Spent 4 nights in the Knife Lake area 7/25-7/29, mainly on the South Arm of Knife Lake. We had good action fishing for smallmouth, and most were taken trolling shorelines, islands, and points. Hot baits were shallow and medium-diving crankbaits with blue and purple seeming to work best. Most fish were taken in 12-15 feet of water and were small to medium in size.

We also did some fishing on Carp and Birch lakes where we picked up more smallies and a few pike. On Carp, my brother caught a largemouth that was a nice catch for anywhere and a great fish for northern MN.

We trolled and casted weedlines with hopes of Walleye, but no success on this trip.

As I do every year, I brought a mask a snorkel to scout out the underwater landscape. I spotted a few football-sized smallmouth on Birch cruising in 10-15 feet of water along weedlines and also spotted a school of rockbass and a few bluegill.

The fishing was fairly good, and the bugs weren't too bad. Next year's goal is going to be to get a few 'eyes or bust.

On the last full day my rods got left behind on the Carp-Birch portage. After setting up camp on Birch I noticed they were missing so my brother and I went back for them, but they were gone. They had only been there about three hours and only a couple of parties went through the portage during that time. If I saw a set of lonely rods on a portage I would leave them be so that they would be there when the owner came back for them. Bummer, but now I know what to ask for for Christmas. Good thing my brother brought two so I could borrow his second one for the remainder of the trip.

thanks for your trip report, i always like hearing reports from knife one of my favs. its too bad about your fishing rods you could try listing them here in the lost and found thread. i,m a bit surprised that someone took them , i would have left them but (maybe ) they thought they might come across the people that left them ? ? i did the same thing 2 years ago our rod case was almost the same color as birch trees and we stood it up next to some birch trees(mistake)