Fishing Report
When is the best time to go fishing? Here in the north woods, every day is the best day. Our area contains a wide range of lakes with varied depths, shoreline structures, and a wide range of fish species. Seasoned anglers know success requires patience and a willingness to try different techniques. If you have a youngster in the group, they will most likely catch the biggest fish - it always happens. So, maybe no technique is a good strategy too. For those interested in learning about lake structure, water quality, or creel surveys, we encourage you to visit the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Lake Finder page. Area lakes will either be found in St. Louis or Lake County. Minnesota Fishing Regulations
January 13th, 2026
Steven Renneberg
***Ice Report***
Ice conditions remained similar to the week before as warmer-than-normal temperatures have settled into the area. Ice thickness now ranges from 18-22”. Those of you looking for ice reports for stream trout and lake trout lakes, reports are coming in ranging from 12” to as much as 16”. Snow depth right now ranges from 3-5” with more in the forecast.
***Fishing Report***
Walleye - Walleye fishing was an up-and-down affair this last week, with one day being great, then the next, nothing. When on the walleyes, rippin raps, buckshot spoons, tipped with a chunk of minnow, have been very effective. Interestingly, these baits seem to be best during the daytime hours. After dark, anglers setting shiners one to two feet off the bottom have been catching fish after dark. Key depths have been 18-25ft of water over mud flats.
Lake Trout (BWCA) - Lake trout fishing was unusually slow this last week for anglers. Again, smaller baits like small bucktails in the 1/8-1/4oz size and small blade baits was the trick to getting trout to bite. A handful of anglers reported that tip-ups set in about 20ft of water and tipped with a pike sucker got strikes.
Stream Trout (BWCA) - Stream Trout anglers reported having mixed results catching brookies this last week. Anglers reported seeing brookies in less than 5ft of water through their sight holes, but oftentimes the bookies were not interested in biting their baits. Small wonderbread or pink jigging spoons, tipped with a wax worm, seemed to be the best presentation to get them to bite.
Pike - Large pike were caught while walleye fishing this week vs anglers targeting pike in the shallows. For pike out over deep water, anglers often marked them 5-10ft under the ice. Simply reeled up to them and more often than not got bit. Anglers taking advantage of the warm temperatures set out tip-up in shallow bays and mouths of rivers and reported good luck. Medium-sized suckers or alewife have been the best baits to have under your tip-up.
Panfish - Crappies and sunfish are still being found out in 25-35ft of water right now. Anglers reported that their activity level has been up and down, so catching them has been challenging. The best approach has been to drill lots of holes in the area you are fishing and hole hop until you are marking fish. Anglers have been having luck with small jigging spoons tipped with wax worms or fishing with small tungsten jigs tipped with soft plastics.