Lake Bemidji — Breeze Means Shallow, Calm Means Deep

I’ve spent a lot of fall mornings cussing the wind on Lake Bemidji. Turns out I should’ve been thanking it. This week’s column says a little chop is what pulls the walleyes up.

The weather check

Water’s down in the low 50s, and the column says a breeze is all it takes to make the boat cold, mornings especially. Wear the extra layer. The upside: not many people are out, since a lot of folks have already put the boat away.

Walleyes: let the sky pick your depth

• Where: Lake Bemidji, plus Plantagenet, Gull (the one up by Bemidji, not Brainerd) and Andrusia.
• What: jigs with minnows, live-bait rigs with minnows, or Jiggin’ Raps.
• Wind or clouds: start around 8 to 10 feet.
• Calm and bright: go deeper, about 15 to 20 feet.

The column’s opening also mentions rigs with bigger minnows at 12 to 18 feet on Bemidji, Plantagenet, Andrusia and Big. That’s a handy middle range if the sky can’t make up its mind.

Everything else

• Perch: the bigger ones are taking jigs and minnows at 8 to 12 feet on Bemidji and Andrusia.
• Crappies and bluegills: hanging out over deep water. The column says most panfish are suspended.
• Bass: the bigger fish are coming off green weeds and rocks, and plastics off the deeper weeds are working well.

How it lines up with last week

Our Oct. 14 card gave walleyes a wide range of 8 to 20 feet. This week the column breaks it down: wind sends them shallow, calm sends them deep.

Fine print

All of this comes from one weekly newspaper column covering a bunch of lakes. It gives no fish counts or sizes, and we didn’t add any. “Great weather this week” is the columnist’s forecast, not a guarantee. The column also asks anglers to practice selective harvest.

Sources

• Weekly Fishing Report: Good weather this week for fishing, Dick Beardsley, Bemidji Pioneer, Oct. 21, 2026
• Prior card: Lake Bemidji, mid-October