The Labor Day weekend, and ensuing week was nothing short of a Walleye clean up, the last 10 days or so have been some of the best Walleye, and Perch fishing that we have seen in 2013. Trolling crankbaits (shad raps, flicker shads) is still the favored way of going about business out here, though some anglers are starting to revert back to live bait, Walleye are starting to make some expected seasonal moves and will be back into schools of fish instead of being scattered around on reefs, where trolling to cover more ground is almost always keys to success.

Walleye are being trolled up in various areas, with some producing with much better results. Submarine Island and neighboring Annex Reef were by far the best area’s to be fishing, Perch, Crawfish, and Silver colored crankbaits in #7 size worked best trolled in 10-14 feet of water, this area is unique that it is a “rest stop” for the fish that are on their way towards the east side of the lake, and their fall haunts, it can really be great fishing if you can catch them at the right time, and the past week was just that. Mid-lake reefs such as: Big Rock, Mokey, Gary’s, Flesch and Pelican have also been good look for fish off the edges in 10-14 feet of water. Shorelines south and west of Stoney Point, and the South Shoreline have also had keeper size fish hanging around, the fish tend to be a little shallower in those area’s.

Pictured above From L to R: a days limit of Sucker Bay perch caught by Dennis Osterberg from Belvidere, IL, one of our mobile home owners. Dan Becker, John Van Gorp, Loren Becker, and Russ Havlik, all from the Cedar Rapids area of IA with one of many great stringers of keeper walleye that they caught during their week stay with us. Aaron Poldervaart and his brother Isaac (in the orange) from Fort Dodge, IA, along with their uncle Justin Rogers, from Des Moines, IA, with a batch of Pike and Rock Bass they caught in Sucker Bay while having a little “contest” with their parents.. who do you think won?

Perch continue to be caught, the best area is still up in Sucker Bay, from 1st to 3rd Duck Point, while this is a large area to fish, concentrate on green vegetation, the thicker the better, focus on depth of 8-10 feet, this falls batch of fathead minnows are really looking good, with an above average size to them, this always helps catch the bigger Perch, since the bigger fish always seem to prefer the larger minnows. Uram Bay, Miller Bay are not as good as Sucker Bay at the moment, but they are typically the later blooming area’s when Perch are looking for shallower waters.

While the annual Frank Schneider Jr Muskie tournament, put on by Muskie Inc has come and passed reports of activity is still pretty low, I haven’t seen the results for the tourney yet (I’ll post them when I do) fishing conditions for this years tourney were not the best, day 1 started with near record temperatures in the low 90’s and no wind then changed to temps in the upper 60’s and quite breezy, we had a few cabins here fishing the tournament, and while no-one here caught a legal fish, they reported that the sightings, or follows alone were scarce.

Pictured above from L to R: An afternoons trolling bounty from Submarine Island, The Havlik Party from IA, and a shot of Mike Rogers, Shanette Poldervaart and her husband Don and the rest of the guys. It was really nice seeing everyone make it up for a second trip this year.

On a side note, we’ve recently done some changes to our website focused on the cabins page, so if its been awhile since you’ve been to Big Rock, or have never been swing by our website www.bigrockresort.com and check out all the changes and renovations to the cabins and resort, we’d love to accommodate you on a stay on beautiful Leech Lake in Walker, MN.

Thanks for reading

Come see us at Big Rock Resort

Ray