Ely Area, Arrowhead Outdoors Fishing Report August 13, 2026

"Lake trout anglers reported having some success this last week trolling with either downriggers or dipsy divers in that 40 to 60 foot depth range. Anglers were mainly trolling with large spoons, over water depths ranging from 50 to 100 feet. Anglers fishing from a canoe were drifting over similar depths, but were more often than not vertically jigging bucktails or tubes.

Walleye - Trolling bite continues to grow in popularity for many anglers this last week, as walleyes remain scattered over deep flats.

Smaller crankbaits in that 2 to 2-1/2 ich size range have been the top producers, when fished in that 15 to 25 foot depth range. During that last hour of daylight anglers have been trolling about 10 to 15 feet down over 35 to 70 feet of water for trophy walleyes. These walleyes out over deep water looking for ciscos.

Trolling hasn't been the only way to catch walleyes. Early in the morning, anglers are having good luck fishing with leeches either in a spinner rig or a jig, in 15 to 25 feet of water. As the sun gets up it definitely seems crawlers start working better. Regardless of the bait, these anglers have been focusing on sunken islands, again in that 15 to 25 feet of water. Hot colors were firetiger, perch and gold.

Smallmouth Bass - Classic summer pattern continues on Ely area lakes. What this means for anglers is topwater early in the mornings, along shorelines in that 5 to 10 ft range. As the sun gets up spinners, chatterbaits, urchins, in-line spinners and crankbaits, fished a little deeper in that 10 to 15 foot depth range. Larger boulders you can find the better as bass love to hide between them.

Panfish - Crappie anglers continue to report that they are finding active crappies in and around cabbage beds. During the day the thicker the cabbage the better as crappies will set up on the shady side of the cabbage stand waiting for bait to come by. Anglers have been having great luck dropping jigs with twisters or hair jigs on the shady side. As the sun starts to go down, crappies will break away from the cabbage and actively start looking for food around weedbeds and weedlines. This is when baits like beetle spins, jig/twister and jig/paddle tail, fished 1 to 2 feet below the surface are really effective.

Stream Trout - Stream Trout anglers continue to report easy fishing for rainbows this last week. As with last week anglers had really good success trolling small crankbaits or spoons behind cowbells in that 20 to 40 foot depth range. Anglers fishing from shore have had success floating a night crawler 2 to 5 feet off the bottom." — Arrowhead Outdoors, 218-365-5358

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Lake Winnie Cutfoot Sioux Fishing Report August 11, 2026

"We’re on the verge of seasonal change; mid-summer giving way to the late-summer, early fall migrations. It seems too early for the “fall-bite”, and for now, it is, but fishing reports from guests and friends reveal glimpses of what lies ahead.

Walleye fishing, depending on the angler who reports it, is good, bad, or somewhere in-between. The upshot is that when you locate the “right school” of fish, you will be rewarded with good action. The wrong school of fish, an inactive one, will frustrate, giving the impression that all the fish in the lake are simply not biting.

Somewhere between the two extremes are the anglers who locate small, isolated spots that hold singles, doubles, or smaller schools of fish. Often, the non-traditional locations anglers find are the places that provide the best surprises. The photo of Jake Hamilton, above, shows a nice Little Cutfoot Sioux walleye that was hiding along the edges of lily pads and wild rice. Trolling through the vegetation using spinners tipped with a minnow fooled that fish.

At the same time, there was another group of anglers fishing on the southeast side of Winnie, along the shoreline in water depths of 6 to 7 feet and having a great ..." Read >> Bowen Lodge Lake Winnie Fishing Report August 11, 2026

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August 7, 2026 "What is a Ned Rig?"

Q) Roger Prescott wrote; “Jeff, I was interested in your recent article about the family who caught those big bass using what you called Ned Rigs. I’m not familiar with that lure, and wonder if you’d tell me more about what they are, and how to fish with them?

A) Roger, the Ned Rig is an amazingly simple and effective way to trigger strikes from both largemouth and smallmouth bass.

It’s essentially a modification of the old “mushroom jig” and plastic worm combination that were popularized in the 1980s by Conrad Peterson of Gopher Tackle. The jig heads are flat nosed, stand-up style lures that are available in various weights, the 1/8-ounce size is my favorite, and pictured here. The departure from the original jig worm presentation is that instead of using twirl tail style plastic worms, the Ned Rig incorporates a short, 2-1/2 to 3-1/2 inch Senko style worm.

The presentation, I believe, mimics the motion made by darting crawfish. We make long casts toward structure and retrieve the lures using a sharp sweep-drop-sweep-drop motion. The bass usually hit the lures as they fall back after the sweeping swim forward. Most often, the hook set occurs “on the sweep”.

