Leech Lake Fishing Report – April 17th
Report from the Dock
While there were a few days of warm, bright weather during the past week, water temperatures have not risen much. As a result, the majority of better crappie reports continue to come from deep water. There just hasn’t been a big push of panfish into many of the traditional spring spots, even where the ice has been gone for a few weeks. This week’s reports indicated bigger bunches of crappies in the 6 to 12 foot range, some even deeper as they stage outside of bays, channels, and boat harbors. They’re ready to slide up and start feeding more consistently in shallower water, but water temperatures need to climb a few more degrees and stay there. The fish also don’t seem to be super aggressive, meaning the majority of them are being taken with small jigs tipped with minnows or plastics under floats, rather than those casting and retrieving. There’s still a lot of ice across the northern part of the state, but it is deteriorating.
Leech Lake Fishing Report
There was still a lot of main-lake ice early this week, but it was looking soft and rotten. The shorelines have also pulled away throughout the lake; some areas more than others, but the channels have opened. They have started extending sections of open water farther into the lake.
