2020 Crane Lake - Lake Kabetogama-Namakan Lake Fishing Reports

[SledNeck]

Fishing is really starting to pick up.

Wasnt the best conditions for fishing this weekend, but we put alot of fish in the boat over 20" (and let them go... hehe).

Leeches cuaght bigger fish, crawlers caught more fish. Jerking the line (while trolling) really seemed to trigger bites

[therat]

Headin to Nelsons for the week. Any current details on Crane that are helping catch fish? Also, how is Makooda right now?

[SledNeck]

some pics to go with my report

all these were caught on leeches and 3 foot leader. 20-31 feet of water.

big

bigger

biggest

[Sportfish1850]

Beautiful fish Sledneck. Love how they are so golden out of these lakes.

Planning a camping/fishing trip up to VNP first week of August with my son. Haven't decided what lake yet. Would you go with Kab/Crane/Nam or Rainy at this time of year?

Fished Kab a couple of times with good results but that was usually earlier in the summer. Not sure if Kab is the right choice in Aug.

Thanks.

[SledNeck]

Beautiful fish Sledneck. Love how they are so golden out of these lakes.

Planning a camping/fishing trip up to VNP first week of August with my son. Haven't decided what lake yet. Would you go with Kab/Crane/Nam or Rainy at this time of year?

Fished Kab a couple of times with good results but that was usually earlier in the summer. Not sure if Kab is the right choice in Aug.

Thanks.

Kab is great in august. Rainy is my first choice when its calm and when its windy I fish Kab. Fishing is slower to really get going on Kab this year and august should be stellar

[Sportfish1850]

Thanks Sled....will likely give Kab a shot go in a Monday, find a camp site and have at it Tues-Fri. Would you help narrow down my tackle box a bit ? Do I need to rig for floats, jigs, spinners, cranks ? Silver and gold spoons and jigs have always worked okay for me on Kab in the past...anything changed ? I assume reefs are still the key at this time of year and focus on 25-30 FOW ? Would you camp east or west side for decent fishing in August. I've heard the fish move down towards Namakan at this time of year so was going to look for a spot on the east side but thats also the downwind side and I'd prefer to stay western half if that will be worth my while. Thanks for any advice you would offer.

[SledNeck]

I dont know anything about camping there. I see too many bears, lol, maybe thats why I dont do it.

I dont ever jig fish. I troll lindy rigs, with leaders anywhere from 3-6 feet. we start off with everyone using different stuff till we see whats working. I use chartreuse spinners as Ive had the best luck with those over anything. Sometimes beads work better. Red and chartreuse together seems to work good for me. Seems that in the evening the beads outfish spinner rigs.

I dont assume fish are at a certain depth range, I just move around till I find them. Some of my best luck is on big flat areas with small depth changes. Those are great spots cause you can have those spots for yourself.

[imhatz]

a little help...heading to crane/sandpoint end of august..can anyone put me onto some slab crappies

[Big Jeff]

Whats working now? Heading up this weekend for some work but will have a chance to get out in the evening what anything been better than others?

[imhatz]

Big Jeff

fill me in on your trip...nice slabs in your profile pic

we are heading up end of aug

mark

[ballbluff]

Was up there last weekend, and the fishing was pretty hot didnt have to put that much effort into finding the fish.

1. Mornings and Evenings were obviously the best, tough to get on anything of size midday

2. Fished lindy rigs with purple or blue blade, 6ft snell, 1/4oz weights

3. backtrolled or floated across reefs, caught some fish in 14-20, but the most fish were caught in 22-24. Dont think we got anything deeper, but didnt try to hard.

4. leeches worked better than crawlers

5. chartreuse kind of worked, so did gold-- but nothing liked blue/purple

6. the smalleys loved the bare hook, no blade or beads. This was probably the hottest during the day.

Also make sure you have your stuff together when headed up because we were stopped twice by the Park Ranger and once by a CO. Both were super nice and had a good laugh with us, but I am sure could of turned ugly if we didnt have our ducks in a row.

