Leech Lake Report.

Just got back yesterday late afternoon from out annual fall Leech lake trip. Myself and 3 friends have been doing the fall trip for around 15 years now. We mostly Target the perch but will often catch a few walleyes mixed in. We were there from Thur. – Sun. I would say the perch fishing was just OK. Lots of fish, Just not good size. We kind of thought this would be a good year. Last year there seemed to be a ton of 8.5-9″ fish. Was hoping this year would be a lot of 9.5″+ fish. Same thing as last year. A ton of 8.5-9″ fish. We tried to keep our minimum size at 9.5″. We did end up needing to toss in a few 9″ fish from time to time to have enough fish for a nice fish fry and bring home a few meals each. Almost all the fish came from 6-9 FOW. Caught almost none out past 9 feet. Picked up a few eater size ( 15-17″ ) walleyes as well. Water temps on Day 1 was 53 Deg. and it was 49 on Sunday morning. Sat. the weather was a little tough will some rather high winds. Needed the drift socks to slow down enough. But the higher winds seemed to turn the fish on with Sat. being our best fishing day. 1/8 oz VMC hot skirt jigs in Chartreuse orange or Hornet color seemed to work the best. Caught most of our fish in the Sandpoint area and near little Hardwood point ( south down the shoreline from there ) Sadly each year the Perch seem to be getting more and more worms in them (the white/light yellow ones) ) This year was the same. Some were totally clean and others we needed to cut a few out of each fillet. Not sure why they have them, they never or almost never use to have them. We stayed at Shores of Leech lake on the NW side of Walker bay. If you are looking for a nice place to stay, check them out. The Cabins and boat marina are EXCELLENT.

Great report. Thanks.

Also just got back a few days ago. We were there the 6th-12th. Saw water all the way down to 50 when we left. This is mostly a walleye trip for us. We had some good days and some bad. Portage was the best area for us. If you could mark them, you could typically catch them. I will say they were quite flighty. A few times wed see a pod catch a fish and they would all blow out of town. Jigs and minnows, didnt really see a preference to minnow size. I am guessing they are trending towards big minnows now though. We tried rocks quite a bit and never could get much going. Fished for smallies some, caught a few but never really fired them up. It was a pretty good trip overall with several fish 25-27, but definitely slow times to factor in as well.

I corrected the Water temps they were around 53 when we started and just under 50 at the end. I wish we had spent more time fishing more for walleyes. I think several of the days were great conditions for it.

Mike wrote:

This is mostly a walleye trip for us. We had some good days and some bad. Portage was the best area for us.

Hey Mike. If you don’t mind sharing , what water Depth did you catch most of your walleyes in? I talked with a local guide ( Friend from High School ) he said often this time of the year he catches most of his Walleyes REALLY shallow. Like in 3-5 Ft of water and right up next to the wind blown banks. He says he pitches the lightest Jigs possible. He says not many fish near shallow enough on leech lake.

fishthumper wrote:

We kind of thought this would be a good year. Last year there seemed to be a ton of 8.5-9″ fish. Was hoping this year would be a lot of 9.5″+ fish. Same thing as last year. A ton of 8.5-9″ fish. We tried to keep our minimum size at 9.5″. We did end up needing to toss in a few 9″ fish from time to time to have enough fish for a nice fish fry and bring home a few meals each.

This reminds me of the glory days at Mille Lacs in the fall perch fishing. It slowly went from 12 inchers to 11 inchers to 10 inchers to all dinks and you’d have to sort through 20 small ones to get a 10 incher. I always remember our minimum being 10 inches because anything smaller wasn’t worth it. I don’t know what kind of pressure the perch are receiving at Leech Lake, but maybe its just Mille Lacs 2.0. The perch just get smaller and smaller and eventually no one targets them anymore. The very solution of keeping smaller and smaller perch is what is leading to the problem getting worse I think.

Can concur in the shallow part on the eyes. Don’t think we caught any over 8ft of water. Most were in 5-6ft a few shallower.

The perch comment on Mille Lacs is true to a point but their is a giant rebound on ML with perch now however.
Caught some real tanks this summer.

Ripjiggen wrote:

The perch comment on Mille Lacs is true to a point but their is a giant rebound on ML with perch now however.
Caught some real tanks this summer.

That’s great to hear. Been years since I caught a sizable one there.

We caught the majority of our fish in that 7-10ft range. You could for sure get them shallower if the wind is blowing in the right direction. Just never end up checking super shallow. I think its called chara or I call it perch grass, but most fish were found in or along that type of weeds or in the sand. I know some of the guides were thinking shallow rocks would fire while we were there but i can verify that they indeed did not… Also saw one of the guides post the rock bite hadnt heated up yet after we left.

I will also tell you fishthumper if you want to get on a big perch bite go up to Cass. We fished it one day specifically for that reason, caught a 2 man limit between 10-13in relatively quickly.

Night crank bite again productive.

Attachments:

1. 

   20231021_221329-scaled.jpg
   

Deeper night cranking this year, usually we’re banging rocks on the shoreline which caught a couple but out in that 10 to 12 saw more action. Usually more overs at night but we had better luck w the unders which was good to see, nice mix of lengths. Long lining shad raps, firetiger, orange craw

First time going after tullies, what a freaking blast!! When you get a school come thru it can be an absolute gongshow with the hooksets, missed hooksets, and watching your screen turn into a disco ball of dancing colors

Went out of horseshoe Bay resort, they pointed us in right direction, we drilled 30 to 40 holes in search mode and eventually found em jigging while searching, settled in and just let em cycle thru. Nice spot, few tank Walter’s and some perch as well.

