Humbling Kabetogama

I’ve been fishing Kabetogama on and off for at least 10 years. Sometimes I feel like a fishing pro and sometimes I feel like I have no idea what I am doing. You can slay the walleyes in a spot one evening and the rest of the week that spot may never produce again.

Here are my tips (I welcome any contradictions or additions as I feel like I will NEVER learn this lake and perhaps that’s why I keep returning)
1. This lake seems to have a great forage base. At times it makes the fishing tough. They just don’t need to chase or work hard for food and if they aren’t active (which seems like all the time some trips) they just aren’t going to go a long distance. Try slow…then slower… 1/2 mph or less. Could be vertical jigging or long lining and just dragging it a few feet off the bottom or a Lindy rig. The lightest weight you can get away with the better.
2. Lindy rig snell length: I am used to the longer the snell the better. On Kab…seems like shorter is better. 2 feet, 3 feet at most. At times 18 inches has out fished longer snells.
3. Anyone ever said…the fish are everywhere and no where …frustrating. Don’t get married to “spots” If they aren’t biting move. You catch a few and the bite stops…move. Maybe come back later, but don’t waste time just because a spot was great before. In the same day, you can catch fish in 7 feet of water and in 30 feet of water.
4. Wind is your friend and enemy. Windward side if you can do boat control almost always holds fish, wind can create current between islands you can treat that almost like a river. Fish the current and current breaks.
5. If all else fails, you can troll cranks, try to pick off that rare active fish and maybe help you find some spots to try and come back too with a slower approach to pick up a few more.

Every year I find a new “spot” to fish, every year an old hot “spot” fails to produce. I fish primarily the Western end. Trying to widen out to include Lost Bay, but not much experience there.

Also…there is an incredible fishery for other species. I really just hunt walleye. A guy at our resort catches a 40 inch pike almost every week. He hunts them exclusively like he is musky fishing. I’ve caught 16 inch crappies, 20 inch smallies, a baby musky (aren’t;‘t supposed to be there), perch, eelpout…don’t ask me how to catch them it’s all by accident. If I did better with walleyes I’d probably target other species more …

Anyway, hope this helps someone get started. Any other tips? What am I wrong about?

Have a great summer!!!

T

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Just being able to fish Kab is a gift. Most beautiful lake I have ever been able to fish. I wouldn’t even care about catching fish there as long as I was in a boat or camping on any of those amazing sites.

In the end it’s just fishing. Unless you fish it weekly and make mental notes, you will be humbled there and any other lake/river.

Are you going out of a resort or live in the area? Would love to visit again someday

We go out of North Star Resort when we go. Used to use Park Point before it was sold. Old owner of Park Point was great, just couldn’t book us for the next year due to possible sale (at the time possibly was going to be a private owner who was going to convert the resort into personal cabins)…we helped North Star with some trees after a storm and he invited us to stay there if things didn’t work out. Been going ever since. It’s like staying with friends (except ya pay) very bare bones resort, but it suites us.

My uncle has been going to Kab since the 60’s but I’ve ever actually been there with him.

Will be up in a few weeks if I can get away from work.

T

We are up here as well. I’m on the opposite end. But we have been on a really good bite. We have been battling the wind and rain but it’s been worth it. This sunshine right now is great. Nothing better then camping with my son and spending the day catching fish.
Shallow water is all we have been targeting and we have caught fish on jigs, minnows, plastics, jerk baits, bobber rigs and more. The kid got a 25.5 on a jerk bait and that’s biggest this trip so far. Have only seen 1 smallie. But we have hooked some dandy perch.

Pic, never mind. Bad service

We love Kab, the lake has some of the best scenery in the state and more fishing spots than I will get a chance to fish in my life time. Its not automatic walleye catching from my experience, but we have gotten on plenty of hot bites.

I think your tips are good, I have not experimented much with shorter leaders, so I should give that a try. Trolling cranks along a wind blown shore has always been a slump buster for us too, I find most success on the brightest option in the tackle box. Also to your point on slow, bobbers and leech’s have served us well in the past.

Bearcat89 wrote:

Pic, never mind. Bad service

that is the awesome part of Kab. no service!

We had a great trip overall. Very beautiful area. The fish didn’t seem to be shy for us. Jigs and minnows or jigs and plastics. They would inhale the jig half the time. But again we caught fish on cranks and bobbers as well. I never counted fish by any means but we did alot of catching for sure. Was a beautiful time to spend with kid, and we had a few good friends we were with as well.

Nice work Bearcat89

Tried it for the first time last year. Humbling to say the least. Beautiful lake, reminded me a lot of the north end of LOW. We found out the day before we left that the people at the resort catching them were trolling lead core. This was in the late summer though. Would love to get back up there again and would try it closer to this time of year so appreciate the report.

BC you and Mason seem to always be on the fish, good job sir.

