Dutch, thanks for the tips. We did find some fish in Moose Bay in the weeds, as well as Kohler, but we had better luck in Moose Bay. Just got home a few hours ago. It’s a gorgeous area up there, and the atmosphere along the Ash River is pretty cool. Fishing wasn’t what we hoped for, but did wind up finding a few, mostly with gold spinners and leeches. Definitely a very cool place to spend some time!
Glad you found some. It’s the whole experience that keeps me going back. The vastness, the Canadian feel, the potential for big fish. However, if catching gobs and gobs of fish is the only reason a person fishes there are better lakes in the state.
Hope you come back.
Hey, you weren’t fishing the hump in Junction Bay this morning (11 ish) were you?
??? Thanks for the Dusty!
I think he is early. I think he is planning for 2021, at least I hope he is. 
Sorry I’m an idiot. The third week in August.
Dave,
I will be up on Namakan camping from the 12-16th. I’ll post a report when I get back that hopefully will help out. It’s been a little bit of a different year so far with fish not being where they usually are (deeper reefs). Fish seem to have stayed shallower than usual.
Thanks xlplorer! Have fun and good luck.
This is far and above my skill and knowledge level, but I wonder if there is any kind of suspended bite out in the real deep parts of Namakan?
Or, I also wonder if there are some deep sand flats that they’ll hold on? I don’t know the lake near enough to say, but on local lakes here in Southern Mn, in the heat of summer there can be a decent basin bite trolling deep diving cranks.
It would take some driving around to find out if there is anything like that up there.
I’m pretty much a jig and slip bobber fisherman. I’m not really set up for trolling. I do want to try top water for small mouth though. I can’t wait to get up there. I will post after the trip.
This is far and above my skill and knowledge level, but I wonder if there is any kind of suspended bite out in the real deep parts of Namakan?
Or, I also wonder if there are some deep sand flats that they’ll hold on? I don’t know the lake near enough to say, but on local lakes here in Southern Mn, in the heat of summer there can be a decent basin bite trolling deep diving cranks.
It would take some driving around to find out if there is anything like that up there.
Trolling cranks over deep water is about the only way we caught fish on Namakan back in about 2007(?). We used to houseboat every year back then but haven’t made a trip to Kab/Nam since then so I’m not sure what it’s like these days.
We head up in 9 days to Kabetogama. We are fishing with a guide on the 16th. From the reports that I see, fish right now are on mid lake structure and points in the 20-25 foot range. Some guys are still finding them on weed edges. Wade Watson-a guide up there, will do Facebook live post on most days that he fishes on how the bite is. He said that if you slide up on top of most reefs you can find bass and some nice perch.
That’s some good info tgruenke! I’m going up in 14 days and can hardly wait. Good luck and have fun.
Got back yesterday afternoon.
Found almost all our fish in 28-34′ of water on island points and offshore humps.
Crawlers and leeches on lindy’s and spinners both got hit good. Had good numbers of 15″ eaters and some nice 19-22″ fish also. Buddy had a really big fish on, never got a look at it as it got off half way up but if it was a walleye it was a hog. Also may have been a small sturgeon tho.
Caught lots of small bass in the same 30′ range on leeches, kinda weird.
Had a couple of big thunderstorms go thru, but mainlake surface temps stayed right at 70 the whole time, did have some heavy winds at times that made some spots unfishable at times for me. Just fished Western Namakan.
Probably done for the year at VNP, time to start heading up to Silver Bay and north looking for Lake Superior fishes!!
Got back yesterday afternoon.
Found almost all our fish in 28-34′ of water on island points and offshore humps.
Crawlers and leeches on lindy’s and spinners both got hit good. Had good numbers of 15″ eaters and some nice 19-22″ fish also. Buddy had a really big fish on, never got a look at it as it got off half way up but if it was a <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye it was a hog. Also may have been a small sturgeon tho.
Caught lots of small <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass in the same 30′ range on leeches, kinda weird.
Had a couple of big thunderstorms go thru, but mainlake surface temps stayed right at 70 the whole time, did have some heavy winds at times that made some spots unfishable at times for me. Just fished Western Namakan.Probably done for the year at VNP, time to start heading up to Silver Bay and north looking for Lake Superior fishes!!
