North Star Lake Fishing Reports

[ImaTeacher]

Hey folks, I have been reading the musky reports on North Star from Lee, however I'm not a musky guy. The closest I've been to a beast was last year when a musky ate my nice sunfish on Vermillion.

Is there any hope of a walleye or two on this lake? I have never fished the lake and am wondering if I should put in my time chasing the eye?

[Jason Boser]

the walleyes are there they are alittle tougher to catch but a lindy and crawler or leech or jig and minnow should do it try weed edge or some of the humps out deep

Jason

[Hookmaster]

We took our family vacation there for 6 years straight when the kids were younger. My best luck was low light periods (when you couldn't see the sun) along the weed lines.

[stinkweed129]

Walleye are in there to be had...........clear water though, so low light or evening/night time is the best. Some of them get pretty big too.

[Lee Lane]

all good info...after 15 yrs of being addicted to muskies and fishing hard for days on end ive caught and seen many muskies caught in the sun. However Its tough to beat fishing during lowlight conditions on any lake!!! Can a Muskie be caught during sunny conditions>? MOST DEFINATLY!! ....You will have to work lots harder to catch them however! On clear lakes like deer or northstar muskies will either move to the deeper edges or actually suspend in open water, or on occasions burrow so deep in the weeds you gotta go through an act of congress to get a bait in front of their face. My suggestion......try throwing a mag dawg down the deep weed edges for blue bird conditions.....if its also a cold front work it slow like your jigging for eyeballs. One other thing I can tell you about coldfront muskies is more often than not the last few minutes of light are MONEY!

[Hang Loose]

Just a few words for all you guys that are arguing over skis. Why is northstar getting pounded so bad the last few years. WOW. Rediculous. I remember when I could go out there only see one ski fisherman in a weekend and a few walleye guys. Now you have to just venture to the back spots. Fun Lake though but way over rated.

[brmuskie]

All of "our" musky lakes are getting pounded harder than 5 years ago because there are way more musky anglers now than there were 5 years ago. Things are changing in the musky world and we are all going to have to learn to deal with it.

[Musky Buck]

Right on, 250,000 muskie anglers, there you go. Come fish the Motley lakes, you need a chopper to drop your boat in because accesses are packed. On Big DL 07 opener we had to park a 1/2 mile down the road. I've been after them since 1988 so I've seen the pressure increase and it has been unreal and likely will keep growing.

[Hang Loose]

Lee,

I have seen you out on star many times while Ive been out, whats your take on the pressure on the lake, and your take on the roomer that the DNR is not stocking the lake anymore????

[Esoxmn]

They have no plans to stock it, i think their goal is a self sustaining population.

[Lee Lane]

MY take is this......one sunny morning after fishing all nite me and my significant other spotted atleast 500 muskies hanging on the weed edge on just one stretch of shoreline.....the fish ranged from 38 to 48 inches ...no real big ones however that was just one are! many more fish than I would have thought. are 500 muskies boated in a single day on northstar????I think not! I think people are to quick to blame pressure on why they are not catching fish. And when people fish the same 6 community spots, rightly so. Northstar Is a small lake Loaded with good muskie structure for a lake its size. Also since I work part time at the grocery store in bigfork Ive heard all about the 53 incher that was caught last week and kept!!! NOT GOOD!!!! I also see many pictures of muskies that ARE NOT 48 inches yet the people are holding these fish in the parking lot of frontier sports, again NOT GOOD!!! How Long will it take before this behavior has a serious effect on northstars muskie population? I dont know all I do know is this is UN-ACCEPTABLE!!!!!! People have this attitude that they spent so much money to catch a muskie that when they do catch one they are keeping it...Muskies are a resource and like water or money the local supply will run out at some point if abused! as for the self sustaining poplulation there must be some spawning going on look at all the habitat for muskies to spawn... a few too many pike but with responsable fisherman northstar should be a great lake for years to come.

[dcmusky]

The harvest of the fish on N star sucks& more often than not it's non residents. You would think resorts up there would get pretty upset with folks wacking big fish but aperrantly not. As muskie fishermen we should tell places like Fronteer sports dead fish do not get our buisness, they will catch on esspeitially in this economy. I also noticed they took all the muskie signs down at the access whats the story with that?

[Lee Lane]

No idea why the signs are down...my guess is some local who thinks he owns the lake took them down to keep muskie anglers away, but anyones guess is as good as mine.

