2020 Leech Lake Fishing Reports - Hackensack, Longville, Walker MN Also

[Walleye #1]

Ice is still good, but the ramps are getting beat up and will this weekend, but still good solid ice.

Walleye Fishing has been tough of late.  There has not been a real consistent bite.  Some of the best reports came in 15-20ft of water along shoreline breaks during the dusk and dawn light periods.  Set lines or a glow jig with minnow has been the best producer, but don't over look being ultra aggressive and looking for new and fresh spots to fish.  

 

The Perch Fishing is starting to show signs of promise this past week along weed/sand edges in 8-12ft of water.  There is some sorting to be had, but with some hole hopping and a little work, an angler can put together a nice day's catch.  Site fishing has also been effective in 5-7ft of water for jumbos.

 

As we move forward, the days get longer and the late ice fishing should get better for jumbos, crappies,and panfish with the walleye fishingclosing.

[Walleye #1]

Well as I sit here this morning and listen to the thunderstorm, I can't help but think the ice season is quickly ending.  There may still be some places to get on this weekend with temps cooling down, but in many places around Leech the ice is quickly melting and starting to break away from shore some.  We found over the course of last week in some places there were holes opening up from swirling water that a person could fall through or a tire could easily fall into, so it is really important to have all of your safety gear with you from ice picks, life jacket, rope, and a fishing buddy along if you do go out.  We are officially done for the winter with all the houses off the lake and no more guide trips for this year's hard water season.

 

In regards to the fishing, it is was good.  On Leech Lake the perch bite has been sporadic at times, but when you find the right school you can put a nice bunch of jumbos on the ice in that 9-12" range, with a few bigger ones mixed in.  Fishing in 3-8' of water has been the best with sight fishing being the main way of catching them.  What that does is allow you the angler to be more selective when setting the hook.  Using a larger rattle or flutter style spoon with a whole minnow is a great way to also keep those pesky little perch away at times.  Also we had luck using the Maki Plastic Minnow Head or the Mino XL when fishing.  Plastics are great, because you can catch alot of fish on plastic before having to put a new one on and with perch being so nomadic being able to get back down to them quickly is a big key to success.  

 

Panfish has been great.  Bluegills are showing up in 6-10' of water along weed flats and edges.  Tungsten jig with a plastic tail has been dynamite, but somedays real meal has been the key as well or even the time of day.  So have a few waxies or euros along just in case.  Crappies are starting to set up on the edges or ledges of the basins and some even being caught in those same weed areas as the gills.  Tungsten jigs with plastics, vertical style jig with a crappie minnow, or a small jigging spoon are all good presentations.  

 

With the ice rods and houses put away, it is time to get the boats ready for river fishing.  We will be heading both North to the Rainy and South to Pools 2-4 on the Mississippi to get a few hook sets in.  Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks for more ice out reports and some tips for early season fishing.  It is looking like an early spring, which means anglers can get out an enjoy river fishing, crappies, perch, and panfish before Walleye Opener in May.

 

Tight Lines!

[Walleye #1]

Memorial Week Fishing Report

 

The winds of change of definitely blowing on Leech Lake right now.  In the last week we have seen water temps climb into the mid 60s and the walleye bite begin to change.  As I told one person at the local bait shop, it is almost like Mid June out there right now.  With that being said, the walleye bite still proved to be strong for many folks and being versatile was the name of the game.

 

When targeting walleyes this past week, anglers found success in 5 feet of water all the way out to 18-20ft of water.  Depending on the day, sunlight, wind conditions, etc. all played a role in where the fish were located.  On cloudy wind swept days, a shallow bite in 5-9ft of water was effective, but fish were still caught in 10-15ft of water on those same days.  Looking for schools of bait fish on your electronics was key.  A jig and a shiner and a lindy rig with a crawler, leech, or shiner were all good presentations.  Even heard of some folks having success trolling spinners and crankbaits on the flats and edges of the rock reefs.  On calm sunny days, speeding up your presentation and working breaklines in 10-16ft of water proved to be effective by pulling leeches and crawlers.  A Phelps Floater was also another great presentation when combined with a leech.  

 

The South part of the main lake had some very good fishing.  The Red and White Rocks and the areas around Pelican island were all good.  Pitching an 1/8th oz jig such as a KenKatch 3D eye with a spot tail shiner was a great way to pick apart structure.  Pipe Island, Diamond and Rogers Points, as well as the Clay Banks also saw some good fishing.  On the Western side of the lake, depending on the wind direction all the major points such as 1st and 2nd Duck, Big Hardwoods, Ottertail, Stoney, and West Goose Flats all had good fishing.  Pulling leeches and crawlers was very effective in these areas.

 

The crappie and bluegill bite up in the pencil reeds was also very good this past week in Boy, Headquarters, and Steamboat Bays.  A 1/32oz jig with a plastic is the go to.  Remember to use selective harvest when fishing for these fish. They are fun to catch and you can catch alot in a short period of time.  

