Brainerd Lakes Area Live Music October 1-7

For week of Oct. 1-7; bands perform from 9 p.m. to close with no cover unless otherwise noted.


BRAINERD


Coco Moon


601 Laurel St.

Bluegrass, first, third and fifth Friday of the month

Eagles Club

124 Front St.

King's Ransom, 7:30-11:30 p.m. Friday; $5 for all dances for non-Eagle members.

Last Turn Saloon

215 S. South Eighth St.

Theology on Tap, 6-9 p.m. Saturday

Liquor Pigz

718 Laurel St.

Karaoke, 10 p.m. every Wednesday

Jam session/open mic, 9 p.m. every Sunday

Shep's on Sixth

315 S. Sixth St.

DJ, every Friday-Saturday in Elbow Room

St. Mathias Bar and Grill

4640 County Road 121

King's Ransom, Saturday

BREEZY POINT

Commander Bar

30279 Airport Road

Skewed View, 9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday

JJ's Pub

Downstairs of Commander

Mark Stary, 5-9 p.m. Saturday

CROSBY

The Bridge Tavern

26929 Highway 6

Live music every Friday; Classic Country Dinner Theater, 4-8 p.m. Sunday

CROSSLAKE

Moonlight Bay Family Restaurant

37627 County Road 66

DJ JP and DJ Chad, every Friday-Saturday

MERRIFIELD

Harpo's

2156 County Road 3

Muddy Water Band, 8 p.m. to midnight Saturday

NISSWA

American Legion

25807 Main St.

Sideways Entertainment, 7 p.m. Friday

Brainerd Fishing Report From Nate Berg

Info. via visitbrainerd.com

In this weeks Brainerd Minnesota fishing report local fishing guide Nate Berg shares his recent multi species success on areas lakes.

Typically by this time of the year, the fish are on their fall feeding pattern and easy to find.  One thing I found out in the past week is they are in more of a mid to late August pattern and spread all over the place due to the water still being in the upper 60's to lower 70's.  This made it a fairly weird week fishing wise.   One day, we caught walleyes on live bait rigs and redtails in the typical fall depths of 15-30 feet.  Just of some confusion, the next day we couldn't get a bite on a minnow and had to resort back to crawlers and move shallow. This is why as fishermen it is important to stay versatile and to not get stuck into ruts.
On Thursday, we headed out to one of my favorite fall lakes in the Brainerd Lakes Area looking for transitioned fish and we found them.  Not only did we find walleyes, but we also found a bunch of big largemouths and some pike.  The key was finding areas where the weed line ended at roughly 15 feet and had a fairly quick drop off to deeper water.  It really didn't matter if it was near a point or an inside turn as long as the weed line ended at 15 feet. 
Another important part of the day was being very mobile.  It seemed the fish would scatter quick when you started catching a few and I have found this to be fairly typical in the fall following a front. The only technique we fished was a live bait rig with a long snell and a 3-5 inch redtail.  In the end we had walleyes up to 25 inches, pike up to 26 inches bass up to 20 inches, and boated nearly 40 fish.
On Friday, I had to throw everything out the window that I learned from the day before.  We started fishing the same deep water edges and could not produce a fish with a redtail.  After about 20 minutes of seeing a few fish with no bites, I decided to lengthen the snell from 6 to 8 feet and use a full crawler with some air blown into it.  This technique produced a few good eater walleyes but it wasn't what we wanted.  If I can give you one piece of advice that can hold true all the way up to ice is to bring along some crawlers and a worm blower.  Many times a crawler will produce bites when a minnow will not.
As Friday progressed, one thing that we noticed was all the bass had moved shallower and were breaking the surface.  It just made sense for us to follow the progression.  Within a few minutes, we started to pull in crappies, bluegills, largemouth, pike and walleyes. The pattern was simple, any place there was weeds, there was fish.  The best depths were 7-10 feet and as is the case many times in the fall, blue blades were the key.  It didn't matter if it was a #4 or #5 blade, just as long as it was blue. The best speeds were 0.9 to 1.1 mph with an 1/8 oz. bullet weight above the harness to get down to the bottom.
As we got into a rhythm with the crawler harnesses, I decided to give another one of my favorite fall techniques a try and that is long lining jigs on the weed edge at the same time as pulling harnesses.   The key to long lining is using a really sensitive 7 foot or longer medium light rod, no stretch line and a 6 foot or longer 14-20 pound fluorocarbon leader.  The size of the jig always depends on how deep I am fishing.  My rule of thumb is anything above 15 feet I use a 1/16 oz jig, anything from 15-20 feet I use a 1/8 oz and 20 plus I use a 1/4 oz.  I have found that a plain lead jig head works the best but sometimes I will use a metallic colored jig, especially in tannin stained waters.  This technique produced a few fish as well. 
As the day went on, we moved back to some deeper structure and produced a few more walleyes including a couple on redtails.  We really had a lot of short hits from really nice fish.  They were absolutely hammering the minnows but dropping them nearly immediately.  This can be frustrating but what this tells me is the fish are ready to put their fall feed bag on and fishing should get really good within a few days, especially once the weather cools down.
In the end, we had walleyes up to 23 inches, many pike up to 24 inches, some very nice largemouth up to 19 inches, some great crappies up to 12 inches and some dandy gills up to 9 1/2 inches.  In total, I would guess we caught nearly 75 fish. With great weather forecasted for the weekend get up to the Brainerd area and hold on to summer with some fall fishing.
Nate Berg
Nate Berg Fishing Guides
218-821-9488

Fishing Report Fall 2015

Here is an updated Brainerd Minnesota fishing report for Gull Lake in response to an email we received this morning.

