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island lake walleyes (report)


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i've been on island 3 times in the last week and caught bout 60walleyes... they are goin nuts for yellow spinner with crawler harness. (using crawlers).. in a bout 15'-20' of water.. caught an amazing amount of eyes but the biggest one was 15" and most to small to keep.. it did'nt seem to matter what time of day it was as the water is bog stained.

i'm not sure there's any big fish in the lake but i'm told there is...

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there is big fish in there but that action is fun. try a little bit deeper away from the little ones.

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The fish are 16 to 28 feet of water on leeches and worms smile.gif. If you fish stick baits make sure you are near the bottom. This will do just fine and good fishing to you as well smirk.gif.

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Is this the Island lake by Sturgeon lake and if so can anybody tell me what the muskie population is like and if it's worth spending a day on?

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

Thanks for the report troyslund. Theres quite a few eyes in the 14-15'range, and bigger.

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Husky Musky- as far as Island by Sturgeon, yes there is a healthy population in there... but there a little hard to catch this time of year. Think deep weed edges with diving cranks and you might be able to hook into one. If you manage to wander out there... be aware of the warmer water temps as far as successful releases go...

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Thanks EatSleepFish for the info i haven't ever been up that way and thought i'd give it a shot over the labor day weekend. Again thanks.

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report was from island lalke near duluth..thanks for all the input guys..

keep a tight line!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Was out on Island today for a few hours, caught 3 eyes and a northern, all on yellow.

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The girlfriend and I were on Island Lake 8/22 and we got one tiny walleye, 2 big rock bass, a sunfish and a really nice crappie. A coworker and I went to the exact same spot with the exact same baits (jigs and crawlers) on 8/24 and we caught 19 walleyes and 1 perch. We had one tagged fish. All walleyes were from 8 to 13.5 inches, with the exception of one fish that went 20.5 inches. Released all. What a difference a couple days makes!

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  • 2 weeks later...

i fished island all summer but have now moved back down to the cities to start my sophomore year of college. The weather is looking great for next weekend and i wouldn't mind getting back up to island to get in some fishing. Just wondering if the fishing's been about the same as it was at the end of august or better/worse??? Right before i left, the eyes were starting to heat up again...any advice would be appreciated.

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  • 'we have more fun' FishingMN Creators

My August spot is good in August but not so good at other times of year. What I mean by that is, a spot might be dead but the lake doesn't shut down. I'd be thinking about what the surface water is doing. Try the tops of mid lake humps and windblown shores. Look for weeds up tight or a weed bed on a break on those shores. Bring minnows for harnesses and for tipping jigs. Keep the presentation slow, pickups will be light with very little resistance felt. Combine that with weeds and it gets tricky. Anchoring up and slip bobbing weed edges and pockets or the tops of reefs works too. Next advice is to move, theres no scene in camping on a spot thats not producing. Good Luck and give us report.

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Well here is a Island Lake report for ya.

Ripstick and I hit the lake about 2:30pm and trolled cranks around for a few hours. All our usual spots only produced 3 small eyes and only 1 hit the box.

Later in the afternoon we started to jig some midlake humps as well as shoreline breaks. Perch and small eyes were active in these spots. Usually between 11' and 25' was where we got the eyes. Jig n golden shiners was the ticket. We did manage a few more keepers doing this. When I did feel a fish it was usually a pretty sound thump. We did miss a few that swiped our minnows so a stinger would be a good idea on larger minnows.

Did talk to one fellow fisherman at the landing and he said that he and his wife had real good luck with jig n leeches off of island breaks.

Looks like the old fall minnow bite isnt in full swing yet. Water was still warm enough for the leeches to be working.

Im guessing a couple weeks and turnover should be goin or maybe even done. Man last night and this morning was cold.

Bring on the ice! wink.gif

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The way the big lake is lately I almost would rather be ice fishin in the bay like last year. We can only hope eh?

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Going to be interesting, hopefully its like it was last year. Wouldn't have to go anywhere to get them eyes, just the crappies. cool.gif

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Steve, too bad I missed your rig, I went in on the West end today & fished from 2 till dark. Got the Island Lk. small eyes in that 11" to 16' areas, moved around quite a bit & filled the frying pan with the biggest fish being 16.5". We threw live bait at 'em with gummball-chubs being the best bite in 20'.

Later -CLoma

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Was out this past weekend too. 2 eyes (one decent) 2 LM bass and a nice perch. Again yellow/green was the color.

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thanks Loma and Northlander for your reports...sounds like the lake is still a little bit warm which is good for me...any one by chance notice the surface temp??

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a buddy and i were out last sunday night.. it was a beautiful night to be out, only it was disappointing because all we were able to find were a few smallmouth bass-we were fishing the lower west side of the lake on a few humps we found off shore in about 15'-20'... since we haven't fished island much, and are relatively new to the lake, which side is best to fish? i see 20'-25' seems best, but we still haven't had much luck the last few times... thanks

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Most guys fish the west side. Fish are on the east side as well but more structure and bays on the west side. I do like the east side and river when its moving and usually in spring.

Troll sticks/cranks in 15-35' of water. Most often that 25' and under is where we get most eyes.

That lake is tuff for big fish. Lots of 10-14" eyes but the bigger ones can be a lot of work. Trolling spinners and slip bobbers and jigin will also catch fish. Leeches and shiners were best last weekend and I think minnows will more and more become the ticket. Chart and glow white jigs worked best.

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It was one chilly morning out on Island this AM (9-14). It felt like mid-November. The water temp is starting to drop. The bite is really starting to get going. Fished the west side and had constant walleye action on jigs and minnows. Fished a main island that gives way to a reef with a 12 foot top. Fish were off the sides of the reef down to 20-25 feet. Lots of small W's, but was able to bring off 6 nice 15 - 16 inchers. I also caught and released 2 12 inch crappies and a nice smallmouth.

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Down Deep were the Crappies suspended off that Island our on bottom? Shiners or fatheads? You can e-mail me if you want. I may be up there on Sunday again.

River Crappies are really spread out now. Hard to get much going with all this wind.

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I was using Fatheads. The crappies were incidental to the walleye bite. Both came off the bottom in about 20 fow about an hour apart. I was drifting around an area of about 1/2 an acre moving up and down the reef and island point. I did not graph anything suspended or concentrated.

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Those eyes are in trouble today. I feel good, its a nice day and I have some nice large leeches beggin to be used.

Fall, ya got to love it!

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Well I just got back from my weekend trip up to island. We fished yesterday morning and this morning...brrr! Me and my buddy managed to catch lots of fish though...seemed to me that a minnow on a spinner and shallow worked for us. At the end of the day we had quite a few walleyes between 14-16inches with the occasional 17 or 18. Also caught a few 10-14 inchers but not too many. Well all in all it was a great weekend and quite productive...

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
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    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
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    • CigarGuy
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    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • 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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