brainerd Brainerd Fishing Reports

[whitetail_freak]

had a buddy i talked to at s&w bait and he limited out in a little under an hour on pelican. he started right at midnight and was fishing shallow rocks, we caught another limit today, fish were reallyy finicky tho, they were barely taking the minnows, was fishing shallow rocks wit slips and fat heads.

[BoxMN]

No walleyes for us, but "us" was Grandpa (me) and a Dad (rookie fisherman) and three kids 6-11. Fishign out of a pontoon with a rotten running Evinrude, ha! Not exactly your Top Gun team, ha!

But we caught lots of real nice crappies - kept a meal of twenty 10-12" crapps, and threw back over a hundred at least, sot he kids had good action. Got the motor running and then trolled and caught plenty small pike and bass, but no waldo... next year the "First Walleye Pot" will have a lot of money in it

[riverkid21]

Had a great opener. Friend and I caught a 12 pound pike, around 50 or 60 crappie, the biggest at 17 inches and multiple 15 - 16 inch fish, plenty of small bass, and then the highlight of the day, a 28 inch fat walleye. All fish were released. A fun day, even though it was a bit chilly.

[buddha]

Caught plenty of pike and got our hands on the eyes. Seemed the eyes were caught in weedlines around 9 to 11 ft. Weather could have been worse, I would consider it a good opener, I have had many that have stunk to say it nicely.

[JBZWART]

We got 2 Walleyes (16 & 18) 2 Pike, 5-6 Large Perch. This was our first opener on Gull. I guess I wasn't prepared for the number of boats, we counted over 30 boats fishing grassy point.

[Spearing Machine]

Thirty boats on grassy point actually isnt that many. I know in years past we avoid that area as i have counted close to a hundred boats close to and around the entire point. From talking to others gull was not nearly as packed as it has been in past years. Usually the parking lot at Hole in the day is major overflow by mid morning on saturday and this year i guess there were few people that didnt get a spot to park in the lot.

[mudpig]

Gull wasnt terribly busy on saturday, there were fish to be had if you find them, and the ones we found were aggressive. Traxx, thank a bunch man for the trip, couldnt have asked for much more. Next time, im supplying you with beer, bait, and some gas money, we will roll that 10 pounder soon enough. Ryan, if you arent busy later this week, we should go smash again, I will give you a call later this week sometime and see what your deal is.

[Traxxx]

Sounds good man, headin out now to see if shes ready to bite.

[WALLEYENUTZ]

The crank bait bite is what saved us. 4 boats, 2 hours, 19 fish on Saturday night. 16" to 25" and a 37" pike. The day bite was tough for us.

[swampbuck]

Gull was on fire last night!

I fished from 3:00 to 4:30 caught 7 and missed twice that many bites. First cast was not where I planned to be as I drifted in to 4' of water. but it worked out well as I popped a 26" eye on a 1/16 oz fireball and shiner.

I had all bites in on 50 yard stretch in 3-6' FOW!

I caught two 17" fish and the others were 21-22" other than the 26" fish.

Some of the nicest eyes I have caught on Gull for an average!

All the fish were males squirting all over the boat.

I kept the two smaller fish ans 21" fish all had 3-4 Big perch in them.

[anchor man]

kinda nice how you think you're in the wrong spot, next thing you know..it's you're new hot spot. nice outing.

[Sportland_Bait]

Nice job Swampbuck, good thing you didn't take my advice about going crappie fishing instead. Pitching jigs and shiners is a blast for early season walleyes. Just like fishing bass.

Jason Erlandson

[anchor man]

Anybody have any luck with plastics or Gulp, or was it mostly livebait?

[ozzie]

I did decent on Wednesday and Friday on WFC for crappies with plastics didn't fish much thursday and Saturday went to a smaller lake and didn't have anyluck at all......Sunday caught a few crappies but mainly small....only fish with plastics

[riverkid21]

Ran out of the live bait on Saturday and switched over to the plastics. They produced just as many fish as the live bait. They were going for white colored plastics.

[Traxxx]

I've been long-line trolling three inch swim shad in 6-8' towards dark. Today, I caught a few up in 4' on the rocks.

[JConrad]

I also had good success today on Gull in shallow water 4 - 8 ft. I think the wind cut the light down and they were up shallow feeding. It is really blowing hard tonight.

My biggest was 25" and she is still swimming. Had another large eye up to the boat that I lost. Kept a nice limit of 15 - 18 inch fish.

The next two weeks should be really good!