Here is an updated Brainerd Minnesota fishing report.
We received an email this morning asking:
Any recent reports on the walleye bite on Gull? I will be coming up both of the next two weekends.
Within an hour we received this response from Nate Berg Fishing Guides:
As of recently, Gull has been a morning bite but should be changing as the moon moves towards full.  I was out there on Tuesday on a fact finding mission and did ok.
Wilson Bay, Steamboat Bay and the Whitehouse Bar were all producing for me.  I also found fish on a few humps.
As with most lakes, because of the warm fall, the fish are fairly scattered and you can catch fish on several techniques.  The key is to be mobile and look for active fish.  You may only catch one fish a spot.  We need some cooler water temps to school then up.
I caught fish on live bait rigs with smaller red tails hooked through the back between the dorsal fin and tail with a long 8 foot snell.  I also caught fish on smaller golden shiners and rainbows.  The key seemed to be smaller minnows.  I also caught a few live bait rigging crawlers with air.  The best depths changed with the weed lines.  You wanted to be just off the edge of the weeds and this changed from 14 feet to 30 depending on where I was.
Crawler harnesses with blue blades were also producing a few bites. 10-17 feet.
I did get a report that the night trolling bite was starting to take off.  My buddy said anything purple and chrome.
If you start struggling too much with Gull, don't be afraid to hop over to North Long.  The bite has been good for 14-18 inch fish.  Any point that drops off into deep water seemed to hold a few fish.
Nate Berg Fishing Guides
218-821-9488

Brainerd Lakes Live Music Sept. 24th-30th

Live Music - Sept. 24



For week of Sept. 24-30; bands perform from 9 p.m. to close with no cover unless otherwise noted.


BRAINERD


Coco Moon


601 Laurel St.

Bluegrass, first, third and fifth Friday of the month

Eagles Club

124 Front St.

The Agates, 7:30-11:30 p.m. Friday; $5 for all dances for non-Eagle members.

Last Turn Saloon

215 S. South Eighth St.

Duncan Vinje, 8:30-10:30 p.m. Saturday

Liquor Pigz

718 Laurel St.

Karaoke, 10 p.m. every Wednesday

Jam session/open mic, 9 p.m. every Sunday

O'Madden's Pub

11266 Pine Beach Peninsula

The Bergets, Friday-Saturday

Shep's on Sixth

315 S. Sixth St.

DJ, every Friday-Saturday in Elbow Room

St. Mathias Bar and Grill

4640 County Road 121

Big T Karaoke and DJ, Saturday

BREEZY POINT

Commander Bar

30279 Airport Road

In2ition, 9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday

JJ's Pub

Downstairs of Commander

Soupbones, 5-9 p.m. Saturday

CROSBY

The Bridge Tavern

26929 Highway 6

Live music every Friday; Classic Country Dinner Theater, 4-8 p.m. Sunday

CROSSLAKE

Moonlight Bay Family Restaurant

37627 County Road 66

DJ JP and DJ Chad, every Friday-Saturday

NISSWA

American Legion

25807 Main St.

Old Glory, 7-10 p.m. Saturday

Brainerd Lakes Area Live Music: September 10th-16th

Live Music - Sept. 10
By BRAINERD DISPATCH on Sep 9, 2015 at 8:24 p.m.



For week of Sept. 10-16; bands perform from 9 p.m. to close with no cover unless otherwise noted.


BRAINERD


Coco Moon


601 Laurel St.

Bluegrass, first, third and fifth Friday of the month

Eagles Club

124 Front St.

Artison, 7:30-11:30 p.m. Friday; $5 for all dances for non-Eagle members.

Last Turn Saloon

215 S. South Eighth St.

Open Mic Night, first Wednesday of month from 7-10 p.m.

Katie Wig and Mitchell Gerard, 8:30-10:30 p.m. Saturday

Liquor Pigz

718 Laurel St.

Karaoke, 10 p.m. every Wednesday

Jam session/open mic, 9 p.m. every Sunday

O'Madden's Pub

11266 Pine Beach Peninsula

Jack Hanna, Friday-Saturday

Shep's on Sixth

315 S. Sixth St.

DJ, every Friday-Saturday in Elbow Room

BREEZY POINT

Commander Bar

30279 Airport Road

The Whiskies, 9:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday

JJ's Pub

Downstairs of Commander

Lee Bone, 5-9 p.m. Saturday

CROSBY

The Bridge Tavern

26929 Highway 6

Live music every Friday; Classic Country Dinner Theater, 4-8 p.m. Sunday

CROSSLAKE

Moonlight Bay Family Restaurant

37627 County Road 66

DJ JP and DJ Chad, every Friday-Saturday