Basswood Report

[Down Deep]

Spent the weekend on the Pipestone/Jackfish side of Basswood. Friday and 1/2 of Saturday was pretty good weather. After that it was pretty much a wash out, but we kept fishing anyway. The smallie bite was awsome. They are up shallow and were easily taken on pop-r's, spooks and floating raps. I love the top water action. We also had lots of pike, some to 15 lbs. I had one supersized pike on for awhile before he got tired of messing with me, did the old rollover and departed with one of my new raps.

Walleyes were somewhat tough to come by, but we caught several nice 16 to 17 inchers on the cranks while we were fishing for smallies. Jigs and minnows or leeches produced W's, but they were running on the small side.

I'm getting tired of this rain.....three weekends in a row. Thank god for Guidewear. I'm leaving for Canada on Saturday and I hope the rain is out of here by then.

[CC Hurl]

Thanks for the report. I should be at inlet bay by 7:00 am on thursday morning. Have not been up there in about three years. We ussually go for the lake trout.

I want to try for some walleye and smallies this time. Can you give me any more addvice on what to use for these fish.

What colors and what time of day is best?

Thanks for any help and i also hope the rain clears out this week.

CC HURL

[portageman]

I am heading up to Basswood on Sat, but will be mostly nearWind bay, Wash Island, and U.S. point. any reports?

[Down Deep]

For the smallies I was using a red and gold floating 5 inch minnow rap with a shallow lip, a green and yellow spotted 5 inch Spook and a red with yellow spot medium sized Pop R. Just pitch the lure about 3 to 4 feet from the shoreline. After it lands let the ripples clear and slowly twitch it back a couple of feet at a time allowing the lure to rest. Usually when you you get 20 feet away from the shoreline you can quicken the retrive. If you are fishing a shallow area the surrounds your boat use the slow retrieve all the way back.

One of my other buddies was using a yellow and white 6 inch Bomber and was doing well just cranking it slowly back to the boat.

Top water buzz baits did not work at all.

Pick you a main channel island or a big bay with rip rap (lots of small rocks & Basswood is the premier rip rap lake) and keep going until you find the fish. All our smallie action was between 11:00 AM and 6:00 PM. We jigged for walleyes during the other times.

[Walleye #1]

Down Deep-

I am heading up on Saturday for a week. I wouldn't mind talking with you a bit more in depth. Send me an email..I am pretty familiar with the lake and maybe we can help each other out a little bit.

Walleye #1

[email protected]

[WollMan]

just bumping this. Any reports as of late? I am going in next weekend, 24th-26th at the fall lake landing and into pipestone bay. i am sure the eye's are deep right now but has anyone been there lately and have any news for me. thank you

[smallmouthguide]

Time is moving much faster than I am these days and it's already August. This means it's report time for "Lee's Boundary Waters adventures" 2007 wrap up. As usual we stayed at La Tourell's Resort on the edge of the BWCA and portaged into Basswood Lake daily with me taking 6 days off over a 3 week period.

Generally the first week upon arrival is the slowest fishing of the 3 weeks due to first or secondary mayfly hatches, but not this year. The fishing was outstanding as soon as I wet my line right from the get go. The water temp was 63 degrees and the big eyes and smallmouth were in the mood to chow.

Most days I fished by myself since my bride can't handle the hot sun. Therefore I wasn't able to take photos of the fish on those days, but still managed some great shots so you can appreciate the quality of this fishery. In the first week the water temps went up 10.5 degrees and the biggest eyes had begun their seasonal movement to the tops of the reefs.

During the second week the winds began to switch to the north bringing in heavy rains and a cold front with a loss of 10 degrees in water temps. This quickly scattered the fish and northwest winds refused to give in for about a week. Most of the larger fish were suspended and off the feed bag. This was quite frustrating since I could mark them suspended daily. We still managed some dandies from the ones we pick off hugging the bottom.

I ran into Dr. Bob (Bob Dahl) from Gilbert and he was camping on Basswood for 4 or 5 days with his family and pets. Bob let me hijack his son Jake for a few hours of fishing in my boat and it reminded me of fishing with my boys at his age (thanks for the loan Bob!). Jake managed to pick off 2 nice eyes and fat smallie during our brief introduction.

Our 3rd week the winds were near nonexistent and temps were on the rise with clear skies. The wife and I each managed a 9 lb walleye and my best smallie was 5 lb 11 oz with her beating me out with a 5 lb 13 oz.

The last week we were there I contacted Dr Bob and offered a last minute chance to fish together. Bob quickly threw some junk in the trunk and broke the MN. land speed record to arrive on time. We had a blast fishing together and Bob went home with with some nice walleye meals for the family.

