leech lake walleye bite 9-15-10

I have been having decent luck walleye fishing the last week or so with some good days and some not so good but always some fish. The fall bite this year has been slow to come but as I look at the calendar its really not behind schedule. Yesterday I was part of a large group that had 8 or so guides involved. Most of the guides have been having the same results as I with inconsistent action.

The wind was out of the east as we met and one of the guides had a spot where he had fish the day before and the wind was right for that spot. I had boated by the area a couple days before and there was a DNR test net there but no boats. Most of the group headed to that spot, I on the other hand like to find my own fish and headed to a spot where I have caught some fish but not great numbers yet. I could see the other boats in the area where the guide got them the day before and as I was making different drifts trying to connect,, they were only moving out to make the same drifts. After 2 hours I had 2 in the box and 2 others in the slot and I had to join the group.

This spot was a shore line and the wind was crashing in, the bite was HOT!! It only took 3 drifts to finish out our limit. It was bumper boats with probly 15 boats working the shore line. Fish were as shallow as 5ft out to 7ft. Even with a hot bite I only stayed long enough to fill out, I just don’t like the group fishing but yesterday it paid off and was good for the 20 or so clients as they had a blast.

This was one of those spots that would need wind to be good, which we don’t have today but I do think its a good sign of things to come in the upcoming weeks of fall. A majority of the fish caught in this area were 16 to 17 inches with just few slot fish mixed in. A jig and minnow was the hot bait.

My group and I will be heading up next weedend to fish the big lake so hopefully you are right. We were up on Labor day weekend and it was terrible. Had great wind in fact unfishable wind sometimes. Were the fish selective with the minnows? Last year in the fall the fish would only hit on the 3-5 inch ones which meant getting out the wallet and buying the reddtails

We actualy did better with fat heads then the larger rainbows. When I cleaned these fish they were full of one inch perch, much smaller then what we were useing. However im sure they wouldnt turn down a redtail.

Tom is right on here!

I was with this group fishing yesterday and I would say between the 9 boats there were over 250 fish boated in less then 4 hours with only 3 people per boat when it was all said and done!

It was a good start to the fall action and I can’t wait to get back up there soon! I would say it will be a good finish to a great year!

I know I wasn’t in your boat Tom but it was a good time had by all

Thats great to hear. We had alot of bait problems last year. We ran out of the big bait and there wasn’t any around. We will be on the big lake. So hopefully they will be feeding on those same size perch.