[Hugo]

I rented a cabin at Cedar Point a couple years ago and there was a older fella and his son with identical crestliners equipped with downriggers that would go out trolling the deep basin every day. The older fella caught 3-4 fish during the week and every time he did he would start hooting and hollering out on the lake, put the muskie in his livewell and come back to the resort and show it off to everyone that came running down to the resort dock. He would then take a bunch of pics (dropped at least one of them in the boat) and then let it go in front of the resort. Not a one was 48". Just made me sick, both of what he did and that I didn't confront him and call TIP on him for not releasing sub 48's immeadiately. He was a hero at the resort though.

[Lee Lane]

I dont see anything wrong with grabbing a quick pic of a sub 48 however when I say this I mean QUICK PIC!! people catch a muskie these days and theres a photo shoot in their boat like they are going to be in the centerfold of hustler magezine! Then when the fish is half past dead they release it and wonder why it turns up side down and wont swim!!

[Hugo]

I'm with ya Lee.

[JBMasterAngler]

I think I speak on behalf of everyone when I say I don't want to see any of you muskie guys in hustler magazine Not that I read that filth

Is 48" the state wide limit now or is it just for north star?

[dcmusky]

This year its just N Star and most lakes in that area, next year it's state wide.

[tjbassmaster]

We're going to heading up there next week for a week of fishing. And are wondering how the bite is for walleyes and panfish? Also how is the bass fishing?

Any tips or tricks will be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Thomas

[CRBass]

I was there last week.

Bass fishing was pretty good, depending on weather conditions, both on topwaters and plastics, deeper. Didn't fish for walleyes and didn't hear much about them. I think the crappies were biting on the weedbeds near the access. There were five boats there one evening.

[Lee Lane]

With cold front after cold front its been tough on the muskie fishing. To say ive had to work hard to boat fish is an understatment. The past few days have improved with My wife getting a skinny 48 and me getting a 45 later that night, Then the next morning my tourney partner Dan with his first northstar fish. Then finally a few Nights later I got to get my first northstar 50 of the year in the net and cut hooks, interestingly this fish had about an 8 to 10lb pike in its gut as I could see the tail partly sticking out of its throat as I lifted it for pictures!! It was a very girthy fish that I would guess around 40lbs without the fish in its gullet.

[Lee Lane]

[bmc]

GREAT fish Lee!!!

I have been out Thurs, Sat, Sun, and today chasing muskies. 4 different lakes. Thurs. I had 4 follows, the same fish 3x I think. One time he was hot on it, nipping at the tail of my Bulldawg, but wouldn't eat. Didn't even see a fish the next 3 days. I was fishing during the day/early evening the 1st 3 trips. This morning I was on Moose by 7am and fished till noon or so.

It makes me feel a little better that you said you were having a tougher time with the weather..........maybe, just maybe it's not me?

Brian

[bronzeback]

man, the head on that top fish is absolutely ridiculous.

nice fish.

[gregg52]

hey lee what are odds you let my gf (cohasset) and i follow you around alittle some day ???? on north star

[fishuhalik]

Huge fish lee, congrats!

[musky796]

Nice fish! The one summer we boated 4 between 49 and 49 3/4. Still havnt got a 50 to chew outta there!

[Lee Lane]

I think theres more 50s in there than people think but they must suspend a large portion of their time other wise id have seen more following or atleast just laying there. My brother said he seen a few over 50 last year and also I seen one about 53 last year. someday maybe ill figure it out!!

[SJMyers32]

We have the same problem here in DL. We are finding dead 51's on the beach from potential mishandling (Hustler Theory). I think as fisherman concerned about this, the best thing we can do is teach the next generation to be responsible with our fisheries. I practice CPR and love to see them big fish swim away, but my photos arent hanging on the wall either. One thing we forget is how much money Muskie fishermen bring to the economy. I love to see someone from Illinois dump there cash here. Granted this is a fishing forum, you never hear mom and pop stores or resorts complain, it brings them income. But you take away the main attraction and they spend cash elsewhere. What a debate. Catch 22 or Release 50's?

[Lee Lane]

I disagree, obviously the resorts and bait stores that sell lots of over priced muskie baits are not...They are cashing in on the bonanza!! However if the lakes muskie population decreases suddenly and rapidly they will be the first to complain. As for people boating giant fifetys and having outrageous photo shoots ...I dunno personally I think they need a BEATING but that aint going to fly. All I can say is if your going to go catch any size muskies make sure you have the proper tools to cut hooks and if the fish was not hooked bad grab a couple quick photos and release it asap. If every muskie fisherman practiced that we would see many less dead muskies floating.