Heading to Leech this sunday!!!! (10-8-23 )

Never been there, my son and I are heading up for 4 days, any tips, what should we expect?

What part of the lake?

we’re going out of Big Rock resort.

That’s always where I stayed on our trips to Leech. We only went once in open water and struggled mightily in mid Sep 2021. Nothing on the humps to speak of. After three days, we hit up Chuck Emery who lives on the property and he took us out for the day. We caught a hundreds of perch in the narrows and casted live bait rigs while drifting the weedy flats west of Goose Island. If I recall correctly, Chuck put 2-3 walleye in the box and gifted them to us. We caught zero. We ice fished out of Big Rock five times. Twice we did really well and three times it was a bust, so I’ve crossed Leech off my list for good. I hope you do well though.

I did find it next to impossible to find anyone willing to give advice on every forum I visit, so I figured I’d chime in with what little I could offer.

Sorry only fished it a couple times, once ice and once open water and did not do well either time. Nothing much to offer.

I think you’ll like Big Rock. Nice little harbor, good bait and everything you need. Stony point area in general is nicely located on the lake too for getting around when the weather is decent. Fish can be many places on Leech. If you are versatile and don’t mind trying different spots and techniques you’ll find fish. Find their prey and they won’t be far…

Haven’t been to Leech this time of year, but I’ll be on Woman just south of there. I’ve stayed at Big Rock and enjoyed the resort. We were able to fish between there and Pelican Island and find walleye. I think you’ll be on the cusp of a the hot fall bite. Use your electronics to locate fish off typical midlake structure and flats and pitch jigs tipped with minnows or shiners. At low light try shallow.

I’ll add that we went back to the same flats the next day and got skunked again. We stayed longer than we should. Wind gusts were over 20 and it took about an hour and a half to get back. It was a bumpy ride. It was nothing like the northern WI lakes I’m used to or the Canadian Shield lakes I’ve fished, so I’m sure if a local were with me “you’re doing it wrong” would have been the phrase of the day.

Myself and some friends will be up there next week from the 12th -15th. We mostly target the Perch but do also catch and fish for a few walleyes as well. We do most all out fishing in the Sand Point area near Steamboat bay. tips I would have for you are :
Fish the wind blown side of points and shoreline.
Bring a wind sock – If its windy you will need it to slow down enough.
Don’t be afraid to fish much shallower than you normally do. Often the fish are rather shallow in the fall on leech.
Plan to go thru lots of minnows if you are using them. Even smaller perch will eat larger minnows in the fall up there.
If not catching fish – Move, Move, Move. If you get in a area where they are they normally bite rather quickly.
Good Luck and Have Fun

I was up on Winny last Saturday and Leech on Sunday. Fishing was slow for me on Winny, plenty of pike, a few perch and a few eyes. Leech was a lot of perch and a few eyes. I fished a jig and minnow between 8 and 15 fow. I am heading back up Saturday for several days, splitting time between lakes until I find something that works. This cool down should help, and as temps drop I will move shallower and shallower.

John, was this you on leech!!

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fishthumper wrote:

Fish the wind blown side of points and shoreline.
Bring a wind sock – If its windy you will need it to slow down enough.
Don’t be afraid to fish much shallower than you normally do. Often the fish are rather shallow in the fall on leech.
Plan to go thru lots of minnows if you are using them. Even smaller perch will eat larger minnows in the fall up there.
If not catching fish – Move, Move, Move. If you get in a area where they are they normally bite rather quickly.

x2 on all of this. Fish the windward side of any island, or a decent wind into Stony or Pine Point. Walker Narrows is usually pretty good or into the flats towards Goose Island.

Night bite, nuff said

glenn57 wrote:

John, was this you on leech!!

Glenn, luckily I didn’t run into him. I would fall for that one every time!!

Looks like you will have decent weather. a little cool in the mornings, but not bad. Looks like decent wind as well. Have Fun. Hope you catch lots.

Beast
How did your leech lake trip go? we got back from our trip yesterday late afternoon. We did just OK. Only caught a few eyes and really struggled to get nicer size perch. We kind of thought this year would be good on 9.5-10.5″ fish as there seemed to be a ton of 9″ fish last year. Same story this year. A ton of 8.5-9″ fish. We kind of set out size limit at 9.5 ” but ended up tossing a few 9″ fish in from time to time to have a nice fish fry and bring a few meals worth home. Most all out fish can from 6-9″ of water. Could not locate many out pass 9 Ft. Water temps on Thur. were 63 and was down to 59 on Sunday morning

Thumper it’s like that every year. There aren’t really any jumbos

fishthumper wrote:

Beast
How did your leech lake trip go? we got back from our trip yesterday late afternoon. We did just OK. Only caught a few eyes and really struggled to get nicer size perch. We kind of thought this year would be good on 9.5-10.5″ fish as there seemed to be a ton of 9″ fish last year. Same story this year. A ton of 8.5-9″ fish. We kind of set out size limit at 9.5 ” but ended up tossing a few 9″ fish in from time to time to have a nice fish fry and bring a few meals worth home. Most all out fish can from 6-9″ of water. Could not locate many out pass 9 Ft. Water temps on Thur. were 63 and was down to 59 on Sunday morning

we didn’t do so good, never kept a fish, trolling motor spent just about as much time out of the water as it did in we threw everything we had , just couldn’t get anything to go, we were the only customers at the resort, we’ll try again next year either there or winnie but a bit earlier in the year

Fished it Saturday. Launched out of Southeast corner and fished wind blown points as worked north. 6-10 ft. Caught 20 eyes. 12 came off one particular point. Jig and minnow.

Snap jiggen rip?

Glad I delayed the trip, we’re gonna fish woman instead this coming weekend.

Rip jiggen duh…
Actually just slow bouncing it back seemed to be the ticket. Most fish were pinning it to the bottom.

Not many lakes I drop back on the jig for a few secs b4 they get the juice, leech is certainly one

ill be on woman this weekend also, hopefully its game on!!!

If u see a red ranger w an etec that’ll be us dragging bait around stop and we’ll share report. Heading up Sat am, got all day on pool2 friday