Leech opener

[leechlakepro]

I fish the north ends of the lake both in portage bay and sucker bay. It all depends on the wind and which way it has been blowing. A lot of people overlook the importance of this factor. The depth still stays the same though no matter where I fish. Most of the action for me this time of year is in 8-11 feet of water.

[BJP]

Without divulging too much info, can you expand on the "wind factor" on Leech? Seems like a lot of people are strong believers that wind direction will help them decide where to fish. I would just like some opinions on what factors help form your plan. Thanks and good luck.

BJP

[leechlakepro]

The last few days have been a prime example of wind helping pick your locations. For the past 3 to 4 days the wind has been blowing out of the north to northwest. It has been a pretty strong wind each day so a lot of your batifish are being pushed to the eastern shorelines. I will be fishing these spots all day. The downside is that the wind tomorrow is supposed to be strong between 10-20 mph. So you you are going to have to fight the waves and do what you can to stay on top of the fish and slow down your presentation. I will be definitely using a drift sock tomorrow to help keep me on the fish. Hope that helps.

[leechlakepro]

When you have winds that are changing from the north to the south all of the time then the wind doesn't play as much of a factor. You will find fish on each shore that the wind is blowing to, but this is usually the time where your "honeyholes" will produce more fish than your secondary spots.

[NoWiser]

If a slow presentation doesn't seem to be doing the trick, don't be afraid to pull up the drift sock and try some "snap-jigging". You will get some funny looks from the boats around you but it can be a dynamite presentation and is a great way to cover some water to find fish. Of course, you don't want to do this in the middle of the big groups using drift socks or you will be running into other boats. If it doesn't hurt to lift up a bottle of beer at the end of the day, you were doing it wrong! Pretend you are setting the hook with every "snap" and when you think you are snagged, you aren't!

[leechlakepro]

Went out this morning and had our limit in a little less than 2 hours. Not many people around us were catching fish, but we were hammering them in about 9.5 feet and even found some fish in as shallow as 5 feet. Taking the old lady out tomorrow morning. It was just me and my pops this morning.

[LakeDocktor]

leechlakepro, what part of the lake were you fishing? We had about the same luck fishing in 6-9 feet. Gold jigs and shiners outfished rainbows. We were also the only ones really catching fish.

[Grady]

No opener for me. Engagement party, wedding and taking care of our Grandson while his parents travel for another wedding will delay our opener until the first of June.

Your opener reports were a welcome reminder of what’s to come. Were the NW winds still dominant? If so and given your experiences, I wonder if you were on Little Stony, I usually take a look there on opener. And after that, so many other windblown points and shorelines to try, depth and presentation seemed to be the key?

[thesecret]

We were out around mounds and had a very good opener morning, our only problem was catching fish that were out of the slot. Lots of 20" to 24" wallleyes It was a blast. Then we went around to the hardwoods and found the keepers. We went out sunday morning and didnt have the same luck at all only 3 walleyes and 1 northern. Dad got sick so we had to come home early, but we would have loved to fish all day. Cant wait to here how the bite was today.

[Tom Linderholm]

I managed to get out for a couple hours Saturday night, didn't have to go far out of the harbor to get on the fish. Literally 20 feet from the point. Lots of boats working the drift in 7-11 FOW using the NW winds to their advantage. There was a period of 45 minutes where my friend and I musta caught 20 fish before the bite shut right off at dark.

[leechlakepro]

We were up on the north end of Portage bay around the two points area on saturday. It was a blast. We ended up with our limit very quickly on Saturday, but Sunday was a different story. Little, to no wind and the wind switching to the south-southeast had the fish pretty finnicky. We did end end up with around 15 walleyes, but only 3 of them keepers, with the biggest being 25.5 inches. Altogether it was a solid opener with numerous fish over 20 inches.

[LakeDocktor]

I didn't even fish yesterday. We kept our limit for 3 guys on Saturday. All fish kept were 14.5-17''. Only a couple fish over 18 and a lot of 12-14 inch fish. They weren't too agressive, just picking up the jig and dropping it pretty quickly. It seemed like more fish were caught on rainbows, but more fish hit shiners. The rainbows were smaller allowing the fish to eat it easier. I switched to a Lindy rig on Saturday evening and the fish would inhale the shiners. We missed a lot of fish on jigs. We were drifting from 6-9 feet of water around Stony Point area and it looked like we were catching most of the fish. There were a lot of boats in that area Saturday morning into the afternoon, but the evening there weren't nearly as many. We did see a few big fish caught and fish also caught out deeper (10-14). Might go back up this weekend, but will be back up again next week for the whole summer.

[solbes]

Glad to hear the fishing is good. I'd like to head over there for a day in two weeks.

[BJP]

Our group also had a good opener on Leech. Most fish were caught in 5-10 ft on jigs and shiners. We did have some luck on Lindy's/leeches too. We fished Pine Pt Saturday with biggest being 26.5 and Stony on Sunday with the biggest being 28. Plenty of eaters and a few short fish were caught too. Looking forward to my next trip up there.

[onlydrakes4me]

wow sounds like a few of you did pretty good this weekend. I'll be heading up to leech th 28-31. can't wait. this will be the 3rd year in a row that Ive fished leech. used to fish it all the time in the mid to late 90's but quite going when fishing slowed down. Its nice to know that the lake is making a comback as far as walleye production goes.

[thesecret]

when we were fishing on opener mornin it felt like we were on LOTW. When ever you wanted to see a fish being caught all you had to do was look around. I truely is back on the top 10 list.

[leechlakepro]

Anyone fishing the tournament on the 30th and 31st? My partner and I just barely got in. We were number 125. It should be fun and there should be a lot of fish caught.

[leechlakepro]

Rain in the forecast for the next few days. I have had really good luck out in the rain and wind. For some reason the walleyes just love those conditions. It does suck getting wet and cold, but it always is well worth it!

[LakeDocktor]

leechlakepro, we are #51! I agree, it should be a lot of fun. I think everyone is going to come in with fish. It is going to be how big is your fish over 26" each day to determine the winner.

[shooter_mcgavin]

Sunday was very slow for us. The boats around us were having similar luck. Sounds like Saturday was the day to be on Leech.

[tweedlap]

Today was tough fishing, for us, up in Portage Bay.

Tomorrow will be better. It would help if the water would warm up just a little.

tweed

[leechlakepro]

It is going to be interesting. You get 2 fish over 26 inches for the tournament so I am almost certain that you will have to get 2 fish each day over 26 to be in the top 10. Then it is who has the bigger of the fish over 26. The 17-18 inchers shouldn't be a problem for anyone.

[LakeDocktor]

It is going to be interesting. You get 2 fish over 26 inches for the tournament so I am almost certain that you will have to get 2 fish each day over 26 to be in the top 10. Then it is who has the bigger of the fish over 26. The 17-18 inchers shouldn't be a problem for anyone.

I am a little confused by the wording in the rules. It is my assumption that each team can weigh 5 fish per day with one fish being over 26 and a total of 2 fish over 26 for both days. Is that how you interpret the rules? I guess I could call Jim or just wait for the rules meeting. Maybe Swanbait can chime in on this.

[leechlakepro]

I went on the tournament website and the way it reads is that you get 2 fish over 26 inches per day(one per contestant). So you are going to have to catch 2 over 26 each day to have a chance.

[LakeDocktor]

Thanks leechlakepro. The old rules on the old website said something along those same lines, but it said 2 fish over 26(one per team). I was a little confused by this, but it looks like they clarified it.