Big Minn lakes get ready

[Lee Borgersen]

   :fishing2: Big Minnesota lakes getting ready for ice fishing

         


 November 1, 2014

High gill-net numbers, low pressure from summer anglers are among the reason ice fishing for walleye, perch looks promising on Minnesota's largest lakes.
Walleye fishing is looking promising in places such as Lake Vermilion, where a productive summer may carry over into the winter if the ice cooperates.


At this point, many anglers have their boats put away for the season. Most outdoor interests now revolve around hunting — ducks, pheasants, or the upcoming firearms deer season, which opens Saturday.

Those not into the hunting game or late-fall fishing might be looking forward to the soon-to-arrive hard water season. Yes, ice fishing is not that far down the road. In fact, if Mother Nature does her part, it's possible anglers will be on the ice within the next month somewhere in the state.

With that thought, it's time to shift gears, or at least put the current hunting season and open-water fishing options on the back burner and take a look at what anglers can expect from some of the state's more noted lakes this winter.

Lake of the Woods

Despite high water conditions much of the year, fall is progressing at a normal pace. According to Phil Talmage, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fisheries supervisor in Baudette, that means huge numbers of walleyes have piled into the Rainy River. Some excellent ice fishing opportunities typically follow.

Fall gill-net assessments indicated walleye and sauger catch rates well above average. In short, there's plenty of fish to catch on Lake of the Woods this winter.

"Assuming there's limited wind when it freezes so it doesn't get dirty, the fishing should be good this year," Talmage said. "Walleye and sauger numbers are both abundant."

Anglers will find a strong 2011 class of walleyes coming up that might be a bit hard on bait. But there's a lot of walleyes moving into the keeper-size range, plenty of big fish, plus an abundance of saugers from the 2005-07 classes — those are all keepable fish.

Talmage said the south shore will again be a good fish-catching option as soon as the ice forms. Fall fishing also has been excellent in the Warroad area and the Northwest Angle, so he expects those areas to be productive this winter, too.

"They'll be good opportunities around the lake, they're all holding a lot of fish," he added.

Cass Lake

The main body of Cass Lake typically doesn't receive a lot of winter fishing pressure. Pressure ridges often make the big part of the lake hard to navigate and limit where anglers can go unless they use a snowmobile or some form of track vehicle.

Most winter fishing takes place in Allens Bay or the south end of the lake, which are more accessible. But those areas are loaded with structure and traditionally provide excellent perch and walleye fishing throughout the winter.

Al Ruzek, who owns Sunset Cove Resort on Cass Lake, said fishing pressure during the open-water season was down this year. That resulted in fewer walleyes caught, at least by Cass Lake standards, but it also means better numbers of fish are available for anglers this winter.

"We just didn't see as many people on the lake this summer and fall, so there's plenty of fish to be caught," Ruzek said. "The walleye fishing should be excellent and the size of the fish is impressive; the lake is loaded with 17- to 19-inch walleyes right now."

According to Ruzek, walleye anglers should focus on 18 to 20 feet of water during the day and look to funnel areas between the lake's numerous humps and points. When the sun starts to hit the tops of the trees in the evening, he suggested sliding up to the reef edges in 12 to 16 feet for the majority of walleye action.

Perch are also worth hitting on Cass Lake, with 10- to 12-inchers "fairly common" and some jumbos in the mix. Ruzek suggested keying on the 8- to 10-foot sand/grass areas of the lake with the north side of Star Island and North Cedar Bar noted for holding larger pods of big perch. Pike Bay Lake, which is connected to Cass, also produces nice perch in deeper water and is easier to access.

"Walleye fishing is usually best during the first month or so of winter," he said. "But the perch, they carry us through our ice-fishing season."

Mille Lacs Lake

Fishing guide Tony Roach, who spent much of his time on Mille Lacs Lake this open-water season, said walleye numbers are much better than anglers have been led to believe. The lake also received minimal fishing pressure this summer, which should only add to what he said will be a good winter season on Mille Lacs.

According to Roach, there are an "amazing" number of walleyes between 12 and 18 inches. Walleyes over 20 inches remain numerous; they should bite if ice conditions allow anglers to get at them.

"Last winter was tough with all the slush, so if we get decent ice walleye numbers should be up — I caught a lot of fish most of the summer," Roach said. "But fishing pressure was light this year, the lightest I've ever seen, but with a lot of fish and no pressure, that has to help the winter bite."

