Wired2Fish October 3, 2024 "Bringing Back the Spinnerbait for Fall Bass"

"The spinnerbait is a lure that many bass anglers first began throwing at a young age as it is versatile, easy to cast, snag-resistant and most importantly, it catches bass.
Some anglers leave the spinnerbait by the wayside as they progress along their fishing journey. But others (Jason Christie, cough, cough) understand its incredible potential and have embraced the spinnerbait.

These anglers realize that each spinnerbait is different, and identifying the strengths of each can help you catch more fish. There are numerous ways a spinnerbait can be customized to the conditions an angler is presented with on the water. Breaking the design elements can help understand what makes each work in a given situation ..." Learn More >> Bringing Back the Spinnerbait for Fall Bass

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October 2, 2024 "Falling Into Fall, Happily!"

Fall fell over north central Minnesota overnight Monday, and into Tuesday. Air temperatures were chilly, dropping into the mid-40s, but still not cold enough to produce our first frost. The northwest wind rolled the surface water into whitecaps, forcing water temperatures downward. On the lake we fished, 63 degrees was the day-long reading on my screen. The day before that, on Lake Winnibigoshish, 66 to 67 degrees was still the dominant temperature reading. I imagine that there too, surface readings were likely decreased.

For me, fishing with first time customers Tom and Justin Hirt, the day, chilly conditions included, was a gift. “We do well fishing for panfish, but we’re not really walleye fishermen. Tom said. “We love eating fish, but we’re not just in this for limits of walleyes, we’re here to learn how to fish for, and hopefully, catch some walleyes,” he added.

Now if you’re Jeff Sundin, these words are like handing the gate keeper your key that unlocks the door to the magic kingdom. It’s exactly the sort of fishing charter that I love doing, fishing with folks, inexperienced or not, who are on a mission to move higher on the learning curve.

When we motored out onto the lake, the air was chilly. For the first time this season, my fingers tingled, my hood was pulled up tight over my head and I wished I had a heavier coat to wear. So, we didn’t travel far to make our first stop. A small, free standing weed and gravel bar that tops out at about 8 feet deep. I handed the crew jigging rods rigged with 1/8 live bait jigs and offered advice about my favorite way to put minnows on their hooks. We tossed our lures into the water, and I started on our first drift along the breakline.

Ironically, we started getting bites right away, but the fish acted like they were chilly too. My first 3 or 4 attempts to demonstrate how to set the hook all ended badly, not a single fish stayed on the hook long enough for us to see what they were. My crew was chuckling, I imagine they were thinking to themselves, “if the big-time pro is having trouble catching them, we won’t look too bad.” They were right about that, their techniques didn’t look bad at all, I saw lots of potential. Now I just needed to find some “catch-able” fish to practice on.

The rest of the day would remind you of following your mail carrier on a workday. Go to a stop, get a strike or 2, catch a fish or 2, check the box, and then move to the next spot. Each step along the way, the boys picked up a little new information, and I could see that the process was becoming less mysterious to them. By the end of the day, I had a blast watching them fish for, and catch walleyes, ON PURPOSE.

The fish on that lake, like the ones on many lakes I’ve fished this season were scattered, and the habitats were varied. We caught a few fish on weed edges, some on rocky bars, a couple came from steep breaklines and a couple were hiding on flats. The water depths varied too, but if there was a “best” depth, I guess it was about 13 feet. Fishing at that depth kept us within casting range of the weed edges, and close to rocks at the edges of breakline areas.

The finicky nature of the strikes was an ongoing problem. There was only one spot where the fish acted like they were hungry. Every other spot featured picky, half-hearted strikes and lots of times it was harder than usual to tell what kind of fish was hitting. In a way, this was a good problem for us because it illustrated the importance of being patient when preparing for the hookset. Once my crew learned how to catch fish under these circumstances, they will have an easy time catching fish when there’s an average bite going on.

My only regret is that we only had one day to work with, and that I couldn’t have more time to share tips about other presentations and fishing styles. Maybe one day, they’ll give me another chance to do that. In the meantime, I’ll just be happy for the day, it was gratifying to see how far they came in such a short time.

