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Leech Lake Fishing Report

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

Minnesota's third-largest: walleye reefs, muskie legend and Chippewa National Forest wild.

4/5
Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.
Water temp
~55 F est.
Air / High
59 / 76 F
Wind
S 9 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.

4/5Good. Solid day ahead.Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Leech Lake is in transition: bait on the move and predators following. Today brings cloud cover, wind S around 9 mph, falling pressure near 1020 hPa and a high of 76. Water sits around 55 F for the season (estimated). With the waxing gibbous, the solunar majors run 9:47 AM-11:47 AM and 10:18 PM-12:18 AM: the windows to build the day around.

The plan, species by species

WalleyeExcellent

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 bassExcellent

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 pikeExcellent

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 perchExcellent

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 70 F with likely rain: fish ahead of the front. 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 temp59 F
High / Low76 / 46 F
WindS 9-18 mph
Pressure1020.1 hPa, falling
Sky / Rain62% cloud, 28%
Sunrise / Sunset07:39 / 18:12
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 Leech Lake this week

Today is the pick of the week on Leech Lake, at 4 out of 5.

Best day this week: today, Oct 23 β€” good at 4/5, falling pressure, usually the best window of a week.

Today, Oct 23 β€” Good

Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Solunar majors
9:47 AM-11:47 AM and 10:18 PM-12:18 AM
Minor period
4:11 AM-5:11 AM
Sun
07:39 to 18:12
Moon
Waxing Gibbous, 91% lit
Sky and wind
Showers, 16 mph
Rain chance
28%

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

Species guide

The species that matter on Leech 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 Leech 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 Leech 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 74 F, wind to 9 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 71 F, wind to 5 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 12 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

Walleye protective slots on Leech: check current MN DNR sheet. Muskie 54-inch minimum.

Access

Walker City Park, Federal Dam, Whipholt ramps among dozens; resorts rent everything.

About this water

111,500 acres, Cass County, MN. Minnesota's third-largest lake, Chippewa National Forest.

Fishing Leech Lake: the full guide

The complete northern lake

Leech does everything: walleye on wind-blown reefs and cabbage (a top-tier fishery year in, year out), a muskie population famous for the 1955 "muskie rampage," jumbo perch through the ice and largemouth in the slop bays nobody fishes. Walker's resorts and launches make the big water accessible.

Walker Bay and the walleye chase

Leech's walleye rotate a famous circuit: spring rivers and shoreline gravel, June on the big flats (Sugar Point, Pine Point), summer suspended over Walker Bay's 100-ft basin chasing tulibee, fall stacking the steep breaks. Leeches under slip bobbers are the lake's namesake bait for a reason.

Muskie riots

Mid-summer brings the phenomenon that made Leech famous: muskie feeding windows when multiple 50-inch fish rise in an afternoon. Federal Dam's flats and the weed edges of Portage Bay host the surface riots; locals watch the solunar peaks religiously: our dial panel exists for lakes like this.

Common questions

When is the Leech muskie window?

Mid-June through September, with the July full moons legendary. Cloudy, warm, pre-front afternoons produce the multi-fish flurries.

Federal Dam and the eater factory

Leech's Federal Dam corridor concentrates the everyman fishery: walleye stacking the current-touched flats (a shore-fishing rarity in big-lake Minnesota), jumbo perch through the ice, and the resort fleet's daily eater-walleye runs to Sugar Bar and Annex. The lake's protected slot keeps the trophy class swimming while the frying pan stays true: management that visibly works.

Is fishing good at Leech Lake right now?

Check the daily report at the top of this page: it is regenerated every morning from live data. Today's read: Good. Solid day ahead. Stable-to-falling pressure and workable wind line things up.

Nearby waters

Saint Croix River26 miGrindstone Lake33 miMille Lacs Lake50 miLake Minnetonka58 miKinnickinnic River59 miLake Waconia66 mi

Where this page's numbers come from

Weather and pressure
Open-Meteo forecast model
Queried at 45.6583, -93.0429 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.