeds. Sturgeon season opens July 1st for the catch season again.
Up at the NW Angle, walleye fishing strong on both sides of the border. Anglers in MN finding walleyes in 18-26' with various shallow bites popping up. Spinners with minnow or crawler heating up. In Ontario, walleyes in 22 - 26' with most anglers jigging with minnows.
Parakeet, pink and white and orange strong colors. Lot of fish. Saugers, pike, perch and bass also in the mix. Muskies open June 15th in both MN and LOW Ontario." — Lake of the Woods Tourism, (800) 382-FISH
Lake of the Woods, Border View Lodge June 11, 2019
"Great fishing keeps on going! Mostly anchored and jigging, although we did pull some spinners this past week. Another great week of pictures too!
We have had some great success drifting spinners off of Pine Island, great eaters and take-home fish. We continue to spend most of our time around the Knight and Bridges Island or North of Garden Island depending on the weather.
It looks like a cool down for the week ahead. Highs in the upper 60’s and lows into 40’s overnight." — 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge
Lund Alaskan For Private Party Sale - Listed For Chris Andresen On June 5, 2019 
2012 Lund Alaskan 2000 (20 Foot) Tiller, Camoflauge, 2012 90 HP Mercury OptiMax Tiller with Mercury's Big Tiller. 2012 Shoreland'r Trailer Single Axle With Brakes.
This rig isn't my boat, it's being sold by a private party, my nephew Chris Andresen. Still, I am very familiar with this boat and know that it's a good one.
You've probably already seen what I've had to say about my own Lund Alaskans and by now you know that I as far as I'm concerned, this is the ultimate "Working Angler's" fishing rig on the market anywhere. The price for this one is $19,000.00 and you can find detailed descriptions and photos here ..." >> Lund Alaskan For Sale June 5, 2019
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 10, 2019 "Simple Pleasures On Big Sandy Lake"
Trophy hunters, you can go ahead and skip today’s report because it’s about families, seeking the simple pleasure of a fish fry.
The common understanding about Big Sandy Lake near McGregor is that it has a lot of small fish, but not many trophies. I can vouch for that and so can my family after I took them down there for their fishing trip yesterday afternoon.
The reason why there’s so many small fish is because the lake is basically managed for a high output of fish on the smaller end of the walleye size spectrum. The walleye regulation that helps keep the lake churning out big numbers is a “Keeper Size Slot Limit” rather than the “Protected Size Slot Limit” more commonly found on other north central Minnesota lakes.
Anglers fishing on Big Sandy are allowed to keep fish from 14 to 18 inches. They must release all fish below 14 inches and over 18 inches, except that there may be one walleye over 26 inches in possession.
With this regulation it’s not hard to guess what happened yesterday, or for that matter most days on the Big Sandy Flowage. We caught lots and lots of fish, most of them ranging in size from 10 to 13-1/2 inches. Occasionally though, one of the fish crosses the 14 inch mark and we did what most folks do, added them to the creel for a fish fry.
Admittedly, I’m a big fish addict; I love to fish where I have a chance to catch a trophy. But I have to say that for families who want the simple pleasure of catching fish, Big Sandy is an awful fun place to be. It was obvious too, the folks at the campground were “a young crowd” and almost all of them had kids. I think the reason is because the average family can go to the lake, catch fish all day long and wind up with enough for a meal.
It’s not fair for me to tease about the lake, but I am seriously up against the clock today and have to beg you to check back tomorrow for more details. In the meantime, I’m on my way to the walleye hole! — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 7, 2019 "Wiggle Worming Season Has Arrived"
Defining the arrival of summer is subjective; there are a lot of ways to personalize it.
For me, the arrival of summer, at least in terms of walleye fishing, coincides with the transition from jig and minnow presentations over to warm water presentations. It’s the time when leeches and night crawlers begin out-producing minnows and presentations like Lindy Rigging, Power Corking and Wiggle Worming come into the spotlight.
The changeover isn’t always abrupt, but it could be under the certain circumstances. For instance, major insect hatches could force a dramatic change in walleye feeding behavior. That said there’s typically a period when summer presentations can be phased in, at the same time spring presentations are being phased out.
One of my favorite transitions of the year is when my Lindy Live Baits Jigs can be used with minnows by one of my customers while they’re being used with night crawlers by the other and guess what? We’re there right now; Wiggle Worming officially comes to the forefront on conversation as of yesterday.
