Guided Winter Ice Fishing on Leech Lake

Hey Guys,

I hope that everyone is getting the itchy feeling to catch a fish through the ice like I am. We have been working very hard at LOA to get ready for this season. We are very excited to be working with some of the top brands in the outdoor industry like Clam Outdoors and Vexilar. Not only do we get to work with them you get to use their products when you go fishing with us.

At LOA we are going to provide guided ice fishing trips on Leech Lake, Lake Mille Lacs, Gull Lake, Brainerd Lakes Area, and so many more. Don't forget to check out the giant pike adventure in March. Not only are we going to cover a large area we are also excited to provide a wide variety of ice fishing packages. We will have permanent fish house rentals on Leech Lake that we can package with Chase on the Lake Resort or we are going to be offering several types of portable ice fishing packages. If you haven't experienced portable ice fishing this is something you should have on your bucket list.

Check out all of the Ice Fishing Guided Packages on our website LOA Ice Fishing Click Here

Be sure to stop down at the St. Paul Ice Fishing and say hello to Clam Outdoor fishing pros. You can view the event details Clicking Here



and a short little ice fishing tip that can help you Clam Ice House go the extra mile.



"Make a Memory and Get Hooked"
Jeff "Breezer" Andersen

The Ultimate in Ice Fishing Packages

Since the age of 4, I have spent most of my winters on ice, Artificial that is, the kind that requires a Zamboni every 20 minutes. This winter will be 100% natural baby! No pucks to chase, but lots of fish. I am SO pumped to get it started!

Leisure Outdoor Adventures is ready too! We have been working with all of our Partners to make sure we are ready to rock!

Lace up the boots and break out the IceArmor, it's time to test your ice fishing skills. Through our quest for the ultimate winter fishing experience, we have developed several exciting ice fishing packages. From fully guided portable excursions, like hand to hand combat with monster pike on Lake of the Woods, to filling the buckets with jumbo perch out of our beautiful Ice Castle permanent fish-house on Leech Lake. We have something for everyone.

Check out these packages and more at Leisure Outdoor Adventures Ice Fishing Packages

We'll see you on the ice!

Toby K

855-LOA-HOOK

Leech Lake fishing forecast for 2012

L e e c h L a k e

Above-average year classes of walleye produced during 2005-2008 quickly led to marked

improvements in walleye fishing. Many of these fish are approaching the 18 to 26” protected slot

limit and, although anglers will not be able to harvest these fish, they will continue to provide

excellent catch-and-release opportunities. The possession limit on Leech Lake is 4 walleye with

one longer than 26.0” allowed in possession; all walleye between 18.0-26.0 inches long must be

immediately returned to the water.

Creel survey statistics collected during 2008-2010 documented excellent walleye fishing. Walleye

ranging in length from 5 to 30 inches were reported during the 2010 survey; about 47% of

walleye caught were 18 inches or longer. At the beginning of the 2011 season, walleye produced

during 2006 will be approximately 15-19” long, 2007 fish will be 13-17” long, and 2008 fish will

be 11-14” long. Another good fishing season is expected and a creel survey is again scheduled

during 2011.

Quality fishing opportunities for species other than walleye abound. Leech Lake supports

excellent northern pike and muskellunge populations; nearly one third of pike caught by anglers

during 2010 were 24” or larger and muskellunge nearing 50” were also reported. Recent

improvements in the yellow perch population have led increased perch harvest, with fish up to

13 inches long fairly common in angler’s bags. Exceptional sunfish, black crappie, and largemouth

bass fishing consisting of quality-sized fish can be found in most major portions of the lake, with

the bite for these species typically best during May and June

10/9/2011 Leech Lake Fishing report

For this entry I've asked one of our guest Randy Blake, from Sioux Falls SD, to write a testimony on his weekend with us. I have added a detailed Leech Lake fishing report at the end.

TESTIMONIAL ---TRIP REPORT FOR--- 10/08/2011 and 10/09/2011

.

