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Northlong Lake Report


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Ended up with 3 walleyes tonight. All caught trolling raps 11-18 fow with 14 ft. being the target area. 2 right before dark & my wife ended up with a nice 21" eye after dark.

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Nice to hear. You fishing main lake or Merrifield bay? Any Slimers mixed in? I was out there yesterday for about an hour, just doing the maiden voyage for my boat before bass opener and managed a couple Largies throwing for pike.

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Was out on the main lake for awhile but it was really windy so we went to merrifield bay & that is where the wife caught the 21". No pike this time but opener weekend that is all we caught trolling raps.

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Fished for League on Tues. No eyes for us but we did get our pike. Only 4 eyes were weighed for the 10 boats. All those fish were Main lake fish. Biggest was 21" got in 7' on a sand/weed transition.

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All, Being a new resident on North Long Lake. I would like to know if any of you know the location's the clam beds on the lake. Keep hearing second hand information fish the clam beds. If you don't want to say the location on the forum. You can PM if you would like.

Thanks Walker

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  • 2 weeks later...

Any recent reports for NL? I was out monday night for a couple hours & caught 4 northerns & a bass in the weeds...12'-18'fow. No eyes. The weeds have shot up fast in the past week.

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I don't know about NLong but the other lake reports iv'e been hearing is deep!! 25'-30' on clear lakes

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My family has had a cabin on the 371 Bay for a few years now. I fish the lake as much as I can when we're up there. I've been able to catch a few walleyes from time to time, but I never seem to catch too many when I'm actively looking for them. I seem to catch more by accident while pan fishing the weeds. What are some of the tactics that you guys use while actively fishing for walleyes on this lake. Do you try to keep the boat right on the weed edge? How do you fish for them in the weeds without hooking the weeds the whole time? Do you mostly fish the main lake, or can you catch the walleyes in the bays as well? Any help is much appreciated.

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Rapalas,Rapalas, and Rapalas. I use the diving depths to my benefit. So if I am over 8'-10' weeds I run the shallow divers and so on as I run deeper with lead core this is fairly easy. The day time these fish are going to be deeper 70% of the time. As the evening wears on 7-9pm I have hammered them in 6'. I have had success using jigs and minnows during the day as well, but the day bite gets tougher with the water warming. That’s why I troll plugs and try to pick off the active biters to cover more ground. I spent most of my time on N. Long in Merrifield when I have the chance to be in Brainerd. Hope this helps a little. city

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Agree with City...most of the time we catch ours trolling raps in 8'-15'fow along the weed lines & shorelines. I like the SR-5 & SR-7 rapalas in the perch, silver or firetiger colors. Sometimes vertical jig with shiners also on drop offs. Have had success in the bays & main lake...depends on the wind & direction for me most of the time.

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Thanks for the info fellas. I think I'm going to have to give it a try on Friday and Saturday. What speed do you generally try to aim for?

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2mph with Raps and keep changing colors until you find what they want. I have had better luck changing colors than sizes.city

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I usually troll with my big motor in the lowest gear & it always shows me going 2.2-2.7 mph on my gps...I like to make small zig zags as this is supposed to change speeds of your lure. I also count to 15 sometimes 20 at a steady pace as I am letting my line out...was told once never to cast it out but to drop next to boat as you let line out.

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We gave trolling a try this weekend and had a really good time. We trolled the weed edge on the north shore of the main lake. We kept our speed at about 1.5 mph with the bow mount trolling motor. We never ended up catching any walleyes, but had a good time catching northerns, Largemouth, Rock bass, and Perch. The perch really hit the perch colored rapala, so I switched it up to a clown colored and they wouldn't touch it. I plan on trying it again next weekend in a few different spots with a few different baits.

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Any recent reports? I haven't been out much lately but my buddy is home from military for a couple weeks want to take him out sometime this week.

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Not to Hi-Jack your thread, but how is North Long for Bass? I am going to be heading up there next week and wondering if anyone has any advice for a North Long Rookie.

Thanks for the Help!

All-In

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N Long is a pretty good lake for bass. I usually end up with one or two not even targeting them in the weeds. My suggestion would be find the weeds that are coming out of water & fish along them. They used to have a pro bass tourney on N Long...not sure if they still do or not.

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Fished northlong last 2 nights with very little luck. Only 2 small eyes & a few bass. Alot of weeds floating in the water made if hard to troll.

There was a tournament out on northlong yesterday...it was very disappointing to see all the garbage people left behind on our beautiful lake. I scooped up 2 water balloons, a beer can & a plastic pop bottle floating in the lake & there was garbage left at the access.

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Fished 7/3 early evening to 11. Caught 3 15-18" eyes and a monster blue gill on a SR7.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got the boat back today so we headed to Northlong. Caught 4 eyes tonight with 13" the smallest, a 15", a 18" & 20" the biggest. Also caught a few bass & a nice northern 28". Was slow trolling lindy rig with leech earlier in the evening then we switched to trolling raps around dark. The bigger eyes were caught trolling raps in 15 fow - 20 fow.

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Jigging Rap bite is starting to get hot now 20+ feet #7 or #9 jigging rap. If you mark fish they will eat it

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Swampbuck- When you are using a jigging rap do you drift with your boat or are you trolling or anchored & vertical jigging it?

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Caught a couple nice eyes lastnight. Biggest was 24" threw back & a 19" & two 17" went in the live well. Also caught a bunch of bass & some crappies. We were trolling out deeper 25-27fow

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  • 2 weeks later...

Out yesterday, really tough, Hit all spots that I know and nothing. Did not use live bait. Will grab bait for next trip.

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Crazy WalleyeJeff...we were out there tuesday night also & did pretty good trolling raps. Ended up with 5 eyes & 2 nice crappies. The biggest eye was 21" & the one crappie was 15". Also caught some more bass. Late bite with the full moon.

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Both...depends on where the fish & weeds are.

well daaaaaaaaaaaaa

there are fish and weeds in both places....lol

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