Detroit Lakes Fishing Report: Extended Edition (9/16/26)

Welcome to the Extended Edition of this week's Detroit Lakes fishing report — the depths, presentations, and tips you won't find anywhere else.

The bite slowed considerably and the wind earned the blame — walleyes want steady weather and they didn't get it. But location is the bigger story. Fish have slid off the shallow weedlines and gone deeper. If you're still pounding shallow weeds, you're fishing where they were, not where they are.

Walleyes have come from 8' to 30', but the bulk are sitting 22'-26' on the tips of deep bars — best where a sharp break sits close by. Crawlers and small minnows both produce. Use the lightest jig you can while still feeling bottom: 1/16 oz for me, 1/8 oz max. A heavy jig at 25' buries in the deep weeds and kills the slow fall that gets bit.

Bass are deep in that same neighborhood, so a drop shot covers walleyes, smallmouth, and largemouth in one depth range.

Big sunfish are deep and hungry. Some sit on bottom, but the suspended schools won't come down for a bait below them. Find them on your electronics, note their exact depth, and set a slip bobber right at that level — not a foot above. A foot off and they ignore you.

Nail that depth and you'll catch them. On my guided trips I add one more adjustment on top of it, and it's the difference between a few nice 'gills and a full livewell — that one you'll have to join me for.

Slow down, downsize, and fish the hour around sunrise and sunset.

Good luck out there, and tight lines! 🎣

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