September is a great month to be on the Gunflint Trail. The leaves are beginning to show some color and the fish are biting. I suppose there are many other reasons to be here, but this is what I know.
Saganaga Lake has been giving up a lot of little walleyes in 20 to 30 feet of water and they are still willing to eat leeches and crawlers but I suspect that is going to change real soon. The fish have been feeding on minnows and eventually that is all they will be eating. I still have a lot of crawlers and leeches that I need to get rid of so I am hoping the summer feeding pattern will hold out a little longer.
Jigs tipped with crawlers or leeches have been the ticket on Saganaga and most of the fish that I have been catching are in 26 feet of water. The walleyes are not very big, barely big enough to eat, but there are some impressive numbers being caught in a few different areas of the lake. This is a promising sign since Saganaga has worried most of the anglers that have some history on her waters. Sag used to be a top destination for walleye anglers in the state of Minnesota and now there are many days that I can name every boat on the water. It is good to see some strong population gain, even if they are small fish.
The walleyes have been ranging from 12-15 inches so they could very well be some of the stocked fish from 2011. The bigger walleyes have been shallower and harder to find. I like to bobber fish when the bite is in 12-18 feet of water and I was expecting to get into some smallmouth bass at those depths, but instead we found a couple of hungry walleyes. This is the time of year that walleyes can use the entire lake and usually do.
The depth finder is my most important tool since I am trying to check many spots to see if the machine picks up any signs of life each day. There are very few consistent hot spots on Saganaga Lake which means a lot of looking. I would guess that our lines are out of the water as much as they are in the water since I spend so much time “looking.” It seems redundant at times but it usually pays off since many of the best spots are only good for a short while. Fish have fins and they know how to use them. If I were a fish I would certainly want to explore the entire lake that I lived in.
The next few weeks should start to cool off as the leaves change and my tomatoes turn red— hopefully. Autumn on the Gunflint Trail is hard to beat. The daily hustle and bustle of summer changes with the leaves until they eventually make their way to the ground, marking the end of another wonderful season.
Cory Christianson has worked as a fishing guide on the Gunflint Trail since 2000. If you have any fishing or wildlife reports or stories to share, send an email to: christiansoncory@hotmail.com or call 218- 388-0315. You can also visit Cory’s website at Gunflintfishingguide.com.
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