Anglers can also look forward to catching perch this winter on Mille Lacs, although most will only be 6 to 9 inches long. Roach said he expected the perch action to rebound next year as many of those small fish grow to harvest-size.

Lake Winnibigoshish

Perch are the main target for anglers on Winnie during the ice-fishing season and there shouldn't be much problem finding them. Locating pods of keeper-sized perch might involve a bit more work.

Chris Kavanaugh, the DNR's fisheries supervisor in Grand Rapids, said July gill netting revealed "a little less" than 10 percent of the perch sampled were longer than 9 inches. On the other hand, fall nets produced better numbers of perch over 9 inches, so there's plenty of fish for the bucket.

"You'll have to sort through some small perch, but there's plenty of keepers out there," Kavanaugh said. "There's a lot of fish just under 9 inches too, so we have a good bunch of perch coming up."

Unlike most of the state's big lakes, walleye fishing on Winnie is almost a secondary option for anglers during the ice season.

Kavanaugh said the 2011 class of walleyes is in good shape. Those fish are between 9 and 11 inches, the 2010 class is now 15 to 17 inches long and not real abundant, but walleyes over 20 inches are available in good numbers.

"Catching keeping-sized walleyes might be difficult this winter," he said. "We also have real good numbers of northern pike and some quality pike out there, so that's an option as well."

Lake Vermilion

Last winter was an abbreviated fishing season on Lake Vermilion, with deep snow and brutal slush limiting fishing activity. But the open-water walleye season was pretty productive, and that should carry through to the winter months if ice conditions allow people to get on the lake.

Jay Schelde, who owns Pike Bay Lodge on the east end of Vermilion, said walleyes in the 12- to 14-inch class were thick this summer. But fish in the 14- to 16-inch range and those over 20 inches were prevalent as well; they should provide good fishing this winter.

"In my opinion, this was the best open-water year we've ever had, and I think that will follow through into the winter, especially early," Schelde said. "Our perch numbers also are coming back; they are big and should be a nice bonus fish for anglers this winter."

The majority of walleye perch action will take place on the 20- to 30-foot mud and sand areas early in the season. Specifically, it'll happen in the mud/sand transition spots until later in the year when the flats tend to hold more fish.

Lake Vermilion also holds big northern pike, most of which are caught in the bays over 7 to 14 feet of water. There are crappies to be had as well; they are big if you find them in areas such as Wolf Bay, the mouth of Greenwood Bay and behind Pine Island.

"We have a lot of areas with crappies, but it takes some work to find them," Schelde said. "But they are big, we see some real slabs caught every winter."

Upper Red Lake

Upper Red Lake is shallow, so it's typically one of the state's first large lakes to cap with ice. That means anglers are fishing walleyes on it before most other waters.

The best part is that you don't have to go more than a half-mile onto the lake early in the year to catch fish. Most walleyes will be pulled from 6 to 9 feet of water along the shorelines at first ice. Anglers will progress farther out as the season wears on.

Todd Mortenson of Mort's Dock on the south shore of Upper Red said the lake is in good shape heading into the winter. The 2009 class of walleyes is strong. Those fish are 16 to 18 inches long, but there's plenty of fish on both sides.

"Walleye numbers appear to be in good shape with a good mix of year classes — the walleye population is holding up very strong," he said. "The fish also look healthy, they're in good shape no matter what size you catch."

Trophy-caliber northern pike are also part of the action on Upper Red during the winter . They tend to bite off and on throughout the season with spurts of really consistent activity.

"We see 40-inch-plus pike every winter and most are mixed right in with the walleyes," Mortenson said.

Leech Lake

Walleye reports were consistently good through most of the open-water season on Leech Lake. When that happens, winter anglers usually find good fishing, too — if slush and snow don't limit angler mobility as they did last year.

Cory Brock of Reed's Sporting Goods in Walker said he thought lake conditions would be the wild card again this season. But if the lake's in good shape for travel, walleyes should bite.

"It was a good summer, and I expect that to carry over into the winter," Brock said. "The lake has a lot of eaters in it and those big fish are still there."

The perch bite seems to go in cycles on Leech Lake, and there haven't been as many big perch caught over the past several winters. Brock said perch numbers are rebounding. Although there are still a lot of small fish and some sorting will be required, he expected anglers to find pockets of big perch if they have the ability to move around.

For walleyes, he suggested hitting the breaks and humps in Walker Bay at first ice, Main lake areas such as Pine Point and Goose Island provide perch and walleye action in 10 to 18 feet of water as soon as they are accessible.