Fishing Namakan, Sandpoint, Crane, and Kabetogema

[MNdanimal57]

I'm going up to camp and fish out of Voyageaurs Nat'l Park this coming weekend (Friday June 4th departure). Wondering if people have any advice on where to fish, how deep to fish (especially considering the warm Spring and early iceout this year), and what types of baits to use. We stayed at a resort on Crane Lake last year but there was really only one hole we could rely on (the Gorge in Crane Lake) and this year we are going to be camping on Namakan and don't want to always make the trip all the way down to Crane, and would also like to find a few other good spots to find walleye.

Any advice/pointers would be greatly appreciated!!

Thank you,

[lots of luck]

Was there for the opener. Only the second time in five years I have been there, camped on Namakan. Walleye bite was tough for us, caught our best eyes' in four feet of water casting husky jerk-baits n boulders/rubble, basketball stones in the afternoon. Also caught a few eyes and saugers in fourty feet of water, but they were dinks. Tennessee shad was the hot color for husky jerk-baits, when I lost mine I switched to gold and black and did well also.

Pike were small for us, great action but size was lacking.

Smallmouth were tough, but when you found one, there were usually more around. Caught a nice 19". Several 18". Prominent shoreline points produced best.

Surface water temps started at 60 degrees when we arrived and were mid 60's when we left. That's about it.

We treated the trip as a R and R session, rather than a fishing tournament.

[Maverick]

Will you be getting a Canadian Fishing License? If so try fishing the north shoreline of Namakan just north of My Island. In June, we had our best luck with crawlers on spinners and bottom bouncers. If you have a good map and you really need one up there look for midlake sunken islands and bars. We always had luck fishing where the wind was blowing in.

There is a ton of structure on Namakan so don't get stuck on one spot.

[MNdanimal57]

Just going to be fishing on the U.S. side of things. Thanks for the heads up!!