COLD,COLD,COLD. This is the best way to describe the weather lately. It seems that every day we seem to get a new front moving in and the fish have reacted by being in a negative mood. The good news is that we have great ice conditions and the ice is only getting thicker!
The walleye on Leech continue to bite during the magic hour in Walker Bay on the many humps that make up this bay but are not as fast and furious as they were before this weather started to settle in. I have heard reports of some nice northern being caught. One nice thing about the lack of snow is that there are still some nice green weeds to hold fish. Perch fishing is still producing some nice fish if you stay mobile enough. Look for perch fishing to pick up in the next couple of weeks as we head into middle February.
I spent some time last weekend with family and friends on Winnie. We did get some nice perch and a few small walleyes mixed in. We were fishing on the bottom edge of a reef in 29-30 feet of water. The best technique I found was using a willow spoon tipped with a small minnow jigged fairly aggressively on one rod to call in the fish and a small river shiner on the second rod with just a plain hook. I like to use the Walleye Willow Spoon by Baitrigs as I feel it gives more flash than any other willow spoon on the market. While the fish were not jumping into the buckets, we did have consistent action and never went more than about 20 minutes with out a bite. The fish would just cruise along the bottom of the reef and you just had to wait your turn till they came under your hole.
We did get some nice northern but nothing huge, most averaged about 4-6 pounds. The perch for the most part were 9 plus inches with a share of smaller ones mixed in. The walleye were all small, but good to see these younger year classes. We did spend the night on the lake as well and got into some huge eelpout (up to 9 pounds) at night. These fish put up a great fight, just remember to reel up all your other lines quickly when you get one hooked as they are famous for tangling up every line you have down in your house.
I got on the ice at Denny’s Resort, basically in the town of Bena. This resort has a real nice LOW incline ramp and from here you can go just about anywhere on the lake. There is a pressure ridge a couple miles out but they have cones marking a way across it and he keeps a road plowed. I plan to go back there later this week for some more action. If you would like more information on where the resort is located and a phone number as well as some pictures of fish we caught go to the Leech Lake forum at fishthelake.com.
Until next week, have a great week fishing and lots of luck catching!
… thanks for the kind words on the Walleye Willospoon 
I’m so glad to see that we have Baitrigs willow spoons available in our online store. They are dynamite on perch and walleye in the winter, especially when you need to attract fish to your holes while fishing a large flat or other big piece of structure. They also work great in the open water season, espically with nightcrawlers.