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Gull Lake Fishing Report

Updated Fri, Oct 23, 2026 from live gauge and weather data

Brainerd's flagship: the resort-country classic where Minnesota learned to fish walleye chop over gravel and muskies haunt the cabbage.

3/5
Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
74 / 74 F
Wind
S 16 mph

Sources: Open-Meteo, solunar calculated for these coordinates.

Satellite view
Friday
23
October 2026

Today's Fishing Report

Generated this morning from live readings: gauge, weather model, sun and moon. A fresh report is published here every morning.

3/5Fair. Fish the windows.A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Gull Lake rewards those who follow the bait as the water cools. Today brings cloud cover, wind S around 16 mph, steady pressure near 1016 hPa and a high of 74. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:53 AM-11:53 AM and 10:23 PM-12:23 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

WalleyeGood

Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Smallmouth bassGood

Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Northern pikeGood

The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Yellow perchGood

Spring and fall: perch hold shallower and, by Michigan DNR's account, feed through the day, so shoreline weed edges, flats and the shallows near spawning areas are worth searching.

Tomorrow: Cooler at 61 F. The solunar majors shift about 50 minutes later.Next report: Sat, Oct 24, 6:30 AMHow this report is made β†’

Before you go

Minnesota requires a fishing licence from age 16, from $25.00 for residents. What a Minnesota licence costs and where to buy it β†’

Chasing walleye here? Check the size and bag limits with DNR before you keep anything. The season dates for Minnesota, read off the agency, are on the Minnesota seasons page.

Water and weather

Live readings.

No live gauge on this water

Conditions here are modeled from weather, season and the nearest stations. Water readings appear when a USGS gauge is available.

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Right now

Latest readings

Air temp74 F
High / Low74 / 50 F
WindS 16-29 mph
Pressure1015.7 hPa, steady
Sky / Rain96% cloud, 50%
Sunrise / Sunset07:46 / 18:16
MoonWaxing Gibbous, 91%
Water temp (seasonal)~55 F est.

Bite planner

Hour-by-hour bite forecast for today. Tap a bar to see why.

5 AM8 AM11 AM2 PM5 PM8 PMsunrisesunsetPRIMEPRIME

Which day to fish Gull Lake this week

The best day on Gull Lake this week looks like Saturday Oct 24, at 4 out of 5, against 3 today.

Best day this week: Saturday, Oct 24 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Fair

A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Solunar majors
9:53 AM-11:53 AM and 10:23 PM-12:23 AM
Minor period
4:16 AM-5:16 AM
Sun
07:46 to 18:16
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Rain, 17 mph
Rain chance
50%

Forecast-based scores, less reliable further out: how the score is built.

Species guide

The species that matter on Gull Lake: seasons, structure and how to fish each one. Today's ratings live in the report above.

Walleye illustration

Walleye

Best: spring and late fall, around dawn, dusk and night

A cool-water perch of large lakes, reservoirs and rivers whose reflective eyes are built for low light, so it feeds most at night and in murky water. The Missouri Department of Conservation ranks it among the continent's most important freshwater game fish. Spring: post-spawn fish scatter and can be slow for a couple of weeks. Fall: one of the best windows, with minnows on jigs and three-way rigs as the water cools toward ice-up.

Smallmouth bass illustration

Smallmouth bass

Best: spring and fall, when bigger fish come shallow

A bronze-brown black bass of clear, cool streams and rocky lakes, with dark vertical bars instead of a side stripe. Michigan DNR says its southeastern coast, from Port Huron to Lake Erie, is known nationally for both the size and the number of its smallmouth. Spring pre-spawn and fall: Iowa DNR notes the larger bass come up to shallow structure, where a shallow-running minnow bait or a spinnerbait just under the surface works.

Northern pike illustration

Northern pike

Best: cool water, from ice-out through spring, in fall and under the ice

A long, duck-billed predator of weedy lakes, slow rivers and backwaters that ambushes fish from vegetation. Wisconsin DNR points out that, unlike most of the state's common game fish, pike do their best feeding in cool water. The best band for pike: right after ice-out they move into flooded vegetated shallows to spawn, and they feed actively again as the water cools in fall.

Yellow perch illustration

Yellow perch

Caught all year, including under the ice through winter

Yellow perch are schooling panfish of the Great Lakes and northern lakes, and Michigan DNR calls them the game fish most often caught in that state. Spring and fall: perch hold shallower and, by Michigan DNR's account, feed through the day, so shoreline weed edges, flats and the shallows near spawning areas are worth searching.

When to come: the Gull Lake calendar

Activity by species and month, and how the water warms through the year. Tap any cell.

