The jig I use depends on the bottom type, depth and the amount of wind. My personal favorite presentation for walleyes early in the season is a jig and spottail shiner minnow fished on a medium- or medium-light-action rod paired with Sunline SX1 Dark Green braid for the line. If fish arenвЂ™t biting, try something different until you find their preference. Larger angling groups need to pay attention to their presentations so their baits stand out from the crowd and get more action. Anglers can try to stay away from the crowds and find fish, but often, the boats are there because they have located a big school. The flotilla of boats are seen on the hot spots on weekends, especially next month, while fewer are present on the weekdays. There are usually several identifiable community hot spots on Leech. When they catch a fish, they mark the spot on GPS and try to adjust future drifts back through the most productive areas.

Many anglers make long drifts along the windward shore or over the top of flats. The water is clear here, so it usually takes wind or overcast skies to generate a good walleye bite in the shallow water.

IвЂ™ll watch my Humminbird Helix 10 on Side Imaging mode at 100 to 150 feet, looking for schools of fish without driving over them. Walleyes in Leech usually feed their way out of the bays along shoreline structure, searching for spawning spottail shiners and perch. Many spawn in the north ends of Portage and Sucker bays, so they will start to work their way down these after the spawn, eventually heading for the main lake or the deep waters in Walker Bay. Once the spawn finishes, walleyes focus on finding plentiful food sources. Keep in mind that these temperatures are most accurately measured early in the morning, before the sun warms the water. Surface water temperatures give anglers one of the biggest clues to what the fish are likely doing in any given situation. Increasing fishing pressure, along with the current state of the walleye population in Leech, has prompted the Minnesota DNR to set the limit in 2016 at four walleyes with a protected slot of 20 to 26 inches, and with one walleye longer than 26 inches allowed in a limit. The lake is widely considered as one of the вЂњTop Five Walleye LakesвЂќ within Minnesota. Most of the basin areas here are shallower than 40 feet deep, except for two deeper trenches. Most of the structure here is shoreline-connected, and there is also has a huge windswept main lake with islands, flats and humps. All have plenty of weeds and rocks with moderate depths in the middle. Leech Lake has many large bays feeding to the main lake. And there are shallow, weedy bays, like Steamboat and Boy bays, which are mostly shallow, except for the old creek channels. This lake has deep clear bays, like Walker Bay, which reach nearly 200 feet deep. There is a wide range of habitat in Leech too, which helps support the diverse fishery. Leech Lake in north-central Minnesota is a clear-water lake with 112,000 acres.

Leech lake minnesota