Our LOA Guide team has been busy of late. Here is the latest report from Cass and Leech.
Cass Lake
On cloudy days, with decent winds, fish can still be found shallow on main lake Cass with a jig and minnow, 6-10 FOW; Slip bobbers are also a good option under these conditions.
Pike Bay has produced fish with rigs and leeches in 18-24 FOW. Look for spinners on both bodies to start producing with weather stabilization in the coming week
Leech Lake
HOLY WIND BATMAN!! Leech Lake has proven to show her angry face a few times in the past week with the wind and waves. We always say Leech is a wind driven lake well when it blows that hard it takes 112,000 acre lake and can make it fish pretty small at times. We are definitely in that summer transition period right now. We have crayfish molting, bugs hatching, and the walleyes are on the move.
Right now the best walleye fish on most days is in 12-16 feet of water and even out into 18-20 at times. When the wind blows though the bait can move up shallow and the walleyes will chase. Those days its still hard to beat a jig and minnow and on the other days it seems like crawlers and leeches on a rig or trolling spinners on a crawler harness or slow death is the ticket.
Finding those transition areas is key right now so finding the mud transitions or gravel/rock, sand to mud, etc is really the key to finding fish. With Leech you want to find those key areas where some wind has been blowing in and you will find the fish. The main lake rocks around Pelican, Big Rock Ivans, Sandy Beach, etc are starting to put out more fish. On the West Side of the lake, Traders Bay, Little Stoney, 2nd Duck, and West Goose Flats are still also kicking out fish.
Musky fishing is overall still pretty slow with some reports coming in. Trolling the basin or off of structure for suspended fish is a good way to start or casting small bucktails or inline spinners in emergent weed beds.
We have been catching alot of smallies mixed in with the walleyes at times, so start keying in on those rock and sand flats and casting small crankbaits, jerkbaits, top waters on calm days. or a classic tube to chase these bronzebacks.
Mille Lacs
Mille Lacs continues to be producing some impressive walleye catches. There are many fish between 18-20 inches that want to eat and they can be found on many different types of structure. In the last week, the wind has been constantly howling, making the shallow rock bite good. Casting paddle tails, X-Raps, or slip bobbers and leeches into the rock piles has been great. The mudflats also have lots of walleyes on them. Right now they are being caught on a lindy rig with crawler/leeches, bottom bouncer and spinner rigs, and power bobbing with leeches.
Smallmouth continues to be generally shallow. The bite has been a little inconsistent and the heavy winds have made it a challenge. However, fish are still getting caught on paddle tails, topwater, X-Raps, tubes, and drop shot. Look for the fish to be on rock structures in 4-8 ft and also deeper as the water temps rise.
Until Next Week
Leisure Outdoor Adventures Guide Team
