Grand Rapids guide’s Oct. 17 trip: perch in 56-degree weeds, crappies at 53

A Grand Rapids guide’s Saturday note is a perch-and-crappie day, not another Lake Winnie walleye report. Jeff Sundin of The Early Bird Fishing Guide posted Oct. 17, 2026, that wind and a low-40s forecast pushed his crew off the walleye spots he already knew. The first ramp they reached had whitecaps on the sand, the dock pulled, and the toilet gone. Two more stops were closed or under construction before they found a ramp that still had a dock.

On the perch flat, surface water was 56 degrees. They fished about 7 feet over coontail and eelgrass with 1/8-ounce live-bait jigs tipped with small golden shiners and put together what he called enough jumbos to call the stop a success. Northern pike came along during the perch fishing, including fish that followed perch to the boat. When the gusts eased, they moved to a crappie hole. There the water was 53 to 54 degrees. In about 18 feet, in the waves, they switched to 1/4-ounce jigs and plastic tails — he names Bobby Garland baby shad and Glo Mo, Slabalicious, and Extreme Shad — and fished them vertically. He wrote that the crappies ate on the fall and that the plastics all worked. The boat finished with a pile of perch and 15 crappies.

The last snag was on shore. Sundin wrote that the fish-cleaning station at Pokegama Dam was closed and the door locked, so the crew cleaned fish on a tailgate with river water. He adds that most area resorts are closed and public cleaning stations are scarce, and that anyone heading out should have another plan for cleaning fish. This is his Oct. 17 guide report. The Lake Winnie walleye note already on the desk is a different day and a different water.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: Jeff Sundin — October 2026 Late Fall Walleye Fishing Reports (Oct. 17, 2026, entry “Dodging the Dodge-Able On A Gusty Day”).