Buddy and I are heading to Ensign late next week for a quick weekend trip, hoping to catch a few walleye for meals. Last year, our trip on the East side resulted in being skunked (unless you count 1 rock bass as actually catching a fish) so I'm hoping to get a little help for this trip. Our strategy is to keep it simple stupid, so leeches under slip bobbers and the TGO Method are what we're planning to deploy.

I'm not too proud to beg for info, and will shamelessly accept as detailed information as you're willing to provide - ie specific islands, bays, ledges, inlets, gps coordinates, etc. etc. Thanks guys!!

Happy Paddling.....

We've had some luck for eater size walleyes on the western end of Ensign. When you enter Ensign from the west there's a large island in the center of the large open water area.
Approximately 200-250 yards west of the island point you'll find a fairly developed week bed that seems to run mostly north/south.
We worked the outside/western edges of that weed line with 1/8th jigs and plastics and jigs tipped with leeches and had success right on the edges even in the middle of the day. If I remember correctly the depths we fished were about 8-10 feet. Move too far away from the edge and they wouldn't chase. Polarized sunglasses will help locate the weed line.
If you find that section of weeds the walleyes will be there.
Good luck!
PS - that western point of that island has a gradual slope of gravel/rock that we fished by wading at sun up and caught walleyes in 3-4 feet of water for the first 30-40 minutes of the day. We camped there several years ago when we were hit with a big storm and decided to pitch camp there before we got totally soaked. It's a nice campsite but the area gets a lot of traffic.

Best walleye action is in the eastern bay. There is a reef (on the south side of the islands right in the middle of the bay) in between the big island on the east side to the little island just to the west. Reef is 100 yards and runs into the deepest spot on Ensign (30'). 10' to 12' feet down. There is another similar size reef right off the campsite on the south shore. Not the campsite next to the Ashigan portage, but the campsite just to the west of there. 100 yards off shore and 100 yards long running east-west 6 to 10' down. Depending on the time of day, they will be on top of it or just off it. Good luck! If you are looking for big fish, head up to Vera. Right at the narrow area with the good cliff jumping, there is a reef that holds some 25"+. If it's too hot and they aren't biting, you can always take a jump. Fun one way or the other!

East side bay of Ensign is best spots for walleye. Fish the islands, any shoreline that looks like a wall, there are two streams that dump into Ensign so fish there. If it has been a south wind you want to fish the north bay. This is because the baitfish get pushed into there from wind and waves and the Walleyes follow the food.

I’ve been to Ensign a few times and fished most of the southern portion of the lake. The big island mentioned we had luck around, particularly the west side. Jigs with leeches and we couldn’t keep them off in 6-8 ft for about an hour. West side we had our best luck throwing a jig with a crawler or lech towards shore and dragging back to the canoe.

Just got back from Ensign and did incredibly well. Walleyes in 8-10 feet of water, never had to use anything besides slip bobbers with leeches. Had some decent action all day but once the sun hit the treeline it was game on like a switch was flipped. Ensign was far less rocky than any BWCA lake I've been to. Scan the shorelines and look for rocky areas, and fish there. Or, circle around the many islands.

Based on our experience, I would fish for Walleyes from 6am-9am, then fish exclusively for Bass all day (bass were everywhere), then fish for Walleyes from 8pm-10pm.