Panfish on or near leech lake – fall fishing

Myself and several friends have been taking a fall trip to Leech lake for about 10 years now. We mostly target perch and walleyes. I would really like to get into some of the Excellent panfish ( sunfish and Crappies ) I keep hearing about on either Leech or a near by lake. I have tried several time to locate sunfish on the North end of Steamboat bay with not much success. If anyone would care to share some info. about either Leech lake or other lake that is close to leech I would appreciate it. Feel free to PM me if you would prefer. It doesn’t need to be GPS spots, Just general areas or lakes would be fine. With this years trip only being 3 days, it would be nice to shorten the search time needed to get on some fish.

Thanks on advance for any and all Info.

I used to spend a week on Leech in Sept. or Oct.
We stopped going 3 years ago.
The walleyes are still there but the perch fishing tanked from what it used to be.
10 years ago you could fill a fish basket with 12 inchers every time out. Hundreds of people did it. hmmm, maybe that’s why it sucks now.
Anyhow, I think between being over fished and the rusty crawfish eating the weed beds, it might be a while if they do make a come back.

I tried for Sunnies and Crappies but was hit or miss. Mostly miss. You’d pick up a few here and there but never really found concentrations. Any of the bays that still have weeds can be good but finding weed beds is a problem. Some locals can get on them but they’re not talking…for good reason.

Ya I remember the good old days of the great perch fishing. You didn’t even think of Keeping fish under 11” and got a decent amount of 12”+ fish. These days you need to keep some 9” fish and are excited about 10”
Fish. Still fun and those 9-10” are good eating.

Family has a cabin on SE end, don’t get up there often but have tried finding crappies several times thru the years with no luck. My dad is much better crappie guy than me and found them couple times, and when you do they are freaking huge.

I’ve dragged lots of livebait around the weeds south end of bear with some success for perch, but not something I’d personally do if targeting them, be pretty slow day.