Brainerd Lakes Crappie Report

April 22nd, 2012

I was on the water today with Brainerd Lakes panfish guru and friend of Leisure Outdoor Adventures, Paul (Pablo) Manecke.  Pablo and I were intent on finding crappies somewhere in the Brainerd Lakes Area and we were not going to stop until we did!  We had a game plan with fellow guides Tim Hanske and Jason Freed to check a few lakes, see what the temp was and see what the crappies wanted.  Pablo and I started on Sylvan Lake, water temps were anywhere from 46-49, and we could not get the crappies to go after an hour on the water.  We next headed to a lake that Tim and Jason were fishing and had found success.  So much of fishing is letting the fish tell you what they want and Tim Hanske put the pieces of the puzzle together today!  Tim put on quite clinic using a white puddle jumper, 5' Jason Mitchell Ultra Light rod and slick casting Shimano reel spooled with light 4lb fireline and a fluorocarbon leader.  These fish wanted it slowly reeled or give it a simple pop to give those puddle jumpers legs some life like action.  Plastics way outperformed live bait today and that is sometimes how it goes.  You could still get them with a minnow but they were far more finicky when you had minnow below your float.  The key is to let the fish tell you what they want each time out and be prepared to adapt on the water.  Thanks to our friends at The Checkered Flag, we had both minnows and puddle jumpers so we were able to adapt.
If you want to get in on some of this great early season action, give us a call at 1-855-LOA-HOOK or visit our website Leisure Outdoor Adventures!

Brainerd Lakes Fishing Guide Tip of the Week

Leisure Outdoor Fishing Guide Jason Freed brings you some great tips on staying organized in your boat this summer. As a fishing guide Jason spends a lot of time on Gull Lake and many other of the surround bodies of water in the Brainerd Lakes Area.

Book a trip with Leisure Outdoor Adventures Fishing Team at http://leisureoutdooradventures.com/index.html  We are providing guided fishing trips on many lakes including the Brainerd Lakes Area, Gull Lake, Whitefish Chain, North Long, Pelican along with the Leech Lake Area.  Call 855-LOA-HOOK for more details.

Breezy Point Sportsman Night Out Ducks Unlimited Banquet

Hey Guys I'm excited to say that I have been asked to Emcee the Sportsman Night Out hosted by your local Ducks Unlimited Banquet on April 25th located at "The Commander Bar" in Breezy Point.  I had the chance to have lunch with Dan Yantes who is helping organize the event and it sounds like there are a ton of great prizes.

Come out and support a great cause!

Jeff "Breezer" Andersen

Leisure Outdoor Adventures Newsletter

If you haven't done so already, be sure to sign up for the Leisure Outdoor Adventures Newsletter.  Our team of writers and fishing guides are determined to give you a product which has informative fishing articles, tips and tricks to make your lives easier, up to date fishing reports, pictures, interviews with professional fisherman and leaders in the fishing industry, upcoming events, and much more.  You don't want miss out on this great opportunity to receive a quality product.  Simply go to the Leisure Outdoor Adventures website or click on this link http://www.leisureoutdooradventures.com/signup.php to get signed up, it is as easy as that.  Tell your fishing buddies about it as well.  Get out and Get Hooked!

The LOA Team

Brainerd Lakes Area New LOA Fishing Guide Tim Hanske

Tim Hanske a Brainerd Lakes Area Guide who has spent his life fishing Gull Lake and the surrounding bodies of water has joined the Leisure Outdoor Adventures Fishing Guide Team. 

We are very excited to have Tim as a fishing guide.  He brings several years of experience guiding in the Brainerd Lakes Area.  Tim is a true fishing talent who has the perfect personality to give guest the service we expect on the water. 

Tim Hanske's Bio

Captain Tim Hanske was born and raised in the Brainerd Lakes Area.  He currently lives there with his wife, Kaarin, and son, Gus.  He grew up on a small local lake fishing every day his parents would let him!   That passion turned into a profession in 2003, when Tim chose guiding as his primary occupation.  Tim graduated from Brainerd High School, then Concordia College in Moorhead with a degree in Exercise Science and Health.   He then went on to earn his US Coast Guard Capitan’s License.  College taught him many things, but the lake is where he belongs.

Tim is known around the area as a multi-species guide.  His passion is based around the challenge of catching any fish that will bite a hook.   Throughout the year he chases walleye, musky, large and smallmouth bass, crappies, sunfish, perch, steelhead, trout and even carp and suckers.  Guiding is one of Tim’s passions; he hopes to guide you to the fish of a lifetime.


