Fishing Report
When is the best time to go fishing? Here in the north woods, every day is the best day. Our area contains a wide range of lakes with varied depths, shoreline structures, and a wide range of fish species. Seasoned anglers know success requires patience and a willingness to try different techniques. If you have a youngster in the group, they will most likely catch the biggest fish - it always happens. So, maybe no technique is a good strategy too. For those interested in learning about lake structure, water quality, or creel surveys, we encourage you to visit the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Lake Finder page. Area lakes will either be found in St. Louis or Lake County. Minnesota Fishing Regulations
October 21st, 2025
Steven Renneberg
***Fishing Report***
Walleye - Fall walleye fishing continues to get better and better as water temperatures are now in the mid to low 50’s and falling. Big minnows continue to be the way to go for the majority of anglers now. Anglers are finding walleyes anywhere from 6-35ft of water now. Windy structure or windy shorelines have been the best areas to target walleyes. Key has been to find the schools of baitfish. Find the baitfish, find active, aggressive walleyes. Trolling crankbaits in these same depths has also been very effective for finding and catching quality walleyes.
Smallmouth Bass - Smallies have begun to drop in the water column as water temps continue to drop. Anglers are now finding smallies in 15-25ft, around sunken islands. Slow moving baits like a large sucker minnows, fished on a lindy rig or your favorite large soft plastic fished on a drop shot rig. Not all sunken islands are created equal so, you may have to fish a few before finding the one they are still schooled up on, but when you do you will know.
Pike - Large pike have begun to show up on shallow rocky pints, shallow rocky sunken islands and river mouths as whitefish and ciscos are nearing their spawn. Large minnow baits, large soft plastic baits or large sucker fished under a bobber often results in new personal best pike being caught.
Stream Trout - Rainbow trout fishing was unusually slow for this time of the year. Some rainbows were being caught very close to shore by shore anglers, but the best rainbow trout fishing came at 30ft of water. Hanging night crawlers under a bobber or trolling a chunk of crawler on a spinner rig often produced bites.
