I've been to the BW about 15 times. I do okay fishing but I often wonder if I am doing it wrong...

Let's say you are going up for 5 days around late May. You enjoy catching all 4 species. How do you fish?

Specifically:
- Do you get up early? If so, what do you target? Where and how?
- What about 10am-3pm? What do you target? Where and how?

What about afternoons and evenings? Those are probably my worst times. I usually don't fish much in the evening. I get back to camp, make dinner, and relax around the fire. Should I be fishing? If so, where/what/how?

Here is my typical day:

- Get up about 8 or 9. Make coffee and breakfast. I might through out a smelt on a bottom rig.
- Head out about 10. Maybe troll for lake trout
- Probably wind up at some moving water. Fish with zulu's or poppers for a bit.
- Maybe wind up at a point or some other structure. Fish with leaches and slip bobbers.
- Troll around some more for lake trout and anything else that might bite. Often get any one of the 4 species.
- Get back to camp about 4. Soak some more leeches and slip bobbers around camp.
- Wrap it up about dinner time and wait for tomorrow


What do others' typical days look like?

I see your favorite lake is Horse... did you help me out years back on secret little sunken island? If so or if not, all i can say about late may is night crawlers. We were up last year in late may any you couldn't keep the bass/pike/walleye off em. Deeper during the day and on or near the shallower structure towards evening. For time of day i've been relying on the moon position for nearly 30 years. Not that i don't fish when its not straight up or down, but i make it a point to pay attention and to be out there as much as possible when it is.

Sobi: "I see your favorite lake is Horse... did you help me out years back on secret little sunken island? If so or if not, all i can say about late may is night crawlers. We were up last year in late may any you couldn't keep the bass/pike/walleye off em. Deeper during the day and on or near the shallower structure towards evening. For time of day i've been relying on the moon position for nearly 30 years. Not that i don't fish when its not straight up or down, but i make it a point to pay attention and to be out there as much as possible when it is."

That was me regarding the Horse tip.

I've never taken crawlers. How do you rig them?

The night bite usually happens around 9:00 to 11:00. It can get tricky with Leeches this time of year, they like to ball up because of cold water. Bring worms with you in case. Early morning about 5:00 to 10:00 is the morning bite. Smallmouth Bass I think will still be on their beds.

Savage Voyageur: "The night bite usually happens around 9:00 to 11:00. It can get tricky with Leeches this time of year, they like to ball up because of cold water. Bring worms with you in case. Early morning about 5:00 to 10:00 is the morning bite. Smallmouth Bass I think will still be on their beds. "

I've taken leeches about 5 times on Memorial Day. They've always worked well with no balling but I'm going a little earlier this year.

Savage Voyageur: "...Early morning about 5:00 to 10:00 is the morning bite. Smallmouth Bass I think will still be on their beds. "

Ok. So I get up a 5am. Where do you go? What are you looking for? What do you use for bait?

I'm looking for specifics... Something like "I row along the northern shore and cast zulu's right near shore and work it back to me..." or "I look for a sheltered northern bay and look for bass beds. I can't a TGO nightcrawler towards the beds"

Wake up
Slip bobbers with leach from camp
Nap in hammock
Go out troll with this



Once you catch a couple on several passes, slip bobber with leach
Explore around while trolling
Slip bobbers at night from camp

I pitch jigs below running water particularly at dusk for eyes. Troll for suspended and/or bottom oriented LT during the day. If I find schools of suspended LT I drop vertical on them with blade baits. Don't target northerns or SMB but I do catch those.

I am always fishing when I am in camp. Always. I start fishing before I make coffee and I don't reel up until I put out the campfire. Bait feeder reels are a blessing. I can be chopping firewood on the other side of camp and not worry that my rod will get pulled in the water or that my line will blow around getting tangled in the branches.

From camp it is usually a cut white sucker on the bottom. That usually keeps us busy with lake trout and pike. But, if I am not on a lake trout trip, then slip bobber/ jig or lindy rig with a leach.

If the weather is good we usually troll crankbaits for lake trout in the late morning to afternoon. When trolling we usually parallel the shore paying special attention to water temp, bays, points and sunken islands. If we find some good looking smallmouth spots we will stop trolling and cast more crankbaits. We base camp, so once we have established a pattern we just repeat that for several days.

