Whitefish Chain

Any recent reports or tips? Heading up probably tonight, Looking for eyes, Yet to catch any up there…. I think I missed a couple last yeat had them almost in the boat and lost them, any tips? We’re on Cross, but we’ll probably end up searching the whitefishes…

I was up the 7/19-23 and found fish every time I went out. I was hosting a variety of friends and family so I stuck mostly to trolling. Caught northerns every few minutes trolling cranks on deep weed edges on Trout and Whitefish during the day. A few northerns were 10+ lbs. Also hitting the deep diving cranks during the day were a few 15-18″ walleye (1 an hour), a couple of largies, and the ever present bluegills and rock bass.

The bigger walleye were hitting cranks ripped through shallow weeds at night.

Only eater sized walleye caught at night, rest were 5 lbs +.

Even my newest fishing buddy had a blast. Here “Goat” is leadcoring on Trout.

Nice! Thanks for the report, most people and report were scarese for walleye, I did hear a little about big trout, but I can’t for the life of me find my lead core stuff right now, and I didn’t have much in the way of deeper diving cranks.

We were out we cranked for a bit, that was good for a bunch of bass (all small) and a snake or too. Overall the bite seems to be pretty bad overall for us, We were on fish all day (finally dropped the cameara down to verify they were walleye), just couldn’t get them to go, but I did end up boating my first whitefish chain walleye. He went a solid 12 inches The fish we caught and the walleye we seen on the camera were on upper whitefish.

Thanks for all the help ( I did get some pm’s)

I didn’t catch any walleye on leadcore, only a couple a decent pike. I was hoping for a lake trout but I think the boat traffic turns them off more than the pike. I have had decent luck trolling for walleyes without any added weight. I have caught fish 10-12′ down in over 100′ of water. The key to the open water trolling bite is to avoid boat traffic and look for the birds. If you find the sea gulls you will see gigantic balls of bait on your sonar. The reason I like fishing the chain (besides that my cabin is on it) is that while catching high numbers of fish can be hit and miss, it will give up 10 lbs. walleyes a few times every summer.

Nick it looks like you had fun up there, we are going to be up there in two weeks with my brother & his family. We are staying on Cross lake. Can you access the other lakes from there our do I need to trailer my boat?

Thanks for the info umichjesse, Something about big trout that makes me want to spend more time on there,probably a lot to do with the numbers of fish I seem to mark, and the allure of catching a lake trout, never caught a lake trout yet. I also think the bluer water is pretty neat.

Mark, You’ll have no problems accessing all of the chain from any point, there are some shallow areas, but nothing a trimming the motor can’t let you float though. Not much you can’t do on the chain, you can get bait, gas, liquior and visit various restaurants all from your boat.

(The pic in my avatar was taken on Crosslake)