Brainerd Lakes Area
At Leisure Outdoor Adventures, our fishing guides love this time of year in The Brainerd Lakes Area! Although mother nature played a cruel trick on us last weekend with 85 degree air temps and high humidity, the cool nights are here again! That means that water temperatures will be dropping.
Dropping water temperatures means that walleyes will begin eating more frequently throughout the day and night. An important thing to remember is to practice selective harvest on all species! The bigger fish are typically females and are full of eggs, releasing these fish is ensuring healthy populations for the future! Treat the fish nice, snap a few quick pictures and get a fiberglass replica made.
On most area lakes, the walleyes have been schooled up pretty good on the weed-lines ranging from 16-20 feet of water or deeper on some days. Look for steeper break lines and mid lake humps with your Lowrance electronics to locate these schools of fish. Drop down a Lindy Rig with a Redtail or Creek Chub minnow and work the school. Some other tactics could include a jig tipped with a rainbow or a Jigging Rap. If the fish do not want to bite, punch in a way-point and come back to them at a different time.
Along with the cool water temperatures the Leisure Outdoor Adventures guides are finding that the crappies are also beginning to bite. In the fall, these fish start moving off the deep cabbage weed-lines they called home all summer, and begin to move into main lake basins.
Once again, electronics are key to finding these schools. Trolling 1/16th ounce jigs with plastics can be a good way to locate hungry crappies. Bass and Northern pike have been biting good also on the deeper weed lines. Throwing a spinnerbait or crankbait will catch a little bit of everything!
Leech Lake
Leech Lake is right on the verge of it's great fall bite.
Water temps right now are in the mid to low 60s as of today. With a stable, cooler weather forecast, look for the main lake bite to start picking up. Jig and a minnow on consistent wind blown shorelines and points will start holding numbers of fish in 4-8ft of water on areas such as Pine, Stoney and Ottertail Points.
The perch bite is as strong as seen in the last few yrs with bigger perch coming off of jigs and bigger minnows in areas such as the Mounds, Sand Pt, Moore's Point and the Walker narrows in 3-7 ft of water.
Leisure Outdoor Adventures guides are finding that musky action right is as strong as ever with anglers reporting 1-2 fish days. 
Bucktails and top-water baits seem to be baits of choice depending on the wind. As we wind down the open water season some of the best fishing of the year is still to come!