Toby Kvalevog, came very highly recommended by another fishing guide as a top notch fisherman in the Brainerd/ Walker/ Bemidji area. Toby, co-owner of and fishing guide for Leisure Outdoor Adventures has a reputation for catching very big fish. I was fortunate to fish a half day with Toby over the Labor day weekend and he put us on some real nice walleyes and pike. I knew after a half day of fishing that I wanted to come back and fish with him again on Leech Lake, especially after hearing his tales of the big ones boated over the summer and years previous.

So, I schemed and planned and worked hard to sneak in one more fishing trip with Toby, and boy am I glad that I did. I had the best walleye fishing of my life!

Although I had fished for walleyes before, most of the time it had been traditional South Dakota trolling with a bottom bouncer, spinner and crawler. I had used a Lindy Rig a few times, but not much prior to this recent fishing trip. Toby is an expert in Lindy rigging and taught me some beginner through expert use of the Lindy rig. He is a master at presentation, and boat conrol and fine tuning your location on the best part of the piece of structure. I love to learn from the experts and Toby is very helpful with loads of tips and little tricks that can make all the difference.

My personal best walleye before this trip was a 25 inch release, caught 15 years ago. During the course of two days fishing on Leech Lake with Toby, I broke and increased my personal record for my biggest walleye 5 times!

Day One my friend Mark Peterson from Hackensack MN joined us for a half of that day. We caught and released several very nice walleyes and some good eaters. The day was highlighted by a triple hookup of 5 pound fish out of the same school. Three rods bending deep all at the same time was exciting! The bigger highlight of the day was breaking my PR with a 25.5 inch release! I was very excited and thought to myself that we couldnt possibly do as well on Day Two. Wow was I wrong! Don't underestimate Toby and his ability and resolve to excel as a guide and put his clients on big fish. He goes the extra mile

Day Two we were out on Leech Lake even earlier. After a run, we settled in to fish the spot from the day before. Darn, three other boats were already there. But let me tell you one thing about Toby.......he puts you on THE spot within the spot.....he fine tunes it. Right away I caught a nice eater.....and then IT started. During the course of the day I caught many gorgeous walleyes, upping my big fish best four times!

First I caught a 25 and 3/4 inch walleye and then a 26 and 3/4 incher. Then a few 24 and 25 inch fish. Then another couple of eaters. Then we kept upping the ante.........a 27.5 incher soon was boated. During this time the fisherman in the other boats were not catching fish and they loooked on with envy as to what was going on in our boat. This continues for a couple hours.

Finally, the other fishermen left us alone and we continued to catch fish.

Ater a slow spell we moved........excellent call Toby! Not long after moving a couple miles to a new spot..... my "ship came in" ........I sunk my hooks into a heavy fish that stayed down and didn't want to come up. I could feel its powerful head shakes down at 19 feet below. Finally, after staying deep and coming up slow, when we did see the fish come to view out of the deep, we both knew that this one was special, it was bigger yet. Toby did a great netting job and the fish was safely boated. The measurements were 30.25 inch length and 17 inch girth. A trophy walleye in anyone's book...AND IT WAS RELEASED!!! It was the fourth time that day that I broke my personal record for a walleye!

But wait.....it wasnt over! No........I didnt beat that one but I landed a 25.5 and a 27.5 incher and lost a good one. The 27.5 incher fought better than any walleye I have ever had on, making hard runs, stripping line several times and refusing to give up. Until we got to see it we were thinking big northern or muskie, not walleye.

Wow! What a day of fishing! I played with and caught more big walleyes in two days than I ever imagined.

I have hired a number of guides over the years and am a pheasant hunting guide myself, in addition to my day job as a lawyer. So I know the difference between a a good guide and a great guide. I was totally impressed with all aspects of the trip and appreciated the extra effort. Leisure Outdoor Adventure guides have great boats and fishing rigs and tackle. Toby was superior at boat control and use of his advanced electronics. Toby provided great bait...large lively minnows. I found Toby to be very patient and helpful and I learned more about walleye fishing in two days than I have in the past 20 years. And, he never missed one fish with the net. I give him an A+ across the board. I will definitely be hiring Toby again to pursue the big fish.