Remember Bobby Cox, the man who loves to catch anything from rock bass to catfish to walleyes? Last year I wrote about how we took a run at gathering a 3 man limit of northern pike for his family to eat. Well Bobby, along with his fishing buddy Bill were here again yesterday. Their propensity for mixed bag fishing, combined with the arrival of the Wiggle Worming season allowed me to catch a mixed bag of walleye and pike all in one handy location; Cabbage Weeds.
Cabbage beds on the lake we fished are developing nicely right now; they are green, lush and standing tall. The water depth where they grow ranges between 5 feet deep on the shallow edges, to about 10 feet deep on the outer edges. Walleyes like cabbage beds, but pike like them even more and on Thursday, good numbers of both species were located on the same weedlines at the same time.
Bobby was like a kid in a candy store, he couldn’t decide which was more fun. So he set short term goals for himself, he’d say; “I’m gonna Wiggle Worm ‘til I catch 2 walleyes and then I’ll go back to a Minna.” After he did that he’d switch; “now I’m gonna jig until I get 3 more pike, then I’m gonna Wiggle Worm some more.” The beauty of it for me was that it worked.
For most of the day, the difference between using crawlers vs minnows was not a definite split; walleyes ate both worms and minnows. While pike primarily ate the minnows, there would be an occasional pike caught on the crawlers. Later in the day though, the boundaries got blurred, the water temperature was getting warmer and activity intensified. There was a certain point where we caught almost as many pike using worms as we did using minnows.
It’s easy enough to figure out how to fish troll along the weed edges, so I won’t bore you with that. But here is one tip just in case you haven’t thought of it; there were just as many fish on the inside edges as there were on the outside. It’s a good idea to fish the same cabbage bed from both sides.
The weather forecast looks a little breezy for the weekend, but with surface temperatures already reaching the mid 60’s and more hot weather on the way, I can’t imagine how fishing could be anything but good. I’ll bet we’ll be seeing a lot of great reports next Monday morning. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 6, 2019 "Disrupting The Disrupt-ABLE"
Wednesday’s cold front may turn out to be one of the shortest-lived fishing disruptions I’ve seen; that’s the good news. The bad news is that it still was a disruption and it caused a slow morning on the lake for the Fun with Dick and Paul MMXIX summer session wrap up.
Like I mentioned yesterday, Smallmouth Bass were the target species; my first bass fishing trip of the season.
When we arrived at the lake, debris from the overnight storms covered the lakes surface. The water temperature was 60 degrees which was about 4 to 5 degrees cooler than what I’ve been seeing recently on the lakes we’ve fished. The ordinarily clear water was cloudy too, in fact it was so stirred up that I had trouble seeing the bottom in 3 to 5 feet. Normally, I could have watched fish swimming around in depths of 8 to 10 feet.
I was hopeful that the water was still warm enough that some of the fish would have remained shallow. Unfortunately they didn’t, the shallow water showed few signs of life. There were very few minnows, no perch, no rock bass and only the odd stray smallmouth.
During a typical early June trip, smallmouth would either be on spawning beds or at least cruising shallow water breaklines in preparation. More often than not, we would have seen lots of them in shallow water, even if they weren’t active and didn’t strike. Since we weren’t seeing them in the shallows, we started looking for them in deep water.
That’s when we found suspended fish holding off the edges of the steep shoreline breaks. Most of them were holding tight at about 22 feet over depths of 30 to 35 feet. There were so many fish stacked together that it was hard to sort out what they all were. But after trying to catch some of them, we did learn one thing, they weren’t biting.
As the day went on, the weather improved and as it warmed up, isolated points adjacent to deep water began to re-populate. We had a couple spurts of action and began seeing fish move back toward likely looking spawning territory. There were not enough fish moving to fill up more expansive flats, but my guess is that fish will be moving onto those during the day today.
By the time we decided to wrap up our trip, we were beginning to see larger fish moving around a small rock flat. Their arrival was too late to help our cause, but it wouldn’t surprise me if other anglers reported decent fishing during the evening yesterday.
If not for the cold front induced thunder and lightning that occurred overnight Tuesday and early Wednesday, our day would have gone differently. But learning how to control the weather hasn’t been going very well for me.
