Strangely Cool and Bright

Posted on July 29, 2013 · Posted in Leech Lake Fishing Report

It was a weird week for northern Minnesota, (July 20-27) with highs barely breaking into the 60’s and nights at near record low’s temperatures in the upper 40’s made for very comfortable fishing, and camp fire sitting. There was also a full moon this week, making night fishing a very favorable time to be out, while Walleye didn’t cooperate as much as they do durning later season full moons, it was still good, there is just something about being out fishing in a sweat shirt and pants that gives you that fall feeling, though I’d rather not have more fall feelings in July.

Crankbaits are the go-to bait right now, they catch all sorts of fish and are easy to use productively, Shad Raps, Flicker Shads, and Wallydivers are some of the most popular, popular colors on Leech are Yellow Perch, Crawfish, Firetiger, and Black and Silver. Fishing with crank baits you’re going to have the best luck sticking in the 8-14 foot range on Submarine Island, Mokey, Fletcher’s, and Gary’s Reefs, along with Big Rock Reef and the western side of Pelican Island, up to North Bar.

I did a little fishing this past week with a couple friends of mine from the resort, I like to get out and do some reef trolling at night during full moons we mainly trolled Shad Raps, Firetiger was the best for us, we tried a new crank bait from Rapala, called a Scatter rap, it has a traditional minnow body, but has a wider front lip that causes the bait to swing side to side instead of just running straight the whole time, I’ve never been much for new baits, but I was pleasently surprised with the amount of fish it caught, albeit, alot of rock bass, but it did put its share of walleye into the boat.

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Pictured above from L to R; Marvin Girard, Scott Giles, and Marvin’s son Ken, from Wakonda, SD and Brandon, SD they caught their Pike casting spinner baits in Miller, and Uram Bay, biggest being just under 12 lbs. Jenny Mathieu from St. Louis, MO with her first Leech Lake catch a nice 28 inch’er (she hasn’t done much fishing in her previous 15+ years of coming to the resort), and your’s truely, with a 22 inch walleye I caught while night fishing with Andrew Lason, and Ryan Thompson of Lakeville, and Eden Prairie, MN.

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Pictured above from L to R; a nice keeper walleye that was on its way “in the boat”, Ryan Thompson of Eden Prairie with a nice 23 inch wally, and Katie Learnard of Peachtree City, GA with a couple keepers and a pike.

Perch are starting to show themselves more frequently in shallow weedy bays, the good bite should be starting soon.

Muskie reports are still slow, fish are being seen near Submarine Island and the area’s around Pelican, though not many have been interested in tasting any of the baits tossed at them. I’d continue with fast moving baits near shallow rocks with deep water near by, and fishing area’s that have any sort of weed growth.

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Above are a few shots that Ryan Thompson took while we did some night fishing, there was an incredible sun set on the night of 23rd.

Thanks for reading

Come see us at Big Rock Resort

Ray