Western Minnesota Report

For the week leading up to the august full moon I spent time jumping around the lakes of northwest Minnesota. We arrived with low water levels and temps hanging around the 73 degree mark. Most of the fishing revolved around big blades. Supermodel shorts and detonators from musky mayhem made up 90 percent of our fish action and bites. Although the majority of our fishing was done with blades off main lake weed lines, a very apparent pattern for what I assume to be the larger fish, was suspended over hard to soft bottom transition areas nearby. The short amount of time we spent casting these areas was slowing our larger blades down in order to get them deeper in the column and following up with Chaos Tackle Husky Medusas and large jerkbaits.

Low light periods and after dark accounted for the majority of our fish boated however finding fish throughout the day with both electronics and follows narrowed our spots to be come prime windows. The last few days of the trip came rain and much cooler nights. This was the start of a much larger push to shallow water for fish of all sizes.

Shallow sand and newly grown shallow cabbage areas with quick access to deep water was where we found the largest fish. KramerBros woodtick and unweighted tickers accounted for our biggest fish to end the trip however action on slower moving topwaters during nighttime and chaos tackle big mama had plenty of activity from fish during the day. As things continue to cool down, more fish will make the movement shallow and concentrating on shallow sand and cabbage, and when things get tough, thick patches of milfoil spread out across these flats. These areas will become the more staple locations for the next transition into fall.