Early October with late October wind and cold...

[curt quesnell]

Another weekend gobbled up by wind and cold. Nice weather and better conditions are still ahead. Don't get discouraged.

[MrGolfwrench]

Welcome to October. I hope it settles down by the 15th.

Did the lake get all stirred up like chocolate milk?

[Roger bostic bay]

It sure did all the way out to about 28 ft looks just like a glass of chocolate milk and still blowing this morning.

[curt quesnell]

Thanks Roger, it is supposed to settle down by midweek so by the weekend conditions will be much improved.

[slammer]

Looks like winds will shift around from the south for the weekend. Temps look to be in the 50s. Will this crazy wind affect the bite even if it settles down by the weekend? Water temps must be getting down into the low 50s or even lower? If you had to pick a presentation this weekend, what would it be - jig & minnow, spinner/crawler or cranks?

[curt quesnell]

Anchor, jig and frozen shiner. Picking a depth will be the interesting part. I think most depths will produce but some will give you real fast action...but which ones?

[deehawk]

We fished out of Zippel Bay on Sept. 27th in 21' of water. Anchored up and jigged frozen shiners. Fishing was great. That's where I'm going to start this Saturday.

Brian

[CANOPY SAM]

Doggone wind is still howling up here again today!!!! Grrrrrrr... These high winds (for what? 5 days in a row now?) along with cold temps have got to be dropping the lake and river water temps FAST.

I'd heard the bite off of Zipple was dynamite, but also heard that the great majority of fish were 10-12 inches long. Not so sure I wanna feed $5.00 bags of shiners to schools of dinky fish?

Curt, is it time to toodle around until we find schools of baitfish, then drop jigs into, and below the cloud?

Anyone have anything to report as far as the river bite, bait balls moving up river, water clarity, fighting leaves on lines/baits (debris), water temps????

Always gotta try crankbaits in the river at this time of year, even if the jig bite is good.

[lakowoods]

Reports from this morning and right now fishing in about 18ft of water from public access at wheelers point all the way to town, 3/8th oz jigs with shiners. catching lots of fish, all sizes. Steve@logcabinbait

[deehawk]

Canopy Sam, we did catch a bunch of 10"-12" fish. That said, with-in a 90 minute time frame we caught a 31", 29", 26" and could have limited out on 18"-19" walleyes. It was a beautiful fall day so we decided to only keep 15"-16" fish. We finished with a limit of 15"-16" eyes and 4 14"-15" saugers. We went through 2 bags of shiners. I have no problem spending $5 a bag for that "kind of" fishing. Enjoy your "toodling" around looking for the clouds!

Seriously though, good luck this weekend. No better place to be that LOTW! Sounds like the winds will cooperate.

Brian

[CANOPY SAM]

  deehawk said:

Enjoy your "toodling" around looking for the clouds!

Laugh out Loud! You got me there. That did sound kinda dumb, didn't it?

Sounds like you did really well! Gotta wonder how badly stirred up the south shore is going to be now.

Thanks for the report on the river. That's great news!

[slammer]

Would that stirred up water move the fish closer to the river or out deeper? Or have no effect?

[curt quesnell]

We used to cruise around looking for the clouds of baitfish years ago and that is the proper thing to do. We have a few spots we can usually fish and we will see the baitfish on the way to these spots. So I guess it is the same thing.

[CANOPY SAM]

slammer, I can't honestly say if the cloudy water will move the fish one direction or the other. One of the resort owners chimed in here earlier and reported that the water is cloudy all the way out to pretty deep water. Something like 23-28 ft right now.

For those that don't understand, we've had daily strong winds out of the north/northwest/west for the last 5 days in a row. Just an estimate, but I'd guess we saw sustained winds around 20+ mph, with gusty winds up to 40+ mph. This has caused the south, and southeastern shore of the lake to get REALLY stirred up and cloudy. Given time it will clear up, but this was a real doozy, and it's going to take time.

slammer, the real key to getting on fish now will be to find clear water, and stay in it to find the bite. In previous years when this has happened I've fished the clear water coming out of the river (at either of the gaps) and had very good fishing. If you drift into the cloudy water you'll more then likely see your fishing shut off.

