Leech Lake Scoop

[Lee Borgersen]

                       Leech Lake .....


It’s been a slow start to the winter walleye season at Leech Lake, primarily due to the fact that lake conditions are poor with deep snow and slush, and not because good numbers of fish aren’t present.

Prior to the first of two major snowstorms to hit the area last week, anglers that were getting on the 4 to 6 inches of ice that developed were catching walleyes. The problem at this point is getting back to them.

“The fishery is primed for a pretty good winter,” said Doug Schultz, the Department of Natural Resources fisheries supervisor in Walker. “But we’re missing out on some of this early ice action because of the (lake) conditions up here.”

Once moving around on Leech becomes a better possibility, fishermen will find a mixed bag of walleye sizes. Schultz said fall gill net assessments produced an abundance of walleyes from 9 to 26 inches.

The 2010- and 2011-year walleye classes are especially strong. Those fish are now between 14 and 16 inches in length and will likely make up the bulk of fish anglers put in their buckets this winter.

“There shouldn’t be a problem catching fish to keep and there’s plenty of bigger walleyes that will be released,” Schultz said. “A third of what we saw in the gill nets this fall were walleyes in the 18- to 26-inch protected slot.”

Perch numbers and the size of those fish are down compared to historical averages, so winter anglers might have to work a bit harder to find jumbos this season on Leech.

The DNR has been stocking a lot of walleye fry in recent years and basically managing the lake for an above average walleye population. All those walleyes are using perch as a forage base, limiting their numbers in the process.

Tullibee numbers have rebounded over the past couple of years in Leech and they should provide consistent angling action later in the season, according to Schultz.

“We have a big 2010-year class of tullibees,” he said. “Fishermen will find better numbers of them in February and March.”