Can’t believe we are approaching the middle of September. But that does mean fewer boats on the lakes going into arguably the best bites of the year for most fish. I’ve been waiting for air temps (and water temps) to drop before returning to Minneapolis for some shore fishing walleye. This spring all the way until now has been very tough for walleye on my end. Low water levels and heat can push them far away from the bank. Need some redemption this year. On the plus side, here’s a Lake Nokomis walleye I caught there on a cloudy day with the wind blowing in. Actually had a couple on back-to-back casts, rare for a busy Minneapolis Metro fishing pier during summer.

Lake Nokomis is a 200-acre lake in south Minneapolis with a max depth of about 33 feet. It actually has a solid population of fish across several species, especially panfish and walleye, and nearly the entire shoreline is shore-fishing friendly. Access is easy, there’s plenty of parking and a full walking path circling the lake. There are also fishing piers available. I cover some tips here in my latest YouTube video:

🆘 As you can see in the thumbnail photo collage, the HELP! is from when I was fishing on Nokomis. Three young people flipped over in the canoe. I was recording while this happened, you can hear it in the YouTube video. After a few seconds of silence, probably in shock, they started yelling for help. From the distance, you could tell they didn’t know how to swim, and being in shock and probably having shoes on added to the panic. Now, I did research this lake well and know there was a beach/kayak rental place closest to them. So, I quickly called, told the person where the canoe was. About 8-10 minutes later, he reached them by kayak. That must have felt like an eternity for them.

The young man from the kayak rental place pulled them to shore. Fortunately, they were all wearing their life jackets or this could have had a tragic end. Getting back to fishing now. There have been some big ones caught there, including this big TIGER MUSKIE from 3 summers ago. Side note, happy to see “muskie” spelled correctly. 😉 You can read the full article from KARE 11 here.

Might have to chase some big toothy fish there this fall…

Baits. This week, let’s take a look at some tackle I saw during my visit to Europe last year. Rapala does offer some unique baits, not available in the USA market, just like how Canada has different options too. This Rapala Super Shadow Rap Glide 16 stood out. Hope these make it stateside someday:

Side note, in the meantime, I’m really looking forward to fishing the new Rapala PXR Stryda 180. You can see more on YouTube here.

Now back to some European lures. Walking the floor at AngelWelt Berlin was very fun - the biggest fishing expo in Europe. I didn’t recognize most of the brand names. Here’s a few unique baits:

Rigs. Pike hook and rigging systems for soft plastics are very popular over there. Haven’t really seen similar offerings here in the USA (yet). But maybe I’m not looking in the right places. Here are some rigs from the Pikecraft booth, they use VMC hardware.

Dead Bait. This was interesting: different ways to float dead bait for pike.

In my latest video I hit eight different Minneapolis metro area fishing piers, half of them I'd never fished before. I break down how to fish public docks, weed lines, wind direction, and walk through the baits to get bit. You can watch it here on YouTube.

My cousin Nick drops some sauce for September WALLEYE fishing… you can watch it here on his YouTube.

I’m about 90% done with the next YouTube video, wanted it out earlier this week, sorry for delay. It’s the first video in a 3-part series traveling up to Manitoba and then over into Ontario. And sometimes, you need a sign to go fishing. Saw this the other day in Crosslake, Minnesota…

If you made it this far, THANKS! Hope you have a great weekend!