The last couple weeks have been a bit of a struggle here on Leech, with winds circling in a new direction just about everyday and temperatures riding one of the wildest roller coasters around, walleye fishing especially has been below average at best. Thanks to record and near record cold temps (we had a couple of days that barely broke 60 degrees for a high) surface water has stayed in the upper 60’s and occasionally breaking into the 70s which is quite a bit below the mid to upper 70’s that we typically see here for the month of July. While walleye fishing has been tough, some are still being caught, slowing down and using live bait seems to be one way to trigger a bite, I’d recommend hitting some more spring time areas, smaller humps, rock piles, and weed edges using a Lindy rig with a big fat night crawler, or leech. Trolling crankbaits will net you a few fish, but the ratio of northern to walleye seems to be about 20 to 1, as far as trolling goes, all of the mid-lake reefs, rock bars and shorelines that anyone usually fishes are putting northern pike into the boat, and of all sizes, bays along the south shore (miller, uram) also have a good amount of northern pike activity, and large mouth bass, too.
Pictured below from L to R: Jeff Sloniker from Gaylord, Mi and his father Jerry from Graettinger, Ia, with a great batch of walleye and pike they trolled up with shad raps near submarine island/annex reef. Ken Van Milligan from the Cedar Rapids area of Iowa and his 25 inch walleye that fell for a crawfish shad rap, and Russ Havlik from Cedar Rapids, Ia, with a healthy Leech Lake walleye, look at the pretty color on that fish!
Featured image up top is another shot of Russ Havlik, this time with a 49 inch muskie, as you can see in the background, it was quite windy that evening, Russ hand landed that big boy, and knowing that I like to muskie fish Russ didn’t waste any time rubbing it in (multiple times!) I’m quite jealous!
Muskie fishing is really starting to hit its stride, water temps have hit that sweet spot for activity, and anglers that have spent time have been rewarded, smaller, fast-moving baits have been the ticket, along with some noisy top-water baits, area’s around pelican island, and up into portage bay have been best, but don’t shy away from the shallow mid-lake rock structure, if you can find some cabbage weeds, make sure to spend a little time there, a nice muskie usually isn’t far away.
Weather now has finally started to even out and get back into the normal summer patterns we’re all used to with highs into the 80’s with plenty of sunshine, the coming weeks should be some of the best fishing of the year.
Thanks for reading
Come see us at Big Rock Resort
www.bigrockresort.com
(800)827-7106
I look forward to cleaning your fish!
Ray
