What's happening on South end?

[Ballyhoo]

Looking for an honest fishing report, not from a resort or anyone making money from fishing for the gap, Pine Island, mud flats, Zipple area.  Everyone who is posting fishing reports on here is advertising. 

[srj]

Not many boats out today along the south shore. There is a pretty good bunch of fish out about 8 miles in 34 feet. The water out there is about as clear as I have ever seen on LOW. I couldn't find any takers using bait but leadcore and a shadrap worked well.

[curt quesnell]

Fishing is pretty skinny along the shoreline.  Fish near rock piles, gravel bars if you can find them.  The reefs like 16, 12, Arnesons and the rest can be going now.  But like srj said the big schools of fish are out deep that is your best best, they are easy to find and ready to bite.

 

[Walleyehooker]

Was out in that 34 foot yesterday down rigging and pulling lead core and caught some fish. Wasn't fast but one here and there. Going to be a beautiful day today with light winds so boating up to the Angle today to play up there.

[seifjr]

I'll throw in my $.02 based on personal experience.  2 boats we fished the fields yesterday morning, drifting pulling spinners for an hour with 1 fish.  Moved over to what I believe was the open basin (32 feet) and marked a ton of fish, mostly suspended 15/20 feet down.  We pulled cranks on downriggers for a couple of hours and didn't catch a fish.  Not sure how that is possible based on the reports, but we managed to do it.  Decided to pull the plug and go anchor and jig in 29 feet straight out from Pine and picked up 6 in an hour.  Everyone on our boats was ready to go in once I found the fish...bummer!  Got word from someone else in camp that they did pretty well pulling spinners straight out from Morris Point resort in the a.m. yesterday.  Inside of 24 feet all the way to 17, so we'll give that a try this a.m., and then decide whether or not we head for the Islands tomorrow.  The weather couldn't be any nicer though for LOW, so I'm ready to go hit it hard again today.  Thanks for all the information.

[Skidmack]

I agree with Curt and Srj try the middle of the lake with leadcore or downriggers 34' to 36'.  The graceton beach road cut and field bite slowed down last week. So the boats moved a few miles north.

[DRAGFOOT]

Great to see a nice discussion thread like this for a change. Not that I don't like Curt's posts and the other 3 fishing reports we get every week from the resorts and tourism dept., but I long for the days when everyone was posting their reports and having discussion from the south shore, resorts and individuals alike. Now everything is geared to more up at the angle it seems, but I guess for good reason probably as there is not the action on the south end that there used to be. Anyways, great info, hopefully I can get up there before Labor day and wet a line.

[fisherjmb]

23 hours ago, DRAGFOOT said:

Great to see a nice discussion thread like this for a change. Not that I don't like Curt's posts and the other 3 fishing reports we get every week from the resorts and tourism dept., but I long for the days when everyone was posting their reports and having discussion from the south shore, resorts and individuals alike. Now everything is geared to more up at the angle it seems, but I guess for good reason probably as there is not the action on the south end that there used to be. Anyways, great info, hopefully I can get up there before Labor day and wet a line.

Yep, that is for sure. 

[Walleyehooker]

Fished up north in the Angle yesterday and had 8 walleyes by noon and no saugers. Caught some down rigging and some on spinners. Went to Oak Island and had them cook up a few for lunch. No surprise lots of launch boats up there fishing. Wanted to figure out how much it cost to run up there and back so I filled my tank before I left. Came to $30 round trip in gas with a 115 4 stroke. That's from Wheelers point. Its closer by water from long point but would have to trailer boat farther and $10 launch fee wouldn't make it any cheaper. Went out of Long point today and tried jigging and only caught one. Wanted to down rig but the wind out of the north was just enough to make it not a good option so we quit early. Headed home for a few days and will be back up next week.

[seifjr]

Just thought I'd drop in another report.  We still have not made it up to the islands due to the wind today.  It doesn't take much of a NE wind to shut you down when you're heading north from the south shore. It' suppose to lay down after midnight tonight, so were hoping to make the run north tomorrow.  We pulled blades out in front of Morris Point Resort today from 8-12 and caught 6 with 5 keepers.  Lost a couple, but it's just hard to pattern anything on the south shore for me right now.  We've been running crawlers and green and orange.   

