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Hello gentlemen (and ladies). I am new to the forum. Myself and 3 of my relatives/friends will be on Leech for the opener and none of us have fished here before. I was wondering where some good starting points would be to do some fishing for the opener as well as any advice as far as techniques, bait etc... and if the early ice out and warming temps will have any affect. Any help will be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much.
Most of the anglers target the shallow on the big lake. Where are you staying? If you are not familiar with Leech Lake an easy way to find areas to fish are to follow the crowds. There will many boats on the popular fishing spots. Join the crowd, check the type of structure they are fishing. Be ethical. Most boats drift with the wind searching for active fish. When motoring back to start a new drift go around the other boats. Much depends on wind direction, always fish the windblown shorelines and points.
A jig tipped with a shiner minnow is the presentation I use. Use the lightest jig you can that will allow you to maintain bottom contact.
Trolling shad raps is another popular method, it allows you to cover water. The warm spring may result in the fish setting up deeper than most openers. I normally start fishing in the 10 foot range, moving deeper if no fish are contacted.
Good luck, Murph
www.jimmurphyguide.com
This will be my 11th year, although just the 3rd trip recently. Not a whole lot has changed at Leech, and not much more I can tell you other than what Murph said. Don't hang in one spot too long, you have to move to find fish. Otter has always been a favorite of mine, seems to get a decent wind more often than not. Troll cranks, find the fish, then drop a jig and a shiner. 3 of us caught our limit of keepers and 4 fish in the slot (1 over) around 11pm at Otter on our last night last year. Good memories for the upcoming trip.
Good luck, have fun!
Like the guys said always fish windblown shorelines. That being said here are some other spots to try. Assuming you are staying somewhere on Traders (in my opinion why stay anyplace else on the lake) you can hit these in order and end up back at Traders at days end. 10-15 foot breaks between acorn hill and Brindleys. A good place to go in the dreaded miserable east wind, and not often fished. Other places to hit include Pine Point, Grand Vue flats, West Goose flats, big and little hardwoods, First and Second Duck, Then as the other gentleman suggested Otter Tail (very rough place usually though) then over to big and little Stoney very rough there to usually, then you will have circled back to Traders Bay. If we get a super warm spring and the weathers warm or hot you may want to try various reefs out in the main lake basin. Traditionally these were the places to get fish in the good old days. just fish em in 12-20 feet till you find the right depth break is I usually find em in 18 feet. If you have a good map the GPS coordinates of these spots are on the maps.
Murph pretty well nailed how to fish but Leech is the third biggest lake in Minnesota and can really nasty at the drop of a hat. So be careful out there and if you see everyone heading in, don't get a case of the stupid's.
I'll echo the spots that The Iowegian covered and mention that my all time favorite spot would have to be the Hardwoods.
My Pro-V is usually skurting the croud around Pine point, remember, just because every one and there brother is with in a couple hundred yds of each other doesnt mean thats the only place with fish. skurt the outer limits of these big groups of boats keeping an eye on your depth and you will find good fishing.
the last couple yrs a monkey could catch the walleys up there
Hey for a minute there I thought you were calling me a monkey, but then I remembered that I have a difficult time catching eye's any where any time. Sigh* Sigh* poor me.............
While we are in the final week before the opener. Weather continues on the cool side with a lot of rain, but we need it lake is low this season. I heard the bait shops will have a good supply of shiners after all. As far as location of fish, we will just have to check out our favorite areas and see if the fish are present, if not it will be time to go into the search mode. Good luck to all and remember be patient on the opener, it will be crowded as the word is out on Leech. Another 20 plus million fry were stocked this last week, good news. With the early warm weather we should have had a good natural spawn.
Please let the forum know how you do this opener, the information is good for everyone.
Yes, please share how your opener was with the board, especially for those of us who will not be up until the Friday after Opening.
Good Luck!