[jwhit]

What is the water temps in the smaller lakes near Crosby or Brainerd? JWhit

[BoxMN]

On sunday it was 55 in early am, rising to about 58 in the hot part of the day... if you could call the days "hot" yet This was between Crosslake and Emily, on small lake.

[mudpig]

Yesterday was a tough windy day, but there were fish to be had. Crappies continue to bite well, when you find them bunched up, wind blown bays are the ticket, go where the wind blows, nice slabs and some very chunky bluegills there with them. Walleyes were tough fishing with the wind, but they seem to still be hanging out in 9 to 13 fow on weed edges, lindys and spot tail shiners caught some fish. If anyone needs a good guide, Traxx is top notch, look him up if you really want to catch alot of fish, and some big fish as well.

[Traxxx]

Thanks Mudpig, good "smashin" fish with ya again.

Went out tonight and Justin from Gander Mtn joined me. We found the walleyes in 14'-17'FOW early in the evening. Lindys and spottail shiners did the trick. Then we went up into a really shallow, warm, channel area and found a few crappies on beds already. They wouldn't bite the regular crappie set-ups so we used a Drop-Shot rig, downsized to crappie size.

To rig this up, use a size #6 hook tied with a palomar knot, leaving a 6-8" dropper line, add a small splitshot to the dropper line. Thread a small plastic tube or minnow bait onto the hook. Pitch it onto the bed and work it with small shakes of the rod tip. You need to be fairly close, to fish it effectively. Polarized glasses are a must. I'm guessing this should work pretty good when they get up in the pencil reeds, as well. Remember to practice catch and release. Good Luck.

[ozzie]

hey Traxx thanks for the info on how to tie up a drop shot for crappies......I have been wanting to try it just haven't given it a try but I think I soon will......I would imagine the longer the pole the better this technique would work for shallow crappies....

[jwhit]

anyone have current water temps for brainerd area as we are thinking of driving up. jwhit

[Sportland_Bait]

We have a decent bite going right now on Gull. Shallow weedlines, points, and inside turns. The fish are stacking up wherever the wind has been blowing, and it blew pretty much all week. Lots of 15-17 inch fish with the occasional 20+. Most guys have been pulling Lindys and shiners or jigs and minnows. Crappies and bluegills are on the bite too. Should make for a great three day weekend.

Jason Erlandson

[deerwoody]

mid 50's

[ConnorMN]

Hit Margaret and Gull Friday/Saturday. Margaret was a bust for us unfortunately.

Found some 'eyes on Gull Saturday afternoon with the wind whippin' on the bottom in 12FOW amongst some snot rockets and cabbage.

Sunday morning barely a ripple in the water, tried the same spot and found they were in 14-18FOW nearby the area from Saturday; some sitting on bottom, most sitting 2-4 feet off the bottom relating to bumps/other such structure.

All caught on jig/lindy with spottails (we had rainbows and creeks as well, the shiners were the ticket)

[TBW]

I'm looking forward to a long weekend tracking down some walleyes on Gull. I was up for opener and hit the normal spots (Booming Out Bay, channel by Zorbaz) with shiners and never saw a walleye so I'm hoping that things will heat up a bit this weekend. Slowest opener I've seen in quite a few years. We did pretty well on the panfish though. Our neighbor on the channel picked up more small walleyes from his dock on the channel than I saw caught on the lake!

Any recommendations from the locals on where and with what?

See you on the lake!

[ConnorMN]

TBW - There is another thread in the Brainerd area forum - 'first time on gull' that has some excellent info from the locals that I definately have to agree with based on what I saw out there last Saturday and Sunday.

We tried Margaret, Booming out and the channels with no luck last weekend, moved out into the northwest side of the lake looking for weeds/humps n bumps in 11-18 fow and did well.

Good Luck out there!

I'm looking forward to a long weekend tracking down some walleyes on Gull. I was up for opener and hit the normal spots (Booming Out Bay, channel by Zorbaz) with shiners and never saw a walleye so I'm hoping that things will heat up a bit this weekend. Slowest opener I've seen in quite a few years. We did pretty well on the panfish though. Our neighbor on the channel picked up more small walleyes from his dock on the channel than I saw caught on the lake!

Any recommendations from the locals on where and with what?

See you on the lake!

[kingfish689]

we had great luck on the rocks on the N end on the drift with shinners and grassy point

[skies_and_eyes]

This AM we really had a good day with shinners and live bait rigs in 12-20 feet. The walleyes we hugery and it was a fun bite. We fished shallow breaks that had the wind blowing in.