[srj]

Here is an update for Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Tuesday lots of fish and quite a few biggies on the rocks. Not all the humps had fish, but quite a few did. Bouncers and crawlers worked better than jigs. Quite a few fish on the tops and they were very aggressive. Thursday and Friday more of the same but more guys were tuned in to the rock bite. Oddly, one of the few places we didn't do well was Starren, although the smallies were present where the eyes usually are. Several groups of boats in the basin from 3 miles south of Starren to 3 miles off the south shore. It's good to see good numbers  of fish sort of where they used to be mid-lake. I was surprised how hard it was to get bit with a jig/shiner in the mud. Also caught a couple biggies on the west side humps. Sure quiet on the western front.

Fisky................you on the water?

Thought I would add this: only 1 baitfish (5 inch perch) found in the walleyes cleaned. Lotsa crayfish. Fishing in the MOrson area last week I noticed there are no weeds. The rustys have pretty much eliminate all the weeds. Invasives are a britch.

 

 

[curt quesnell]

The basin is loaded with Walleyes and Saugers of every size.  I saw some boats drifting but we were trolling and again this weekend watching the depth finder was unbelievable.  Stacks of fish pretty often and a steady stream of fish scattered along the way.  It seems like you would catch every 30th fish or so but it didn't take long to get to that number.

The charter boats are going right up to Little Oak every day, hauling clients right past this great opportunity.  There is no shortage of fish on LOW.  Now to figure out where they go in the winter.

Cant wait till next weekend

[curt quesnell]

Went over this steady Saturday and Sunday.......

[Hoey]

My wife and i fished Friday and Saturday.  Friday we put in at Rocky Point around 1130am and headed over to Knights, went there since the winds were tolerable and I had not been there yet this summer. 

The reefs there were loaded with fish marks.  Picked up a few slots, some small ones, and four for dinner and headed back around 5pm.  On Saturday we put in around 1030am and fished south, towards Warroad.  Again marked a lot of stuff and dodged rain storms,  Picked up our 6 keepers in 10 to 13 fow.  We wrapped it up by 5pm again.  Tried everything from 8 to 24 ft.  We were pulling spinners with crawlers.  On Sunday, we replaced the Father's day hail damaged siding on our storage shed.  We still have the cabin to re-side on a future trip.  

The catching success this weekend was very good.  The cleaning shack was full nice keepers, especially for the down riggers.  

Arnesen's hosted Military Vet event this weekend that included a couple purple heart awards, a silver heart award, dedication of memorial marker, among many other Vet related activities.  It was very nice and a good reminder about why we still have the freedoms we take for granted very day!!!

[deehawk]

My wife and I fished Friday and Saturday too. All we do is jig.  We stayed at a lodge on the river for the weekend. On Friday with the light winds we decided to head north to Garden, Bridges, Knight etc. On the way there we hit 34’ in the mud and the fish were everywhere on the Hummingbird. So we anchored up with the ipilot and jigged that school. Fishing was great. They hit the jigs hard. BIG saugers! Never had to go any farther north. Finished up the limit on the nine footer reef. Had a big fish fry Friday night with the family.

Saturday went out of Zippel Bay State Park. Hit 32’ and started jigging. All kinds of fish on the Hummingbird. Again the jig bite was great. This time nice walleyes.  There are lots of fish in the mud and you don’t have to go all the way across the lake to get them. If you are patient you will catch them  jigging. We were the only boat in the Zippel area in 32’. I’m sure the fishing is better and more numbers of good walleyes up north but for us no need to make the run.

Gosh I love this lake!

Brian

GO HAWKS!

[Ballyhoo]

Good to hear, hope to get a few projects done this weekend and possibly fish.

[DRAGFOOT]

This is good news!  I'm hoping to get up there in 2 weeks and I prefer to jig them up as I don't have led core or down rigging setups and no experience fishing that way. I have snap weights, but its just more pleasant to be jigging if you ask me.

[fisherjmb]

Great to see some good reports from the south side.

[curt quesnell]

https://www.facebook.com/curt.quesnell/videos/1289350014423629/

Fully intending to jig em up out in the deep water Sunday.  Got out there and the number of fish was down quite a bit from last weekend. I didn't have the confidence to sit still so we started trolling right way and the fish were biting every bit as good as last week.  Never put jigs down but we had 3 limits by noon.  A great day on LOW.  The first fish we got was this 25 incher as soon as we got the lines in the water.

