cass lake 2020 Cass Lake Fishing Reports

[bassNspear]

i did the same as well. We were up there wed-sunday, and we caught them at night as well. Nothing big, not alot of numbers, but enough to make it wild.

Stayed at Morningstar Resort. George and his Family are a CLASS ACT. Been going up to the area for 15 years, there awesome

[thatoneguy]

four eyes ranging from 14" - 21" and 100+ perch on Pike Bay yesterday. Kept a couple eyes and a half dozen perch for supper and the rest are swimmin' around. had to go in to 7 fow to find the bigger perch. 3 eyes came out of 21 fow but the largest one hit while i was sight fishing perch in the shallow water. that was fun to watch him come in and smack it!

[Chris Haley]

We were out there yesterday afternoon also. Talk about fun! 10-15 perch for every keeper. And we came home with 40 keepers. 7' was our go to depth also.

[thatoneguy]

Chris - are you seeing a TON of 6" perch? Seems like there's a heck of a year class that's about that size. Barring anything weird happening, there ought to be some dynamite perch fishing on Pike Bay in a year or two.

If you see a red F-150 parked near a red Eskimo QuickFish3, that's me! Stop by and say hi sometime.

[Chris Haley]

Will do, and yes the rest were all 6 inchers. I recommend for anybody heading out there that you pick up a can of gulp minnow heads. Pair that with a Northland Tackle Puppet minnow, and you're set for a fun day!!! Also bring a pair of forceps for removing the hooks on the puppet minnow. Those perch crush it!!

[Hagigun]

Thought I'd stop back and let you know how we did up on Cass. This was back over Presidents day.

We arrived Saturday mid day. We took a separate drive on access area across the shore from the southwest part of Star Island. This let us bypass the main Ice heave that was mentioned. We went out for Jumbo's that day and caught 10-15 perch in 2 hours or so, but only 1 jumbo keeper.

Later at night we set up on some steep breaks for walleyes. This is what we came for. We marked plenty of them, but could not get them to take anything. Minnows, shiners, tip ups, deadsticks, spoons, etc. Finally about 7pm we got a nice eater at 15" on a deadstick. 2 minutes later it hit again...eel pout! Fun to see in person, we tossed her back. Real late we were just hanging out listening to tunes in shallow water with deadsticks in a friends permanent. We didnt expect anything with the noise and shallow water combo, but we did nab another walleye! Again nice eater at 15". Had to be 12am at least.

The next day we were over by the normal landing. Quite windy, but we managed to land all sorts of Perch, however all small...again except 1-2 jumbos.

That evening we took a guide out. We set up in some good locations that we tried in summer with success. We wanted to go to Pike Bay, but the spot the guide had in mind was blocked off from ice heaves. While we marked plenty of walleyes, they hardly wanted to chase or even sniff our offerings. That lasted a few hours, then to another spot. Not much action on this spot either. So no walleyes at all, just a small night perch.

The last day with confidence shattered, we slept in (well lots of drinks the night previous!) We fished for a few hours, same slow small perch bite.

All in all always fun to fish and hang out with friends. We didn't seem to hear of anyone catching lots of walleyes that weekend. I especially had a tough go round with just small perch in my stable. Pretty weak.

Good luck up there boys. We might plan a late ice perch run again. I am still yet to catch a meaningful Perch in my life.

[cluelessfisherman]

Well, how did everyone do this weekend?

My plans for a full weekend on Cass changed at the last minute with a trip to Leech on Sat. We caught some quality fish in or over the slot with the largest being 27 1/4, but only managed one we could take home at 17".

Sunday I hit Andrusia, hoping for some redemption from the day before, and my boat limited in just a few hours. The wind made boat control interesting as we were on the wind blown side, but the fish were there and active in 13-15' and we had no competition from other boaters.

I was very surprised by the complete absence of fishermen on Sunday on Cass & Andrusia. I think there were 3 boat trailers at the Hwy 2 access at 9am - not what I'm used to seeing on opening weekend. I even thought the pressure on Leech was down.