The fish are now staging up outside the Gaps in preparation for running up the river with the shiners. Sounds like good numbers of fish are now moving up the river as well! Just stay in the clear water, or in the river, and you'll find some fish.

I'm heading up Friday morning, and will fish thru Saturday. Will post reports when I get back home.

[wookie24]

Curt, have you heard anything from the Long Point/Twin Islands area, gonna head up there this weekend and would like to avoid some of the crowd that will be further east. Will post reports when I get back, good luck to those heading out there

[slammer]

Thanks Canopy, Planning on coming up for the weekend. Haven't been up since August so was wondering how things are. I like pulling cranks so might start with that and see what happens. Are the bait shops stocked with shiners? Any luck with other minnows when jigging?

[curt quesnell]

Wookie,

This is a peak time for Twin Islands. It will be great and there will be no crowds.

[deehawk]

I won't get there until Saturday. I'm going to put in at Zippel and work my way west if I have to move around. Nothing but jigging for me. I'll post a report Sunday night.

[wookie24]

That's what I figured, thanks Curt. Going to have the Mrs with so I'm praying for that south wind and a little sun, if not the buddy heater will be coming out

[MrGolfwrench]

Will be heading up on the 15th and would be interested in what people find out this weekend.

We had a similar challenge with cloudy (chocolate) water a few years back and we found the same as Canopy stated. Find clear water you find fish. Find cloudy water and you were wasting your time.

We ended up going deep and found lots of fish:^)

Thanks to all of you that post here!!!!

[fisherjmb]

Has anyone heard if the water along the south shore has cleared up any? Someone reported on Monday that the water out to 28 ft. was like chocolate milk. Anyone know first hand if it's cleared up at all? We are coming up tonight to fish this weekend and was hoping to get out around the Long Point area but if the water is dirty we would head to the river.

I hope it's not a repeat of 2 years ago when the water was dirty the entire month of October and into November. Fishing on the lake was slow that fall. If I remember correctly that year there was a lot of wind but also a real quick cool down in early October and I think that played a part in the dirty water as well. Maybe algae breaking down very quickly because of the rapid drop in water temps? That seems be happening again this year.

[Walleyehooker]

Ive got reservations for next weekend for one last shot before I winterize the boat.

[fiskyknut]

Clarity on the westside was pretty good this afternoon {fri}. Bite was pretty darn good too.

Algae die off kinda thick at surface but turbidity no problem.

fiskyknut

[fisherjmb]

Well, we fished near the lighthouse gap on Friday. Fishing was pretty slow. The clarity in the lake was really poor. You could only see maybe 6 inches. Fished in the gap the rest of the day, fishing was pretty slow only kept 7 for three guys. Saturday went over to long point, fishing was much better water clarity was better as well, you could see down maybe a foot to 18 inches. We finished out our limit and got several slot fish and threw back many that were too small. Wished we would've fished at Long Point on Friday as well.

[MrGolfwrench]

Anyone else have any luck? Heading up there on Wednesday and would like some ideas if you are willing to share:^)

[wookie24]

Friends fished Gull Rock Reef on Friday and did really well, tried there on saturday but too rough for the girls in the boat, fished it for about 30 minutes with nothing. Then went over to long point to hide from the wind and got our 2 limits on saturday. Fished a few hours out of warroad on sunday, ended up getting our other 2 limits. Lot of small fish, fishing wasn't amazing, but not bad either

[curt quesnell]

Seemed like it got going on Saturday around 11am. It was real slow before then and water looked awful. Suddenly, there were fish biting. We were in a new spot but boats fishing in other spots reported much the same. The day turned out to be a very nice one on the lake.

[fiskyknut]

Where is Canopy Sam and his report ?? Did you not get out ??

[Walleyehooker]

Canceled my trip for Friday and Saturday. Looks like a cold front is moving in and calling for NNW winds on Friday at 20 MPH. Can handle the cold but there wont be any boats on the lake with that wind and not even sure I would even want to be on the river either. Looks like the boat will be getting winterized instead.

[Roger bostic bay]

The water is slowly clearing up. the bite in the morris gap has been good just have to pick through a lot of saugers.. Good luck everyone.