Central Minnesota Smallmouth/Walleye Report

By Joe Scegura 0

I’m just about wrapped up with my Smallmouth trips for the year and as always my thumbs have had about all the can take. The smallmouth are getting as plump as ever and some of them look like they’ve eaten a tennis ball. The water level on the river this year is defiantly higher than normal. This made things slightly more difficult, but that didn’t stop the trophies from coming to the boat. We were fortunate enough to boat a number incredibly big fish, not to mention pretty decent numbers too. This bite will probably go another couple weeks before they slow way down, but my attention is quickly turning to the walleye action in Alexandria.

The jig bite is starting to turn on in the area. I’m primarily fishing a 1/4oz jig and minnow combo in 18-28 FOW. Some days we’re getting limits of 14"-17" walleye very easily and other days we have to work for them. With the water temp at around 59deg and dropping every day, soon we’ll be in the steady Fall pattern where the fish just can’t say, no. That should happen in the next 7 to 10 days. Then we’ll be in the heart of the Fall bite and there’s nothing better than that!

The night trolling bit is also going strong. Tuesday night the lakes were like glass. With clear skies and the moon high in the ski, I’ve rarely seen the night any brighter. We trolled #7 Shadlings at about 1.8-2mph in 5-12FOW. We trolled for about 2.5 hrs and caught over 25 fish 14"-19". No monsters, but some great fish for eating and fun action!

This is one of the best times of the year for fishing. The traffic on the lakes is much lower and the fish bite more consistent than any other time period. So, plan your trip to Alexandria today and take my word for it, you won’t regret it

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Joe Scegura

I bought my first boat when I was 13 and I've spent about every day since on the water or ice. I do most of my guiding on MilleLacs and in the Alexandria Lakes area.

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  13. Thanks Guys! The fishing has been great and the walleye fishing is only getting better.

    I wanted to tell you guys a funny story about this double.

    Dave was reeling in the fish on the right and it appeared to be a solid fish so being we were using light equipment I netted it and as I was raising the net the one on the left jumped right in. I’ve had fish follow other fish to the boat before but never had one do this. Defiantly one of the funniest things that’s happened in my boat this year We were joking the fishing was so good they were jumpin in the net

  14. Joe:

    Those are some pretty impressive pictures. Excellent work up there…..no wonder you’ve been busy guiding with success like that!

    Joel

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