South Shore fishing seems slower over the years

[eyechoholic]

Growing up heading out of zippel bay all you had to do was go to the twin trees or old gap and in between. Anywhere from 8' to 16' and have no problem getting fish. And the last 5 years of early ice fishing hasn't been as good. My parents are up there right now in there trailer at zippel and I checked out some reports to help them out but it's the same thing it's been for awhile head way the hell out to bridges, knight, garden. What happened to all the numbers closer to shore is it too much fishing pressure no bait would it help not to have such a long season catching big females in the river that are full of eggs. Just wondering what you think.

[curt quesnell]

We had 6 years of some of the best fishing ever from 2008 to 2014 and we all got pretty spoiled.  Fishing has changed the last couple of years but there are still plenty of fish to be had close by.  Get a couple different spots, try a different technique.  It seems that the bite late in the day is better than I remember( but I never fished late in the day). This is especially true in the Zippel Bay area.

Winter fishing has been tougher but in the summer it seems those Walleyes come back in the spring.

You dont have to run to Knight and Bridges or Garden but a trip to Long Point or Twin Islands might not be the worst way to spend the day.  Move around a little

[CHM]

I haven't fished LOW in years.  My wife and I are headed to Zipple Bay soon.  I'm not familiar with with the names of the spots on the lake.  We always went over by Pine Island.  We usually anchor and jig with a frozen shiner in 18 - 30'.  Where can I find a map that shows where " Knight, Bridges, Garden, Long Point" etc are?  Thanks

Hey CHM,  Every map has those spots on them.  You are on the best presentation I know of with jig and shiner anchored up.  Instead of going to the right out of Zippel Jetty go left and stop at the "field", out in front of Sandy Shores, Birch Beach, Long Point all the way to Twin Islands and concentrate on 30 feet of water.  There are small rock humps all the way along just fish near them you dont even have to be that close.  Week in and week out this is exactly what we do and I dont make the long runs very often

[srj]

As Curt said, those years of good to great south shore fishing spoiled us. It seems the last few years the early shoreline bite is short lived and unpredictable. It seems to get better as you go west. The last three summers or so, it's rare to see a pack of boats in the summer anchored out In the mud. We had four boats fishing from last Friday thru yesterday. As we head onto the lake thru the washout, we usually give it a try and then hit it again in the evening.  There were only a couple of fair to good bites in those four days. However, the fishing was very good up north. It seemed a lot of charters were running WAY up north, I use a lot more gas than I used to.

Baudette fisheries are unsure why the poorer bite has occurred the last few years. They are knowledgeable folks in that office and always willing to talk. The Large Lake Specialist assigned to Baudette is an interesting guy. Give him a holler to get the DNR take on things.

It seems like the lake is getting into summer quickly. There was an enormous fish fly hatch over the last couple days. Quite annoying yesterday when the wind was calm. Water temp is fairly high for May also.

Good luck

 

 

[fisherjmb]

There was a discussion about this same topic back in February. Here is the link:

There are 3 pages of posts. Several folks threw out some theories but it boiled down to no one really knows for sure why the bite on the south shore had declined over the last several years. Interesting read though. 

[slammer]

Lack of shiners might be part of it but you have to admit there is a lot more pressure in the winter on the south shore the last few years than there was 10 years ago.  Why is fishing better up by the islands?  More bait?  Less pressure?  Has it always been better up there?  I don't know,  i don't get up there that often.  Your getting more people from southern MN driving right past Mille Lacs to LOW.  Why do I say this?  The resort owner where I stay says there are way more Mpls. people booking in the last five years.  They also bring their wheelhouse now and stay for 2-5 days at a crack instead of a resort or a portable for a day or so.  Talked to a realtor last fall up there and he had the same story.  More land and cabins sold = more fishing pressure.  Thats my take on it.  I may be way off base but its what I see.