WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
October 4, 2006

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Cool weather equals fiesty walleyes and a bite like no other. From Winnie during the daylight, to nights filled with Northern lights and those big Pokegama and Mille Lacs Lake walleyes, it a great time to be alive and getting a few hours of sleep, as those total hours in a day to fish open water are slowly coming to an end. But, before the water turns to ice, one needs to get out there and get into that great fall action.

Bites from day and night and the fishing season contniues to be one that shows what stocking and what a slot limit will do for lakes in the area. As for the bite during the daylight hours, Winnie is the place to be. Most of the walleyes have adjusted to the cool water and more days than not are starting to feed consistently. The bite throughout the last week has shown to be mainly a jig and minnow bite. We are still catching a few fish on the Salmo hornets, but the bite seems to be more consistent with the jigs and minnows.

The walleyes continue to show themselves on the North shore but a large number of fish have migrated into the winter grounds of Cutfoot. Again, in Cutfoot the fish want those jigs and minnows.

With the water temp now in the lower 50's, the jig presentation is one of slow, longer jigs. We contniue to tip those 1/16 oz. MAXGAP jigs with either a golden shiner or a fat head chub. We have had good results for larger walleyes with the redtails. If your looking for bigger fish, give the redtails a try.

As for the night bite, with the full moon on October 6th, look for the night bite to be filled with numbers and the biggest fish of the year. Pokegama is still producing nice numbers of smaller fish and those bigger bites continue to come more and more as that water temperature has cooled. Pokegama has shown that most nights the longer stick baits like the Salmo sting, are the bait of choice, but we continue to see good numbers on the #4 and #5 Salmo hornets. When fishing the hornets, we are concentrating the efforts in the 7-10 feet of water. With the Sting, we are working the shallow water flats in that 3-6 feet of water.

One must also think about making the one hour trip to the Walleye night mecca of Mill Lacs. The bite is now just starting to hit full stride down there and I must tell you if you're into big fish, this is the place to be. Again on Mille Lacs, we are using the same baits as Pokegama. The main depths that we find the fish in range from 6-10 feet. With the low waters in the Northland, please use caution on Mille Lacs as those rockpiles can sneak up on you.

No better time then now to get out and enjoy this wonderful fall weather, colors, and fishing.

See ya on the water.

Sean Colter
member of the NMLOG's
www.seancolter.com