Kabetogama – Heading up for a week on 9/19…any new reports?

Just looking for any new info before my trip.

Scott

Just spent 10 days here. Worse stretch i’ve seen in 10 years here. Fish seem to be scattered, we couldn’t locate any consistent depth or patterns. However yesterday they seemed to finally be moving a bit shallower. By next week things should be as close to normal as they have been this year. Cold nights, chilly days. Water temp in the high 50’s yesterday and falling.

Have fun, stay safe & good luck!

We are headed up on the 26th, I’ll be interested to hear how it went for you.

Well, that doesn’t sound great, Dutchy. Hopefully we can get on em’! Headed up Thursday morning!!

Good info – thanks. Hopefully the weather stabilizes a bit and the walleye get back in a discernable pattern. Last year we had a fantastic fall trip both in terms of weather and fishing – hope we can repeat.

Scott

Try Crappie, that bite is on i think.

Crappie bite was on a couple weeks back. Had some family on Kab and they smacked a bunch with a few very nice ones. We’ll have to check out the fall spots when we’re there!

Scott

Counted 14 boats in Old Dutch Bay one day. Don’t know if they were catching anything or just looking at each other.

Tried lost bay yesterday, no luck on the Crappie. MY brother and I Went to Namakan fished two reefs kept 6 nice walleye up to 16. Reports say to fish the weed lines, these were in 25′ go figure.

Anything new to report?? Headed up Saturday morning.

Fishing was a little tough for us but not terrible. There were more boats out there this last weekend on Namakan than I have EVER seen in the 14 yrs I’ve been going up there. Every reef we went to look at had boats on them. We did manage to find some fish in spots that didn’t have people on them. Fished mainly with sucker minnows. The Smallies & Pike sure a fun to catch too!! I know @Grubson was out fishing Kab last Saturday & did pretty good out there too fishing some of the reefs.

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Fish are scattered but are still showing up in typical fall/ winter areas. They will become more concentrated as the water cools. We caught most of our fish, (bass and walleye) on saddle areas in between the tops of reefs. 18-24ft of water.
You really have to cover water and utilize your graph to get above the fish. Lots of dead water out there to eliminate.
We also found some fish in shallow current areas and along weedlines. These fish were very inactive last week though. We could see them but got very few bites. One area in a shallow bay did produce a nice pike, many smaller pike, a couple sauger and one walleye in 6ft of water.
The fishing pressure was extreme last weekend. I’ve never seen anything like it and I’ve been fishing there my whole life.
I think a lot of the boats were people that were new to the lake. Lots of people fishing near other people. We also watched the rock near our cabin get hit by boats twice over the weekend. Apparently the rock bouy isn’t enough warning to slow down.

Thanks for the updates! I’ll let ya know how it goes on our return.

Just back from a beautiful week on Kab/Namakan. Fall colors were spectacular, weather cooperated (for the most part).

Fishing was tough. Could find/mark plenty of fish, but getting them to bite was a different story. We were able to cobble together enough walleye and sauger for a few fish meals and a few to take home…but we worked for them.

The traffic on 9/19 & 9/20 was crazy. More boats on Kab than I’ve ever seen at one time in 25 years of visiting. Got much better during the week, but the “sparkly boat effect” was going strong (where if you have a sparkly boat, people assume you’re parked on fish and come in tight). I was sorry to disappoint.

Good time had by all, biggest walleye was 26.5″ for us. Biggest crappie (yes, we caught a few) was 14.5″. Some jumbo perch, a 17″ sauger.

I miss it already.

Scott

Scott Gergen wrote:

Just back from a beautiful week on Kab/Namakan. Fall colors were spectacular, weather cooperated (for the most part).

Fishing was tough. Could find/mark plenty of fish, but getting them to bite was a different story. We were able to cobble together enough walleye and sauger for a few fish meals and a few to take home…but we worked for them.

The traffic on 9/19 & 9/20 was crazy. More boats on Kab than I’ve ever seen at one time in 25 years of visiting. Got much better during the week, but the “sparkly boat effect” was going strong (where if you have a sparkly boat, people assume you’re parked on fish and come in tight). I was sorry to disappoint.

Good time had by all, biggest walleye was 26.5″ for us. Biggest crappie (yes, we caught a few) was 14.5″. Some jumbo perch, a 17″ sauger.

I miss it already.

Scott

Thats been the story of 2020 for the most part. A few guys are saying they are getting fish but you know how fisherman lie.

Don’t worry Scott, your boat doesn’t have to be sparkly for that to happen. Was a lot of that going on this spring too when we were there and I don’t think anyone would say my rig is sparkly.