French Lake

Muskie anglers are always looking for “stupid” fish. For a while it was Mille Lacs, then it was Minnetonka. Soon it will be Rice County’s French Lake. Dumb muskies are those that are not yet conditioned by fishing pressure. These are the muskies that hit lures instead of following them to the boat. You can find these fish on French Lake, but you want to get there during the early part of the season before the water gets too dingy.

Lobster Lake

Emergent vegetation, submerged weedbeds, sunken islands, long points and inside turns as well as back bays, narrows and saddles can all be found by anglers on Lobster Lake. There are also a lot of big bass there that can be fooled in June by a spinnerbait slowly rolled over the fresh vegetation.

JULY

Gull Lake

The beginning of July is when the big northern pike go on a feeding frenzy in the shallows before they head to the cooler water in the deep, dark depths. It’s a great time to take a medium-weight casting setup, tie on a spinnerbait, and work the cabbage and coontail in 5 to 15 feet of water. A great lake to do this on is Gull Lake near Bemidji.

Gull has a lot of pike in the 22- to 26-inch range, but occasionally you find one that falls into the 32- to 36-inch size. Your objective on Gull is to just go there and have fun catching a bunch of fish and hammer a few bigger pike before they disappear for the summer.

Lake Pulaski

Everyone looks for walleyes on the hump on the west side of Wright County’s Lake Pulaski, but don’t rule out the deep weedline. The vegetation by mid-July is up and the walleyes like to lay about three feet from the base of that grass and pondweed. Use a live-bait rig and a fathead minnow, and follow the 14- to 16-foot contour.

South Twin Lake

It’s hard to believe you would go north for largemouth bass fishing, but many anglers are doing just that. It’s because the bass are becoming so plentiful in the north country and few anglers chase them. Such is definitely the case on Beltrami County’s South Twin Lake. There is some bulrush, cabbage, coontail and some well-defined sunken islands. All will have largemouths on it or near it. The water is clear, but the bass are not conditioned. On calm days a topwater really gets some explosive bites.

AUGUST

Green Lake

The smallmouth bass in Green Lake near Spicer are abundant. They are also big. This might be due to the special regulations that were implemented about eight years ago that didn’t allow any bass harvest.

That regulation has been modified, but at this time, anglers will find a lot of fish around the shoreline boulders and hovering over the rubble of the midlake structure. There’s not a lot of vegetation in the lake, but smallmouths like rock and there’s plenty of that.

Whitefish Chain of Lakes

When it comes to largemouth bass, anglers have a lot of options on the Whitefish Chain. Dock-fishing with jigs and twistertails is very popular. There are some satellite lakes, like Arrowhead, Bertha and Clamshell, that provide some nice slop. Some anglers like using deep-diving crankbaits on the dropoffs in the main basins.

South Ten Mile Lake

It seems that wherever there are smallmouth bass and a special regulation is implemented regarding harvest size, this species tends to flourish. That seems the case on South Ten Mile Lake. In August expect the smallies to be on the deeper edges of the rockpiles, but take advantage of the low light levels for some topwater action when the water is calm.