I know there are a lot of ways to catch a bass, and admittedly, I’m not the expert on all of them. But this lure has been so effective that it is fast becoming my favorite presentation. In the hands of my customer, Patrick Patterson, Ned Rig outperformed most of the alternative presentations I chronicled in the report (July 30, 2026) you referred to. Last year, a similar performance occurred too, and that was the subject of a report (August 1, 2025) as well.

Purchasing a kit like you see pictured above is a good way to get started, but you wouldn’t need to buy that many. For beginners, I’d suggest picking up a few 1/8-ounce jigs and a single package of green pumpkin-colored worms. That size and color combo will definitely get bit and help launch your new career as a Ned Rig aficionado. Once you’re hooked, pun intended, you can expand your selection to match the environment of your favorite bass fishing lakes. — Office Call or Text 218-245-9858 or EMAIL or Facebook or X

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August 6, 2026 "Navigating the Navigate-Able"

Fishing presentations are like clothing, we tend to settle on the ones that make us most comfortable. The same handful of “tricks” that work for me, don’t always fit another angler’s fishing style. Knowing this helps explain why fishing guides, me included, rely on selecting a few basic and time-proven strategies for capturing fish.

For my customers, the mixed-bag, trolling presentation that I talk about so often is like wearing a comfortable sweatshirt. Throw the spinner into the water, let Jeff figure out where to put the boat and then wait for a fish to bite. Simple as 1, 2, 3, right? Yes, most of the time.

On Wednesday, the fishing experience was very similar to what I described in the Tuesday FishRapper report. Surface water temperatures ranged between 74 and 75 degrees, about 6 degrees cooler than they were before the cold front. Again, trolling over the shallow weed tops produced a lot of action, but most of the fish were small. Occasionally, when I could get the boat into just the right pathway, somebody would hook into a good fish.

The pathway where larger fish were held was slightly deeper, and just outside of the main weed beds. For most of the day, I’d say that the “magic depth” was about 9 to 10 feet deep. Most days holding depth is no problem for me, but yesterday, it was a struggle.

The struggle was caused by a moderate wind from the southwest. When you look at any map of the lakes in our region, you’ll see that most of our lakes lie in a distinct southeast-northwest orientation. That same orientation affects the lake’s structure too. So, in a northwest wind, drifting or trolling along a shoreline is usually easy, and so is following structure with a southeast wind; they just match the direction of the structure better. For a boat operator, fishing in west, or east wind just feels off, and like clothes that don’t fit right, is annoyingly uncomfortable.

The solution, most of the time, is to deploy a drift sock and use it to help steady the course of travel. Mine, a 60-inch drift control model is highly effective, especially in strong winds. When using a drift bag that is this large, it’s better to use the outboard motor instead of the electric. It has more pulling power, and sometimes I think the propwash stirring things up makes the fish bite better. So, if you find yourself in an awkward position, consider the drift bag option to help keep you on a steady course.

For me, small spots, isolated patches of weeds and small, random pods of fish made using the drift sock impractically cumbersome. So, I just had to make do with some excessive twisting and turning. Fortunately, my crew, Paul, Ben and Jake were understanding, and tolerant of my shortcomings as a coxswain. In the end, we managed to assemble a respectable mixed bag of walleye, sunfish, pike and perch.

The walleyes, most of them, came from the outer edges of weeds. The clean lip or flat lying adjacent to the heavier weed patches was the key location. Keeping the boat in the narrow band of 9- to 10-foot-deep water as they trolled spinners tipped with fatheads was the only way to catch the better fish. Too deep and small perch became a problem, and too shallow brought out the legions of tiny sunfish that were waiting to consume our live bait supply. I can’t help but think that if I’d had an easier time holding that key depth range, my crew would have caught even more fish than they did.

There weren’t many crappies in the lake we fished yesterday, so I didn’t try jigging the weed edges like I did on Tuesday. But I did promise yesterday to share more details about the crappie lures that worked well that day. Here are images of the 1/8-ounce Doctor Fish jig heads and the Strike King’s Mr. Crappie Slabalicious Paddle Tails that we tip them with.

Like I mentioned yesterday, there were other plastics that worked too. Berkley’s Power Nymph, and Ripple Shads caught some fish, so did some of the Garland lure choices. I like Dr. Fish Jig Head because their flat, minnow head shape keeps them running true, and the multi-prong keepers hold the plastics tight. I’m not proud to be buying these on Amazon, but like you, nobody gives me this stuff for free, and I have to shop for the best value I can get. So, for now the Amazon link is the best source I can find.

