The northern border of Minnesota is home to an abundance of outstanding bodies of water from several perspectives.

Most have fantastic fishing for a variety of fish.

Most can provide unbeatable scenery and the opportunity to see lots of wildlife.

Most can provide the feel of a remote, wilderness location.

Kabetogama Lake, less than five hours from the Twin Cities of Minnesota, does all of the above. “Kab” is easy to get to, but once you get to there, it’s easy to forget that the conveniences of the modern world are just around the corner. When you’re out on the lake, you’ll be surrounded by islands covered with pine trees and rock outcroppings: You’ll see eagles and otters, and you’ll more than likely be catching walleyes, smallmouth bass, jumbo perch, northern pike, or crappies. You’ll have no problem forgetting about whatever you want to forget about and just concentrating on the important stuff. Important stuff like will the walleyes be shallow or deep today, and should we use live bait or artificial.

Kabetogama Lake is situated in the heart of Voyageurs National Park, the only national park in Minnesota, and is made up of about 25,000 acres of clean, cool water and mostly undeveloped shoreline. There are upwards of two hundred islands that are inhabited only by black bears, wolves, loons, and a variety of other wild creatures.

Although “Kab” is a big body of water, it seems to “fish” small. You don’t need to travel long distances to get to the fish, and because of all the islands, wind is rarely a concern. You can always tuck in behind one of the islands to get out of the wind. If you are the adventurous type and want to try new areas when you visit “Kab”, the waters are easily navigated.

The Fishing the Midwest crew visited Kabetogama Lake twice in 2009. Our first trip was early in June. Spring hung on longer than usual this past year, and when we arrived, the walleyes were still shallow. And they were hungry! And they were really nice sized, mostly in that eighteen to twenty four inch range. We like nice sized walleyes that are hungry!

We started throwing jigs tipped with minnows and soft bait into newly emerging vegetation in four to six feet of water. Early on, Gulp! Alive three inch minnows on eighth ounce stand-up Fire-Ball jigs were the hot set-up. The stand-up Fire-Balls pulled through the weeds really well, and the Gulp! stayed on the hook much better than live minnows.

After a while though, shiner minnows on jigs became more productive, and a while later, the walleyes switched their preferences to fatheads on a jig. Even on a fish-filled lake like “Kab”, the fish will become conditioned to a certain presentation. Wherever you may be fishing, if the fish are biting good, then slow down or quit biting, try a different presentation. They’ll usually start eating again.

We returned to “Kab” in late September. Fished different areas with the same results. As is typical of fall months, the fish were deeper. They were on sunken islands in twenty five to thirty feet of water. When the fish are this deep, they’re easy to detect on sonar. We would cruise the sunken islands with a close eye on our Humminbird 798c. This color sonar does an outstanding job of revealing the fish. When we saw fish on the sonar, we stopped and dropped a jig on’em. And we usually caught’em. We caught lots of eaters and a good number of big ones also. Fun stuff!

Kabetogama Lake has a protected slot limit for walleyes that gives anglers a much greater chance for a quality fishing experience. You’ll catch plenty to eat, but you’ll also catch more big walleyes.