🍁 It’s officially fall! Halloween will be here soon enough. This is prime time for fall fishing. And it’s one of the best opportunities for catching walleye from shore. Many anglers will be fishing below dams, but there are plenty of gravel lizards to be caught on shallow river flats far away from spillways. I didn’t get out fishing this week so I’ll have to share this walleye from November 5th, last fall on a Mississippi River “lake”.

Gull Lake sits just northwest of Brainerd, practically in my backyard. My cousins had a house on it for most of my life and I’ve fished there many times. It anchors a seven-lake chain and is best known for walleye, but also excellent pike and bass fishing. The lake has a great mix of varying structure, a great dock bite and deep weeds for both walleye and bass. For shore fishing, there are some public areas, but those can get crowded, so I avoid it during summer. For detailed lake info: including verified catch data areas-historical stocking-DNR size sampling, be sure to check out the onX Fish app. I find myself browsing the web app more and more searching both local and other states.

🏆 This past weekend, Hayes Baldwin won the Classic Bass Champions Tour walleye tournament on Gull Lake with only a day and a half of practice. He knows this lake extremely well. In the Champions Tour format, every walleye over two pounds counts toward your total. A marshal in the boat weighs and photographs each fish before it's released, and the lake is split in half, so anglers fish the south end in the morning and the north end in the afternoon. I would love to fish this style of event someday.

🪝 He was on a recent episode of PTB (Past the Barb) Podcast talking about the win. Everything he caught came on a jig and crawler (switching from a 3/16 oz jig to a 1/8 oz during the event) while keeping his trolling motor on 6 or 7, covering as much water as possible. His winning final weight was 59lbs 12oz for 13 walleye. That’s an impressive average and a nice $10,000 payday!

During my latest YouTube video I visited Eagle Nest Lodge in Manitoba. It sits on the upper Winnipeg River, about 70 miles northeast of Winnipeg. Three generations of the Pedruchny family have run it for more than 60 years. Today it's owned by Shaun and Jessica Jackson, who treat guests like family. You can reach the lodge by boat or fly in. We flew in with Adventure Air from Lac du Bonnet, a scenic 15- to 20-minute trip that lands right at the dock. We flew in style on the Cessna Caravan, plenty of room for our group of 5 and all our gear, taking off from the concrete runway and then landing on water at the lodge!

The property has six cabins with 40 beds in total. Every cabin has two bathrooms, a wood stove, heat and air conditioning, satellite TV, and a deck overlooking the river. The Clubroom is the center of the lodge, with a bar, pool table, hot tub, and upstairs gym. Guests come for walleye, northern pike, and smallmouth bass, along with guided fishing, great meals, and an awesome Canadian shore lunch.

Food & Drinks. Happy hour runs before dinner every night, with mojitos, margaritas, and beer on tap. They have a bar in the Clubroom which was a popular spot before dinner. Coffee was delivered to the cabin each morning, and breakfast ranged from homemade waffles to a Southwest-style hash. Dinners included prime rib, pork tenderloin, and barbecue brisket, and every night ended with a delicious dessert. The dining hall sits on historic fur-trade land, and the walls are lined with fish mounts and old finds. If you visit here, bring your appetite!

Shore Lunch. This was the highlight of the trip! In my YouTube video, you can get the full sensory sounds of the wood crackling and fish fillets getting crispy in the pan. They run a system to make everything as smooth as possible. It’s like watching the kitchen prep and cook food in a fancy restaurant!

Fishing. Eagle Nest sits on the upper Winnipeg River and offers walleye, northern pike, and smallmouth bass. Part of our group included Ken Baldwin, he’s a writer/editor for “Fishing on SI” (Sports Illustrated), along with being creator/host of the long running TV fishing show “Seasons on the Edge”. It was interesting seeing how he worked the areas with a fly getting bites, including a Master Angler smallmouth bass! We had a lot of fun in the boat, making jokes and catching fish. I did get a few walleye throwing an umbrella rig, couldn’t resist trying it out there…

📝 I wrote an article for Matador Network about this trip. They helped organize it. And a big thanks to Elise Wood and Katherine Johnson from Travel Manitoba!

My latest video from the Eagle Nest Lodge trip is live! You can watch it here on YouTube. This is part 2 of 3, of my Canadian summer adventure!

If you made it this far, THANKS! I’m currently editing the next video featuring road trip fishing through Ontario. My friend, Brad Petersen, usually ends his NoCo (Colorado fishing newsletter) on a meme, so…