*All of the lunker size fish were photo and release as usual. Many of my awesome fish were caught when alone so I couldn't get photos of them. Most of my fishing was done back trolling in waters averaging from 16 to 43 ft. Lindy rigs with 6 # test line and & # 8 hooks accounted for most of the trophy size fish. 22 inch smallies & walleyes up to 29.5 inches.

Basswood is an outstanding body of water, but the fishing slows down rapidly as the sun creeps up toward the noon position. That's generally the best time for a lunch break, site seeing, or a nice swim. Depending on the wind and cloud cover you can experience exceptions to this pattern. Late afternoon fishing usually begins to pick up as the evening approaches.

I'm looking forward to next years trip with hopefully some cooler weather. My wife Kathy managed some dandy fish on the days she fished with me and were both looking forward to next year.

God Bless The Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

I have lots of photos but don't know how to post them.If Frank or someone would post a few I'll send um to you.

SMG

[Surface Tension]

Thanks Lee, I enjoy reading about your annual trips to Basswood and love the Pictures

[smallmouthguide]

Frank,

Thanks for going out of your way to post my Basswood page. I sure do miss that place already and it's only been a few weeks. When My wife retires we hope to spend more time up there.

Tight lines,

Lee

[Surface Tension]

Your most welcome. Boy that Jake is getting big!

[WhiteSoxFan]

Hi Lee,

As mentioned before, we too enjoy the annual report and pictures from your trip. My son and I were also up at LaTourell's during your last week (he gave you the dozen worms before we left mid-week).

I'm getting closer to our annual Sept trip to Basswood/LaTourell's (8th-15th) and was wondering if you've been up there during this time of the year and if you have any recommendations on presentations or spots for walleye or pike?

Thanks again!

Tony

[WollMan]

going in on Friday morning to pipestone bay, any reports out there for SM, eye's, and pike?

Thanks.

[chaffmj]

Went to Basswood last Thursday thru Saturday by way of the Fall Lake portage. Did most of our fishing up by Basswood Falls and did real well on the smallies and decent on the walleyes with a few northerns thrown in. We fished jigs tipped with leeches and crawlers and bottom bouncers with spinners again tipped with leeches and crawlers. We found fish anywhere along the shorelines that had good drop offs and working around the reefs where there was a depth change of six feet or so. We also caught smallies with slip bobbers and leeches off the island we were camping on.The weather was great although there were some areas that were to windy to fish out of a canoe. The ankle biting flies weren't too bad and there were no mosquitoes. We had a couple of great fish fries and brought home some walleyes which we are eating for supper tonight.

[WollMan]

How deep were you fishing? Find any eye's shallow or were they still deep. Will not have any electronics so finding the humps will be difficult so will mostly fish shorelines.

[chaffmj]

Wollman, this won't help but we fished in all different depths. We caught walleyes in the reeds in 5 feet of water and some in 30 feet. The bigger fish were caught in the deeper water though. Good luck and post a report when you get back.

Mike

[smallmouthguide]

White Sox Fan,

First of all you need to stop off and get a Cubs hat to improve your fishing.

I've been up in June, July, August (4th) week and September (4th) week. Since your going up to Basswood mid Sept you may want to lean more towards minnows, suckers, and chubs. Crawlers should still work with a very slow presentation.

If your chasing pike I like to troll 3/4 oz tandem spinner baits with a trailer hook and 7 inch plastic worm. Troll devil spoons (by Daredevil) also work well. Make sure you vary your speeds and pump the rod often to trigger strikes.

Many times if your in 15 ft of water or less (in the bays) you can speed troll a blade bait in the prop wash (short line) over the tops of the weeds.

Speed trolling over the tops of the reefs also works well at times for pike. The big walleyes will be mostly suspended following the migrating ciscoes, but you can still run into one from time to time.

Good Luck and let us know how you did.

SMG

[Northlander]

Smallmouthguide isnt it illegal to use game fish as bait? I dont think you can use Perch for bait can you?

[Trout_Slayer_77]

Yes, I would have to agree with you. It is illegal to use perch or any gamefish for bait.

[smallmouthguide]

In Wisconsin it is legal to fish with perch as bait as long as it was caught on the same lake your fishing. It also has to be counted as part of your daily bag limit.

However, in MN. it is not legal and I stand corrected. I just got off the phone with the MN. DNR . Thanks for mentioning it guys since I wouldn't want to post incorrect info.

Just for the record I don't fish with perch while in MN. but always thought it was ok to do. Guess I learned something new. Thanks again for catching error.

SMG