Advice for this weekend: 7/31-8/1

I’ll be heading over to visit my folks this weekend, and I thought I’d take my Dad fishing on Menomin, either Friday afternoon/evening, or Saturday morning. They live just a few blocks up the hill from the lake, so it’s a short trip.

I live in MN now, and haven’t fished Menomin since about 15 years ago. I know there may be some weather moving in this weekend, and from what I hear the water is “nuclear” green. I’d love to get into some walleyes, but I’ll take whatever we can catch.

For walleyes, if we head out under the freeway into the river, what should we be throwing at them? Jigs/livebait? Crankbaits? If we troll the main lake, should we hug some structure with our trolling passes, or just find fish on the Lowrance and make passes at them?

If the walleyes aren’t cooperating, where should we look for bass or pike, or panfish for that matter.

I don’t get to fish with my Dad as often as I’d like, and it sure would be nice to get him into some fish. I’d love some advice.

Thanks,

MMT

Hey, Welcome to IDO Matt

I’m sure a few others will chime in that have may have fished the lake since I was last out. This has been an ‘off’ year for Lake Menomin to say the least and it seems that the standard methods of catching and areas of locating fish have changed; why this is I haven’t a clue.

Now on to your question of where to go and what to do… Based off my last trip over I would start by trolling on the main lake. While this didn’t produce much when I was last out 2 weeks ago, it’s truly due to kick in. Watch your graph for the cribs and troll next to them (or over them if you dare…) I’d also focus some attention on the river channel running though the lake.

If that flop’s, head up river. Pull cranks real slow on deep edges adjacent to thick weeds, don’t be afraid to try running a few suspended cranks too…. You’ll understand exactly what I’m talking about when you get up there. Pulling smaller crankbaits slow and tight to the weeds produced some perch, but they were not exactly of trophy caliber, if ya know what I mean.

Hopefully that will help ya some, if nothing else it will give ya a place to start

I would 2nd Pete’s recommendations. Since Menomin is a featureless basin, your best bet is to get your baits in front of as many active fish as possible: i.e.: trolling. Really, it is simple as covering ground, running cranks in a staggered fashion to cover the entire water column-sometimes those walleyes are only 4 feet down. With the green, stay out in the main lake. Depending on the wind, you might find 6 feet of water clarity. Running up the river as Pete noted is a good 2nd choice. With the fish kill from this past winter, the panfish is a MUCH tougher bite than usual. If you have boards, run them to spread the lines and cover a bigger swath.
Good luck.

Jeremy

Tough fishing this year but I second Doc and Pete’s advice. Was having dinner with friends who live on the north side of the lake and watched through binos as one guy fished cribs between Boy Scout Island and the boat landing by the park north of the Dam. He was catching panfish. At Dusk a couple of boats were pitching something along the weeds around Boy Scout Island and catching Bass and I even saw something longer, either a Northern or Large walleye caught, hard to tell from a 1/4 mile away.

Thanks for the advice. That gives me some good direction for the weekend. I’ll post back to show the results (hopefully with some nice pics).

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Thanks for the advice. That gives me some good direction for the weekend. I’ll post back to show the results (hopefully with some nice pics).

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Good Luck!

Let us know how you do

I’m new to IDO and just saw the post. I live about 5 min away from Menomin and have not fished it in over a month it has been really bad out there this year. Hopefully you did well out there. Look forward to seeing your new post about the weekend.

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I’m new to IDO and just saw the post. I live about 5 min away from Menomin and have not fished it in over a month it has been really bad out there this year. Hopefully you did well out there. Look forward to seeing your new post about the weekend.

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Welcome to IDO Bear!

Welcome to IDO Bear!

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Thanks its a great site. Has a lot of offer.