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hey all-i'm currently a student at UMD and have recently began fishing the area... a buddy and i have a fishing boat up here and have began to explore a few lakes, mainly island lake reservoir, or that's what i believe its called... we are mainly hunting out eyes and some sunfish, but havent had too much luck... we were out all day today and tangled into a bunch a little snakes, and a few smallies, but couldn't find any eyes... anybody have any other suggestions of lakes to fish, or other places to fish in island??... we started with island because the local baitshop heard they were doing well so we went on the dnr site and looked at a map and went to it-just to show you how much we know/don't know

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I don't have much for you but others will. I usually start with the old river channel and work out from there this time of the year.

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Islan lake can be a tuff egg to crack. This time of year I would look for mid lake structure lke rock piles and sunken island. There are also some nice bars coming off some of the bigger islands. Time on the lake is what it takes up there.

I would troll small spinners and lindy rigs wiith crawlers, leeches or shiners. A jig n minnow will catch ya a bunch too.

One thing , at least for me, is that if Im catching smallies Im probably not in a real good walleye spot this time of year. I never seem to catch eyes if I catch more than 1 smallie in on a spot. Could just be me though.

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went out tonight and fished a small little hump we found, and caught a few rock bass and a few small eyes on an orange jig and minnow-we have caught a few eyes now and then, but all on the smaller side... what part of the lake would the old channel be on?

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iim hello. Island, as many other lucky Walleye lakes, has a good Eye population. Like NL says if your into the SMB your Eye bite will be tough but the eyes might be nearby waiting for the chance to snap during lower light. Sometimes the bite switches from SMB to Eyes in 15min. I've only been fishing the lake for 3 years & have only tried to figure out the West area but have enjoyed many good Eye & multi species days.

For the rest of the summer its safe to try staying on basin ( read 'Flats' )humps & stumps during the day & weed beds the rest of the time. If you can find current, all the better!

Later -CLoma

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Take a boat ride and make notes on where you see the boats then go back and try those areas. My preferred presentation is jigs with minnows or crawlers fished slow and verticle. The next method is to run the reefs or flats with cranks ( shad raps, bombers, etc ) at 2.5 to 3 mph. I think that after a good early June bite the lake slows down considerably. Island really produces from mid Sept. to freeze up.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
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    • Brianf.
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    • SkunkedAgain
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    • LakeofthewoodsMN
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    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
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    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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