On the south end… An awesome week of summer walleye fishing on Lake of the Woods. Things are constantly changing within the ecosystem from week to week. It is interesting how what is happening up on the north end of the lake isn’t necessarily the same as the south end of the lake. It’s a diverse body of water. One constant remains, lots of fish are being caught.
Summer patterns are rolling along, always on Mother Nature’s timeframe. Some bug hatches this week with many walleyes migrating to the deep mud. Some of these fish are very cooperative, others suspend and are not so willing. Find active fish.
Getting your presentation in front of lots of walleyes, by drifting spinners or trolling crankbaits as an example, will produce fish.
When pulling spinners, try various sizes and colors of blades. Great success was had with a #5 Colorado bronze blade with some orange. Other anglers using smaller #3 blades. Hammered gold combined with brighter colors are good choices on LOW.
Jigging is working well for some anglers, especially those fishing structure like rocky reefs. Whether on top, on the edges or where the rock meets the deep mud, anchoring up in an area with walleyes and vertical jigging with frozen emerald shiners can be very successful.
Walleyes are targeting many different types of forage this time of year. Some are focusing their attention on crayfish. Whether you find them when cleaning fish or they burp them up when you catch them, they are on the menu currently. These would be rocky areas, oftentimes shallow rocks. Try gold and orange colors in these areas.
Minnows and young of the year fish of all types are a staple for LOW walleyes and saugers. Oftentimes, you can see suspended schools of minnows on your electronics. There is a good chance there are walleyes in the area.
Finally, the various hatches of bugs draw walleyes over deep mud. Thousands of larvae expose themselves from the mud and are a great meal. There are a lot of walleyes over deep mud right now.
Walleyes are being caught in anywhere from 12 – 32 feet based on the forage in those areas. Good sonar will help you see walleyes, as well as minnows and bug hatches.
On the Rainy River… With 42 miles of navigable Rainy River, there is good fishing to be had. A mixed bag of walleyes, saugers, pike, smallmouth bass, lake sturgeon, crappies, perch and even some rough fish like suckers and bullheads are in the river.
Try a milk run on the river for multispecies action. Cast “fishy” spots up and down the river, going spot to spot until you find fish. Current breaks, deep holes, docks, feeder rivers, bridges and weedlines can all hold a variety of fish.
Cast jigs, swimbaits, crankbaits,spinnerbaits, or chatterbaits to cover water and catch fish.
Jigging, pulling spinners and trolling crankbaits all are catching walleyes.
Up at the NW Angle… A strong bug hatch with an abundance of food available for walleyes made some days more challenging than normal. Anglers worked a bit harder to catch fish, jigging and pulling spinners to overcome the buffet available to the fish and still caught good numbers.
Moving around slowly over the structure holding fish with a jig and minnow or jig and plastic. Try various colors of jigs and plastics until you figure out the walleye’s preference.
Crawler harnesses continue to catch a lot of walleyes. A 2 ounce bottom bouncer fished at a 45 degree angle at about 1.25 mph over mud or rocks with a snelled spinner and crawler is working well. Try to be close to the bottom, but not drag the bottom.
Hammered gold, pink and orange spinners, or a combo of these colors, has been effective. Use a two hook harness with a night crawler or imitation crawler.
A mixed bag of fish up at the Angle. Walleyes, saugers, smallmouth bass, pike, perch, crappies and muskies in good abundance.
