cass lake 2020 Cass Lake Fishing Reports

[Borch]

Sounds like fun gene. We're heading up on Satirday anf looking forward to 2 weeks of good times.

[Borch]

Here's our report for last week up on the Cass Lake chain.

We had good success on walleyes in 16-25 fow during the day on leeches on spinner rigs or with slip bobber rigs. When the fish were more aggressive the spinners worked. Otherwise, if they were more negative hanging a leech in front of them with a little chop usually got bit. For some reason the eyes where just sucking on the leech the last two days for us. This mention gradually extending your wait time until you started to hook up. At one point we needed to let fish have it for 20 seconds before we hooked up. So if you missing fish started letting them run with it a bit longer but of course you don't want to let them have it too long or you'll end up with deep hooked fish. In the evening we often started on the edge with lighted slip bobbers and after fish moved through threw on the crank baits and trolled the tops and both methods caught us plenty of fat walleyes.

Panfish bite was pretty good as well. Some are up on the beds and others and on the emerging weedlines.

When we left on Friday we had water temps around 68 degrees. Water levels are high and there's not much room under the train tressell on the channel leading into Pike Bay. Most other shallow hazards should be in good shape as water levels are 1+ feet higher than we usually see this time of year.

Good Luck!

[Borch]

I was up on the Cass Lake chain fishing over MEA and here is what I know after a fun trip. Fishing should continue to improve now that the lakes, (or at least most of them) have gone through the turnover period. Seemed that fishing was getting gradually better for us each day as we got further away from the lake flip.

Water temps ran from 48-50 degrees.

When we got there on Wednesday night there was very little minnow life shallow. By the time we left there was lots of food available in the shallows. At night there was an "ok" bite pulling cranks in the shallows for walleyes. During the day fish were deep. So deep that I didn't want to fish for them as it was a catch and keep situation.

Crappies are moving into their winter haunts. Somewhat sluggish but they are there.

Still a fair amount of ducks around and plenty of geese using the lake.

That's what I know.

[HUMMER 55]

Any news on the start of ice forming on the lakes around cass lake? i assume the warm weather has been there as well, just wondering if they have started getting any ice yet? Any info and updates would be great over the next couple weeks!!

Thanks

Cass Master

[theharvester]

gotta be some jabbin going on wish i could bet that guy who said "there wont be more then ten spear houses out there" lol lol

[Finn125]

My farming partner and I would like to spend a day spearing in our portable on Cass next week. Wondering if anyone could give me an update on the spearing and some locations to look for one the map. Any information or help would be greatly appreciated.

[BehindtheHead]

My farming partner and I would like to spend a day spearing in our portable on Cass next week. Wondering if anyone could give me an update on the spearing and some locations to look for one the map. Any information or help would be greatly appreciated.

we speared the south side last week out from cass lake lodge. bigger fish were seen near the drop offs. but not much for numbers. lots of action in the shallow flats but tended to be smaller fish, perch and pike. best spots were near shallow structure. didnt have to be much of a change but a bar that is 6' on top and 8' on bottom would be a excellent spot. try to find weeds. we didnt find tall weeds but the best spots had a layer of 3 or 4 inch weeds in the hole. if it was all sand we didnt see many fish. dont forget your jig sticks, lots of nice perch and walleyes roaming the shallows.

that lake has more "spearing" depth water than any lake i have ever fished. lots of water out there. i would stay away from any crowds.

[Finn125]

We're just planning on coming up for a day, so would the shoreline breaks be a good idea or go further out and find a flat? I was looking at the lake map, thought about trying Allen's Bay (any word there)? Sounds like the water clarity is good, better then around here (Big Pine Lake).

Thanks for your help BehindtheHead, good luck!

[Borch]

We had a pretty good weekend fishing for crappies bouncing around a few of the lakes in teh Cass Lake area. Tons of very good panfish lakes if you do your homework. For us plastics out produced all other bait options and it wasn't even close. In fact we pulled several fish that were staring at minnow rigs that slurped up or plastic baits instead.

Here's my wife Wanda with a couple of nice slabs.

Using a Jason Mitchell Meat Stick with it's sensitive, hi vis tip was key to us detecting those light bites and resulted in us getting hooks into far more fish than we would have otherwise.

Here I am with a couple of slabs as well.

Not too bad for our first trip of the ice season.

Ice conditions varied with 10-12 inches of ice on the lakes we fished. We drilled many holes to get on the fish but as you can see the effort paid off.

It was also our first trip using our new Thermal Otter Lodge. It made our trip very comfortable with the big buddy heater set on low most of the trip and no dripping inside the house. House is a lot brighter with the light interior as well. Very nice for sure.

Good Luck!

[BehindtheHead]

We're just planning on coming up for a day, so would the shoreline breaks be a good idea or go further out and find a flat? I was looking at the lake map, thought about trying Allen's Bay (any word there)? Sounds like the water clarity is good, better then around here (Big Pine Lake).

Thanks for your help BehindtheHead, good luck!

i know some people that were on allens bay and did well but they said there were alot of people out there.

i guess what i was calling the flat was the area between shore and the first break. we didnt venture out to far from the resort to spear. sorry for the confusion. good luck

[Gordie]

Borch those are some dandys

[bassNspear]

anyone have any new reports??

