Namakan labor day weekend

This will be my fourth camping trip to Namakan and we still haven’t figured out the walleyes up there. Last year, during labor day weekend, we caught some smallish walleyes casting rat-l-traps on a 10ft deep rocky reef between an island and shore. This year, memorial day weekend, we were on the east end near the narrows into Sand Point Lake. We caught many small 12″ walleyes in about 20-22ft of water just outside of Hammer Bay using either jig & minnows or a dropshot rig with a minnow. This weekend we will be back in that same area, around the narrows, and am wondering what I should try to catch some eaters.

About the only method I can’t try is deep trolling, I don’t have line counters and have no idea how deep I’m going. Anyone have some tips about what to try? During memorial day weekend I saw several people fishing in the area between Blind Pig island and Depth Finder island but it’s very deep, I marked fish in about 30′ but couldn’t catch anything jigging. What should I be looking for? I see there are a lot of about 20′ humps in the area which is my first thought to try but I’m just not sure what the walleyes relate to in this lake.

Reef:

You can troll if you have any baitcasters… Two methods to figure out how much line out, usually from the front of the reel to the guide is about two feet, five pulls is ten feet, ten is 20 and so on… The other is to let line off the reel starting with the line guide on one side, measuring when it gets to the other side, then multiplying by the passes you let off. Even with a spinning reel, you could cast, figuring 50′ or so and guesstimate another 20 or so.

Yes I would fish those deeper humps and if you can figure out the bottom of the basin break, try trolling in those in areas to see if you see fish… If you find fish on that break, then you could try targeting them with other methods.

Mark

Find wind. Fish any windblown shoreline or point. Casting cranks works well. I was fishing Rainy lake last weekend and casting either ripping raps or rattle traps like you mention. Caught walleyes/pike/smallmouth on windblown shorelines. It did help we had a constant wind for several days. If you don’t have wind, troll weed edges or jig/minnow deeper humps. Pay attention to electronics also. Spending time looking for fish on the electronics often pays big dividends.

Look for reefs and fish the sides around 25′ to 28′. Like Cal mentioned look for them with your locator. If you can find Shiners for bait on your jig you will be golden! BTW, small Walleyes are the norm not the exception up there the last couple of years.

Good luck, be safe, have fun.

I fished the area from the Junction Bay entrance to the south side of Namakan Island and into Hoist Bay August 19-23. The first 3 days I did well rigging crawlers and leeches on a floating jig head, mostly on points from 15-25 feet. Size ranged from 12″ to 17″, with a few bass in the mix. I did hook one big fish on clay bottom at 30′ but after a couple of runs it broke me off. My fault for not backing off the drag. Then the weather changed and things got tough, but there were still fish to be had. So, as you can see, there are lots of different ways to catch fish. You jut have to try different stuff and find something that works. Good Luck.

Thanks everybody!

mbenson wrote:

usually from the front of the reel to the guide is about two feet, five pulls is ten feet, ten is 20 and so on

Good tip, I’ll give that a try.

Calvin Svihel wrote:

Find wind. Fish any windblown shoreline or point.

If it’s windy I’ll give it a shot!

Dutchboy wrote:

BTW, small Walleyes are the norm not the exception up there the last couple of years.

Interesting, that is all we caught though. They were all 12″ (if I remember right) and were exactly the same, like catching the same fish over and over.

Ron wrote:

The first 3 days I did well rigging crawlers and leeches on a floating jig head, mostly on points from 15-25 feet.

Thanks, I’ll try that too!