If our butts hurt it means we aren't catching that many fish. Sometimes we stop to fish from shore and eat some granola. Then back to camp to soak more bait, smoke cigars and poke the fire. I wouldn't smoke cigars but they seem to attract fish.

Are you trolling Lake Trout deep or shallow? I would think they would be shallow that time of year, perhaps even near the shore.

Lindy rig style with an 1/8th ounce slip sinker and a #4 gami hook. Add color beads at times, yellow or red. I try to back troll nice and steady or troll drift if the wind is right. I like to bring little markers so you don't lose track of exactly where the school was or is. Once you have a stringer full you can use that for your drift sock.

Rise at four a.m. Fish the shorelines, current, and saddles. Curse the rising Sun for that signals the end of the best fishing...often, but not always. Evening is great until the gloaming. I fish leeches the TGO method. Simple and effective.

Sobi: "Lindy rig style with an 1/8th ounce slip sinker and a #4 gami hook. Add color beads at times, yellow or red. I try to back troll nice and steady or troll drift if the wind is right. I like to bring little markers so you don't lose track of exactly where the school was or is. Once you have a stringer full you can use that for your drift sock."

I love Lindy rigs and use them a lot. I really like them to fish soft bottoms without a lot of rocks. I have probably had my best success with that technique.

But... how to do you use them when drifting? Do you get hung on the rocky bottoms a lot?

Also... what do you use for a marker? I have marked points on my gps. That works pretty well. But I've often though about those weighted floats that bass boats carry. Do you improvise something like that?

It can be real cold at 5am in late May. Sometimes if I want to brave the cold ill wake up at about 6am, put on all of my warmest clothing, and fish for an hour or two before making coffee and breakfast.

On one trip in mid May I woke up real early and hit the water on Wood lake. I caught a few bass before and around sun up. The bass were all topping out at about 13" or 14" and were hitting hula poppers. After breakfast and packing up camp I went out to fish again on my way out and caught a 16" then 17" then 18" small mouth on zulus. I still wake up early to fish sometimes but Im not scared to fish mid day. Sometimes I just want to stay in the tent untill it warms up a bit to be honest.

Snags can be an issue. Backing up to fee them isn't a ton of fun trolling by hand. Seems though that many spots over 12-15 feet are silt/sand filled after all this time post glacier. That walleye stringer and many released fish later that weekend were in a 15-17 sand basin. It was like fishing the mud flats of Mill Lacs. If you felt something it was a fish. In rockier areas i move slow and keep it pretty much up and down until you get the hang of the area. Sunken trees are a true problem. They hold fish and they steal hooks. Spots like that I throw the marker out of my trolling path but tight to the tree so i know exactly where to turn. I do make my own. It can be as simple as fish line and a small piece of wood for the float and a little rock you can tie to all found at the lake (minus the line) or something pre-fabbed. The latest make was a small noodle slice maybe 2" by 3" with some kite string and an ounce weight. Wrap 2 or 3 of those up and throw them in with your depth finder pail. I use a low, square pail to carry the vexlar and other essentials. It rides on the floor or middle seat while fishing.

Tyler W: "I am always fishing when I am in camp. Always. I start fishing before I make coffee and I don't reel up until I put out the campfire. Bait feeder reels are a blessing. I can be chopping firewood on the other side of camp and not worry that my rod will get pulled in the water or that my line will blow around getting tangled in the branches.


From camp it is usually a cut white sucker on the bottom. That usually keeps us busy with lake trout and pike. But, if I am not on a lake trout trip, then slip bobber/ jig or lindy rig with a leach.


.







"

+1 i'm always soaking a sucker while at camp , i have a rod ready just for that.

Some really good ideas here that I am going to try this year. I haven't gone in late May but have done many trips the first week of June. We usually fish early morning for walleyes with jigs or slip bobber and leeches. After a break mid morning we fished for bass in the afternoon and always had the best luck if it was sunny and warm. Then a dinner break and off to some nice shallow structure to catch walleyes on slip bobber and leeches until dark. Definitely always have a leech or cisco/sucker in the water from camp!