The presentation we used was to cast the lures along the breakline and allow them to swim along the weed edges as we drifted. We didn’t retrieve them unless a fish struck, or they became fouled with vegetation. A slight lift-fall-lift-fall motion was all we needed to keep the tails moving to attract strikes.

— Jeff Sundin, The Early Bird Fishing Guide Call-Text 218-245-9858 • Email • Facebook • X • Subscribe Insider Newsletter

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Lake of the Woods Fishing Report August 6, 2026

"August carries a reputation as the "dog days" of summer. But August is a fantastic month for walleyes on Lake of the Woods. When the walleye bite on a lot of lakes slows to a crawl, L.O.W is often crankin'. Summer patterns are still firmly in place and anglers are finding lots of fish willing to cooperate. Here's a look at how the three areas are shaping up this week.

Big Traverse Bay (South Shore)

When you find a school, jigging is hard to beat right now. Anglers are doing well in 30 to 32 feet with a jig tipped with a frozen emerald shiner, a minnow, or a piece of crawler. Others are staying on the move and reporting good success pulling spinners and trolling crankbaits, which are great options for locating scattered fish and covering water to find fish.

Colors this week... For spinners and jigs, bubblegum, gold and pink, and gold and red have been the standouts. Colors in general can change day to day depending on water clarity and whether it's sunny or cloudy. For crankbaits, as a general starting point, shiny gold, chrome/blue, pink UV firetiger, and chartreuse are all worth trying. Let the fish tell you which one they want, then run with it.

Rainy River

The Rainy River continues to serve up a mixed bag, and the approach mirrors what's working out on the lake. Some anglers are jigging key spots, while others are trolling spinners with crawlers or crankbaits. Whatever the method, a variety of species are being caught. Sturgeon season is open, and the deep holes are holding these prehistoric giants for anglers looking to tangle with the biggest freshwater fish they'll ever catch.

Northwest Angle

Up at the Angle, structure is the key this week. Humps and sunken islands on the Minnesota side have been holding good numbers of walleyes, and pulling spinners tipped with a crawler has been an effective way to catch them. A good tactic here is to use your electronics to see if fish are present and what part of the structure they are holding. Start deep, work up and over the top of the bar, then back down the other side. That lets you figure out whether walleyes are home and, just as important, which part of the structure they're living on that day.

Muskies, pike, smallmouth bass, jumbo perch and big black crappies are also being caught amongst the 14,000+ islands in the area.

A quick reminder on the specific fishing regulations for Lake of the Woods. The combined walleye and sauger limit is 6 fish total, with up to 4 being walleyes. All walleyes between 19.5 and 28.0 inches must be released immediately, and one walleye over 28.0 inches is allowed in posession. Lots of "slot" fish are being caught which provide a great fight and a good pic for memories.

August and September are excellent months to fish Lake of the Woods. Some cool mornings and warm afternoons, and (hate to even mention it) fall right around the corner. It's the perfect stretch to get in one more summer trip before the seasons turn, so make your plans now. Lodging, guides, and charters around the lake are ready to help." — Lake of the Woods Tourism, (800) 382-FISH

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August 5, 2026 "Are the Dog Days of Summer Behind Us?"

Yesterday, I wrote that the dog days of summer would soon be behind us. Today, I’ll offer that the dog days of the 2026 fishing season ARE now behind us.

A moderate level cold front that passed though north central Minnesota overnight Monday, into Tuesday morning. The front triggered thunderstorms and brought in a chilly west-northwest wind which churned surface water on area lakes. On July 29, 2026, my most recent visit to the lake we fished yesterday, the water temperature was just over 80 degrees. By yesterday morning, the surface temperature had fallen 6 degrees, now registering 74 degrees. That cool-down didn’t kill the crappie and sunfish bite, but it did transform it.

Last week, and for most of the past month, trolling spinners tipped with live bait has been the mainstay presentation for I, and most of the other fishing guides in my region. Yesterday, trolling spinners was a fine way to trigger strikes from tiny fish but didn’t produce significant numbers of the “keeper” size fish we sought. At first, I was ready to blame it on the change of weather, but the overall activity level of the fish didn’t seem to match that narrative.

What happened is that larger crappies, sunfish and bass dropped out of the shallow weed cover and formed small, tight groups along the deeper base of the weeds. Now holding in 14 to 18 feet of water, those fish were no longer vulnerable to the spinners trolling through the shallower weeds. An experiment, swapping our spinner rods for lighter weight gear and jigs tipped with plastics turned the day around. The deeper fish were active, and the revised game plan produced our desired results.

