Kids and Fish

Posted on August 1, 2016 · Posted in Leech Lake Fishing Report

I don’t know about you guys, but it seems I may have pulled a little Rip Van Winkle and slept through most of this summer. Last I checked it was about May 9th and we were getting the resort ready for opener, as I sit here today, the first of August I’m not sure where the bulk of the summer ran off too.

It would be safe to say that fishing is having a bit of a snooze right now, too, which is pretty much to be expected for this time of year, unless you’re a muskie fisherman, which in that case things are going rather well.

Pictured below from L to R: Easton Giles from Brandon, SD his brother Brady – Ben Girard from Wakonda, SD and Micah Girard also from Wakonda, SD – That’s the future of Big Rock right there, and they all love to fish!

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Water temps have all but hit their peaks for the year, we do have some more mid 80’s weather on the way, but I can’t see it raising the temps much above the 75 degrees we’re already sitting at. The warm water will keep the muskies active and the walleye hiding a little deeper, and perch should begin their migration towards shallow weedy bays to chase their dinner.

With walleye being a little harder to catch during this time of year many of our guests have shifted their priorities towards other species of fish mainly large mouth bass and the growing population of small mouth bass and the results have been good overall. Large and small mouth don’t tend to hang out together in any particular spot in the lake, but both are in predictable locations, you head towards rocky areas like stoney point, northbar and mokey reef you will find smallies, a lot of the time when trolling crank baits for walleye you end up snagging a few small mouth, large mouth on the other hand tend to hang out in shallow weedy bays like Uram, Miller and Boy, look for rice beds, bull rushes and lily pads, large mouth will be there, shallow diving crank baits, lip-less cranks like rattle traps and x raps will work wonders for both large and small mouth, there is always the ever popular closepin style spinner bait as well.

Pictured below from L to R: Dennis Osterberg from Belvidere, IL with a low 40’s muskie he caught while trolling on north bar near pelican island, Ms Pingolt from South Carolina with a nice eater walleye – Walker Girard from Wakonda, SD with the biggest fish caught during our Tuesday morning kids fishing contest, and a photo of the contest contestants (big breath) Mikayla Larson, Trevor Emery, Katie Wilhelmi, Ben Girard, Jack Wilhelmi, Brady Giles, Easton Giles, Mason Goble, Griffen Wilhelmi, Sam Sidders, Sawyer Goble, Ben Pingolt, Natalie Girard, Micah Girard and Walker Girard.

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Muskie fishing has really begun to hit its stride, we had a few cabins last week that spent a good portion of their time here chasing the toothy critters and they had one of the better weeks in recent years, boating over 6 fish all over 40 inches, missing a few big ones and seeing many active fish follow right up to the boat. Working the shallow rock structure in the main lake basin is going to be some of the best areas to fish, head out to pelican island, mokey reef and submarine island, tie on a black bucktail and move it fast you’re sure to get bitten. It really seems like smaller fast-moving baits have been the ticket.

Pictured below from L to R: Stewart Buck from Ankeny, IA and his daughter Kirsten who now resides in Colorado, the Buck family celebrated their 30th year at Big Rock this year – Thank you so much! – a couple of images of a busy Monday night hot dog and chili roast and lastly a photo of the dead minnow removal team

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Look for fishing to only get better as the days pass, mid August is really the turning point and that will be fast upon us, give us a call and reserve a cabin for some great fall fishing, we offer price discounts on cabins and boats after the 20th of August to help make your trip more affordable, fishing advice is still full charge!

Featured image by Mike Girard, a nice panoramic of our peninsula shoreline.

Thanks for reading

Come see us at Big Rock Resort

www.bigrockresort.com

(800)827-7106

Ray