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The walleyes continue to be on a strong evening/night time bite on Gull Lake.  A weed line bite has begun and walleyes were being caught on a @4 blue blade in  with a leech with an 1/8 oz bullet weight trolling at 1.1 mph anywhere from 8-16 feet depending on the weeds.  My guess is any day now the bite will start transitioning into an all day thing.  Make sure you pay attention to wind.  Any wind blown weed edge will have walleyes stacking on it.

Trolling stick baits near dusk to after dark on the weed edges has been producing not only numbers but very large sized walleyes.  The key was to trolling around the 1.5 mph mark with a jerk pause of the stick bait.  Rattles seemed to increase bites more than anything.  On Monday, walleyes topped out at 30 inches and we had several more over the 23 inch mark.  Several eaters were taken as well.  On Tuesday, the bite continued.  My guide trip got cut short due to an illness but we still managed some fish on a leech/spinner as well as some dusk walleyes up to 25 inches on rattling stick baits.

Pike are extremely active in the Brainerd area.  Big

Bluegills are on the spawn on most lakes in the area with some of the smaller ones having the spawn complete.  Remember to use some selective harvest.  Those big males are the only defense of not only the nest but also the fry after the spawn.  Keep a few to eat but also keep the lakes health in mind!

Many of the smaller lakes in the area are beginning to produce some great walleye and bass fishing.  Slip bobbers with leeches on rock humps and weed edges are producing as well as in some of the shallower, warmer lakes a crawler harness trolled at 1.0 in the 10-15 foot range.

Walleyes are being found along weed points and saddles in the 10-25 foot marks depending on the location.  Red tails or leeches are producing the fish on either a live bait rig or a light colored jig head.  The bite has been an early morning bite with a little lull and then it picks up again around the 1 pm to 3 pm time frame.  The bite should soon be transitioning into a crawler bite as the fish being to migrate a little deeper.  Keep your worm blowers on stand by!

Largemouth are near or under docks. A Ned rig was the lure of choice for the bass. The spawn is fully complete and the males are protecting their fry.  If you want to have a great time, go out with some top water lures during the low light periods and find the fry on the surface.  The males will be near by and you can have a ton of fun casting poppers in these areas.

Smallies are very active and staging on the rocks.  In many places you can find them with your eyes.  It is incredible what is happening on the chain with the smallmouth population. There is going to be a very impressive fishery in the near future!

Really nice pike are very active right now with fish staging right on the drop to deeper basin areas.  Do some S trolling from 8 to 25 feet.  Most strikes are occurring when you head back onto the flat from the deep water.  The key was trolling fairly fast in the 3.4-4.2 mph zone.  Wade wobblers, Suicks, white spinner baits were all producing numbers.

The smaller lakes are producing a lot of largemouth.  Wacky worms in a red shad as well as anything with shades of blue are working wonderfully.  Long casts on cabbage flats are doing the best.  Docks are also holding some fish.  Crappies are starting to come out of their post spawn lull and can be found in the 6-10 foot areas near cabbage.  Points and inside turns have been the best.  Look for them surfacing during low light times and once you find them, they should be fairly near that area during the mid day time periods.  Tungsten jigs with some sort of a plastic tail will produce.  You can either cast and retrieve or swim a jig below a bobber.

Bluegills are in full spawn mode on the chain.  It really doest matter where you go, just search the shorelines near docks.  There is a large abundance of really nice to very large bluegills in the chain at the moment.

Whitefish are being found all over the lake at the moment and they are actively feeding.  They are currently being found in the 23-35 foot areas with a gradually sloping break.  Smaller jigging raps were producing fish.  We had fish up to 8 pound the one day we targeted them.  If you are going to chase them, they are fairly tightly schooled at the moment so there is quite a bit of looking but once you find them, the action is fairly fast.  Whitefish have really soft mouths so if you are going to chase them, I would suggest using an 8 pound or less mono and a maximum medium light rod with your lures at this time.

Fishing is only going to continue to get better as the year progresses.  Whats so wonderful about the Brainerd Lakes Area is the abundance of multi species opportunities and we love to target them all so give us a call!

Nate Berg

Nate Berg Fishing Guides

218-821-9488