There were several plastic tails and jig head combinations that worked but there was one combination that produced better results than the others. A 1/8-ounce Doctor Fish jig head tipped with Strike King’s Mr. Crappie Slabalicious Paddle Tail turned their heads the best. Drifting along the weed edges in water depths of 12 to 16 feet, we cast the lures about 25 feet away from the boat and allowed them to swim along with the drift. The crappies, bass, sunfish and rock bass that I was prepared to declare inactive, were now biting aggressively.

I’m pressed for time this morning and can’t take time for more details. I promise to finish adding details to this article and provide an update about what I learn today, on my fishing charter. In the meantime, keep in mind that some of the mid-summer fishing patterns you relied on last week, may be transitioning into later summer, early fall patterns this week.

Let us know what you’re observing too, are the lake’s weeds, water temperatures or clarity changing? Are fish in your favorite lake moving, or are presentations changing? — Jeff Sundin, The Early Bird Fishing Guide Call-Text 218-245-9858 • Email • Facebook • X • Subscribe Insider Newsletter

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Ely Area, Arrowhead Outdoors Fishing Report August 5, 2026

"Walleye anglers reported a generally tough bite happening this last week. Anglers having success were generally covering ground to find active bites. Trolling #5 or #7 crankbaits, with leadcore fishing line, in that 15 to 25 feet of water, over large flats, has become the most effective way to catch walleyes right now.

Colors to have on hand are white, perch or yellow perch. Other anglers have been having luck trolling spinner rigs tipped with either a leech or a crawler. Which works better really depends on time of day, the lake and current weather conditions. Leeches might crush for an hour, then catch nothing the rest of the day.

Smallmouth bass fishing continues going strong across the area. Anglers continue to report a good early morning top water bite along shorelines, river mouths and in rivers. As that sun gets up anglers have been switching to paddle tails, urchin baits, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and crank baits to keep catching numbers of smallies. Rivers, river mouths, large rocky flats and around sunken islands in that 6 to 20 feet of water, have been producing numbers of fish.

Crappie anglers continue to report good fishing for crappie on many Ely area lakes. Crappie anglers continue to find active crappies around thick cabbage, downed trees or standing timber. Anglers have been fishing with beetle spins, jig/twister or jig/paddle tails. That last hour of light continues to be the best time for the hottest crappie fishing.

Sunfish anglers also are reporting that they are finding good fishing. Many of these anglers have been finding sunfish in sparser weeds and pencil reeds. Oftentimes the best depth to find them has been in 3 to 6 feet of water. Red worms and wax worms, fished under a bobber have been best, but if you're looking for sunfish, start with a small beetle spin or twister. Covering water to track down fishing can be the difference in a slow day of fishing or a great day of fishing.

Stream Trout anglers reported good fishing for rainbow this last week. Due to the warm water temps, the best fishing was found around 15 to 20 feet of water during the early morning, but as the sun got up and water temperatures rise, rainbows dropped down to 40 to 50 feet of water. Anglers mainly trolled with cowbells, with a small brightly colored crankbait or small spoon to catch these trout.

Many northern pike anglers reported good pike fishing, but as usual for this time of the year, poke over 32 iches were few and far between. Trolling large spoons, crank baits or large swim baits along weed lines often resulted in very consistent fishing for anglers. Early mornings have been the best time for numbers and size." — Arrowhead Outdoors, 218-365-5358

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August 3, 2026 "Mastering Mixed Bag Fishing Zones"

Well, “The Dog Days” of summer, among my favorite times of the year, will soon be behind us.  Despite a seemingly endless string of hot days, surface water temperatures have already peaked, and are slowly trending down. Algae blooms, resulting from the heat and sunshine are heavy and that’s helpful to anglers. But for fish, the zooplankton consumes oxygen and, in some lakes, threatens deep water habitats.

During early and mid-summer, mid-lake structures offer both food supplies and plenty of oxygen. Combine that with the lower water temperatures, and cool water species like northern pike, and walleyes thrive in deeper regions of most lakes. Take away the oxygen, and then the food, and it’s understandable why predators leave these regions of the lakes too.

Fish deal with changing conditions in different ways, and locations vary from lake-to-lake. Some fish are now suspended over open water at the thermocline and that’s a subject for another time. Many fish, in a lot of lakes migrate toward weed growth, and for me, that’s the pattern I’m focused on these days. My most recent guided trip, fishing with the Freitag family, is a perfect example of what I love about fishing in the weeds.

The fishing pattern, trolling spinners tipped with minnows and worms, is both familiar, and well reported. So today, let’s not worry about how we caught fish, but instead, let’s focus on where the fish were located; in the weeds!

