BRAINERD (MN) FISHING REPORT + BONUS RECIPE – NATE BERG

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Last Wednesday, my wife and I headed up to the Whitefish chain to spend time on the water relaxing, talking and enjoying our wedding anniversary. Of course being the guy that I am, I can’t go anywhere without my fishing rods if the boat is hooked up!
 
We started fishing about 5 PM pulling crawler harnesses with in-line weights over the deep basin of the lake. We targeted the 40 to 50 foot range in water that was from 80 to 120 feet. Our main target was whitefish and it didn’t take long to start producing. The magic color was gold as is typical with many salmonid species.
 
We did not want to keep any fish so they were all unhooked while still in the water to swim freely back down to their depths. In a couple hours of fishing we hooked up five and caught two. Not bad for the first attempt at it this year!
 
At 7 PM, we headed to a main lake point in search of big crappies . When we arrived we found the school off the edge of the point suspended in about 25 feet of water. Long casts with a 16th ounce jig heads and white and chartreuse tube jigs were the ticket.
 
As the evening progressed the fish moved shallower. As they moved up on top of the weed point we switched to a 1/32nd oz jid with the same tail. In the end, we boated roughly 20 crappies and kept a few to eat the following night.
 
On Thursday, I had it to one of the small lakes near Ironton. There are several lakes in the area that are the home of very nice largemouth bass which was my target species.
 
My method of choice was a drop shot with a wacky worm. Whenever I use a wacky on a drop shot I tend to go with a smaller sized worm. On this day it was a rainbow colored 4 inch Gary Yamamoto.
 
Most of the fish were actually on straight sand edges with no weeds. The sharper the break the better the bite. in five hours of fishing I boater 22 largemouth bass with the largest one being 19 1/4 inches.
 
On Sunday, I headed over to Lake Alexander for little musky reprieve. And as many days ago while Muskie fishing, I never got one to hit the boat. It was a fairly successful day however with six different follows from very nice fish. All but one of my followers came from a bumblebee Grandma. All the fish I found the relating to sharp weed drops. I did happen to hook 124 inch Pike that couldn’t be released so I took him to try out a new recipe which I will tell you in a bit.
 
On Monday, I headed back up to the Whitefish chain to try to search out some walleyes. Any main lake flat that ranged from 18 to 33 feet seem to hold a bunch of fish. The key was to slow down and use a live bait rake with a long snell. It didn’t matter if we were using crawlers with air in it or a leech just as long as we had at least an 8 foot snell. This was more of a fact-finding mission that a mission to catch a bunch of fish. Every spot I hit I boated a fish. And each time that I bow to fish I moved. It is safe to say the Whitefish chain bite is going!
 
 
RECIPE
 
Recently while I was in Canada, I had another recipe that was called teriyaki Pike. It was a very simple recipe which only required a few seasonings and dumping teriyaki sauce over the top of the pike and then grilling it. I changed it up a bit but it was still very good.
 
I started with three layers of heavy duty tinfoil with no stick spray. I laid the pike fillets in the tinfoil boat and seasoned with Jamaican jerk seasoning, a little bit of garlic powder, a touch of sea salt and black pepper. I then laid sliced pineapple over the top of the pike fillets. I then drizzled teriyaki sauce over the top of the pike and put it on our gas grill with the top open to let some of the flavors flow throughout the grill. Once the fish began to flake I took it off the heat and served it with a coleslaw.
 
This was a very light yet wonderful yummy summer recipe that I think you all enjoy!
 
Nate Berg
Nate Berg Fishing Guides
218-821-9488