[Igor Drackenwolf]

We had a tough Saturday on Cass - 8 Eyes and two keeper Perch between 6 guys in two boats, fishing morning til night with a break for lunch and naps in the early afternoon. Fished various structures between Stony Point and the channel into Andrusia. Fish were from 11'-18'.

Heard reports from guys who did better, most did worse. Sunday was rough. Only two of us went out in the AM, got skunked. Went to Buck Lake for Crappies in the late morning, found a few nice ones in the 12"+ range. Battled the wind & rollers coming at us from the front starboard the whole damned way back to Stony. It was slow going and wet.

[Borch]

Hit Kitchi this past weekend and found the fishing very tough. Ended up with 16 eyes for 8 guys. Evening bite was decent but due to weather only got out one evening. Early morning was decent but pretty tough in between. Did best on shiners in 13-23 fow. Panfish location changed a lot due to weather. SOmetimes in the reedbeds and sometime out in 10 fow. Plenty of pike and rockbass to keep you busy though. Water temps ran from 62-66 degrees.

[MWGUY]

Fished Saturday, It was pretty slow in the morning, The wind shifted early evening and we ended up hammering them on a very steep ledge. 6 ft in front of the boat and 15 in the back of the boat. Got our 3 man limit within a couple of hours.The fish we kept where from 14"-17". Havent had fishing like that for a while hope they will be there for this long weekend coming up!!!! My father got a nice 27" and my cousin got a 25", Those where the only females we caught, I belive the females are starting to recover from the spawn and moving back up the ledges, Opener with 16 guys i belive we only got 1 female that was 25" for the entire weekend.

[Turk]

Any recent Cass reports?

Thanks,

Turk

[hockey33]

Going up Saturday for 3 days of fishing. Bringing my 6 year old boy and 1 year old girl with wife and grandparents. Planning on spending 8 hours on the boat with lines in the water and I bet my son will be there for every second. Hoping to have him beat his personal best 22.5" walleye caught on opener. I plan to fish in usual spots near Marclay, Cedar Island, and Northern part of lake. Going to throw the kitchen sink at them and see what works. I'll give updates.

[hockey33]

Well it was an absolute battle. The wind was plain old nasty and experienced 90+ degree and 60 degree day in a 48 hour period. Wind blew from the south to west 20-30 mph most of the time. Managed to get my 5 year old on some walleyes in the northern part of the lake before we were blown off and went over to Marclay area. Picture is of a 19 incher he managed to get in the boat.

Monday AM my 71 year old mom and my son were able to manage 13 keepers. Fish came in 13 feet primarily with Leaches but Fatheads caught a few as well. Lindy rigging with plain hook and a bead seem to be the ticket. Will be back in August for a week trip and plan on getting my rap on then.

Happy Trolling

[bigsam]

Way to go!

Headed that way in the morning, thanks for a depth range to work. Friday looks promising, with winds forecast at only 3 to 8 from the west(fingers crossed). Hoping to hit Kitchi for some pannies as well!

[TyGuy02]

thanks for a depth hockey33. I'm heading over there in a few hours for the weekend. Being only an hour away I really should be able to get to cass more often, but of course I don't. I'm excited since I got a new handheld gps with lakemaster, and from the computer, the map looks amazing for cass! Seems like it could really help a guy out that doesn't fish there every weekend.

[TyGuy02]

fish were deep during the morning/day. caught a couple in the 20-25 foot range, but most came in the 30-40 foot range with plenty of marks on the flasher up to 45 FOW! ended up with 9 in only 7-8 hours of fishing, so it wasn't dead, but definitely not fast-and-furious. Talked to some guys in the fish cleaning house that literally cleaned house after dark. I didn't ask much, but they did say they caught them as shallow as 8' after dark. Size wasn't great by any means either, 8 of the 9 were all 14" with only one nice 21"

[bigsam]

Good to hear someone did well! We couldn't figure them out! Looks like we didn't go deep enough. Only two eyes came on Kitchi in 14+ feet. Nice ones, though...20 and 22. Had a lot of fun up there, can't wait to go back up in October for some hot crappie action.

