mid sept

I am certainly not asking anyone to give up gps coordinates or anything like that. However, any advice on LOTW in mid Sept. would be greatly appreciated. Feel free to post or pm me. I have fished up their a few times mid summer but never in Sept. My pops and I are considering a trip in Mid Sept. We would be staying at one of the resorts by Wigwam or Sportsmans.
Any advice on depth? Main technique or specific areas to consider checking out would be greatly appreciated. I hope to learn a little about the pattern of the fish up there from some of you experienced LOTW vets.

Greatly Appreciated

By Mid-September the walleye will start to move back towards the south shoreline around the gap(s). Morning and evening guys will fish up shallow (8′ – 14′), midday they move out deeper (24′ – 32′). Most people will be anchored vertical jigging shiners.

Now if you don’t like fishing jigs vertical you can still catch a bunch of fish pulling lead core and shad raps. To be honest if you’ve not fished the area much that time of year that’s how I would recommend you get started. Pull cranks. Cover water and depth ranges. Find fish. Then figure out the best way to catch them.

If the fish are on the south shore outside the gap, and they should be, there really isn’t much for defined structure out there in that area. It is mostly a slowly tapering sand flat with areas of gravel that transitions to mud/soft bottom as you get out past 30’+.

Hope this helps.

Most will be tight lipped as the MTT championship is in 2 weeks.

That is ok – maybe after the tourney a few will share. Curious if bridges and knights holds fish in sept or if fish are closer to gaps and shoreline breaks.
When does the run into the river typically take off.
Thanks for the info James

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That is ok – maybe after the tourney a few will share. Curious if bridges and knights holds fish in sept or if fish are closer to gaps and shoreline breaks.
When does the run into the river typically take off.
Thanks for the info James

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Bridges and Knights reefs will hold some fish throughout the year. If you get a light wind day I wouldn’t hesitate to run out and fish those areas. Do expect to find a lot of fish along that south shore though.

As for the river bite, mid-Sept. will be way too early. I wouldn’t expect to see the main move into the river until some time mid-October. There’s always resident fish in the river but the main push of lake fish following the shiners won’t come until water temps drop considerably.

I would be vertical jigging between pine island and zipple bay with frozen shiners. Last October we were up in the second week and the fish were just starting to make their way into the river. We had high winds all weekend so we fished it but it was not hot. When we could get out on the lake it was great fishing. Like James mentioned hit the shallows by pine in the low light hours ad then head out deeper during the day.

wabasha24
I concur with the info that you already have recieved. I look for the river run to be later in Oct to Nov this year. If you have fair weather take a shot to the islands, watch Ma nature, it can get nasty in a heart beat.

South shore from Long Point to the Gap is a great spot for jigging and pulling cranks!

I was just up on a guide trip there Saturday; 20 to 30 mph winds out of the SE limited where we could go with his 10 yr old son; so I decided to fish right in the gap and we caught between 30 and 40 walleyes. Boats were flying by us all morning and only one other boat decided to stop and check it out as they were coming in.

We caught the majority of our fish on crawlers and a few on frozen shiners. I would say the crawlers outfished the shiners 5 to 1. We fished from about 9 to 2 and we all had had enough of the wind and wake from all the other boats for the day. That is the only bad thing about fishing in the gap is fighting all the wake from other boats but more often than not the fish are usually pretty loaded in there and you have a really good shot a picking up a sturgeon there as well.

Depending how far you want to go I would recommend the Long Point area as they have been catching fish there all year or the graceton beach area in mid september. I have done really well jigging there in the fall.