Long Lake Fishing Reports - New Auburn

[portageman]

Anything coming out of long? I was there for the opener and it was slow. I am headed over there again this weekend and I am wondering if things have picked up a bit with the warmer temps.

[vman59]

picking up some Walleyes on the outside breaks of the early cabbage weed beds. Few smallies as well all using jig/minnow or rapala's.Water temp is in the upper 50's.

[Cooter]

Bass on the beds yet?

[vman59]

Not as of yet, water temps need to come up quite a bit.

[jdbigeye]

Hey guys, I'm heading to Long for the 4th of July weekend. Just wondering how the Musky fishing is out there? Is it worth bringing the gear?

[Nick Kuhn]

I had a fish take a bucktail right as it hit the water (thus not a very good hookset). Lost it on a good leap from the fish. Mid 30's maybe. Only time I've fished it so there's at least 1 in there, and I suspect there's a few more. Also caught a few pike in the process.

[portageman]

I didnt hear much this past weekend, But I see Muskie fisherman out there quite a bit. We did pull in a few nice pike.

Thanks to the previus posts - we did pretty well on Sat, but we had to work for them. We caught a few eyes on slip bobbers, a few on jigs, and a few troliing raps. Most were in the slot. Still alot of fun. My brother in law lost a nice one at the boat - Iribbed him all weekend.

[Bobberboy]

Did well on Herd last weekend. We probably caught 20 eyes on raps.

"Your bobbers down!"

[Ole54868]

Just thought I would post a quick report from fishing yesterday. I was out on Long mainly to play with my new leadcore rods from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m. ended up with 6 walleyes a 26" which was released and 5 eyes 15" to 16" which I kept one mainly because I thought they were to small until I measured one. I caught all fish trolling rapalas in the narrows in 20' to 30' of water. I had a half dozen small mouth with one being a nice 20"

There are fish to be caught if you can find them and they are hungry. Look for the bait fish and you will find active walleyes. Good luck everyone

[vman59]

Nice report Ole thanks !

[Cooter]

26" is a dandy, congrats and cool on the release of that big girl. How are the cabbage beds looking thus far?

[jdbigeye]

Any recent reports for Long? Heading there in a couple days and starting to get anxious!

Does anybody know the slot limits for walleye? 14-18" must go back??? 1 over 18" Sound right?

Makes it pretty tough for a good fish fry!

[Ole54868]

Went back out to Long with my Dad on Tuesday and trolled every bait I could think of trying through pods of bait fish along weededges and couldn't find a eye again for the life of me.

Marked plenty of fish on the graph but no takers. We fished for about 4 hours. Did catch a bluegill on a #7 Shad Rap at 2 mph trolling which I have never seen before.

I am done fishing for a few weeks just to many boats out there on the lake for me.

[Ole54868]

Was back out on Long Lake fishing with my Dad yesterday and found a few eyes finally. We trolled Shad Raps through suspended fish and changed baits a lot. Ended up with 2 18" eyes and a handlefull of Bass Largemouth and Smallmouth with most nice big fish. The color that was working for us was Firetiger in a Shad Rap which doesn't suprise me since I only had one in that color. We fished from about 9am until 1pm and ended up with a good sun burn on the back of my neck.

Felt good to be out fishing again and we caught a few fish.

Good Luck Everyone

[Zabka]

Ole54858

Any luck this week with the lead core? Growing up in the area I have been a one hit wonder for years with Lindy's but in the last few years and fishing Lake of the Woods I have learned how important it is to have other options. I have done very well fishing LOW and Mille Lacs with lead core.

What is the latest report for Long and or Bear?

[Ole54868]

I was out on Long the other day trolling rapala's with a few takers but nothing great. Ended Monday night with 2 eater eyes.

I have plenty to learn about this lead core trolling though.

I mostly catch all the floating weeds in the lake on my leadcore line but I have been managing to get a few eyes. If I could only get past the two keepers a night I would be onto something.

Good luck everyone

[Zabka]

Ole,

You hit on one of my biggest concerns with the local lakes in that area. The floating weeds can be an issue! You may try running the rod tip in the water in turn the rod tip collects the weeds and can be brought in and cleaned off the tip instead of the lure bill.

[Ole54868]

The planner boards are nice for that but don't work with leadcore at least that is what they tell me. I will give the rod tip idea a shot though but I think the weeds will still work there way down the line. It will be better when the pleasure boats slow down this fall and the weeds die off.

I have plenty left to learn about this whole trolling deal yet.

I have been getting fish but not the numbers that I am looking for or the size fish that I am looking for.

[Zabka]

Ole,

I will let you know how we did this weekend! I am planning on running lead core most of Friday and Saturday if the boat traffic lets me!

[Ole54868]

Any tips you can give me would help a ton. Speed, leader lengh bait style and depth. Good luck with the boat traffic on them two days... I would fish the narrows on the breaks outside of the weed line should be the best bet for not getting run over but the rec boat traffic. PS... Watch out of the Jet Ski's.

[Zabka]

Ole,

Fished Bear and Long Friday with Long being the better that day! Started fishing the southern or eastern part of long and things started slow. We did find fish stacked in an area around bait fish and every time we would make a pass we would get a walleye, bass, or northern. The spot that held the fish had crazy boat and jet ski traffic! We moved to the narrows and didn't have any luck but we only fished the lake for four hours on Friday and left with two nice fish! The largest fish boated was a 25 incher.

I fish with 9'6" lead core rods and running the rod tips in the water helped minimize the issue with floating weeds. The weeds would collect on the rod and upon pulling the rod out of the rod holder you could easily get rid of the weeds without having them run down your line to the lure.

I run 18lb lead core with a leader of 50 to 60 feet of 10 lb. fluorocarbon and on Friday a bleeding hot olive seemed work well. It looks very similar to fire tiger. I try and keep my speed around 2.0 - 2.5! I usually run SR7's but sometimes will run SR9's. From what I saw on the graph I bet later summer will be even better for running lead core on Long! I wish we would have spent the day on Long because it seemed the walleyes were agreeing with us and it seemed the key was to find the large bait balls! Saturday I spent the day on Bear with only Smallies!

Good Luck!

[Ole54868]

I think I know where you were fishing because I am pretty sure that we are fishing the same area. How deep of water where you in and what depth where you getting fish at.

I have been in about 30' getting them at 10' to 15' but seems with boat traffic they get to the 20' mark.

[Zabka]

We were in about 25 - 30 feet and getting the fish at about 20! To be honest I had a hard time paying attention in this area because every pass would produce a fish and with so many people so close they would see a 9'6" rod folded over and they would want to stop and see what is going on! To the point a boat stopped in front of me to asks how big! I had to stop and real in because as you know the lead core sinks and it can get hung up on the bottom!

[Ole54868]

That is why I do not fish on the weekends at all. Best time to be on the lake is early morning before all the rec boats are out and I try to fish during the week.

20' so 4 colors with a SR7 at 2 mph should be 20' right?

I have been having better luck slower 1.3 to 1.8 but then I have no idea what depth my leadcore is at other than to deep.

[Zabka]

Ole,

With a lot of testing I have found the following:

GPS boat speed 2.0 mph

18 lb lead core

50 feet of 10lb mono

Lead core (18lb) sinks about 4.5 feet per color (very boat speed sensitive.) Faster = sinks less and slower = sinks more

With my calculations you would running an SR7 at 22 feet.