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

---

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

---

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

---

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

---

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.

---