North Long Lake- Brainerd area

[Gary in MN]

Anyone familiar with this lake? We will be up there for a week and have never fished there. Would sure like to put the family onto something that's biting. Any reports or suggestions would be welcome.Thanks, Gary.

[Garrison]

Gary,

I haven't been there in a couple of years, but used to live down the road and fished it quite a bit.

Best places are in the Merrifield Bay and the Large Central Bay.

Merrifield Bay has a large bar running across the center of it that ofetn produces. There's also a lot of good shoreline breaks along the north side and a decent point on the south side east of the Legionville camp.

In the Central Bay I typically fished the points on the north side that stick out into the the lake. These are underwater points coming off the shoreline, but they don't have an obvious above water point sticking inot the lake, so don't be too confused by this.

Techniques that work best are spinners and bouncers or crankbaits to locate the fish. I typically use the cranks in the early AM, and PM when the fish move up. If you find a school with your electonic or the bouncers it often pays to slow down and drop jigs on them

If the walleyes aren't going there's some great bass and crappie fishing on the lake, too.

Best of luck.

[Gary]

Thanks, looks like you've fished it a lot, I appreciate the info and hope we can get the rest of the family into some fish. Have a great day!