Swan Lake, Itasca County (all postings)

The fishing on Swan has been very stable as of late. Put in your time, and the walleyes are cooperating. Spent a real nice morning on Wednesday, and caught more then we needed in about three hours time. Still fishing a jig and minnow. All I could get was fatheads, but it didn't seem to matter. It did seem like the larger minnows worked better. Most of the fish are under the slot in that 16 inch range. The biters seem to be just outside the weedline. Good Luck!

Fishing tightened up a little today. I'm not sure if it was the warmer weather again or what, but we struggled to put 8 in the box. Embarassing to say, but my 11 year old daughter caught 7 of them. Yup, dad got a good old fashioned butt whooping!

Jig and minnow, 16' deep was what we used. Absolute beautiful day on the water.

Fished Swany two mornings this week and found a very cooperative bunch of good eater walleyes in about 16-17 feet of water. By far and away best bait choice for us was a 1/4 oz. jig tipped with either a minnow or half crawler on 4lb. flurocarbon. These walleyes are very fat, I would imagine their really putting on the feed bag right now. Get'em while their going, good luck!

Fished last night from 4 till dark the best fishing was in 14-16' on the west shore pulling purple or blue crawler harnesses. The crawlers out fished a lindy with a leech by far. On The north shore 10-12' on the edge of the cabbage produced 2 nice slot fish and a 34" northern using a 1/4 oz superglow and half crawler. Fishing should start to pick up out there as long as the weather cooperates!

Had a chance to take my twin 8 year olds out for a quick trip to Swany. Our plan was to get out and just cover water. Rigged with Storm Thundersticks we just began cruising the weedline, and found a mixed variety including a real nice largemouth that was totally unexpected. After a few hours, we had caught some nice eyes, including a 26 incher, and some better than average pike. Well worth the effort.

Tegans got it figured out. He's going to go into the guide buisness in just a few more years!

Had a chance to get out last night for a few hours, and found some tough fishing. I caught three keepers and one 23 incher. I probably should have considered running cranks or spinners, but I'll save that for another day. It was still good to be on the water. Good luck!

Been having computer problems so forgive me for not updating Swanny more often. Swanny was about as good as she gets the last couple of weeks, but recent bug hatchs have me scratching my head now. Was out on a very hot calm day on Sunday and should have just stayed in bed. I'm guessing it will improve after the hatch's subside.

Wow, been a long time since my last report. I don't do a lot of ice fishing usually. Did get a chance to fish Swan with a friend for pike and had a decent day. Used Northlands Buckshot Rattle spoons to catch a limit of decent pike. Fish were all around three to five pounds and very healthy looking. Caught them in about 12 feet of water.

Swan continues to put out fish on a pretty consistent basis. Jig and minnow seems to be taking over as the go to bait of choice, shiners if you can get them. Most days that 16 to 22 foot seems to be best. Anybody else getting out on Swan?

Well, another good week for Swan. The fish are bunching in pretty good numbers, and the bite is about as good as its going to get. Fellow NPAA member Tyler Glad had an excellent afternoon on Friday, catching a double limit on jigs and half a crawler. Twenty feet seems to be a good starting depth.

Back out on Swan on Wed. Conditions couldn't have been worse for walleyes. Flat, hot, lots of algae bloom, water temps back up. Only had a few hours to fish and caught 7 nice fish. All still on leeches and rigs. Swany seems to want to go despite hot weather.

For me personally, this was the first week that Swan started to kick in with good numbers, although most are in the slot. Work at it though and some eaters are there. Most fish seemed to be just off the weed lines in 16' of water. Crawlers and leechs still seem to be outproducing jigs, but look for that to start changing. Their predicting temps around 80 for the next few days which may slow things again for awhile, but the fall bite is sure to come soon.