Leech Lake
The Leisure Outdoor Adventures Guide Team enjoyed another week of fishing with their families or doing some solo missions in search of walleyes and crappies on Leech Lake. As the water temps rise, the bite has picked up more since Opener. With seeing water temps in the low 50s, really some of the best fishing is still to be had. These warmer temps will be pushing the shiners shallow and the walleyes will be chasing. A Jig and a Minnow still seems to be the #1 presentation, but lindy rigging a rainbow chub or leech can be good when the bite gets tougher. Throw in using jigs and plastics on those days when you need to create reaction bites and that should be a good 3 pronged approach to your arsenal. This past week most days it seemed like 8-13 feet of water held the most fish and a key was finding some sand/weed transitions or sand/mud or gravel and rock. Bait was holding on these transitions and that usually meant walleyes were close by. Wind blown shorelines, mouths to bays, and some of the points such as Ottertail, Stony, Little Stony, Battle, Five Mile and the area around Bear Island were all kicking out fish this past week.
Bluegills and crappies are also starting to get more active with these warmer temps. Look for good green weed growth in 4-8 feet of water and you will find crappies and gills. Jig/Tube under a casting bobber, jig and a crappie minnow, or a beetle spin would all be good tactics to start with.
Jason Freed
Leisure Outdoor Adventures
Lake Winnie
Water temps and the bite are heating up out there! The fish are still being a bit lethargic to reaction bites. The best presentation from the weekend was still slow dragging minnows in 10-12ft of water on lighter jigs on the west side of the lake off the major points. However I did hear of boats starting to pick up good numbers of fish near the Tamarack and High Banks area. Best producing jig colors for this past weekend were purple, pink and white. With shiners being a tough commodity, larger size fatheads have worked as a substitute. The jumbo perch action has also amped up with a good number of them over 11 inches coming into the boat. The big females are finally done spawning now so the bite will only continue to get better throughout this week and into the holiday weekend! Also we are now able to take clients out for trips, if anyone is interested in having a trip out on big winnie during your stay please inquire at the lodge or give us a call at 1-855-LOA-HOOK.
Colby Gallagher
Leisure Outdoor Adventures
Mille Lacs
The 2020 summer fishing season is here and the fish on Mille Lacs has been more than cooperative! The water temps on the big pond have been fluctuating a little bit, but in the last couple of days have been warming up. Last Tuesday, the water temps were still in the high 40’s, but in the last few days, we have been seeing mid-50’s. With the warming trend, the minnows have begun to push shallow, and that means the walleyes, smallmouth, and pike follow them. Fishing shallow has not been a definite number, however, some days it is 5 ft of water, the next day it is 7-9 ft, and the day after that it is 10-12 ft. The weather and sunlight decide how shallow these fish will typically roam. A good rule of thumb for Mille Lacs is if the wind is blowing fish the shallow rocks, if it is calmer, fish the deeper transitions.
The classic jig/shiner has been deadly on the days when the fish need a little more coaxing to bite. When the fish are happy, usually with clouds, wind, evening, or moring...you can literally catch them on whatever you like. I have been casting a jig with either the Berkley 4 in Minnow or Svartzonker McRubber, hair jigs, Rapala V-Blades, Berkley Juke-90’s...just cast what you want to cast and gain some confidence!
Tim Hanske
Leisure Outdoor Adventures
Have a great week and if you are looking to listen for more of the reports moving forward be sure to check out The Guide Life Podcast with LOA.
This is going to be in accordance to our Guide Life Series which we will start filming here in the next two weeks.
Until next week
Tight Lines
Leisure Outdoor Adventures Guide Team