I’ve never tried lead core. Need to add it to my repertoire… as an alternative you can long line cranks on a braid 8-12#. You can get pretty deep with a minnow rap or similar, but you might need to let out up to 150’ of line. I haven’t used that approach much on Kab, but have done it for Lake Trout in the BWCA and Quetcio. In the canoe I want it simple, no weights or other attachments… All of these trout were caught May through August. No weight or attachment’s. Should work for any fish in a pinch if you don’t have leadcore.

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We went up Kab for one year when we couldnt get into Canada. Beautiful lake. The fishing was quite a bit different than LOTW. You had to fish in the wind. We did really well until the wind switched. Then we had to adjust and get back in the wind.

I’ve always heard Namakan in the Spring, Kab. in the fall.

Loomis13 wrote:

We went up Kab for one year when we couldnt get into Canada. Beautiful lake. The fishing was quite a bit different than LOTW. You had to fish in the wind. We did really well until the wind switched. Then we had to adjust and get back in the wind.

That reminds me of a time we were fishing Bittersweet Island. The wind was hitting at a perfect angle for a corner and the walleyes stacked up in that spot. There were 3 foot rollers coming in… A guide boat tried to push us off which was ridiculous as we were there first and there was plenty of room. I finally took over the boat for my too nice dad and as he moved to cut us off, I asked which direction do you want me to go? He pretended he didn’t understand… I said I’ll give you plenty of room but if I go inside you cut us off of I go out side you cut us off…I’m trying to stay at least 20 yards away…but if you keep pulling these moves I am pretty sure your boat is worth a lot more than mine and the damage when we hit will be worse for you…he put his head down and said sorry…we both proceeded to just nail the walleyes for about 2 hours straight. Only 2 boats out there that were out in the wind. Then the wind died down and the bite stopped. Never have had that perfect wind again for that spot on the spot during my time up there.

Lakes like Kab look like Canada but they are not. Everything looks so good but so much is empty. Get your eyses off of pretty stuff that looks fishy and on your electronics. One of the best YT anglers for Walter will spend 2hrs just looking at SI before he wets a line, and he has a solid idea where to start. Lakes in the Dakotas that are more fertile are more forgiving-otherwise Canada. Some here like these lakes because they cannot take the small jump into Canada because of a DWI or domestic issue, that is probably not you so consider Canada.

Tim there are many reasons to fish Kab & Nam. If you want to fish Canada go right ahead. It’s only another hour up the road.

tim hurley wrote:

Lakes like Kab look like Canada but they are not. Everything looks so good but so much is empty. Get your eyses off of pretty stuff that looks fishy and on your electronics. One of the best YT anglers for Walter will spend 2hrs just looking at SI before he wets a line, and he has a solid idea where to start. Lakes in the Dakotas that are more fertile are more forgiving-otherwise Canada. Some here like these lakes because they cannot take the small jump into Canada because of a DWI or domestic issue, that is probably not you so consider Canada.

No desire to watch my screens for hours on end. Lots of great reasons to fish up that way and Lots of fish to catch. Depending on timing is what will tell you how to catch them. Lakes of this size will hold many fish in many different areas. I will scan and then fish, but scanning will be a few minutes and then fish for 20, if I don’t get a bite within 20 minutes I am moving. Considering it all connects to Canadian water buy your card and boat right across. We had that option but chose not to. It really is a beautiful area to spend some time and nothing like pretty golden walleye and fat pike.

I only fished Kab a few times but the eyes in Kab are gold and heard the ones out of Namakan are almost black/gold. Weird since the lakes are connected. Anyone verify that if you fished both?

eyeguy507 wrote:

I only fished Kab a few times but the eyes in Kab are gold and heard the ones out of Namakan are almost black/gold. Weird since the lakes are connected. Anyone verify that if you fished both?

For me it doesn’t seem to matter what lake I’m on, there’s just different colored walleyes, some gold and green, some black and green, and some really dark ones with blue fins. You can catch one and have the next fish in the same spot be completely different looking.

I have to agree with Grubson on the Kab Walleyes. Seems to be a variety of color phases.

Interesting? This was told to me by a resort owner on Kab. We only caught your typical gold with maybe some black. Very cool just weird? Must be something with the taconite maybe?

Some photos showing different colored kab walleyes

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I like the look of the darker walleyes. I’ll have to pay better attention this year on what I see.

T

Got up for a trip last week. Leeches and Crawlers on a Lindy rig were the trick during the day 8-10 feet of water, jigged shiner and a 1/8 oz.jig in 4-10 feet bays in the evening for a good bite as well. Biggest was 26 inches, although I did get a thiiick” 24 incher that probably weighed more.

That thick fish was caught trolling a minnow rap in 30’ of water just off mid lake reef during mid day. It appeared to be getting fat off Ciscoes is my guess. I put two 24 inchers side by side in pics for comparison. Doesn’t do it justice but you can see the difference to some extent in girth.

T

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