[MWGUY]

Was up 8/30 to 9/3. We found some nice eaters out on a midlake hump Sunday at dusk at about 17fow. 10 fish between 14-18". Went trolling for muskie and northern with some over sized rapalas and ended up catching a 25" eye on Saturday at noon in 12 fow. with the Full bright moon on Friday we did pretty good trolling in 8-6 fow catching 6 eyes from 10-midinght 5 where about 16" and one 20".

Caught some pig Northern on sucker minnows under bobbers my wife got her pb with a 37". Great trip and can't wait for the CF tournament at Break on the Lake!

[Borch]

Well we just got back from another fantastic fishing trip on Cass Lake!

The night time walleye trolling bite was very good. We had good action in 3-6 fow trolling shallow cranks like floating shallow rattlin rogues, #5 SSR, yozuri crystal minnows, thunder stick jrs, etc. Color really didn't seem to matter much. Just get it in front of them clear of weeds and you had a good shot of getting bit. It was great seeing so many year classes being caught with fish from 8-27" with plenty of those being eater fish. For folks who'd rather fish from shore there were pleny of eyes within a short cast of the shorelines after dark. Had our best luck trolling 1.6-1.8 mph. We also had several fish hit when letting out line or when the lure was sitting on the surface while landing other fish.

We found water temps to hang right around 49 degrees and the water is LOW. We didn't have any luck chasing panfish but we didn't spend much time looking for them with very wet daytime conditions and plenty of eye action after dark.

Saw more duck hunters than guys out fishing and there were plenty of ducks and geese flying around the area

[bassNspear]

Can we keep this updated on ice reports in this area please.

do we have ice yet?

[hawkeye43]

Bass N Spear, Take a deep breath, relaxe, another deep breath. Keep thinking, " the ice will come soon enought, the ice will come soon enought", deep breath

[HUMMER 55]

Hey Kyle you got your ice rigs all setup ready to go? What the ice doing up there after tha last few days? ill be up in the Cass area next Wednesday looking for some nice relaxing fishing!! lol maybe ill call ya up this trip if we dont get side tracked !

[thatoneguy]

Pike Bay is almost locked up - just one spot on the WNW side is open, and it's always the last part to freeze over (I've seen that spot with open water when there was 10" of ice 50 yards away).

Little Wolf is locked up, but not enough ice to safely venture out yet.

I haven't been out to look at any other parts of the chain, but I imagine it's similar.

[thatoneguy]

Just about back to square one for the bigger lakes after today. At least two weeks - probably longer - til my favorite spots are reachable. *sigh*

[Scenic]

Hopefully this weekend and next week's forecast for colder weather holds true and there will be some good ice soon.

[thatoneguy]

I walked out about 50 yards on Pike Bay yesterday after work, but didn't have a chisel to test the ice thickness. I know that there was a big stretch of open water on Big Wolf after the warm weather, but that should close up soon. Extended forecast looks very good, and we should be able to fish soon. If I get time, I'll check a couple lakes in the chain this weekend and post.

[thatoneguy]

Went on the west side of Pike Bay today. Drilled a hole 100 yds from shore, found 7" of ice. Walked another 100yds out, drilled another hole, 6 1/2" of ice. Noticed a big swath of open water out by the Rock Bass Hump. Paused. Walked another 100 yds, drilled another hole in some beautiful, very clear ice. 2 1/2" of ice. Yikes. Gently tiptoed back to the landing, went out to Break on the Lake resort and fished on Cass instead. 7" of ice, caught one nice walleye and a half dozen keeper perch in about two hours.

Shallow bays on Cass look to be fine, Pike Bay won't be safe for a while yet. Didn't get to check any other lakes.

[Scenic]

"Walked another 100 yds, drilled another hole in some beautiful, very clear ice. 2 1/2" of ice."

That really is a bad feeling. Sort of like hitting the ice with a spud bar and it goes through with one light it...oops.

[bassNspear]

We got 4-6 inches of ice in most areas. The middle of the lakes have very little ice so use caution!!

[BOUNCED]

We got 4-6 inches of ice in most areas. The middle of the lakes have very little ice so use caution!!

Are you on Cass?