BearRaid: "Some really good ideas here that I am going to try this year. I haven't gone in late May but have done many trips the first week of June. We usually fish early morning for walleyes with jigs or slip bobbers and leeches. After a break mid morning we fished for bass on the shoreline with topwater lures and leeches in the afternoon and always had the best luck if it was sunny and warm. Then a dinner break and off to some nice shallow structure to catch walleyes on slip bobber and leeches until dark. Definitely always have a leech or cisco/sucker in the water from camp!
"

If you are targeting walleyes you are missing out on prime time. For the last 1.5 hours of sunlight set up on wind blown drop offs in 6-7 ft of water and soak leeches on slip bobbers or pitch leeches on jigs.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve limited out and then some doing exactly this.

It all depends on what lake we are on and what we are fishing for. An average day during the middle of the week on a smaller lake we would rise early, eat a granola bar with some hot chocolate. Then get the canoe into the water, paddle about 150 feet to the muddy flats with emerging weeds. Catch 4 walleye jigging with whatever you feel like jigging with, I typically use a Gulp LeEch. One time I caught our 4 fish limit before my partner who was stringing the fish could even get a cast in. Normally it doesn't take much more than 15 minutes to catch our limit and then we just fish for fun for a little bit before we go back to camp and eat. We consider this an early lunch. Then we fish until dinner time. Mostly casting ShadZ, topwater lures that pop, chug, and spit, and maybe a crank or spinner. We will work any areas with moving waters. After beating up those sections, we concentrate on working shorelines. After 8 hours of that we eat dinner and decide whether to hit the moving water again or go back to the shoreline stretches that produced the best during the day. After dinner we fish until about dark. Then a fire and a tasty drink to cap off the day. That would be an average day in late May for us. We try to get about 16 hours of fishing in if we can depending on the weather. You can always sleep and eat when you get back to civilization.

Mad Angler,

Late May is my favorite time of year for the bdubs. If your targeting walleye in late May, live bait can be the difference between catching 100 fish in a trip vs 10 fish. Not always the case, but I've definitely had INSANELY AWESOME days of fishing using minnows and jigs, then talked to fellow fisherman fishing the same spots/lakes and said the bite is non-existent. If your a novice fisherman looking to do some serious fishing that time of year, bring minnows (and keep them alive).

Here is my recipe in late may that has never let me down.

- Bring live bait, preferably fat heads or rainbows, and leeches if your willing to portage both. I usually bring both.

- Get yourself some 1/8 and 1/4 oz jig heads - I have recently been a huge fan of the Lindy Tackle live bait jig, or you can't go wrong with the classic Northland Gumball jig in pink, orange, or chartreuse. Rig with a minnow through mouth and out the back of the head. Leech, once through the sucker. Nothing fancy.

- Find current. Inlets, narrows, saddles between islands, wind blown points, openings to bays are great places to start. If you can find these areas with a variety of structure (wood, weeds, basketball sized rocks) the better. If the water is still in the 50's or low 60's, the eyes won't be deep. No need to search any deeper than 15 feet.

- Short casts or vertical jigging in said spots, keeping constant contact with the bottom, dragging or little 6" to 12" jigs, or just even hold it still, the key is just keeping it on the bottom. If your not getting snagged, your not fishing right, so bring lots of jigs ;)

- Time of day doesn't seem to really matter THAT much late May. I would say my favorite time is usually between 3 pm and 6 pm that time of year, seems like the water warms to its peak level that time of day and gets the fish active. Otherwise mornings and evenings are always a classic time, of course.

-All the other ideas for searching out fish with crank baits is a great idea, and if you follow it up with a jig and minnow once you contact fish, your sure to put a pile of fish in the boat this year.

-Lastly, put your time in. Going out for an hour and giving up is not going to get it done. Fish a spot for 20 minutes, be confident your fishing it right, and if you don't get a bite or a fish, move to the next. Put in a full day or two and you will be rewarded.

GOOD LUCK!!

-Wily

This is great advise! Straight to the point. I have always just taken leeches. But have been considering minnows this trip. Can you talk about your process for packing them in,and keeping them alive once at camp.

I love to fish; if I'm awake I'm fishing regardless if they're biting or not. Having said that my personal opinion is that if you aren't on the water the last couple hours before dark and an hour after you're missing the prime walleye bite. I just can't see driving all that way for a much anticipated trip and then cheating yourself out of the best opportunity at a lunker by lounging around camp making smores, sipping bourbon, or singing camp songs. On the flip side I understand not everybody is that hardcore about fishing, but we leave those people home;)

WilyMinnow: "Mad Angler,


Late May is my favorite time of year for the bdubs. If your targeting walleye in late May, live bait can be the difference between catching 100 fish in a trip vs 10 fish. Not always the case, but I've definitely had INSANELY AWESOME days of fishing using minnows and jigs, then talked to fellow fisherman fishing the same spots/lakes and said the bite is non-existent. If your a novice fisherman looking to do some serious fishing that time of year, bring minnows (and keep them alive).


