Well, it’s that time of year, the water temps are nearing their peaks. I was out in the boat yesterday and surface temps were 80.1 and with the air temps in the upper 80’s it’s been just plain hot and with 70+ degree dew points, humid to boot. The combination of these things make it really tough to chase game fish, especially the ever temperamental walleye, while a few are still coming in, it’s going to be a bit until they really get active again, though we do have a full moon just around the corner, we could be in for some good evening/night fishing when the temperatures make it a little more bearable to be out.
Muskie on the other hand, is going as strong as I’ve seen it in recent years, the warmer it gets the more active these top of the food chain predators seem to get, this past week we had multiple cabins/families that set their sights on this species, with varying amounts of results. The week started out with a bang, by Sunday afternoon we already had reports of 2 – 40 inch+ fish caught and it didn’t stop there. Throughout the heart of the week they kept biting, a couple of our guests that have been coming to Big Rock for over 25 that exclusively fish for muskie both managed to catch new personal bests in length, one 53.5 and the other a 47 inch, and to show you don’t need to use “big” baits to catch big fish, both were caught with small Mepps in-line bucktails. I hope they have that kind of luck when they return in September for the Frank Schnieder Memorial Muskie Tournament. The best spots for muskie has been the structure around Pelican Island, with north bar topping that list, areas around submarine and annex reef have also been good, and if you can find cabbage in portage bay, fish it.
Northern Pike continue to terrorize anglers, we’ve been on a cast 3 times catch 4 fish pace up here, as much action as anyone could want, and I clean them like a pro!
Pictured below from L to R: Katie Learnard with her father Rob from Peachtree City, GA showing off 1 of 2 muskies that she caught while trolling the reefs, Jenni Learnard and a perfect eater walleye, and Jeff Gugin from Palmyra, WI – the featured image up top was his new personal best muskie, great job!
 
If you’re going to try for some walleye anyway, I have a few tips – stick to low light periods, fish still have to eat and this is going to be the time they are going to do it, if you’re pulling crank baits stick to perch and craw fish colors, almost every fish we clean that has something in its stomach it’s either perch fry or craw fish. Try night crawlers, use different color spinner rigs, slow troll them at about 1-1.5 mph and try slow death hooks, they really give your crawler rigs a new presentation, doing something out of the ordinary can be the ticket to success. Hit reefs, points, sand flats and anywhere you can, try areas you’ve never fished, explore, you’ll need to cover large amounts of water to find those active fish, deeper during the mid-day hours, shallower during low light.
Pictured below are our kids harbor fishing contest participants, they had quite a battle going on this week. Brady Giles from South Dakota ended up with the biggest fish a 22 inch northern, while Sydny Larson from Lakeville, MN (third to last to the right) caught the most fish.
Muskie fishing can be a very rewarding, exciting and ever frustrating thing to do, if you plan on being up on Leech Lake it is known for things besides walleye, don’t forget about them you could hook into the fish of a lifetime. There are many excellent guides that fish primarily muskie if you are considering hiring one give us a call we can get you lined up.
Thanks for reading
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Ray
Now that’s a fishing report. There’s a lot of mumbled gibberish on the net who call themselves a fishing report but, none can hold a candle to this honest assessment of what anglers can honestly expect. I can’t wait to get up there! Thanks Big Rock.