Did it seem to matter between the crawlers and leeches? Where did you get the leeches? I’m struggling trying to find them. Glad to you here you caught fish.
No difference, a few more of the 19″+ fish were on leeches.
I had bought a half pound before my Rainy trip and was able to keep the leftovers good for this trip also. I got mine at Fishermans Corner just north of Duluth (Pike Lake).
One other guy on our trip got his at Lucky 7 in Virginia I think.
Got back yesterday afternoon.
Found almost all our fish in 28-34′ of water on island points and offshore humps.
Crawlers and leeches on lindy’s and spinners both got hit good. Had good numbers of 15″ eaters and some nice 19-22″ fish also. Buddy had a really big fish on, never got a look at it as it got off half way up but if it was a <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye it was a hog. Also may have been a small sturgeon tho.
Caught lots of small <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>bass in the same 30′ range on leeches, kinda weird.
Had a couple of big thunderstorms go thru, but mainlake surface temps stayed right at 70 the whole time, did have some heavy winds at times that made some spots unfishable at times for me. Just fished Western Namakan.Probably done for the year at VNP, time to start heading up to Silver Bay and north looking for Lake Superior fishes!!
Besides a little bit of weather, it sounds like you had a good trip! Those water temps are about 10 degrees less than what we experienced. Maybe that has put the fish in a little better mood?
How was the traffic? Still busy?
Very busy. Tons of houseboats and folks out fishing.
Not sure if it was the temps or what but they were much better than our earlier trip there. We still marked a ton of fish that we couldn’t get to hit, but was nice to find a lot of spots that were holding fish.
Spent last week at Kab. Sunday 8/16 we went with a guide to learn more on the lake. We ended up heading to Namakan during the morning. We hit humps in about 25-30 FOW. We marked fish but they were not biting. We managed a few in each spot. Had shore lunch at the Ash River Visitor Center. Ran into another guide who also said it was a tough bites. Fished a few spots on Kab on the way back Ended up with about 18 fish on the day. Biggest was 22. Most fish were caught on leeches and minnows, we did have crawlers, but I don’t think we caught any on them. Lindy rigs seemed to do a bit better than jigs.
The rest of the week we were able to find a few fish here and there. Ended up fishing spots that we usually would fish in June, but just would slide out a few feet deeper. Most of the fish in these spots were about 12-13 inches ,but did manage two 22s.
Just returned from our boat-in Namakan camping adventure. What a great time in nature with 3 great friends. We’ll be back for sure. Fishing was similar to other recent reports above. Mid-lake humps and submerged rocky points – 25-35 Ft. Fishing wasn’t lights out but were able to put a few in the boat. We fished mainly bottom bouncers/spinner rigs, which I don’t do a lot, but they worked. I tied my own spinners in prep for this trip and it was satisfying catching walleye on my own homemade rigs. Dragging a 3oz bottom bouncer does make your arm a little tired after a few hours, so we slip-bobber fished these spots a bit to, which also produced a few fish. Mostly small walleyes and a few sauger, but we got a few eaters and I think 6 slot Walleye between 4 of us in 2-1/2 days of fishing. Casted a bit, too. Caught a 29″ pike and had a 30″+ follow my bucktail to the boat, followed the figure-8 for about half the pattern got then got boat-spooked. We managed a few smallmouth, usually by accident while walleye fishing. But tried casting both weeds and rocks for them with only a couple smaller ones to show for it. I was hoping we would find a few more of them on the cast as a break from trolling, but it just wasn’t happening. Didn’t have too much time to focus on it and dial it in.
But the nature experience in VNP would’ve been worth it even if we didn’t catch a single fish. My two friends in our other boat saw a sow black bear with three cubs in-tow swim across a channel and make their way up a rock face and into the woods. And on our last night we were falling asleep after the storm moved through and a pack of wolves sounded-off in chorus within 100 yards of us, right behind our campsite. That was one of the coolest things I’ve ever heard. The weather was otherwise great and hot during the height of the day, took a couple of swim breaks, which was awesome. We will be back for sure, maybe try a spring trip next time.
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