Overall, the spring session was a good one, walleyes and crappies were cooperative. We had 3 nice fish dinners and the boys still had limits to take home. Overall, the weather was good too; in fact Dick reminded us last night that this may be the only trip where we didn’t get rained on. Five days in the boat without a downpour is pretty good, especially during early June!
The time between now Septembers trip will go fast and you’ll hear more about Dick and Paul then. But for now, it’s back to my mundane life; time to get out there and see what I can drum up today. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 5, 2019 "Panfish Action Heating Up - Timing Sping Crappie Runs"
North central Minnesota’s better panfish lakes are filling with boats as anglers hurry to get in on the spring crappie run.
Surface water temperatures now range from 61 to 66 degrees, already at or beginning to enter ideal range. Depending on how far advanced the surface water temperature of your favorite lake is, crappies are likely already on spawning beds, or at least they will be very soon.
Over the past couple of days, Dick and Paul have watched me look over a lot of shoreline cover. Some of it was completely un-inhabited by panfish and some of it was just barely populated. But in some of the territory, like the area we checked on Tuesday, crappies were fully engaged in the spawning process.
On this particular trip, it was difficult to learn what stage of spawning the fish were in. The lake we fished has dark coffee stained water and outside conditions were dark too; there was a chop on the surface that made visual contact with the fish tricky. So trial and error was about the only way we could find them.
We located the fish by creeping along the edges of shallow cover, fan casting to all of the territory we could reach. At any given time, we theorized about precisely where the fish were, but we were almost never exactly right. Sometimes we’d catch a fish right up in heavy bulrushes and become fixated on that. Then one of us would catch one out in the open, over rocks or cabbage weeds; then we became fixated on that. The rule of them was that covering fresh territory, albeit slowly, was critical.
Rigging and presentation was simple. We used Lindy Live bait Jigs, 1/8 ounce size, tipped with small fatheads and suspended about 3 feet below Thill’s Fish’n Foam round clip on floats. In shallow water circumstance, I like these floats because it only takes seconds to clip them on when we need ‘em. They are super durable, have nice tight gripping springs and they are extremely easy to see.
One trick to working lures around cover like bulrushes is to cast, let the lure settle and the “pop it”. I think the commotion on the surface triggers curiosity and encourages crappies to come closer to see what’s happening. If nothing happens after I let the lure settle, then I give it another pop and pause again. You fish the lures all the way back to the boat using this slow pop-pause-pop-pause retrieve.
We proved something about the live bait jigs to ourselves yesterday too. The compact design allows them to go through cover much more easily than the standard, longer shank jigs do. When we started, Paul was using the standard jig with a longer hook. Getting snagged in the bulrushes occurred much more frequently for him than it did for I and Dick. That problem was resolved when he switched over the to the short shank live bait jigs.
I doubt that there was any one “best” color, but I and Paul both used jigs with the bright gold finish. They kept on working, so we kept on using them, so keep that in the back of your mind the next time you’re experimenting with colors.
With some fish already packed for the ride home, Dick and Paul are slated to wrap their spring session with a play day. Smallmouth Bass and other shallow water fun fishing are on our agenda. This will be my first bass fishing trip of the season, so I’m curious to see what stages of development we find them in.
If you’re heading for the crappie hole, take this note as an advisory. I’m paraphrasing a comment I noticed in this week’s DNR Conservation Officer Reports; “Warmer weather and a good fish bite brought lots of folks out to enjoy the lakes. Violations included over limits of crappies.”
It’s always a good idea to play by the rules, but bear in mind that the C.O.s know when the fishing is good and that they tend to be more active on the lakes when the fish are biting. Avoiding paying big fines is easy enough to do, just don’t violate and you’ll be fine. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Ely Area, Arrowhead Outdoors Ice Fishing Report June 5, 2019
"Walleye fishing continues to be best for anglers fishing near shore or just off their docks/campsite. While areas around creek mouths have cooled off as the minnow spawn comes to the end on many area lakes, walleyes are still being found shallow, just not as many around current areas. 4-15 feet of water remains the best depth to fish. Large shallow flats near shore have been the best area to fish. Gold, blue and silver tinsel jigs tipped with minnow has been best, but pink, white and firetiger colored jigs are also colors worth noting. Anglers fishing from their docks or campsite are reporting that they are catching walleyes with a slip bobber and a leech during the evening hours and into the night. Some real giants were caught this last week, while fishing with a slip bobber.