Pictured here, Finn Freitag, with the assistance of his grandpa ED, sort through a bunch of weeds to find the hook in a largemouth bass. The weeds, Fries' Pondweed (Potamogeton friesii) I think was the key vegetation for finding bass on this trip. Bass don’t always select a single weed type like they did on this day; they’ll use a wide variety of weeds for cover. Whenever there are rocks or gravel present, bass will be there and I think that in open water, it’s the rocks that attract them more than the vegetation type.

• Crappies, found along the same shoreline, seemed to prefer smaller, more isolated patches of Claspingleaf Pondweed (Potamogeton richardsonii) weeds. The Claspingleaf pictured here, is often just called “cabbage” and is one of the common weed types we find in north central Minnesota lakes. The term cabbage could also include Broadleaf Pondweed or Curly leaf Pondweed and others. More classic vegetation types where I find crappies often include Flat Stemmed Pondweed and Coontail. Almost any weeds that provide vertical cover, and have gaps, or open spots between plants are worth checking out for crappies.
  
• Sunfish, on this day, were more flexible about their habitat, and were found in a variety of cover types. Like the bass, finding the preferred substrate is more important than locating any specific vegetation. Insect eaters by nature, sunfish often seek out areas where marl, the semi-soft, clay and sand mixture provides breeding ground for bugs. If you find a good bug hatch in a marl substrate, you will find sunfish no matter what the weeds surrounding them.
  
• Walleyes and northern pike like some open space between the seeds too. Cabbage, in many lakes, will attract both species. Just remember that a northern pike relates more closely to the cover than the walleyes do. On a recent trip, walleyes were held at base of the cabbage, in the open spaces between the stems. Pike were holding in the leafy part of the plants, floating higher in the water column.
  
• Perch, especially during late summer and early fall are commonly found in American Eelgrass (Vallisneria americana). I know they can be found in other weed types too, but the eelgrass is the single cover where my fishing customers catch the most, and the largest perch year after year. When the eelgrass is mature and healthy, we can usually find perch among them.

Okay, that’s a good starting point for identifying some of the cover types that fish species prefer. Always remember that individual lakes offer other, more specialized situations. The truth is that weeds are weeds, and they all provide cover for something. I recall a MN DNR meeting where one resort owner from Lake Winnibigoshish saying that “any weed is a good weed.

I think he was right, although AIS inspectors and fish biologists don’t like certain varieties of vegetation because they are not native to Minnesota lakes. Even scary sounding vegetation types like “Starry Stonewort” or “Eurasian Milfoil” can provide good habitats for fish. Years later, in a private conversation with a fisheries biologist, I mentioned that walleyes, in Winnie, seemed to like Starry Stonewort. His reply, “Because it’s an invasive species, so we avoid using the term “walleyes like it”. “But I can say that we’ve observed that walleyes do use it.”

Whatever type of weeds you encounter, watch for baitfish, insect hatches or comforting shade that any stand of vegetation provides. There’s a good chance that predators, maybe the ones you’re looking for, are taking advantage of the opportunity. — Jeff Sundin, The Early Bird Fishing Guide Call-Text 218-245-9858 • Email • Facebook • X • Subscribe Insider Newsletter

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Wired2Fish August 2026 "Learning to Use Technology, and Understanding Crappies Better in the Process"

"Don’t believe that adage about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks. Richard Bowling, a popular fishing guide at Truman Lake in Missouri, is a good example of how wrong that way of thinking can be. Bowling, a longtime guide on Truman Lake in Missouri, uses forward facing sonar to unravel some of the mysteries about crappie behavior.

After more than 30 years of guiding for crappies, he thought he had a good handle on what makes the species tick. Then live scope, which shows the real-time movement of fish, came along in the late 2010s. Even Bowling was amazed at everything he learned after that. Location, Location, Location

If it’s a crappie, it has to relate to brush, flooded timber, or weeds, right? Wrong. That was the old-school way of thinking. But Live scope has since revealed that crappies are quite comfortable living in ..." Read Full Story >> Learning to Use Technology, and Understanding Crappies Better in the Process

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You Are Invited To Become A Duly Deputized Fishrapper Cub Reporter Too!

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. You see, with just a few words about general trends, seasonal patterns or local weather conditions you can help steer your fellow anglers to more gratifying fishing experiences. So, be like Dan and Sean, and become a duly deputized "Cub Reporter", it's good for fishing and that's good for everybody!

Use the Contact Us page, or if you prefer to be "social", use our community page on facebook Fishing Reports Minnesota, that is the Facebook counterpart to this page and it 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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