Big Sandy Fishing Report

[seifjr]

Spent the weekend on BSL at the in-laws place, and snuck out fishing each morning, and midday.  Rigged both leeches and crawlers on mid-lake reefs in 12-16' and caught many small fish 12.5-13.5".  We were able to get 2-3 keeper eyes and perch each time out, so we had a nice fish fry Sunday evening.  Just work the edges of those reefs and the fish are schooled up tight in the rock/gravel to sand transitions.  Fun lake to fish after spending most of my time on Mille Lac.  Biggest fish was 20", and the next biggest from there was a 16".  Not complaining here, but does anyone have a theory on why the walleyes in BSL seem to be stunted.  Each year it's the same story...multiple 12.5-13.5" fish all over the lake.  Fish seem thick and healthy, so it doesn't look like a lack of forage situation in the lake.  Perch everywhere, and the keepers we cleaned had small minnows in their stomach.  Good luck to those that are planning to venture out on BSL.

 

[birdguy]

It is a fun lake, but you have to work for the keeper eyes. When the slot was 13 inches we started catching many keepers in that range. When that happened I predicted they'd raise the slot to 14 - bingo! Slot raised. 14 inchers are becoming more common now so hopefully they won't raise the slot again for awhile? The mid lake reefs are fun to fish and there's a great variety of pockets and holes that the fish hide in, find one of those and you can have some great fishing. I'm hoping to get out there on a few more day trips this summer and couple of more come fall. Wish there were more grouse opportunities in the area as it would be a good combo trip and I may have to do some hunting trail research now that the bird numbers are on the up and up and see if I should try it?

[DLD24]

Fished Big Sandy from 8-2 today and got 10 eyes (no keepers) keeper crappie and perch.... Marked tons of fish, but it was tough to get them to go, Lindy rig with a half crawler was the best by far. I tried leeches,jigging rap, jig n plastic. Points and reefs were the spots, later in the day a lot of fish were off the edges of the reefs... Just one day this year I'd like a happy medium weather wise, either I'm in 4ft rollers or 90 degrees with zero wind haha.

[birdguy]

Friend and I hit Big Sandy today and fished from 7:00 - 12:00. Glass calm and hot out there. Caught around 20 walleyes, some on the main basin structure, but did better fishing the drop offs around the islands. Came home with six in the slot, biggest was 16 inches. All were caught on Lindy rigs and leeches. Wanted to go for two limits but the heat and lack of wind was too much to bear by noon. I was dipping my hat in the water to stay cool, good outing though.