Species activity by month

1 = slow, 5 = peak. Current month highlighted.

J
F
M
A
M
J
J
A
S
O
N
D
Walleye
Smallmouth bass
Northern pike
Yellow perch
SlowPeak

Water temperature through the year

Typical surface temperature for this water type; today is around 55 F (estimated, not a reading).

304050607080JanMarMayJulSepNovOct, ~55 F now

Angler reports

Real reports from real anglers, reviewed before publishing. The water log below tracks each day automatically.

No angler reports yet this weekBe the first: your report helps every angler who checks Gull Lake today, and we feature the best catch of the week.

Water log, last days

Auto-logged from live data
Thu, Oct 22

3/5 Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day. Walleye led the card at good. High of 73 F, wind to 8 mph.

Wed, Oct 21

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Walleye led the card at excellent. High of 70 F, wind to 7 mph.

Tue, Oct 20

4/5 Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up. Walleye led the card at excellent. High of 67 F, wind to 14 mph.

Where roughly, what depth, what bait. Skip anything you want to keep secret.
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Before you go

License

Minnesota requires a valid fishing license for adults. Buy online from the state agency; one-day options exist for visitors.

Regulations

Minnesota license. Walleye protective slot: check DNR Brainerd-area rules. Muskie 54-inch.

Access

Government Point, Hole-in-the-Day, East Gull accesses; resort launches throughout.

About this water

9,418 acres in the Brainerd Lakes, Cass/Crow Wing counties, MN. The resort-country flagship.

Fishing Gull Lake: the full guide

The Brainerd standard

Gull anchors the Brainerd Lakes' resort empire: 9,400 clear acres of gravel bars, cabbage beds and structure that taught generations of Minnesota guides their trade. The lake balances fame with output: walleye as the tradition, muskies and bass as the modern growth stocks, and an infrastructure (resorts, launches, winter roads) that makes every season turnkey.

Walleye on the gravel

The signature program runs the bars: Gull's famous gravel (Squaw Point, the Narrows shelves) loads with spring jig-and-shiner fish, June's leeches under slip bobbers work the 12-18-ft breaks at dusk, and summer's spinner-and-crawler trollers cover the deep weedlines. The walleye chop doctrine was practically written here: wind on the bars means gold.

The predator upgrade

Muskie stockings built a 50-inch fishery over the cabbage flats (Wilson Bay, the Narrows: figure-eights mandatory), and the bass fishing: largemouth in the pockets, smallmouth on every rock: steadily rivals the walleye claim. Crappie stack the fish cribs each spring: the resort docks light the summer night bite.

Resort-country rhythm

Public accesses (Government Point, Hole-in-the-Day) spread the fleet: resorts add their own. July's traffic peaks hard: dawn and dusk own the bite anyway. Winter villages the flats (the Brainerd Jaycees ice extravaganza: the world's largest contest: happens on neighboring Hole lakes but Gull's roads run all season): a complete northern calendar.

Common questions

Is Gull Lake still good for walleye?

Steadily: the gravel bars produce on every wind, and the slot protects the spawn class. It fishes best as a conditions lake: chop and dusk beat calendars.

Does Gull Lake hold big muskies?

Fifty-inch fish come every season from the cabbage: June's post-opener and October's big-rubber weeks are the windows. The Narrows' weed edges are the storied water.

Is fishing good at Gull Lake right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Fair. Fish the windows. A steady pattern: dawn and dusk carry the day.

Nearby waters

Mille Lacs Lake36 miOtter Tail Lake61 miCass Lake69 miLake Winnibigoshish71 miGrindstone Lake72 miLake Bemidji79 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 46.4170, -94.3500 in this water's own timezone. A model, not an observation.
Moon and solunar windows
Calculated on this site
Astronomical calculation from these coordinates and the date, not a third-party feed. How much weight it deserves.
The written guide on this page
Pablo Ruiz Quintero
How this page was made. The daily report is computed by our scoring engine from live readings; nobody types it. The written guide was drafted with AI assistance. Unlike our newer pages, it does not yet list the official pages its facts were checked against: that audit is under way, and anything it cannot verify will be taken out. Pablo Ruiz Quintero sets every guideline, the data-verification system and the minimum standards a page must meet to be published, reviews page structure and approves what goes live; the responsibility is his, and the AI carries out the work. We work this way because it is how one person can keep every page current with named sources. Errors are published in the verification log; the full policy is in the editorial policy.

Readings refresh on a 30-minute window. The full method, with every figure and its source, is on how our reports are made. Something wrong here? Tell us and it goes in the log with the date.