The day before, Monday, I fished on Lake Winnie and it may turn out to be the last summer-like day of the season. It began with a warm southeast wind and ended with a wild and wooly west wind as the cold front began bearing down on the lake. For most of the morning, the southeast winds allowed us to fish effectively. But once that west wind started, life became complicated, finding fish-able water was difficult. For that reason, I’m not sure that the fishing report will remain accurate very long so take it with a grain of salt.

Surface temperatures on Monday morning ranged between 66 and 67 degrees. Water clarity was still low, the Secchi disk reading was 7 feet, the same as it was last week.

Trolling spinners tipped with minnows on the weed flats at Little Stony provided decent, but not fast action for us. The key depths were 8 to 10 feet of water, over the tops of low lying weeds. I’d say we got a strike every 5 minutes or so, sometimes they resulted in a keeper walleye, sometimes keeper perch, and occasionally keeper pike. LOTS of times, the strikes resulted in catching small, 6- to 8-inch-long perch; I’m sorry but if you want to catch the “good ones”, you’ll have to put up with the tiny ones too.

You’ll also have to “put up with” catching walleyes in the protected slot; many of them, just barely over the 18-inch threshold. I’d say that 1/3 of the total are fish over 18 inches, 1/3 of them are yearling walleyes, about 10 inches long, and the remaining 1/3 of them are “keepers”. Our total harvest that day was 10 walleye, 13 perch and 4 pike; not bad for a 2 person crew.

While we were trolling spinners, Reed Ylitalo was on the lake too and his crew were fishing with jigs and minnows. The area they were fishing on the shoreline break further down the west shoreline, and it was productive too. We texted occasionally and I got the impression that they were catching more perch, more pike, and more slot-fish than we were. I’m not sure how their total catch turned out, but I’m sure it was pretty good as well.

Getting an accurate post cold front report from Lake Winnie will take me a couple of days. I had a health-related cancellation for today and tomorrow and have chosen to use this time for taking care of my own concerns. My work schedule is not over yet, and I’ll be back on the water for another dozen charters, beginning this Friday. So, I’ll let you what’s happening out there as soon as I can. — Jeff Sundin, The Early Bird Fishing Guide Office Cell Call or Text 218-245-9858 or Email

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Ely Area, Arrowhead Outdoors Fishing Report October 2, 2024

"Walleye - Some good news on the walleye front has been coming in this last week. Walleyes are starting to hit big minnows and slowly transitioning to traditional fall locations like sharp breaks and deeper water. These walleyes have been hitting large minnows fished on a jig or lindy rig in 15 to 20 feet of water. That being said, reports continue to come in of nice walleyes being caught over shallow rocks, 5 to 10 feet of water, with paddle tails and scattered walleyes being caught trolling crankbaits over 25 to 30 foot deep flats.

Smallmouth - Smallmouth bite remained on fire this last week. Water temps still have the smallies scattered for the most part, but pockets of fat, aggressive smallies are starting to group up on sunken islands. Shallow sunken islands that top out in 12 to 15 feet have been the best ones to find groups of active smallies. Large minnows and large paddle tails slow rolled over these humps have been deadly

Panfish - Anglers have been reporting that some good crappie bites have been happening in many Ely area lakes. Crappies are slowly starting to school up. Anglers are still finding crappies in and around weedbeds on area lakes. Anglers should not overlook trees laying in the water and standing timber in some area lakes. Jig/twister, beetle spins and crappie minnows fished under a bobber.

Pike - Pike fishing has remained on the slow side this last week, but that doesn't mean trophy pike were not caught this last week. Pike anglers have been focusing on mouths of shallow bays, rocky points and river mouths to find big pike. Large suckers fished under a bobber accounted for the majority of 40 plus inch pike caught this last week. Large spoons, spinnerbaits and crankbaits were also effective.

Stream Trout - Rainbow trout remain a popular trout to target for trout anglers. Night crawlers fished 5 to 10 feet deep under a bobber remain very effective. Small spoons, spinners and jig/twisters have also been effective on rainbows. Anglers fishing from a boat have been having good luck trolling small crankbaits over deep water and along standing timber.