Panfish - With warm weather finally here for more then one day, crappies have started spawning. Anglers have been catching some nice stingers full of crappies shallow near cattails and pencil reeds. Small slip bobbers and plain plastic tubes in pink, white, blue and chartreuse have been the best colors to use. Crappie minnows fished under a bobber is also taking its fair share of crappies.
Lake trout fishing has been good for many anglers, but remains very challenging as some anglers are catching trout in less then 10 feet of water, under a slip bobber and other are catching them over 70 feet of water while trolling. The most successful anglers have been fishing with deep diving white crank baits, over deep water. As water temps continue to rise, lakers will move deep and become easier to locate for anglers.
Stream trout fishing has been excellent for many anglers this last week. Rainbows are still being caught in the first 10 feet of the water column. Anglers are having success fishing with cowbells, slip bobbers with baby crawlers, jig and twister, trolling small spoons or crank baits and small streamers.
Smallmouth Bass have yet to finish spawning, so they have been easy to locate for many anglers. Some real pigs have been landed this last week. Pink, orange, chartreuse and white have been top colors for smallmouth. Wacky rigging and fishing suspending crank baits have also been best way to trigger these fish into biting. Anglers fishing with top water baits like poppers or flies have been reporting some success also.
Northern Pike fishing is starting to slow as water temps rise and the big pike start moving deep. Still anglers fishing early in the morning or on the edge of shallow bays near deep water are reporting lots of action. Large heavy suckers and dead smelt fished under a bobber continues to catch the majority of large pike." — Arrowhead Outdoors, 218-365-5358
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 4, 2019 "Displaying the Displayable Isn't Easy! MN DNR Boat Registration Decal Issues"
Remember the old Band Aid commercial jingle; “I’m stuck on band aid ‘cause band aids stuck on me?" Yeah, right, the one that reminded us about how much we love them because of how sticky they are.
Well just for the record, that jingle cannot ever be re-purposed as an advertisement for the MN Boat Registration decals. These easy to print decals must have looked good on paper to the folks in central purchasing, but once they’re applied to a boat, their usefulness will be short-lived; at least that's been my observation.
<< In fact, as you can see in the image, the new decals I applied to my boat just a few weeks ago are already peeling off.
In 2018, I had an interesting chat with one of Minnesota’s DNR Conservation Officers. “I can see by the color that your Boat Registration Decals are current. But they’re worn out and I can’t read the numbers, so you’re going to need to get some duplicates;” he said.
“These are the duplicates;” I told him. “Every time I put a new sticker on my boat, it lasts maybe a few months and then peels off;” I added.
DNR C.O; “What, you’re kidding, I’ve never heard of anybody having that problem before. It’s your responsibility to maintain the decals and I’ll give you a warning this time, but if I don’t see new stickers the next time our paths cross, you can expect to get some paper. I suggest that you do not pressure wash your boat, that will make them last longer.”
Okay MN DNR AIS crews, did you read that, you’re not supposed to pressure wash my boat anymore, it will ruin my stickers.
With today’s technology, I would like to believe that the registration decals that the DNR issues for boats, snowmobiles and ATVs could at least last for the term of their issue.
I would like to believe too that the DNR CO I talked to was just towing the company line when he remarked about me being “the only person” who’s had a problem with their decals. Because if he was right, then I’m even more special than I thought because I’ve talked to several others who have also been “the only ones” who have ever had this problem.
Frankly, it’s okay with me if the stickers wear out too soon, it’s no big deal. I don’t even mind ordering in a pair of duplicates occasionally, it’s easy enough to do online. But, if I pay my way, get the decals on time and have them properly applied to my boat; why should it be my responsibility to pay a fine if they wear out too soon? I’m just asking.
They say one should never point out a problem without offering a proposal for solving it; so here's mine. Let's get in touch with the folks who print the stickers for Minnesota's auto license plates; these things never peel off.
Then let's have one of those special artistic contests to create a really nice looking decal. Something that folks will be proud to display on their pretty boats. Something fishy maybe, or maybe looney, or it could even be some other pretty Minnesota theme.
I realize you can't get much for $56.00 (the cost of my most recent renewal), so if it costs a few bucks extra, so be it; I'll be first in line to pay. Just offer me the chance to apply something functional that looks better than what we have now and I'm all in.
