Bassin' on Leech

[buzbunni]

Hi FMer's,

I posted this on the Leech Lake forum, but I figured I'd give it a shot here as well....

Heading up from the cities to do some bass fishing on Leech this weekend, and am looking for any general tips. My fishing buddy is a (sigh) walleye guy, but he wants me to help him catch some bass if possible. Well, we'll see....

I've fished stony point for walleye before, but that's it. Never bassed fished on Leech.

Any general advice would be helpful. We'll be coming out of the west side of the lake.

Thanks.

[Cecil]

Bring the braided line! The main cover is rice up there. Right now can be a little tough to fish because they are usually standing so high and you are not allowed to go "into" the rice. Most tournaments are won out of Boy bay, but any bay with shallow cover can be good. Use rats, jig and pigs and jawbreaker spoons.

[TonkaBass]

I agree with what cecil said... A good pattern to start with is a topwater slopbait like a jawbreaker spoon or a weedless frog followed by a jig/pig or texas rig when the bass show themselves... Also try and remember where the fish that miss your lure were by throwing a bouy out so you can come back and catch them the second time around. Another fun area to fish other than boy bay is steamboat and the federal dam... My advise would be to launch the boat near the bay you plan on fishing to save on time and gas

[SledNeck]

I went to leech for the first time a few years ago and I put in at a resort on sugar point (lets just say the pulic boat landing looked UNfriendly)... went into boy bay and HAMMERED the bass all day long. Its a good time, but like 100 miles from here through some sketchy territory.

[bemidjibasser]

The cut banks near bear island and duck point can be pretty good too. They are kind of like fishing docks except you really can't skip anything under them. Jigs and tx rigs work best.

[Jig Master]

Throw a drop shot in 30 fow in walker bay with a noodle worm

[Cecil]

Cut banks are great. Try a swim jig around them as well.

[rangerforme]

I was just up on Leech, its pretty tough now because the rice is super high. Its tough to even get to a bank right now, not like in the spring time. Got some nice ones flipping 3/4oz jigs on rice edges.

[buzbunni]

Thanks for all the tips guys. It helped out.

Well, we found the bass, but it was pretty tough bass fishing until the wind died down on Sunday. We borrowed a 45pd transom mount trolling motor (buddy doesn't have any trolling motor), but obviously it would have been nice to have a bow mount unit. We caught enough bass to start the bass bug in him....I think (at least he'll have an option for those clear, calm days), so maybe I'll see a bow mount on the Lund next year.

Fished sheltered bays on the west side, and caught most of our fish on the rice edges around MN island. Senkos were the ticket for all of our fish, but I did have initial misses on jawbreakers and topwater frogs as well.

Nice sized fish with purty color up there.

The wind was nice for the walleye bite, and the decent chop helped us land a couple of dinners. Walleye are starting to go into their Fall patterns (did they ever leave them?), and all the spots we hit in spring were working. As is the case in much of MN, it's been a weird year for locating fish. All of this cold weather seems to have kept them from normal summer spots, at least with any regularity.

Thanks again all. Good fishin' to ya.

[Cecil]

The avg size up there is top couple in the state for bass.

[fishuhalik]

A buddy of mine (tonkabass's roomate) has a cabin up there and was telling me it's not uncommon to have 22-23lb bags for a 5 fish limit on Leech. I gotta get up there sometime!

[bemidjibasser]

Sounds about right. The last T I fished out there it took around 30 lbs for an 8 fish limit to be in the money...