Less than 2 weeks!

A group of ‘da boys” and I are heading up to Leech the week of Sept 11th. We’ve never fished the lake in the autumn, always spring time (May/June)

Any current info on the lake would be great! Has the water temp began to cool?
Will spring patterns still hold true for mid September?

Jig and minnow/leech? A couple of my friends like to troll, rather than jig, where can we try trolling to pick up some walleyes?

thanks for the insight….this is a great sight.

Oh, I forgot to mention, we’ll be staying near Pine Point…

Slip bobbers and Jig and minnow are just starting to work right now. Should be good when you get up there. I know Phil has been doing good up that way. The lake is down into the upper 60’s and with the cool nights should be down in that 62-65 degree range by then.

Spring and fall are different, since there are weeds in the fall and not so much in the spring. Should be able to fish shallow and any wind blown areas. If you are up in the pine point area the flats with a jig/minnow or trolling #5s will be just fine.

Good luck out there.

Thank you sir!!

When you say “shallow”–10-12 feet?

Flicker shads, Flicker minnows work ok?

Running those Flicker Minnows up in 5-10 f.o.w. in the evening should score some fish, maybe a little deeper during the day. An 1/8oz jig and minnow in 4-8 f.o.w. is a good bet too around rocks weeds or bare sand. You could start at Pine pt and work your way north, there is a lot of good water there. Play the wind and fish shallow if you can. Reeds and shoreline rocks are even worth a check as minnows, perch and walleyes should start moving shallow en masse.

Thanks for the help, Phil!

We’ve never fished Leech in September, but I hear people say there’s a big perch bite at that time of the year.

Are the perch in the same “spots” as the walleyes?? I’ve also heard rumors that some of the perch have worms–true?? Is there anything we should avoid?

The pine point area can have a real good evening/night trolling bite. I usually use a #6 flicker shad (5’s would also work). I usually move in and out of 5-10ft of water.

Jigs and minnows are starting to get popular and I would target 8-12 ft myself and slide shallow or deeper as needed. Wind blown points and shorelines are good areas to look.

As far as perch you will see lots of boats stacked in the “narrows” fishing for perch in the weed beds. Up north near federal dam is also popular. My plan of attack on the day is usually fish walleyes from 6-11AM. Look for perch/northern/walleye/crappie from 11am to 4pm, do walleyes from 4-730pm and then go find an area and troll until around 1030 at night.

Tom Faklis wrote:

We’ve never fished Leech in September, but I hear people say there’s a big <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>perch bite at that time of the year.

Are the <em class=”ido-tag-em”>perch in the same “spots” as the walleyes?? I’ve also heard rumors that some of the perch have worms–true?? Is there anything we should avoid?

I wouldn’t call it a “big” perch bite…well, little ones yes but finding quality ones is much tougher these days.
A few years ago, people were taking baskets of big ones out but that has died off in the last couple years. I think the cycle for them is down right now combined with a few too many being taken in the hay days.
So if you’re expecting big and numbers of them, you might be disappointed.
Yep, some of them do have worms. The little black ones and also the ugly white worms in the flesh. You gotta cut the white ones out and a few black ones aren’t supposed to hurt you if cooked thoroughly.

haleysgold wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Tom Faklis wrote:</div>
We’ve never fished Leech in September, but I hear people say there’s a big <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>perch bite at that time of the year.

Are the <em class=”ido-tag-em”>perch in the same “spots” as the walleyes?? I’ve also heard rumors that some of the perch have worms–true?? Is there anything we should avoid?

I wouldn’t call it a “big” perch bite…well, little ones yes but finding quality ones is much tougher these days.
A few years ago, people were taking baskets of big ones out but that has died off in the last couple years. I think the cycle for them is down right now combined with a few too many being taken in the hay days.
So if you’re expecting big and numbers of them, you might be disappointed.
Yep, some of them do have worms. The little black ones and also the ugly white worms in the flesh. You gotta cut the white ones out and a few black ones aren’t supposed to hurt you if cooked thoroughly.

Thanks for the info.

I’m not greedy, I don’t keep everything I catch. I just thought if the perch were schooling this time of the year, and walleyes have lock jaw, we’d go look for a few perch for dinner.

I’m taking my two boys (13 and 15) up to Leech this Saturday and fishing for three days. I’ll be the guy in the back of the resort’s 18ft V bottom manning the trolling motor through the reeds while ducking and dodging the mepp’s #5’s the boys will be chucking for pike and bass during the day and trolling shad raps for eyes in the evenings.

Ok we are back from Leech I took my two young boys to Leech this past weekend fishing Saturday evening through yesterday (Tuesday the 13th). I was more than a bit sick and it really limited my time fishing. I really regret not feeling well enough to do a guide trip with local guide Tom Wilson, I’m sure a trip with Tom would have resulted in a much better walleye result. We’ll be back next June I hope to book a trip with Tom then as in my opinion it’s well worth the money for a good guide on waters I only get to once a year.
Thankfully though the pan fish were on the docks and my brother was able to get my sons out in the boat as well. The walleye bite was disappointing for us with only 1 caught. The highlight though was two muskies caught (not big muskies but muskies none the less) and a first musky for my oldest son. The perch were going pretty good in the narrows and reed beds of walker bay. Like most have already reported, some sorting was / is necessary but there were some nice perch to be had and we had a good fish fry on the last evening. Thanks to everyone who posted prior to our long weekend up, your advice / input really helps. Kevin.

Thanks for the follow up Kevin. Pretty cool to see a kid catch a Muskie no matter the size. He must’ve been pretty pumped!

You bet belletaine!!! We also had another first for us when we saw a full grown blackbear run across the road in front of us near Pine River on Monday afternoon. Coal black, big and just 50 or so yards infront of us. Quite the sight and pretty cool!!!