Fishing Forum

I grew up fishing for crappie, catfish, perch, white bass, largemouths and trout in Oklahoma and Colorado.

I am hoping to go to Minnesota in August to fish on small lakes (about 1000 acres) in the North/Central part of the state near Longville. The maps of the lakes show that they have weedbeds and depths down to about 70 feet with a few humps, but mostly just underwater ridges and dropoffs, with weeds down to about 16-17 feet.

I've never caught or even tried to catch a walleye or northern, and I'd like to give that a try. I also have 2 boys, and I want to find some bluegill or other perch that would keep them busy. I will have access to a boat, and trolling would be good to keep the kids entertained.

Since I've got kids along, I am more interested in catching numbers than looking for trophies. For example, I would not complain a bit if I got into a bunch of small northern pike.

I would appreaciate suggestions on the the sorts of structure to fish, likely fish depths and baits/methods for walleye, northerns or panfish in this sort of lake at that time of year.

Also:

What depths would the bluegill likely be holding in? Would they be in weeds? Are they through spawning or would weedbed/spawning areas be a place to try this late?

What should I target while trolling, and what to troll with?

Sorry for the list of questions, but I'm hoping to avoid wasting a few days figuring out the basics.

Thanks
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the baisics are pretty much the same here there and yander.

work you way all the way around the beds. no telling what is staged where. pike hang just inside the weed bed for cover and come out to feed.

dont bother fishing any deaper than 20 feet unless you are looking at perch or cisco.

Crickets are great if you can get your hands on them. Black ones are even better. "wild" store bought are brown

Live minnow is find under a bobber if allowed works great for eyes and pike perch and gills.

there is the old worm method, nothing wrong with putting on a peice of worm if all else fails.

stop at a local bait shop in the area to see what is hitting on what, they would sure like the business and may have some insite.. remember they have had a lot of flooding in many areas up that way..

good luck and let us know how you mannaged, even if skeeters was all that bites.