>>1411251Oh hey, I just moved out of Bemidji last year and will likely be moving back next summer. I don't want to give any specific lakes because all the smaller lakes in the area are extremely susceptible to pressure, but I would say that you are best off hunting the smaller lakes. Bemidji, Leech, Winnie, etc are great for consistent walleye, but the smaller lakes are where the real good fishing is if you are willing to put your time into learning the lakes because they don't get the shit fished out of them. They also vary a lot year to year, some years there will be huge amounts of big crappies, some years it's all big bluegills, some years it mostly just bass all depending on what spawned successfully a few years back. Walleye fishing is extremely hit or miss on the smaller lakes, though, but they can have some shockingly big ones mixed in. Somebody illegally stocked smallies in the lakes north of town a few years before I left and they seem to be outcompeting the walleyes hard, there is probably a decent fishery for them by now. In the deeper small lakes there is also great "trophy" cisco fishing, for whatever reason they actually get big unlike the ones in the large lakes and can be a hell of a lot of fun to catch. Also consider hitting Bemidji for burbot, they taste amazing and aren't too tough to catch if you have a house and heater and are willing to nightfish, just hit the top of a steep break out of deep water up to 5-15 feet at night with some fishy smelling, but fresh, bait.
The lakes in the area aren't as weed-choked as most MN lakes so they have a lot less total fish and you need to be on your spot-finding game. It can seem like the lakes are just completely dead at times especially in the winter when they scatter rather than staying near weeds. The upside is that it means the fish have far better average size than most of the state, especially the panfish as they don't get overpopulated like in southern lakes.
Shitty pic related of a giant cisco.
