Leech Lake Area Walleye Report – 6/15-6/18

June is for fishing, at least for me anyway. I know many of you guys are going all year, and fall is a great time of year to boat big fish, but I tend to get a later start than most to the open-water period. Turkey season takes me right up until the end of May, and by the time I get to the water, the excitement, anticipation, and eventual fishing, has risen to a fever-pitch. Fish plain bite during this time of year, especially this year with the later start we’ve been getting, and I can’t think of a better time to get on the water than right now. Things have already slowed a touch, and they’ll continue to do so for walleyes anyway moving forward, but there’s still some great action to be had.

If June is for fishing, than the Leech Lake region of Minnesota is for catching, as I continue to be impressed with this lake, this area, and all the incredible potential it has for so many different species. We spent some time chasing walleyes on a couple of lakes in the area, including Leech, and found the walleyes to be cooperative, and beautifully textbook depending on the conditions we faced each day. Low skies and wet weather brought fish in shallow, provided there was some wind to break the surface a bit. When the wind calmed down, and we faced ultra-calm conditions, those same fish were very active, just deeper. For the most part, this zone of activity in the lakes we fished was between 10-13FOW on the shallow end, and 18-22FOW when the conditions were dead-calm. What truly impressed me, was that some of our fastest fishing was during the noon-mid-afternoon hours. Fish activity level was up, though at the same time, they weren’t too willing to chase fast moving baits with the 65 degree water temps we were seeing. They weren’t tightly congregated either, but were in loose schools of moderately aggressive fish just waiting for something to be put in their nose. Wind, when present, played a large role in determining where these schools would be, with our best locations being at the base, or inside-turn, of long points where the wind had been piling into. Fish were found at the tips of these points, and on offshore structure, but inside turns really concentrated the fish for us.

Jigs of various sizes and shapes were coupled with live bait with only moderate success, the cranksbait bite and spinner bite didn’t turn on for us either, so we lived and died by live-bait rigging with 6 foot or longer snells, plain hooks, and a single bead. Nothing fancy….bread-and-butter northern MN walleye fishing at its finest. That said, we did do a few things to enhance both the bite, and our presentation of the baits. Most of our fish came on hard-bottom transitions, with fish holding just on the rock/hard-sand edge as we so often see in many of these lakes. With this pattern being repeated in so many of the walleye lakes I tend to fish, a few years ago I made a switch in the sinker style/design that I use when rigging, and haven’t looked back since. The Northland Rock-Runner Slip-Bouncer style as shown in the photo has been a far superior system for a good number of reasons, to the point where I’m not even sure if I have anymore of the standard bottom walker sinkers. The system includes a sliding plastic sleeve that goes above your swivel, which allows you to switch to any size weight needed on the fly. To the sleeve, you attach a pencil-shaped sinker with a wire bottom protruding from the end of it. This wire operates just like on a larger bottom bouncer, keeping you out of rocks and other snags far better than standard sinkers. More importantly, the system seems to keep your hooks just above and out of snags as well, without having to use floats that rise your bait too far out of the zone. While more expensive than standard sinkers, they pay for themselves in short order with the number you’d otherwise lose, as I fished for 4 days without losing a rig.

Along with those sinkers, we alternated between fluorocarbon and standard mono leaders, both of which had to be at least 6 feet or longer to get bit consistently. Quality swivels are a must as well. I’m still surprised by the cheap swivels many folks use which can more easily get fouled by bottom muck/weeds. Larger leeches with lots of action were definitely preferred by the fish, so we re-baited often. Plenty of eater fish in the 15-19” range were caught, with a dozen or so fish in the 21”+ range, including a brute my brother caught. All in all, a great couple of days on the water that makes me wish I lived up there!

Joel