Book a trip with Leisure Outdoor Adventures Fishing Team at http://leisureoutdooradventures.com/index.html  We are providing guided fishing trips on many lakes including the Brainerd Lakes Area, Gull Lake, Whitefish Chain, North Long, Pelican along with the Leech Lake Area.  Call 855-LOA-HOOK for more details.

Gull Lake Crappie Report

Gull Lake Crappie Fishing Report

Happy Easter to everyone in the Leisure Outdoors Family!  Just got back in from a gusty day on Gull Lake and after driving past Hole in the Day Bay it quickly became evident that getting to many areas on the lake was not going to be feasible.  The wind was blowing 20-30MPH and gusting much harder than that.   Instead, I focused in on small bays, channels, and windblown shorelines to find those slab crappies.  After a few quick stops and with a mixed bag of small crappies it was time to move and find a bigger school.  After a short boat ride towards the northern part of the lake, I was greeted with some calmer waters.  I threw down the Minn Kota Terrova with I Pilot and began using the windblown areas to my advantage and within 5 minutes we had four really nice crappies in the boat at our new location.  As the day went on it was evident that being able to keep the boat positioned correctly with the wind blowing was the key in the whole process .  Our key was using the MinnKota I pilot which allows you to use the anchor feature and hold over an area.  With that confidence in mind we fan casted slip bobber set ups with jigs and tubes.  The fish were not hitting the bait hard, but you could get them to react and bite with a twitch or slight pull of the bobber and jig.  We found the majority of the fish in 9-12ft of water and roughly 3-5 feet down the water column.   Water temps ranged from 44-49 degrees, which means the best is yet to come because it is only going to get warmer.  The key to the day was using the wind to our advantage, since it was stacking up the crappies with the bait fish.  The favorite set up for me today was a Jason Mitchell 6’ meat stick, Pflueger Trion Reel spooled with 4LB mono combined with a small lite bite bobber and 1/32oz jig.   Many fishermen could have looked outside today and told themselves it wasn’t going to be worth it.  Instead, we took the conditions and made the best of it and we put some nice slabs in the boat.  The glass is always half full in my mind and fish are always biting somewhere.    If you want to book a trip, contact us at  1-855-LOA-HOOK or visit our website http://www.leisureoutdooradventures.com/.

                                                                                                 "GET HOOKED!"

                                                                                                   Jason Freed

                                                                                                    Leisure Outdoor Adventures

Brainerd Lakes Crappie Report

April 6th, 2012  

Brainerd Lakes Crappie Report

My good buddy Pablo Manecke and myself launched on a crisp April morning in the Brainerd Lakes area on a smaller lake in search of crappies.  The temp was 41 degrees and the wind was from the SSE blowing from 10-20 MPH.  We started out  with a plan to target northern bays, working anywhere from 5-12 feet of water.  I used my bow mount Minn Kota to help us work near old weeds clumps utilizing both fan casting a spinner and a jig and making long casts in front with a jig and slip bobber.  We were methodical in covering water however, it quickly became evident that we needed to make a move; the bottom was too sandy and we weren't seeing fish.  We next targeted an area that had darker, muckier bottom and was somewhat protected from that blasted wind!  Here we found big clumps of reeds and cattails that formed almost a backwater area.  The water temp difference went from 44 degrees on the main lake shoreline to 48 degrees in this little backwater area.  Boat control was tough, but when were blown into a giant clump of old cattails, the fish exploded out of there and we knew we were onto something.  It was a lot of work and took some careful casting but we managed to work some crappies out of those weeds.  The ones we caught were aggressive and big, 12 inches the smallest and 13.5 inches the biggest.  We were fishing in about 4 feet of water and our bait was suspended only 2 feet down.  If you went closer to the bottom, the bass would pound your bobber, while that was fun, not what we wanted.  We tried some plastics with jigs and that resulted in crappies grabbing it and dropping it. Plastics are usually a go to for us, but not today.  What they wanted were lively minnows on a green jig with 4 lb test line combined with precision casting thanks to Jason Mitchell's 5' ultra light rod. If you have not tried this rod or his 6' foot 'meat stick' rod, you are missing out, (http://clamoutdoors.com/jason_mitchell/). The wind was also a key, when it blew hard and stirred up the bottom, the fish bit; when it calmed down and you could see the bottom, we caught nothing.  Another factor in our success was the fact that we were the only boat on the lake! We knew there were other more popular lakes in the area, but we chose this one to stay away from the crowd.  Now is the time to get out in LOA country to chase crappies! If you want to book a trip, contact us at: 1-855-LOA-HOOK or visit our website http://leisureoutdooradventures.com/.

Get hooked!
Jim Ernster
Leisure Outdoor Adventures