We are headed to the North end Insula on September 18th for a week of fishing. This will be the latest trip I've ever done in the BW. I've done late August and early September trips on the Gunflint side and had difficulty locating decent fishing. I've tried shallow, deep, moving water, mid-lake reefs, all without much success in the fall. I know that temps and water conditions can be a crap shoot at this time of year. I'm assuming leeches will most likely be unavailable this late in September, and we'll be using minnows or crawlers for live bait.

I'll gladly take any tips or pointers to put us on some late September walleye and smallies (C&R on the smallmouth since it will be after their season closes).

I don't have enough experience in the BW to give you many pointers on fishing techniques for that area, but I just wanted to point out that you can still keep smallmouth bass in the northeast zone (north and east of hwy 53 from Duluth to International Falls) after the statewide season closes on September 10th. I got this information from the MN fishing regs, and confirmed it with a phone call to the Fisheries bureau office in Grand Marais.

I went 4 times to the BWCA last year and October was by far the best fishing. We used live minnows which were easy to keep alive this time of year.

NEIowapaddler: "I don't have enough experience in the BW to give you many pointers on fishing techniques for that area, but I just wanted to point out that you can still keep smallmouth bass in the northeast zone (north and east of hwy 53 from Duluth to International Falls) after the statewide season closes on September 10th. I got this information from the MN fishing regs, and confirmed it with a phone call to the Fisheries bureau office in Grand Marais. "
Good to know, thanks!

OMGitsKa: "I went 4 times to the BWCA last year and October was by far the best fishing. We used live minnows which were easy to keep alive this time of year. "

I like hearing this, I'm hoping they are starting to put their feed bags on!

That time of year I’d fish the reefs and water flowages/current. Also if you find live weeds, work the deeper edges too.

One year we hit turnover and we just trolled near the deeper reefs. The walleyes were suspended in about 22’ over 30-35’ of water just off the mid lake reefs. Sort of like mini lakers would. We just trolled cranks and it was 10 to 1 better than live bait. It was pretty good fishing. We were slow in the normal areas and I just trolled from spot to spot and started catching fish over the deeper water.

T

Thanks for the tips everyone! We are 9 days away now. Has anyone been to Insula recently with a fishing report?!

Going to be in that area at about the same time, in at ep28 the 17 th out at ep30 the 23rd. From what I gather, expect the fish to be suspended over deep water structure. I have lures for deep trolls at 20-30 ft, hope those produce. Tail dancer in purpledecent is supposed to be a good bet. Good luck to you!