I followed Toby's recommendation and stayed at The Chase On The Lake. We stayed in a studio condo. The facility was great, the rooms clean and spacious, and the food at the restaurant was top notch. I will gladly stay there again and again.

I whole heartedly recommend fishing with Toby Kvalevog and Leisure Outdoor Adventures. I had the most incredible walleye fishing trip of a lifetime.... I am hooked!

Randall Blake

Sioux Falls, SD

10/08/2011 Leech Lake Walleye Report:

Leech Lake = Jigs and Shiners on windswept points or trolling shadraps in 4-10ft of water.

Notable area's are; big and Little Hardwoods,

Walker Bay= Perch and Walleye are active in 40-50ft of water on shoreline flats and humps. Fish are biting best on VMC "Moon Eye' jig and minnow combos.

Kabekona Bay = Lindy Rigs with Red Tails or Creek Chubs in 20-35 ft of water and shore line breaks, flats, and humps.

Equipment Tip:

Using live bait requires a sensitive rod. Not only for light biters, but for active minnows indicating a predator in the area. That's why we like to use Jason Mitchell Series spinning rods for Jigging and Rigging techniques. The combination of the soft tip and strong backbone are very well designed at an affordable price.

http://clamoutdoors.com/jason_mitchell

Fall Leech Lake Walleyes

The walleye bite on Leech Lake has been getting stronger and stronger as the fall is now upon us. The jig bit and minnow bite has been strong on all the main lake flats and points. We have been using VMC HammerHead Jig in the 1/8th ounce. VMC offers these jigs in the all new UV Bright colors which is an amazing new technology which reflects more light energy, strengthening the lure's visibility. Read more by visiting VMC's Website, Click Here, and go to page V19. We have been tipping the minnows with medium sized rainbow chub minnows. This has also been a great combo for the jumbo perch that have also moved into the shallows.

The muskie action has also been pretty strong. We have averaged 1 to 3 bites a trip and have moved some real giant fish in the past few days. Hopefully we can get some hooks to stick and get them into the nets.

With the fall approaching so is the cold mornings. One of the most important thing to me is staying warm on the water. Lets face it if you are cold even the best day fishing isn't fun. I have been using IceArmor products for several years now and each and ever time I suit up I know I'm going to stay comfortable. My system includes; starting off with the Poly Base Layer (View here), then if you know me I'm in my IceArmor Wind Pants (View Here), a warm wool sweeter, then I like to wear a wind-stopper fleece jacket under my IceArmor Blue Suit Bibs (View Here), and for the really cold mornings or rain I put the Blue Suit Jacket on. The beauty part about this system is the layering aspect because as the sun rises so does the warmer air. I can peel layers to stay comfortable. IceArmor is a brand we believe in and we are confident you will be satisfied using!

Here are a few pics from recent guide trips.

(click on image for larger view)

The Jason Mitchell Elite Series 7 foot rod in action!

Leech Lake Fishing Walleye Guide Trip Story

"Make a Memory!" The words my Mom would tell me before every fishing trip and/or tournament. She didn't care about how big the fish we caught or if we took first or last place in a tournament, all she wanted was for each trip to be a special memory. A few years ago I lost my Mother and she is now looking down from the heavens above.

No different then any other guide trip, the other morning, I was up early getting my Jason Mitchell Elite Series rods (Website) rigged, the boat cleaned, fresh bait hand picked and the cooler packed ready for a day of fishing. As I drove away from the boat launch I told myself, "Lets Make a Memory Today!" The same as every single fishing guide trip it's my goal to do just that!