Didn’t even setup the shelter, sweater and bibs sipping some coffee as the sun hits ur face….wonderful

Sounds like a blast deuces! Tullies are fun when you’re on em. I hear they run big in leech. Were the eyes suspended chasing tullies or down on the bottom?

Last 2 came from bottom jigging for perch, but the first did come down 5′ or so to hit the rattle bait, in 32′ with a 200hz sonar which should about 3 to 1 for cone coverage, I’d imagine they’re out there suspended

Tullies rock!

Good to know the tullibees are around in strong numbers. In the 80’s and 90’s I’d fish for them late ice. Lots of people were doing the same thing. It looked like an ice tournament was going on.

First time eating them for lunch here, figured I’d just fry em up like anything else. I did pick the pin bones w a tweezers which is super easy just tedious, I’m fussy about bones in my fish, although the size of them I’d imagine they cook out. Pic for size reference, I fried the 2 smaller fellas, others going to smoker.

One of my favorite fish to date. Actually has some taste to em unlike walleyes, but not fishy like a northern which I enjoy as well.

Attachments:

1. 

   20240107_205321-scaled.jpg
   

2. 

   20240108_112856-scaled.jpg
   

Deuces – Are all those Tullibees? The smaller ones look like they may be Cisco and the larger ones look like maybe white fish. All in the same family and I believe all are in Leech lake. I have a hard time telling the difference in them.

Going off jawlines they are all tullies, but I’m a complete newbie and I would agree the coloring on the bigger ones sure look different.

Deuces wrote:

Going off jawlines they are all tullies, but I’m a complete newbie and I would agree the coloring on the bigger ones sure look different.

I have no idea either. I generally say what they are by size. When I catch smaller ones I say Cisco, when middle size I say Tullie, and when Bigger I say whitefish. I guess all of them go through all 3 sizes during their life. Each year in Canada while fishing walleyes we catch a few BIG whitefish. At least I assume they are whitefish. They run rather large in Canada and they fight like crazy. They also smell rather bad when handling them. We normally just grab the jig with a pliers and shake them off. I have never eaten one other than smoked ones. I guess someday I should try and fry or bake one to see how they taste. I know some people who really like eating them.

Cisco and tullibee are the same fish. Whitefish’s top jaw sticks out farther than the lower jaw. I’ve caught both and they smell similar to me. I’ve never eaten a tullibee but they were fun to catch on Leech. I was wondering what kept hitting my swivel while jigging a spoon. I down sized my bait and caught and released enough to make a slow day a lot of fun. I was gifted a box of whitefish fillets from Eagle Lake, ON several years back and they were a hit with everyone at the fish fry. No bones at all, but since they were commercially harvested the pin bones could have been picked out, if they do have pin bones.

After doing some research I found out that Tullibee and Cisco are the same fish. So I guess there are only 2 different fish. Cisco AKA Tullibee and Whitefish. On the Cisco/Tullibee the Upper and lower jaw is even. On whitefish the Lower Jaw is setback from the upper. So using that, I’d say you are correct, Those are all Cisco/Tullibee’s

Picklerick – You beat me to it.

fishthumper wrote:

Picklerick – You beat me to it.

Ha! Just barely, too.

I think most people smoke them. They are an oily, fatty member of the trout family that’s loaded with calories. Which is why any lake that has them can grow very large predatory fish like state record sized muskies.

picklerick wrote:

I’ve never eaten a tullibee but they were fun to catch on Leech.

Keep em next time, they are about as good as it gets out of the smoker imo. I haven’t done it in a while so prices may have changed, but Thielen’s will smoke them for you for like $1/lbs if you don’t want to deal with it. I just cut the head off and pull the guts out, just make sure to get the spinal cord/blood line along the spine too.

BigWerm wrote:

but Thielen’s will smoke them for you for like $1/lbs if you don’t want to deal with it.

That’s good to know. I know some of the meat markets stopped doing that for people. I just called them to get the current price and was told it is 1.69 a lb. starting weight. This was the Pierz location I called. I’d assume the little Falls location would be the same. I may have to make a point to Get out after a bunch of them this year. I know in the past we use to have lots of them smoked and then froze them to eat later. They we just as good when thawed out months later.

does smoking them get alot of the oil/fat out of them or are they really greasy after they are smoked? ive never tried it

Coletrain27 wrote:

does smoking them get alot of the oil/fat out of them or are they really greasy after they are smoked? ive never tried it

Cisco / Tullibee’s stay rather oily even after smoking. Whitefish seem to be a little less oily to me.

Unfortunately, no next time for me. I stopped ice fishing after the 2021/22 season. After being snowed in for 2.5 days at Big Rock on Leech, I wasn’t going to let a little -10 temps keep us off the ice. I was even dumb enough to put out a couple tip ups. Of course, when the sun went down it got colder and windier. In hindsight, I definitely should have warmed up inside the HEATED Polaris Ranger in between pulling each tip up because I couldn’t feel my fingers. My finger tips are numb most of the time now and hurt when it’s below 40. Sold all my gear last summer other than a propane and a gasser auger that nobody wants anymore. Gave up my midlife crisis goal of reviving my thrash metal guitar playing to boot. Can’t play chords if you can’t feel the strings.