Here is my recipe in late may that has never let me down.


- Bring live bait, preferably fat heads or rainbows, and leeches if your willing to portage both. I usually bring both.


- Get yourself some 1/8 and 1/4 oz jig heads - I have recently been a huge fan of the Lindy Tackle live bait jig, or you can't go wrong with the classic Northland Gumball jig in pink, orange, or chartreuse. Rig with a minnow through mouth and out the back of the head. Leech, once through the sucker. Nothing fancy.


- Find current. Inlets, narrows, saddles between islands, wind blown points, openings to bays are great places to start. If you can find these areas with a variety of structure (wood, weeds, basketball sized rocks) the better. If the water is still in the 50's or low 60's, the eyes won't be deep. No need to search any deeper than 15 feet.


- Short casts or vertical jigging in said spots, keeping constant contact with the bottom, dragging or little 6" to 12" jigs, or just even hold it still, the key is just keeping it on the bottom. If your not getting snagged, your not fishing right, so bring lots of jigs ;)


- Time of day doesn't seem to really matter THAT much late May. I would say my favorite time is usually between 3 pm and 6 pm that time of year, seems like the water warms to its peak level that time of day and gets the fish active. Otherwise mornings and evenings are always a classic time, of course.


-All the other ideas for searching out fish with crank baits is a great idea, and if you follow it up with a jig and minnow once you contact fish, your sure to put a pile of fish in the boat this year.


-Lastly, put your time in. Going out for an hour and giving up is not going to get it done. Fish a spot for 20 minutes, be confident your fishing it right, and if you don't get a bite or a fish, move to the next. Put in a full day or two and you will be rewarded.


GOOD LUCK!!


-Wily"

Great advice here. Only thing I would add is find the warmer water - usually wind blown shorelines/points/bays (like mentioned previously) or river/creek inlets.

The biggest mistake I have made earlier in the year is starting too deep for walleyes. In late May and early June they are usually shallow - meaning less than 10' if the water is stained.

trailcheif: "This is great advise! Straight to the point. I have always just taken leeches. But have been considering minnows this trip. Can you talk about your process for packing them in,and keeping them alive once at camp. "

Well what kind of a name would Wily Minnow be if I didn't know how to keep my minnows fresh as a spring rain ;)

Late May the temps are usually very favorable to keep minnows alive and well for the entire trip - granted you follow some simple rules and/or don't run out from catching too many fish, of course....

I typically bring a troll style minnow pail like the Frabil Flow Troll with a locking mechanism on the hatch to prevent critters from nibbling on my stash.

My very last stop before entering canoe country is the bait store. Ideally i'm buying from an outfitter or bait store at the entry point because the clock is ticking once that first scoop lands in the bag.

Bring said bait bucket into store. Ask the friendly (and local) bait store clerk to put the minnow bag INSIDE the bucket, fill with water, minnows, and oxygen. the protect the bag and helps keep them shaded.

Minnows should last anywhere between 4-12 hours like this in May depending on temps, and much longer in colder months. Just keep them out of the sun on portages and cover with a shirt or cloth in the canoe. Don't let them bake in the sun or they will go belly up.

Once you arrived at the lake, acclimate them to the water temp of the lake BEFORE you take them out of the bag. Probably the most important step here. Let your minnow bucket float in the water IN THE BAG for at least 20 min to 45 min if possible to match the water temp. Dumping them directly into lake water that is different temp from the bag water will shock and kill every single minnow making for some great seagul food, but not good fishing bait.

If your minnows start to go belly up in the portaging process, you will need call an audible and quickly acclimate and get them in the water or risk suffocating them all.

Keep in mind, you can't transport water from lake to lake, so the easiest way is to portage live minnows IN WATER to the end of the portage, walk back in the woods, dump the water, and refill on the new lake. Kind of a pain, and you are likely to lose a few in the process from differing water temps, so this method may not be for those looking to do a ton of portaging.

Good luck!

-Wily