 

The LLWT tournament is this weekend so it will be fun to see how it all plays out!

 

Until next week.

Tight Lines and Wet Nets!

Jason Freed

Leisure Outdoor Adventures

[Cobra]

I have heard there has been some ice fishing in some of the smaller area lakes and bays on Leech.

 

Be very cautious!!!

[DrJuice1980]

14-16" where I was at and it was absolutely lights out from about 3-6:30.  Just a blast, i couldnt do anything but fish!  Mark after mark a lot of hooksets but 5-6 misses by the hole .  25, 24, 18.5, 16, 15, 14 a couple 12s/11s.  Great times. 25 was a fat chunk, i threw the 16 back it had some weird skin deal going on. The misses were quality fish too. Orange and copper, spoon with minnow head or one of those uv forage minnow jigs.

 

 

[GregJohnsonBison]

Nice work Dr Juice.  What area of that lake were you in?  Any depth tips?  thanks

 

[DrJuice1980]

South end out of Trappers, 19' small ledge off from 10-12' with 26' not too far.  Orange/Copper seemed to be the go to, minnow head on a spoon with a set line next to it.  I only had 1 fish come up past 1ft , they stayed pretty snug to the bottom.

 

Good luck!

[ANYFISH2]

Fished leech friday afternoon thru Saturday evening.  Action was not fast by any means.  But there were fish to be had.  I thank @DrJuice1980 for his help and tips for this trip, help is why this site is so great, awsome people.

 

We ended up fishing 20-21 ft of water (depending on which end of house) over hard bottom.

 

Between 4 of us we only landed, 3 walleye, 6 small perch, 2 northerns, and 1 tullibee.  We, however, missed many fish.

 

Definitely would like to go again soon.

[NELS-BELLS]

My son and I fished Sucker Bay yesterday.  There were only 2 trucks in the entire bay, as far as we could see when we arrived about 8:30.  The landing on the north end was good and we measured 23" of good ice where we fished, so we did drive our truck to the spot.  We followed the tracks of the other 2 trucks.

We only fished for a little over 4 hours and brought home 20 perch between 10" - 12".  Small Swedish pimple tipped with a minnow head or tail worked best in about 12' - 14'.

 

Nels

[Chill62]

No reports in almost a year...lets get some new life into this post.

Anyone been out on Leech lately?

[IceHawk]

Have to Agree stony point should be kicking out a few tullibies? Lindsey Portage, Pleasant ,  Pine Mountain one of them has to be kicking out some panfish?

[JBMasterAngler]

Is stony point a good area for eel pout? Am hoping to get up there in a week or 2 for tullibees, would be nice to get some pout after dark as well.

[Chill62]

Guessing not many people have been out and about?

Sounds like from facebook travel is difficult

[Wanderer]

Well, we don’t have to worry about ice travel tomorrow when we hit Leech.  I’m just hoping the wind forecast doesn’t keep increasing.  Has been SE 5-10 most of the week but is now SE 10-15.  Not too bad but that’s enough.

We’re heading out for walleyes primarily but I’d like to throw for muskies a bit too.  We’ll launch on the south end and gradually head east covering quite a bit of water.  

Wondering if anyone has any suggestions on colors of Muskie baits that are go to’s on Leech?

[fishingstar]

We are here on leech also. we are fishing the east side for walleyes. we have been here for 3 days now and only have one fish inside the slot. It is always fun watching my wife catch a bigger fish. Fist couple day we didn't have enough wind so fishing was slow but with the extra wind things picked up.

[sartellangler05]

Staying at Chase on the lake next week. Where can a guy get good fishing info for current walleye info, and or panfish? Figured I might walk into Reeds since it is a block away and meet some locals? Anybody have advice let me know. I'll even have an open seat if someone wants to join. I'll have a glastron fish n ski, but limited to techniques without a trolling motor.

[fishingstar]

I have just left there but we stayed on the other side. The good thing we didn't see any lake flies yet. 

I was talking to the guy washing boats one boat had 3 keepers and that was the best he had heard of all weekend.

we fished 4 days and caught 1 keeper. 

we did catch 14 out of the slot 8 of them were 25 or bigger with the biggest at 29"

we didn't have a fish fry but it was a blast with the big fish.  

[Wanderer]

We spent the entire day out there yesterday and didn’t produce as well as the boat captain had expected we would.  We fished from 12 fow to 30 fow throughout all the spots we tried.  We went out of Trappers but did actually pound through the waves to Walker Bay for a few hours.  We marked fish in Walker on deep structure but had a hard time turning marks into bites.  I did hook up with a nice one on a chub but it came un buttoned.  It slammed the chub so I wasn’t able to feed any line to get a more solid hook-set.

Otherwise all our fish came from wind blown points on the main lake dragging leeches and chubs.  We only had two bites on crawlers that were short bites.  Most of the bites were pretty light.  We picked up some pike along the way too of course and they bit light too.