OH, by the way; while I was jotting down these notes, I reminded myself of another old advertising slogan, maybe this one actually could be re-purposed. Remember White Castle’s catchy phrase; “Buy ‘em By The Sack?” — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Lake of the Woods, LOW Tourism June 4, 2019
"On the south side of Lake of the Woods, the very strong walleye pattern continues. Water temps are in the mid 50's, so spring patterns are likely to persist this week.
Fish are sliding a bit deeper in certain areas, key depth range is 25-26 feet, but fish can be found anywhere from 15-30 feet.
Anchored up and jigging with minnows and frozen shiners is still very effective. Gold combined with other colors productive. Nice reports spread along south shore and around Knight and Bridges Islands.
On the Rainy River, summer pattern starting to settle in. Walleyes and saugers being caught in go to areas such as holes, current breaks and sand riffs. Smallmouth bass and pike anglers finding nice fish, although most anglers focused on walleyes. Some anglers casting river mouths, bays, and rocky areas for mixed bag. Sturgeon season opens July 1st for the catch season again.
Up at the NW Angle, another great week of walleye fishing. Some walleyes coming from shallow mud, 6-8' with spinners heating up. Walleyes relating to points are hanging in 20-27' with most anglers are jigging. Lot of fish. Pink and gold still strong.
Saugers, pike, perch and bass also in the mix. Smallmouth bass still deep and should slide into bays very soon." — Lake of the Woods Tourism, (800) 382-FISH
Lake of the Woods, Border View Lodge June 4, 2019
"It is almost like writing the same thing over and over, fishing has been great! Our charters continue to do awesome, many nice eaters and plenty of the big ones. Anchored and jigging is still the go to. Mixing colors with anything gold is a great start, strobe jigs are the best.
There are still schools of fish off of Pine Island, more quality sized are further out. We have been spending most of our time around the Knight and Bridges Island areas.
It really is, a same thing each week pattern. We have been in it for the last 3 weeks! We plan it will continue until the water temp starts rising. Then some tactics will change as the fish patterns do.
The forecast for the week ahead is looking nice. Highs in the 70’s and lows into 50’s overnight." — 1-800-776-3474 Border View Lodge
Lake Winnibigoshish, Joe Thompson, May 28, 2019 Four Seasons Resort
"The walleye fishing is still the main attraction at the Four Seasons Resort. Fish are being caught on a variety of structure and methods.
Fish shallow 7-10' when the wind blows with a jig and shiner.
When it is calm, move to the secondary breakline and use a jig and minnow or rigs and leeches on the deeper structure. Some fish are being caught on slip bobbers and leeches in the evenings just before dark, as well.
Most of the fish continue to be in the protected slot, but there are more small fish brought in each day. The water temperature even after a few warm days continues to lag behind normal. Very few reports of over 60 degree surface temperatures. In the coming days, as the water warms, the fish should more predictable. Our guests are still happy catching and releasing double digit walleyes in the 19-22"
range!
Northern fishing has been fairly reliable, with some fish starting to go on artificial as well as the jig and minnow combination. Spoons
and crankbaits are the baits of choice when throwing hardware at the pike.
Perch fishing continues to be a puzzle. Normal perch haunts seem to be void of these fish. There is no consistent pattern to finding perch. I'm hoping when the water warms up, the perch will school and we can get back to normal perch fishing.
The water is still at a 25 year high level at the resort. Some of the walkways are being challenged by the high water. So far, boots are not needed to get to any of the docks. The dam is open at full capacity and I can't figure out why the water level doesn't recede. We have had no measurable rain in the past two weeks. Another enigma in a series of enigmas this year!
We have some openings for the month of June. Give us a call and join in the great fishing we have going on. It will only get better in the coming weeks. Hope to see you." — Joe Thompson, Four Seasons Resort 218-665-2231
Jeff Sundin Fishing Report June 2, 2019 "Fun with Dick and Paul MMXIX Summer Session – Off To A Good Start"
Dick Williams and Paul Kautza are back in Minnesota for another session of “Fun with Dick and Paul”.
I hope that it’s been obvious why years ago, I started using the term “Fun With” in my reports to describe these twice annual fishing adventures; it truly is because they are fun to fish with. For me, there’s another reason and it is super important. It’s that whenever Dick and Paul arrive, it means that I get 5 days in a row to explore experiment and learn about what’s going on at lakes that I don’t get to fish every day.
