Fishing tips for Minnesota

[scot71]

So, I'd like to get some advice from our northern members. The guys in my family are planning a fushing trip to Crane Lake, MN in early June and I'd like to get some advice about the types of lures (baits) I should look into for this time of year. They don't have to be species specific. Just the best all around baits that you could recommend. Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[RightStuff]

That sounds like a fun trip. Here some initial thoughts around what I would prep/pack for fishing up there. I haven't been on Crane Lake, but was up on Rainy Lake last summer (in June as well), and have fished a few other lakes in that area over the years as well. Just amazing area of the state!

Walleye/Bass/Northern/Crappies are the main species that people fish for around here, each can have their own challenges of what type of lures/presentations, and of course every lake can be different. So I guess what I'm saying is plan for a variety (colors, sizes, lure types, etc), you never know what's going to work and what's not until you start getting hits. When I went up to Rainy last year I stocked up on a lot of different trolling lures (Rapalas mainly), and a lot of different jigs (size and color). We probably fished with those 2 things 70% of the time. The rest was slip bobbers and Lindy rigs. Not one thing really was more successful over others.

One thing that does play a huge role in fishing success up there is weather (obviously), but also insect hatches. If you arrive during one of those hatches it can really shut down the fishing.

Here's an online forum that I would watch for what people fishing that area talk about, sometimes you can get some good advice/ideas from it.
http://fishingminnesota.com/forums/forum/94-crane-lake-kabetogama-namakan-fishing-reports-hunting/

Good luck on the trip, post back what you thought of your time in MN and how the fishing was!

 

[scot71]

Thanks so much for your tips @RightStuff , they are very helpful.
We did this trip about 11 years ago and had an awesome time. I just forgot what kind of baits we were using.
The lake/area is so amazingly beautiful and I sure wish we had that kind of water here in central Indiana.
I will definitely post some pics and video if I can. I can't begin to tell you how much I'm looking forward to this trip.

 

[Julian]

For walleye we'd jig with pretty much any brightly colored jig with leaches....

For northern....we'd just bright silver, yellow or green fish looking lures casted into weed beds (the deeper the water around the weeds the better). Sometimes we'd go with frog shaped lures, but I found the fish ones worked best.