We boated 8 walleyes total with 3 of them being keepers.  We lost probably another 7 fish that felt pretty good.

I heard there was a tourney on the lake last week or the week before and the best weights came from 1-3 fow on jigs and leeches.  We didn’t try that shallow with the waves we dealt with all day.  With the amount of fish we marked on deeper structure it seemed like they weren’t quite fully transitioned out so the shallows are still probably producing OK.  Funny how the pics just don’t reflect the windy conditions.

Edited June 12, 2018 by Wanderer

[IceHawk]

Nice eyes great report!

[sartellangler05]

Thanks for the post! I may end up just searching hard for panfish during day, and troll after dark for eyes. Taking the easy way out

[Wanderer]

I was able to get back out on Leech last Friday the 13th.  Had to take a day off work to get some fishin’ in!

This time was strictly for muskies but bass and pike showed themselves anyway.   The morning waves were still rolling from either the night or Thursday and the lake was rougher  than expected at 6 am.  The forecast said 0-5 and eventually the wind did calm from the northwest, switch, and then proceed from the southwest.  The effect for us was basically almost a 180 degree switch while we were out there and we didn’t see any fish of any size after that.  I think the switch was complete by roughly 1 pm.

The other thing that raised our eyebrows was the surface water temps.  We started seeing high 76’s right away on the main lake but climbed pretty quickly to 78-79 mid day and was topping out at 81 by the afternoon/evening.  This made us really want to focus on deeper weeds but weren’t having much luck locating them.  We just weren’t in the right part of the lake.  But that’s how you learn - by doing.

Total muskie count for the day = 2; 1 follow (mid 40 class) and one boated (41.5).  The day went SUPER fast for 10 hours of fishing.  Black bucktails raised the two for us.  I had the follow, my partner caught the fish.

The temps had us concerned about the fish but my monster 48 inch net enables us to keep the fish completely in the water until it’s time for a quick measure and pic. Still trying to come to grips on what’s too warm for fishing muskies.  This one was on the line for no more than 2 minutes, including the net time before the hooks were out.  Maybe another minute to get the phone and board out and glove on for grabbing it up.  Less than 1 minute to measure and photo, then back in the drink for an easy resuscitation.  

Edited July 16, 2018 by Wanderer

[eyes55117]

What does the ice look like in the bays on leech?

[Rick]

@Joe

[leech~~]

1 hour ago, Rick said:

@Joe

 

Is Joe still around?

Last visited

September 23, 2016

[Rick]

Yes, Joe is still around. Here is his latest fishing report.

 

As the water temp continues to rise so does the fishing! Our Leech Lake Walleye Guides have been chasing them all over the lake with luck nearly everywhere! These fish are on the chow and it shows as they are aggressive. We have narrowed it down to a few different areas for our hottest bites.

The ROCKS! This is a little harder fishing since you will get hung up but they are eating in the rocks up shallow on days with some cloud cover. Pitching a jig and minnow is our go to for this type of fishing. We have also had luck with B-FISH-N AUTHENTX in white or green. Most of the main lake is warm enough that the walleyes are hitting the rocks. As for walker bay, it still needs a week of warm weather to get them moved into the rocks in good numbers.

The SAND! The other hot spot is along the sand in deeper water. We have been targeting 10-15 feet of water pulling a prerigged Lindy snelltipped with a blown up crawler. Traders bay and duck points have been good. This is done mostly trolling or drift fishing in the .4 to .8 mph range. When you feel that weight from a fish give it some line, count to 10 and set the hook.

LeechLakeGuideService.com has a few dates still available for June but have started booking into July and August now. Feel free to call or email for availability.

 

We are reachable by email using:

 

[email protected] 

 

Or by phone at 507-456-6140

[Rick]

The walleyes are moving towards shoreline spots keying on leeches and shiners.

 

Once located, jigging can be very effective. Get up to Leech fishing. The bite is picking up.

 

Photo courtesy of LeechLakeGuideService.com

Call: 507-456-6140 for more info.

[fishingstar]

spent the weekend on leech. very windy only could fish until 8 Saturday morning and didn't get on the lake on sunday.

Fishing was good every thing we caught was on crawlers.

[smurfy]

not meaning to change the subject, but rumor has it eelpout fest on Leech is toast. permanently!!!!!

[Rick]

The International Eelpout Festival has been canceled. 

 

It appears the Festival organizers, county, city, and DNR could not come together on permitting issues.

 

Thoughts from those of you affected?

[IceHawk]

To bad been there a few times and its quite the experience if you know what I mean  Not always the place for the family and kids but a learning experience for them for sure if they went.  Sad met some good people up there and had some good times. Figured it would happen as the permits and regulation thing was going to catch up eventually. The crowds were just getting to big and the trash etc. I know they were trying to team up with the county and some other organizeations, to get more help and get a better handle on security etc, but must of been unsuccessfull. Oh well got to experience it and still have some photos and memories stories to talk about in the future.