Late winter perch and 'pout- leech lake - Leech Lake - Leech Lake

As winter progresses, I like to focus on multi-species days here on Leech Lake to maximize the amount of bent rods and high-fives. Morning and evening can often be good for walleyes, but during mid-day, yellow perch and pike are the primary focus.

Any flat on leech lake from 5-15 f.o.w. can hold schools of nice perch. Finding weeds or boulders can be a bonus for locating the bigger perch specimens, and pike may also be present. Since perch flats are typically huge, and often featureless, sitting over one or two holes for hours is not a real high percentage game. I like to drill holes ahead of where I plan to move and let them quiet down a bit before fishing. Moving a tip-up along with you as you hole-hop the flats is a good way to score a decent pike, huge perch or bonus walleye. A 1/16 – 1/8 oz spoon tipped with a minnow head or small jig and plastic is all you need most days to find active perch. Getting off of the beaten path, to un-fished areas has been key for finding the bigger fish. Portage, Sucker and Boy bay have huge flats with dandy perch that rarely see lures.

I typically don’t specifically target burbot until later in February, but always enjoy bonus encounters with these cool looking oddities. Burbot will inhabit the same areas as big walleyes, and typically bite better after dark, so often the biggest fish of the day can come at 7:00 or 8:00pm.

If you are planning a trip to leech lake in February, consider including perch, pike and burbot to your list of target species and you most likely won’t be disappointed.

Cheers and hook-sets!