[srj]

Out from the Graceton cut is still producing. A decent sized school out about 8 miles and a bigger bunch around 12. There were a few boats scattered closer in but they seemed to be on the move. Running #5 shadraps and small flicker minnows on leadcore had the rods bending quite often. No biggies Sunday but lots of nice ones.

There were small groups of boats scattered all over the basin. There seems to be more fish in the basin this year than last. Hope that means they hang around the south shore this fall and winter.

Good luck.

 

[curt quesnell]

That is a huge school of fish.  I have been fishing 5 miles north of you and the amount of biting fish is crazy.  Love it 

Here is another shot of what is on the depth finder.  Lots of fish, and they will bite.

[Hoey]

My wife and I were out on Saturday and Sunday and did quite well in these same areas, probably a little more to the west for us.  Largest slot was 25" and some very large sauger, many in the 16" range and one over 18".  This bite sure makes it hard to be looking for active fish with live bait, although we prefer that.  

[curt quesnell]

My plan was to troll until I found a big school to stop and jig on but I didn't do that, trolling was just too good.

[deehawk]

My wife and I were up there last Sunday for one day of fishing. We put it an Zippel Bay State Park and went out 11 miles. There was a large group of boats trolling, so we went out about 2 miles farther than them so we were basically by ourselves and not in their way. As I said in my August 2 report all we do is jig. We started fishing at 9:00 a.m. and had no bites for the first hour. At 10:00 a.m. the jig bite started and they bit constant until we had our limit. We went through 2 bags of frozen shiners. Many BIG saugers. They bit hard. It was really fun, and it’s a very relaxing way for my wife to enjoy the day on the water fishing!

[srj]

Took the lady out so she could drink coffee, catch some sun, and catch up on whatever she is reading on Sunday from 11 to 3. The schools I had been fishing moved or dispersed.....the impressive sonar picture was missing. However, many of the fish I saw, bit. Bigger fish in 29 - 30, more in 32 - 34, with lots of saugers deeper. Dark lures ruled with an ugly dark crawfish #5 getting bit a lot.

Caught the 3 biggest on...................an orange, black polka dot flatfish with a couple inches of crawler on the treble. Shades of the 60's. I pull a flatfish around a bit every year and they still catch fish pretty well.

Was really surprised the deep stuff west of LP didn't have many fish showing. That has been a reliable late season area for a long time. These fish are getting dumber............they seem to forget where they are supposed to be.

Water temp was 69 on Sunday morning..

Think I will probably sell the cabin in the spring. Hope I'm not breaking the rules, but It's a great fishing shack if anybody is looking.

Good luck.

 

[fivebucks]

Was out on Sunday also from 9-2 and we would have periods of little to no fish and then we would get 5 trips in 10 minutes and sometimes as soon as you got set.  We caught no slot or bigger fish but a lot of walleyes in the 14-16" range and just enough sauger to top off 2 man limits.

[curt quesnell]

What the heck will you do with your spare time?

 

[srj]

Curt, I guess I would just have to fish more! Trying to keep the gull poop off the dock and mowing that 50' lot takes a lot out of an old guy.

Thinking of a seasonal thing. Plans are pretty vague.

[curt quesnell]

I shot some new video Friday and Sunday.  Friday I was out downrigging and it was very good.  Sunday morning I stopped at my favorite jigging hole for an hour and a half and it was pretty darn good for the end of August.  The big change is soon at hand if you dont want to troll out in the middle of the lake.

Here is a video report I did on Friday.  There was quite a change from then to Sunday morning

 

[srj]

Wednesday...water temp 67 in the morning. A couple big fish on the Canadian side reefs but the fish were not very agreeable on  the rocks. Trolled from the 29 footer to the 15 footer hardly marking anything. Pretty weird for this time of year. Got a 18" near the 15 footer.

The good news: a nice school of fish in 31 - 32 feet about 6 mile out of the gap. Several charters anchored up out there.  Don't know how the jig bite is going but the troll bite is pretty good. Nice fish but no biggies. it's good to see fish off the south shore again.