Lake Trout - Season is closed inside and outside the BWCA." — Arrowhead Outdoors, 218-365-5358

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Lake of the Woods, LOW Tourism October 1, 2024

"Walleye and sauger fishing is very good on the south end of Lake of the Woods. Routine reports of anglers catching good numbers of fish are common. So, if you want to catch some numbers, the bite is on. Anglers are finding fish ranging from 24 to 31 feet deep across the south shore of Lake of the Woods. Some really nice perch and an occasional pike are being caught mixed in with the walleyes and saugers.

Best areas to fish range from right in front of the Lighthouse Gap (where the Rainy River enters Lake of the Woods) and westward to spots near the Morris Point area, Zippel Bay area, and all the way over to Long Point, these areas of the lake are all producing fish right now. There aren't fish everywhere but there are various schools spread out across the entire south shore of the basin.

Jigging with frozen, or live emerald shiners is the ticket. Locate fish on your sonar, anchor up and give it 30 minutes. If not to your liking, relocate different fish and repeat. Normally things will work out nicely over the course of the day. Successful jig colors in the stained waters of LOW are gold, glow white, glow red, chartreuse, orange, and pink. Gold combined with any one of these colors is often a good choice. Drifting spinners with night crawlers or trolling crankbaits is still working for anglers as well.

For the anglers targeting smallmouth bass, there is a good bite on both the lake and Rainy River. The river also continues to produce some nice walleyes. There are some schools of shiners moning up and down the river and consequently, some nice walleyes in the river too. Nobody is reporting that the heavy run has begun yet, but the bite is respectable for sure. The river, being relatively small, provides a great option for anglers with small boats. With a variety of boat ramps from the mouth of the river all the way to up the river to Birchdale, there are many options to choose from.

Sturgeon fishing continues to pick up as water temps cool. The sturgeon is catch and release from October 1, 2024 into the month of April, 2025 when you can keep one again.

Up at the Northwest Angle, walleye fishing remains strong on both sides of the border. Walleyes are using a variety of areas from mud flats to various areas with structure and neck down areas with some current.

It's fall, which means a mixed bag of fish is common in these parts. Walleyes, saugers, jumbo perch, crappies, pike, smallmouth bass and muskies are all being caught. As water temps cool and the days get shorter, the bite will get even better!" — Lake of the Woods Tourism, (800) 382-FISH

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Wired2Fish September 20, 2024 "How to Identify Size and Species of Fish on FFS"

"Though I have been using it longer, I’ve become completely infatuated with forward-facing sonar over the last year and a half. My love for this new technology started during my senior year of college, and since then I’ve dedicated countless days to learning and understanding everything these units can tell you. This has been no easy task, however I’ve slowly started to piece together all the little intricacies associated with forward-facing sonar.

Throughout this journey I’ve learned a few different ways to identify the size and species of fish displayed by forward-facing sonar. This includes paying attention to the sonar return, as well as the fish’s behavior and positioning. These three things can tell you a lot about what’s happening underneath the water, however it still requires an ample amount of fishing time to become proficient with this technology.

One of the first things I figured out while using forward-facing sonar is ..." Learn More >> How to Identify Size and Species of Fish on FFS

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You Are Invited To Become A Duly Deputized Fishrapper Cub Reporter

If you've been waiting for a gold engraved invitation to participate in the daily reports, then stop waiting and consider this your own personal invitation.

Helping your fellow fishermen and women stay abreast of fishing conditions in your area is good for everybody and it's easier than you think! You don't have to write a book, you don't have to share your secret fishing spots and you don't even have to mention your lake. But even a few words about general trends, seasonal patterns and local weather conditions can really help.

Be like me, become a duly deputized "Cub Reporter", it's good for fishing! Contact Us or if you prefer to be "social", Fishing Reports Minnesota, the Facebook counterpart to this page is open to the public, so you can post your own fishing update or just share a photo of a nice catch.

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