I don’t mean that they don’t care if we catch fish or not, they do. But it’s not like a routine guide trip where I have one day to produce fish, usually walleye. On trips like that, I have to be mindful that I will be judged by how well I perform over an 8 hour period and experimentation doesn’t always work out in the short-run.
On the other hand, giving me 5 days in a row is like writing a gold engraved invitation to go out and find something “FUN” to do. If I fail on day 1, I can use day 2 to fix it and so on. Sooner or later, we stop somewhere new and find something fresh to do. That makes it fun for them, but is also especially rewarding for me because I get to move further up on the learning curve every day.
On Saturday, our tip was experimental in the sense that I hadn’t fished the lake so far this year. I have fished it numerous times in the past though, so all we were really hoping to learn was whether the walleyes were biting or not; luckily, they were.
At the landing, water levels were good and launching the fiberglass ProV was not a problem. But we could see that water levels were falling, I’d estimate that they’ve fallen at least 1 foot since the high water mark was reached earlier this spring.
Despite the Friday night cold front and the significant reduction in outside air temperature, surface water remained fairly warm. Depending on where we fished, surface temps ranged between 61 and 64 degrees. The gusty north wind churned up whitecaps all day long, so the sun never got much chance to warm the water much more than that.
Stop by stop, we learned that walleyes here behaved a lot like the walleyes I’ve found elsewhere. They were active and very willing to bite, but they were widely scattered. Except for a couple of times, we caught fish almost everywhere we stopped. Sometimes we only caught 1 or 2, other spots yielded more, but there was no big school, we never caught more than 6 or 7 fish anywhere we looked.
There weren’t many calm areas to try, but the calmer places I did find were not all that productive. The fish showed a definite preference for whitecaps and we always did our best work wherever the waves were crashing into the back end of my boat.
The key locations were shallow flats where newly emerging beds of Coontail and northern milfoil were beginning to grow. The weeds were short, about 6 to 7 inches tall and easy to fish in. Later they will grow into dense, un-fishable mats that grow out to a depth of about 6 feet. For now, holding the boat along the breakline in 7 to 9 feet and pitching our lures into shallower water is the key area for catching fish on spots like these.
Jig and minnow presentations produced 100% of our catch. I spent an hour attempting to interest them in night crawlers, but that effort never produced a bite yesterday.
I don’t spend all that much time preaching about using a specific color, but today is an exception to that rule. Early in the day, Dick was doing most of the catching and was not shy about explaining to Paul and me that we were not using the “right” color. He was using the Glow Perch color 1/8 ounce Lindy Live Bait Jig and truthfully, his performance was convincing enough to make us feel obliged to switch to that color as well. After we did, we began catching walleyes too, so it was sort of hard to blow Dick’s idea off as coincidence.
We started the day using shiners, but thanks to small pike and perch strikes, blew through them way too fast. At 2:00 PM the shiners were gone and my assortment of fatheads wasn’t very impressive; I worried that I might have to leave the lake and drive somewhere to find more minnows. First though, I reasoned that we should at least give the glorified crappie minnows a try and guess what? The fish did not care at all, if anything, we actually caught more fish after we switched to the small minnows.
If there was a disappointment about day 1 of the trip, it was that we could not fish for crappies. I had specifically chosen the lake because I wanted to check out the bulrushes for crappies that might be fanning fresh spawning beds. Most of the spawning territory I know about is located at the south end of the lake and was exposed to the strong wind. Holding the boat was not much fun and seeing into the water was all but impossible, we’ll have to try the crappies again later in the trip.
Experimentation usually works the best when conditions are conducive to triggering fish feeding activity. If the fish aren’t biting on June 1st when there are whitecaps blowing across shallow feeding flats, then they likely never will be; this is the ideal time to check out “new water”.
So now that I gave you the whole spiel about how much fun it is to experiment let me add the caveat. Try to do the right experiment on the right day; when it’s sunny and calm, it’s probably a better time to check out a prospective panfish or bass hole that it is to learn a new walleye lake. Conversely, a day like yesterday with strong wind and a great walleye chop is probably the perfect time to check out a new walleye spot.
Today I’ll have to make that choice myself. The wind is predicted to be calm and the sunshine is supposed to be bright, I can either “play it safe”, heading toward the good walleye bite on Red Lake, or I can take the opportunity to search for the crappies while conditions for searching are good.