[cluelessfisherman]

Someone has to be out doing some fishing on the chain - any reports good or bad?

[thatoneguy]

i haven't been out since i tweaked my back, but all the fisherfolks i've talked to the past week said it has been slooooooooooow fishin. i'm going out on Saturday, and I'll report what I find.

[thatoneguy]

Got out for a little over an hour on Pike Bay today. Didn't have a tape measure, but I'd conservatively estimate 16" of ice where i was fishing in 21 fow. Decent bite, got four eater eyes, one giant tullibee, one jumbo perch and brajillion little perch. 1/8 oz Buckshot rattle spoon in super glo chub was the oly thing they wanted. everything else i tried - including other sizes of that same Buckshot spoon - got a total of zero hits. Barring any crazy warm weather, i'll finally be able to drive the truck out next time. woohoo!

[laportian]

I tried both Cass and Pike today. Wish I had that super glow chub. I only managed a few dink perch on the smaller glow buckshot in perch color. Pretty slow day.

[thatoneguy]

Oh oh oh it's magic! This color & size has always been my best producer on Pike Bay, but normally I can also ice eyes with Jigging Raps, a red hook & minnow under a bobber, or several other presentations. This year over 90% of my fish (of all species) have come on that exact color and size, and it's not for lack of trying other things! I don't know if it mimics something on the bottom that the perch and eyes are eating or what, but there have been several days like yesterday when it is literally the only thing they will bite.

[Borch]

Flour Orange has alway been the best producer for me on Pike Bay year round. So that color doesn't suprise me at all.

[Quackaddict9]

That color works well on some other area lakes, they all [crappies, perch and walleyes] love it.

[Gordie]

sombody once told me its the color of the crayfish this time of year and that they love em

[Hagigun]

We are planning to head up to Cass this weekend as I have a friend that lives on Star Island. From what we hear it is driveable at this point. We have 2 small Suv's.

We are not the daring type to be the 1st to try, but from others we have heard people are driving out there. Can anyone confirm or deny people driving on Cass? Make it to the island?

Thanks guys.

This was the last we heard about the lake from Froggys bait store..

January 5, 2011

Fishing continues to be pretty good. They are driving out on Cass and Pike Bay. There is a pressure ridge on the West landing on Pike Bay, so everyone is using the East and South landing. There are some panfish and crappie fishermen heading out on some of the area smaller lakes too. We also have guys heading up to Lake of the Woods and Red Lake.

Ice seems to be good, as good as ice can be. Weather has been great. Hope you can get a chance to get out and enjoy this winter.

If your in the area, stop in and check out out decoys.

See you out on the ice

Good fishing!

Froggy

[laportian]

Hagigun- Yeah I drove out towards the island Saturday and Sunday. If you go on the lake at the Hwy 2 rest area access turn north towards allen's bay and hug close to the shoreline. There is a big ridge that you will see as you are getting closer to to the start of allen's bay. It comes in about 20 yards from shore. You can't miss where everyone has been driving around it. This will be directly across the southwest corner of the island. There is also a ridge that starts on the southeast corner of star that runs out past ceder over towards the national forest campground. I drilled lots of holes out there on sunday and the ice was about 14 inches thick.

[Hagigun]

Thanks for the update. We were a bit thrown off as earlier today my friend heard there was open water on Pike Bay and some guy went through? I have not seen or heard that myself, but anything is possible I guess.

I really don't want to cancel the trip, but safety is our #1 priority. Keep me updated if you get out again. We plan on making a decision late in the day Friday and coming up Sat-Monday. I'm hoping we get lucky and it gets real cold!

[laportian]

No it's good out on both Pike and Cass. Just a few ridges to navigate around is all. Supposed to get chilly tonight and tomorrow night so Im sure things are good for the weekend. I drove right out to within 50 yards of Star this weekend I drove right along the entire south shore.

A guy fell in on Walker Bay Sunday night. He was out at his permanent messing around with his jacks or something and he went in? He managed to crawl out and walk to his truck. I heard this second hand from the guys wife's ex husband!

[thatoneguy]

There IS (or at least was last weekend) a small patch of open water on Pike Bay! It's in the same place it happens every year - at least every year I've seen...there must be a spring or something in the area.

Everywhere I drilled on Pike last weekend had 16-17" of ice, but do use caution, as always.

[bassNspear]

Cut alot of holes today and had anything from 12-16 inches of ice

[jacobj12k]

Ice reports is a different thread...we drove trucks out 3 days last weekend, but stuck to trails already blazed. Plenty of perch action, but there are a ton of little ones. Move around to find bigger fish and use bigger tackle to try to keep the little ones off your hook. Under 10' was best.

[Hagigun]

Thanks for the updates guys. We are moving forward with our plans to head up to Cass Saturday morning. From all indications people are driving on the lake regularly and with the added cold temps, we are making it a GO!

Hopefully have a good fishing experience as this is my first time Ice fishing on Cass, Summer numerous times. Probably looking at targeting Walleyes and Perch and maybe look for a few Pike. Weather looks pretty decent too, just hoping that the wind stays down so I can enjoy being out of the shack.

I'll let you know how we do.

[bassNspear]

Anyone getting eyes or slabs?

[Quackaddict9]

Pulled out a few walleyes and perch this afternoon/evening on Andrusia. No size to the walters though.