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Anchoring, Drifting And Trolling.


Mark Stroeber

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My friends and I take a trip to Northern Minnesota every September. There are differing opinions and fishing styles. What are the opinions on here as when to anchor, when to drift and when to troll? The resort we go to doesn't have trolling motors on the boats, so when we troll, we troll at the lowest speed on the motor. So the bigger question then is anchoring or trolling. In the weeds, or along the edge of the weeds, shallower or deeper?

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Great question Mark, but there really is no right answer, you'll need to let the fish tell you each time out. I'd like to start by first saying, when and where, and trolling vs throwing the hook, comes down to fishing "edicit". Not always a perfect world, but try to avoid trolling through a group of boats anchored on a specific piece of structure, or achoring along a nice straight stretch of productive weed edge, that boats are trolling. Generally if your visiting a new lake, the boats out there are doing what they're doing for good reason. I don't want to make it sound like follow the leader, but if they are cating fish, don't over think it. Once you have established a pattern of what the fish want, strike out on your own to other likely areas on the lake, that have less fishing pressure.

Time of year, and what species I'm targeting, greatly effects how and where I decide to fish. Since you did mention September, I have to say that can sometimes be tough early in the month as far as location goes, since fish are transitioning to the cold wayer period. My next question to you would be, "what species are you after"?

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We fish for anything we can catch. Mostly go for Pike, Walleye, Bass, Blue Gill. Using mostly Daredevles, Johnson Silver Minnows, Mepps Spinners, Jigs and Jig Heads, hooks and worms. Sometimes differences arise in whether to stay shallow and in the weeds or go a little deeper. Differences arise in drifting and having the supposed fish finder showing fish all over a certain area, as to whether to keep drifting through, or drop anchor and stay in that area for a while................. I know the more time you spend on the water, the better your chances. Won't get into it, but that is a whole other situation. Usually there mid to late September. We are there for a week, and an average of 8 of us there. We will pull in 1 - 7 of anything on a pontoon carrying 5 of us, late in the morning and about the same late in the afternoon. That's not per person, that's the boatload.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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