Once the boys weigh in, I’ll decide and tomorrow, you will know whatever happens next. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
There have been a lot of calls and emails lately from readers asking for one sort of advice or another. I’m doing my best to keep up and at the same time, prioritize the list so that I get to the really pressing issues first.
Since the “busy season” is in full swing, my office time is really limited. So if you’ve dropped me a line and haven’t received a reply, I apologize, I will get the stack cleared up eventually, so please bear with me.
I’m usually checking messages during the wee hours of early morning, so my schedule tends to favor emails rather than phone calls. Also, I do offer The Early Bird Insider’s News List, an “opt-in” email list that I routinely use for announcing last minute openings, special announcement and fishing events.
List membership is free and it only takes a few seconds to registerr, but I can’t sign you up. My email list is opt-in only, so you'll need to do this yourself by clicking this link to the news list. 
One final thought, A lot of fishing questions that I receive are about lakes and situations that I have already written about. The fishing archives are jam packed with information about the specific lakes and situations that many have been asking about.
So if you want a jump start on your next fishing trip, go to Fishing Report Archives, select the month that you plan to fish and peruse the past reports. I promise that you will find the information you’re looking for, plus a lot more. - Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
Wired2Fish May 31, 2019 "Find Bass Fishing Hotspots in Backwater Sloughs"
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Jared Lintner knows the bounty can be worth the search.
Given their strategic role during spring spawns and the fall feeding fest, when new groups of fish are constantly reloading, it's easy to mistakenly relegate sloughs to seasonal particulars. However, Lintner sees a broader picture.
"In postspawn, a lot of people think you have to ..." Learn More >> Find Bass Fishing Hotspots in Backwater Sloughs
May 13, 2019 — "Bow Mount Trolling Motor On Tiller Boat, Why?"
Q) Phil Tompkins wrote; "Jeff, I know that you always have run a tiller boat, but in your article about Red Lake you talk about spot-lock to catch your fish. Why would you need a bow mount trolling motor on a tiller boat, or did you switch to a steering wheel?
A) Phil, I’m still a dyed in the wool tiller operator. Even though I could probably fish in a “wheel boat” 80% of the time, there are still days when circumstances dictate using the tiller. As long as I continue to make my living primarily by guiding, I’m planning on using the tiller engine to control my boat.
That said the advancements in trolling motors, charting and electronics make using the bow mount an absolute necessity these days.
In the scenario I wrote about yesterday, we found the fish by slipping along the edge of a shallow rock spine in a cross wind. For that, I used my Riptide transom mount trolling motor to control the drift speed. When I back up into the waves, the force against my transom gives the boat resistance and acts almost like a brake. I can use that force to help keep the boat pinned on the precise depth that I want to fish and because I’m pulling backward with the Riptide, it allows all of the crew to be fishing out and away from the boat, free from tangling on the prop.
If I would have tried trolling forward, it would have been much more difficult to move slowly enough (about .6 MPH) for a good jig and minnow presentation. Additionally, it would have been nearly impossible to keep 4 lines running free and clear from props, transducers and the like.
In the “good old days”, once I found a school of fish, I could hover, holding steady positions using the transom mount. That worked fine except I could never take my hand off of the tiller without losing control of my position. If I wanted to tie a knot, unhook a fish or help customers net their fish, I would really have to hustle.
Since I added the Ulterra to the mix, holding the boat in position is 10 times easier.
On Saturday, I deployed the Ulterra, but did not engage the prop. As we slipped along the rock bar, I waited until we came to a better than average school of fish. As soon as we contacted fish, I pushed the spot-lock feature and voila, the boat stayed right where I wanted it and my hands were free to do anything I wanted; it’s like being on vacation compared to the way I used to do it.
What's even better is that I can save that spot, so if I leave to check other areas and don't find more fish, I can come back and set back up exactly over my original location.
There are other reasons why using a bow mount on a tiller boat is a good idea and I’m sure they’ll come up this summer. But for me, I will always install the bow mount from now on, even if the spot-lock is the only feature I ever use; it really is that much better. — Jeff Sundin 218-245-9858 or EMAIL
"The Early Bird Fishing Guide" Jeff Sundin - Fishing Blue Books, LLC 715 Byington Ave, LaPrairie, MN 55744 218-245-9858
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