With just a short boat ride to Chase on the Lake (Website) I was met by Jeff and Duane, a father son duo from California, and they were ready to get after it. Jeff, the son, had never been walleye fishing and Duane, the father, had been to Canada a few times. It was a unseasonable warm day but the wind was rocking out of the south. Most of the walleyes are using midlake structure and with the big wind it made things pretty rough. We fished through the day and ended up catching our limit of walleyes but we had lots of down time in between bites. We also marked large schools of walleyes that decided they didn't want to bite. It seemed like we would catch one or two out of each school of fish but that was it and that made it a little frustrating. But, the boys were honing their live bait rigging skills for the next day of fishing as I told them with this stable weather all these fish should bite tomorrow. I could read Jeff's mind,"Yeah right coming from this goofy fishing guide." :) I cleaned their walleyes, dropped them off and said we are going to get them good tomorrow!

Same process as the day prior in search of that, "Special Memory" we headed out on beautiful Leech Lake. Another warm September day with calm winds. Duane started the day off perfect by bringing me a huge Sweet Roll from the breakfast buffet at the 502 restaurant. I chowed that thing down on the way to our first spot. With sticky fingers I baited our hooks and dropped down to the walleyes I was marking below and it didn't take long and the net was flying. The walleyes were on a feeding rampage! We bounced from spot to spot catching a mixed sizes of walleyes. Before we knew it the live well was filling up with perfect 17 inch keepers and it was still early in the morning. I could see the smile on both Jeff and Duane's faces as they set the hook again and again. As the morning progressed we started looking for some big fish and it didn't take long and we had some great fish for photos including a 28.5 incher which would have been a few inches larger if someone hadn't cut the tail. (see photo below) As the spirits were as high as the shinning sun I heard a hook set from the front of the boat where Duane was sitting. He said, "Fish on!" and I could tell this wasn't just another fish. From the Zine of the Shimino Stratic, I figured it was a large pike because we had caught a few througout the past couple of days but Duane couldn't' budge the fish. I said apprehensively, "Duane I think you have a musky?!" Just as I said that I saw the red tail fin give us a pass by and my assumption was correct. The intensity just went up a notch and in my attempts to coach Duane I'm sure I was barking out orders as I was pretty excited too. Just as I said, "Don't force her!" the large spotted fish jumped three feet out of the flat calm water of Leech Lake and Duane continued to do battle. After some pretty hard runs but no match for Duane we landed a 41 inch musky! I took a few quick photos and we let the fish swim back to her home. Feeling like we accomplished all of the worlds problems, the three of us just looked at each other and said, "What do we do now?" With smiles on our faces we continued to fish the day and the bite didn't slow down.

Shortly after landing the musky I had a monarch butterfly land on my fishing rod. I thought to myself, "Thanks Mom!" took a photo and the butterfly flew off into the sky.

I dropped Jeff and Duane off at the dock, cleaned fished, and meet up with them on the patio at the 502 Restaurant at the Chase on the Lake. We sat and chatted like we have been life long friends about the memories from the day. A hand shake from Jeff and a hug from Duane, with tears in his eyes he said, "Thank you! I'm 88 years old and haven't experienced a fishing trip like this in my lifetime!"

"Make a Memory and Get Hooked"
Jeff "Breezer" Andersen

Click on Photos for Larger View

Leech Lake Walleye and Musky Report

Leech Lake Musky Report:

Musky fishing has been pretty consistent the past few weeks. We have had some cooler nights which has helped bring those surface temps down which has seemed to help the bite during the daylight hours. The bite has been a mix of deep weed edges and rocks. Each trip we are averaging one to three bites with several follows. Top baits have been 10 blade bucktails in low light, smaller bucktails, like the BlueFox Vibrax MuskyBuck Click Here, with lots of speed during the daylight hours. Speed has been the difference from getting follows to getting bites. Other baits to mention are the PaceMaker, and the Storm ThunderBeast. Those have been our top three producers.

I should also mention we boated one of the largest fish that I have had in my boat to date. Bob K. from the Brainerd Area caught the fish which measured 55 inches with a 25 inch girth. Congrats to him on a fish of a lifetime!

