Leech Lake Muskie Fishing

Leech Lake Muskie Fishing

July 11, 2017

The ultimate freshwater trophy fish, the muskie can be an elusive predator, adept at avoiding even the most appealing lures. Leech Lake Muskie fishing can be challenging, but that just means you can spend longer on the water relaxing! While you are relaxing, waiting for that inevitable Muskie bite (this being Leech Lake, it’s inevitable), you can prepare yourself for the perfect trophy Leech Lake muskie photo. In this post we will share some of the top summer spots and tactics on Leech Lake, one of the states best muskie lakes. We intend to make getting that muskie trophy photo easier than ever before, using this post you are certain to need a new profile photo – one that includes you, and a certain monster fish!

Leech Lake Muskie Spots

The first thing to do before you launch the boat, is pull out that vegetation map, or use our maps, and find the “cabbage” – AKA weed beds.  In summer the muskie stick to the edge of weed beds, where food is easy to come by, more specifically they prefer the deeper edges of these beds. So once you’ve found the cabbage, put that depth finder to use, and cast to hit the deepest edge. Getting more granular the bays to target are…

• Sucker Bay – With thick cabbage and lots of food this is a top spot for muskies on Leech, however lot’s of Muskies, does not always mean lots of bites in Sucker Bay. With all that food and easy pickings, the muskies in Sucker can be quite lethargic in the summer, catch them in an aggressive mood here, and you will have that trophy fish in no-time.
• Walker Bay Narrows – The weeds have thinned out in the narrows over the years, but the mix of boulders still makes it a great spot, stick within the narrows and you will likely get a hit or two.
• Agency Bay – If you’re not having any luck in the narrows it’s only a short ride into Agency Bay. The North-Western and Eastern edges of Agency Bay can often provide some very aggressive muskies, that have moved out of the Walker Bay narrows.
• Bear Island Narrows – With some thick pond-weed beds, Leech Lake muskie are known to congregate on the eastern tip of Bear Island, as you push into Headquarters Bay through the narrows. This location, often missed by most anglers can be a great location, and a less crowded fish. If they aren’t biting in the narrows, just move up the shore along the South-Eastern edge of Bear Island and start hitting the edge of the reed beds there.
• Portage Bay – Push into the points on Portage Bay and hit the deeper edges of the weed beds around the 15 foot drop off or push in a little shallower. The thick cabbage and heavy bait fish presence makes this a Leech Lake muskie feeding ground.
• Black Duck Point – This location just on the edge of the extremely thick Boy Bay weed beds can result in some serious pulls, we’ve found it tends to be slow during the day, but at dusk there is a complete shift. Think about finishing off your day here.

 

Leech Lake Muskie Tactics

There are two primary tactics that show the best results with Leech Lake muskie once you’ve found the right location. If you are hitting deeper into the cabbage natural colored shallow spinners show some amazing results, and as you move out to the edges put on a heavier spinner that is a little brighter, but not obnoxious (neon green is definitely not a winner). If you are hitting a mix of rock and light cabbage, or just rock we highly recommend a smaller Reef Hawg, however this bait does not do well in heavy cabbage areas. On occasion, we have also seen some great results with surface baits in the summer over the top of very thick cabbage.

Leech Lake has some aggressive muskie in the summer, the hard part is finding them. Being such a large lake with so many different bays and shores, every spot on Leech is like fishing a completely different lake, except you don’t have to trailer in and out. So keep moving, and use a vegetation map to explore even more areas that could be hiding lurkers. We hope this Leech Lake muskie hot-spot guide gets you that trophy fish faster than ever before, if you have any additional spots and are willing to share, please add them to the comments. If you haven’t caught that trophy muskie yet or want to try fishing Leech for the first time, find a place to stay now. Otherwise, See you on the water!