Walleye is the most sought after fish in Minnesota. Its thick, white fillets, handsome shape and colouring, and elusive nature make it the ultimate prize among anglers. Each year, anglers in Minnesota keep roughly 3.5 million walleyes total 4 million pounds. The walleye is named for its pearlescent eye, which is caused by a reflective layer of pigment, called the tapetum lucidum, that helps it see and feed at night or in murky waters.

Walleye are plentiful in all four lakes of the lower Crow Wing Chain with Spring and Fall the best time to catch your limit. Our lakes are clear and food plentiful so fishing away from the boat with a leach or minnow, early or late in the day is most productive. Every other year the DNR uses our boat ramp to stock Walleye, last year with 1000lbs of fingerling and one and two year old fish.

Mouth Bass is one of the scrappiest fish that swims. An increasing number of anglers throughout the state are learning that largemouth bass, with their jolting strikes and wild airborne leaps, are an exciting fish to catch. And caught and cooked fresh out of the clean clear waters of the lower Crow Wing Chain they are very tasty as well. Four and five pounds are not uncommon is the 2nd and 3rd Crow Wing Lakes.

Northern Pike is a voracious predator that is one of the easiest fish to catch because it so willingly bites lures or bait. What’s more northern produce chunky white fillets that many anglers say taste as good as walleyes. And we can teach you how to remove those pesky Y bones. Most northern run 2 to 3 pounds, though trophies over 20 pounds are caught each year. Last summer Big Timber Lodge guests caught and released more than a dozen fish over 40”. The 4th Crow Wing lake is a relatively shallow, basin bottomed, weedy lake that many of our guests refer to as Northern Heaven.

Anglers love crappies, are caught all season long on all four lakes, all times of day and night. Crappies bite readily and produce sweet-tasting fillets. There are actually two types of crappies: the black and the white. Both travel in schools and feed on small fish and aquatic insects. When you catch a crappie in one of our lakes, it’s most likely a black crappie. The black crappie prefers deeper, cooler, clearer water than the white crappie does.