On this week’s show, we’re gonna be talking about some timely fishing techniques for fishing in the heat of summer. It’s late July and fishing is very good for a variety of different species all across the Upper Midwest.
We’re gonna share with you some great tactics for walleye, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and muskie, with special guests Brian Brosdahl, James Lindner and Jeremy Smith from Lindner’s Angling Edge.
Troy Lindner: Many people consider this time you’re fairly difficult to catch walleyes with water temperatures pushing into the 70’s. Today we’re joined by guide Brian Brosdahl, who hopefully has a few answers. Brian, what are a few tactics that you have for this midsummer walleye bite?
Brian Brosdahl: When I’m guiding I’m on the water a lot, even in the heat of summer. When the water hits 70 degrees, everybody counts, so I like to go along weed lines in shallow water and use a bullet sinker, a swivel and a Northland Butterfly Blade. Pull it along the weed line at 1 to 1.2 mph with a chunk of crawler. You don’t need a full crawler and they’ll just nip off the end piece anyway. There’s a lot of critters in the weed bed, so you could go with a leech instead – they can’t pull it off as easily. The spinning action of the Butterfly Blade brings the fish in, and they have a lot of cool colors.
If I’m fishing deep walleyes, I like to use slip-bobbers. I’m a fan of the Northland Lite-Bite bobber, as the brass grommet on the top means you don’t need a bead – just use a simple slip bobber knot. Put a bullet sinker or barrel sinker above the swivel and two feet of leader line underneath, down to a Gamakatsu hook or an RZ Jig. As you can see, I’ve got a little 1/8oz RZ Jig on there with a jumbo leech, if you can find them. Drive around until you see fish on your Humminbird, then drop the bobber behind the boat. In the old days on Mille Lacs, they called it speed corking. We just call it slippin’ fast, which is a big staple in my guiding!
Troy Lindner: Thanks for sharing some great information on timely fishing techniques, Brian. Those are tactics that you can apply right now for walleyes across the region. Now, we have more tactics from my cousin James Lindner. He’s going to share some of his favorite summertime bass techniques.
James Lindner: In this rod locker, I probably have 15 different bass rods rigged with every different presentation technique you could imagine, but here are a few of my absolute favorites. Number one is a frog. I’m a big frog guy. I like fishing shallow water cover with heavy gear. You can actually produce some of the biggest bass that exists in a lake with this presentation. This particular bait is the Terminator Walking Frog and it is primarily used in really heavy or dense cover when I’m fishing over lily pads, around bulrush beds, over the cheese, those big green matted areas of a really matted weed cover.
Another presentation that I use a lot, and it’s not used quite as often by your average angler, it’s actually used by professional bass fisherman a lot, is something called a Buzz Toad. It’s a buzz bait with a frog body on the back of it. What you can do with this bait is to cover over areas where the weeds don’t come all the way to the surface. You can actually fish it anywhere between four and maybe eight feet of water. It’s fabulously effective in our northern natural lakes where we have really clear water. You want to talk about fun? You can cover a tremendous amount of water really quickly and it’s an amazing technique to catch bass. I can guarantee you right now throughout the remainder of the summer and into the fall, this bait is a hot deal for catching bass right now.
Troy Lindner: Yeah, Buzz Toading and throwing frogs over slop in the thick weeds of summertime for bass is a lot of fun and an extremely effective timely fishing techniques. Thanks, James! Next, we’re joined by Jeremy Smith. He’s going to share some insight on muskie this time of year. Jeremy, what would be the first lure and the first technique you would use to catch them?
Jeremy Smith: Well for me, that’s pretty easy musky fishing. I loved burning bucktails and right now smaller baits seem to be the key things that you can make go really fast. I love throwing smaller Double 7’s, Double 8’s, and also a single blade, which is one of those forgotten presentations. I also like #5 or #6 French blade or an Indiana that’s smaller. You can make these baits go really fast. One thing I’d say to be successful with these lures is having a rod and reel you can throw these light lures with really far, bring them in fast, and not get fatigued. A St. Croix Downsizer with a size 300 reel. You can move baits really fast, you can fish all day, and you don’t get fatigued. It’s burnin’ bucktails for me!