[marla]

Ballbulff sounds like you had a great trip Did you camp on loon or go in to Lac La Croix? sent you a PM

[jigrig]

I am looking for a fresh walleye report. I'm thinking about trying it in the next day or so. What depth? and What bait? Thanks!!!

[SledNeck]

Horrible bug hatch. Walleyes short biting everything. Glad I got sick of it and headed to Rainy lake instead.

[jigrig]

I fished yesterday and caught 18 walleyes and kept 5. We didn't catch any slot fish. Our throw backs were small 8" to 11". We used lindy rigs and jigs with minnows. The rigs outfished the jigs. We caught them in 18 to 24 feet of water. It was very tuff conditions.......20 mph winds. I have a 36v trolling system and by the end of the day, my batteries were shot!

[PierBridge]

Ouch! That one's gonna leave a mark!

Sleds a funny guy!

Any-who my friends are having a blast right now on Kab according to my text messages they ended up with Travis Carlson as a guide. Tim Watson was baiting bear, Frank house was not up this week and Don Grainger was booked up.

They said Travis was asolutley great in all aspects of the trip they ended up with 2 limits of Eye's for the outing mostly lindy-rigging with Leeches but they caught a few jigging too.

Thanks Much guys! for all the help in hooking my friends up with a top-notch expeirence!

[Dock Boy]

Frank was guiding bears and Tim was out of town. Just a quick correction Pier!! Where are the guys staying?

[PierBridge]

Thanks Dock..... they are staying at Pine Tree Cove this time.

[SledNeck]

we caught a limit on kab yesterday after arriving at 5pm from Rainy (everything we caught at rainy was 20" or bigger= it happens).. the fish were in tiny spots on the end of reefs where the depth drops to 27'.

Like rainy lake yesterday, the fish bit WAY better on crawlers than leeches.

[fatfinger]

Hey guys, headin up to crane for labor day and was wondering how the bugs are.my 3 yr old niece and 2 yr old nephew are coming too so that's why.we staying at echo but probly gonna fish sandpoint.

[Drail1313]

The flies bite if you have shorts on. Not much for the state bird-mosquito!! (We fished only Sandpoint all week)

[Big Jeff]

jigs or rigs with crawlers caught a few last weekend. Didn't fish a ton worked on tyhe cabin but had luck between 30-40 on the mud and round a rock pile that comes up to 12' Bit was slow and nothing was pounding. Only males in the keeper pile. Good luck over labor day.

O also gulp leech scored a nice 22" walleye.

[jigrig]

I fished Kab yesterday. I caught 13 eyes in 35' using a lindy rig and minnow. What a beautiful day on the water!

[Farley]

Fished the 1st and 2nd, did pretty well jigging minnows, either rainbows or shiners and even fatheads, in about 30-35 feet of water. Fish bit better during mid morning through mid day than they did around sunset. We tried to stay as verticle as possible, that helped.

[Skip111]

Just returned from a week on Crane. Water temps made for a different year from others. Temps in mid to high 60's. Seemed to drive the Crappies deep. Harder to find.

Walleyes were on a hot feed. Caught over 100 and many were in the slot area to release. Biggest was 26-1/2.

One nice surprise. Casting a Husky Jerk for walleye in the evening and caught a 51" Musky with no leader. Amazingly we were able to land it and release it unharmed. A fish of a lifetime. Had a great netter with me to. Looking for a good taxidermist now for a replica.

Try fishing at night for walleyes. It seems that the big females are on the prowl then.

Good luck to all!!!!!

Boomer044

[Skip111]

Anybody have a recommendation on a good taxidermist?

[Hillbiehle]

Fittante

[Richfield57]

Just got back from fishing on Crane and Sand Point. Caught a lot of keepers/eaters under 17". Caught em around 20' on Sand Point. Great weather. The Game Wardens were out in full effect as well. I heard of at least one party that got nailed with too many walleye.

[Presco]

Richfield, what were you guys using? Worms, minnows, leaches?

[SledNeck]

This is a first.

Did not catch a fish over 17"!

90 degrees, got to the lake late , 11am

Limited out FAST

(crawlers, 3 foot leader chartreuse spinner, FAST troll)