I should also mention I have been using the Jason Mitchell Elite Series Musky and Walleye Rods this past season. They have performed flawlessly! If you are in the market for a musky fishing rod and don't want to spend an arm and leg make sure to check out the Jason Mitchell Line Up of Rods. My favorite all around musky rod is the 8' musky rod. You can view them by clicking here.

Leech Lake Walleye Report:

The walleye fishing has been great! We have consistently been putting limits of perfect 16 to 17 inch fish in the livewell. With that said each day is a new day of fishing as the fish have been on the move. We have focused our efforts fishing all over the lake. Not one bite has been better then the other so be prepared for battle, from fishing with live bait rigs, trolling Rapala crankbaits, jigging, and pulling spinners. All techniques are working!

Here are a few photos from a few of our past trips.

If you are looking for a fishing adventure in Northern Minnesota let us put a package together for you with staying at Chase on the Lake and fishing beautiful Leech Lake.

"Make a Memory and Get Hooked"
Jeff "Breezer" Andersen


(Click on Image for Larger View)

Bob K with the monster Minnesota Musky

Brainerd / Mille Lacs / Leech Lake Area Fishing Report

Not sure if it's late summer or early fall, but I know one thing, THE BIG GIRLS ARE BITING! Check out these Giants!!!

Dick Caught this 29" Walleye with Guide Toby Kvalevog on the Whitefish Chain near Brainerd MN


In the past week 3 walleyes pushing the 30". Here's a Leech Lake giant caught by Leisure Outdoor Adventure guest Tim Chick.

Tom Frisch Caught his biggest Fish, a 37" Pike, in the LOA boat on Leech Lake

Fishing in central Minnesota is as good as it gets! The fish are behaving like they're suppose to right now. Fish of all species can be found on or near the steep edges closest to deep water. Wind blowing in is nice, but not necessary. These fish were all holding on edges close to water deeper than 50 feet. They're chasing cisco and whitefish. For many of these giants, we are using Red Tails and Creek Chubs in the 4-8" range. There is no place better for fresh bait than SW bait shop here in the Brainerd area. Rigging these large minnows are fun because you know that it takes a special fish to eat such a bait.
Because you never know what kind of toothy critter might be looking for a mid day snack, it's important to use the right equipment. I like to use the 7" medium light action Jason Mitchell spinning rod for live bait rigging. This rod has the perfect action for big runs that trophy fish make at the side of the boat, but still has the sensativity to feel the lightest bites. A 12lb Fluorocarbon leader material will hold up to most fish if you have a good drag system. I like to keep them light, so that my clients can reel the entire time they're fighting their fish. This eliminates the chance of slack in the line which is every anglers worse nightmare.

Here is a snap shot of what's going on in the lakes that we've been on lately:

Gull Lake: Fish are outside the weed edges in 14-20 ft of water. Look for windy shore line points such as Holman's PT, Stone Boat House, Floans PT, Clumps, and Bow Tie Bars

Whitefish: Walleye, Pike and Bass are holding in the 18-24 ft edges on The three fingers area of upper whitefish. The main lake humps are also holding fish in the same depth ranges.

Mille Lacs: Walleye and Small mouth are starting to show up on the deeper edges of the rocks. These fish can be caught trolling or with bobbers. The mud flats are also producing walleyes on the deep edged to off of the flats. Trolling perch colored glass shads produced several nice fish in the past week.

Leech Lake: Walleyes on Leech Lake and Walker Bay are being caught with live bait and trolling crank baits. Troll the 14-18 ft edges of the main lake structure with natural patterns. Regardless of depth, keep the baits in the upper 10ft of the water column on most days in the main lake. Long lines work well for this pattern. The fish in Walker bay can be found on the deep humps scattered across the bay. Red tails on rigs, or jigs with rainbow minnows are putting many keeper sized fish in the boat.


And the CATCH OF THE YEAR GOES TO?????????????


Bob Kuschel!!
Congratulations to both Bob and Guide Jeff Andersen for this MONSTER 55" Musky caught this week.