Leech Lake - 1st Week of July - Help?

[Skis]

Good Morning:

My wife's family takes an annual vacation up to Park Rapids the first week of July every year. The last couple of years, I have gone with my father-in-law and brother-in-law up to Leech for one day to try and catch some walleye.

Since we do not know the lake much, we have not done much searching for fishing spots. The last 2 years, we have put in @ the City Park, and motored through a couple of the canals, fishing the Stony Point area of the lake.

We have caught a few fish both trips, but not a lot. My father-in-law was fortunate enough to catch a 27-incher last summer on Leech, so that made our trip memorable

I'd appreciate any assistance anyone could provide with some locations on the lake that could equate to more walleyes caught during the 1st week of July. I want to take my 11-year old and 7-year old son to Leech this summer!!

Thanks!!

[fishgutz77]

there is another acesses up on 371 that will get you to the sand flats on the south side of sand point.

If you want to have a great time troll at night with #5 shad raps in 8-12 fow fishing leech will never be the same after that for you.

Get a good lake map and troll the hardwoods points at night or rig the goose island area or pine point with leeches or shiners.

Take some time to fish at night on other lakes before you get up on the big water you will have more confidence and have better sucsess due to less equipment problems. get good head lamps and hang on. Minnow raps work awesome as well. good luck

[Skis]

Going to bump this TTT. I'm looking for some help during light conditions. Just don't think I want to hit that body of water in the dark

Thanks!!

[lawman]

Sounds like you drove right thru Agency Bay w/o stopping. That bay has more structure than most Minnesota Lakes. Agency Narrows is productive if there isn't too much boat traffic. I'm not much for night fishing but these areas are very good late in the day.

[leechlake]

a good starting point would be to put in at Erickson's Landing, which is about 3 miles north of Walker on 371. It is on the East side of the road right by Kabekona Bay.

go North through "the narrows" and you have a lot of area to fish. If you drew lines from Pine Point to Ottertail Point to Big Hardwoods and back to "the Narrows" you have a full day of fishing.

Hopefully you pick a day with 10-15 mph of wind and the wind has been pretty consistant direction wise for 2-3 days before you go. If you can watch the weather and plan accordingly, you may get lucky.

I'd be using crawlers or leeches on a red hook set up. I'd probably start fishing the flats around Goose Island, there is always a spot on the flats that sets up for any wind. The other thing is you have to fish the shoreline areas that the wind is blowing into.

The majority of the big lake is pretty shallow so you need the wind to break up the light for the fish to bite during the day, usually.

That time of the year you may also pick putting in at a spot where you can fish the Pelican Island area. Mokey reef and The Annex produced for us during July/August last year when we couldn't produce anything around the West end of the Big Lake. It's rocky in many of those areas and in those parts of the lake. If the fish are on the reef structure I like that type of fishing rather than drifting long stretches of what seems like non descript parts of the lake picking up a fish here and there. You may find the fish and keep trolling or drifting over a small spot on some of the reefs.

[Skis]

Thanks for the reply. I have heard a little bit about Goose Island before. Sounds like an area I should look at!!

[MontanaMax]

Forget the walleye, at least for one day. Take a handful of bass spinners, white and black skirts, single and double blades, steel leaders, and head for any part of the lake with reeds and cabbage. Fish the white in all depths and the black in 5 feet and under. Let the wind drift you through the reeds and around the cabbage. Cast the edges and be sure to let the spinner stop dead and fall during the retrieve, and pay attention ALL THE WAY TO THE BOAT. Most strikes are at the beginning or end of the retrieve. Each guy in the boat should get 5 or so northern strikes/hour, if you have any chop on the water at all, (and an occassional bucket mouth). F&G can't put 20 million walleye fry/year in a lake to help the walleye population without causing the predator populations to swell as well.

[thatoneguy]

Forget the walleye, at least for one day. Take a handful of bass spinners, white and black skirts, single and double blades, steel leaders, and head for any part of the lake with reeds and cabbage. Fish the white in all depths and the black in 5 feet and under. Let the wind drift you through the reeds and around the cabbage. Cast the edges and be sure to let the spinner stop dead and fall during the retrieve, and pay attention ALL THE WAY TO THE BOAT. Most strikes are at the beginning or end of the retrieve. Each guy in the boat should get 5 or so northern strikes/hour, if you have any chop on the water at all, (and an occassional bucket mouth). F&G can't put 20 million walleye fry/year in a lake to help the walleye population without causing the predator populations to swell as well.

I'll second that, except you don't need to forget about walleye for a whole day to sample some of the other fish. Hit the walleyes in the early AM, then you can switch to pike, perch or pannies during the "non-peak" walleye hours, throw for bass in the late afternoon, and go back to walleyes for the evening/night bite. The beauty of the west side of Leech is that you can do all those things without wasting a ton of time motoring around.

[Rodbldr4fun]

I come from Detroit Lakes and use the Erickson landing. Another one is at the end of Stony Pt. But the parking is quite limited, especially that time of the year. Unfortunately the Forest Service campground makes the campers park their trailers in the boat launch lot and not in their individual campsite. Not sure why they would have such a policy. It certainly limits the number of local day users from the location.