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Planning your summer fishing vacation but don't want to drive too far? Gull Lake is located 8 miles north of Brainerd and is connected to eight smaller lakes through a series of navigable channels. The smaller lakes - Margaret. Love, Round, Upper Gull, Bass, Spider, Roy and Nisswa - can offer excellent fishing, but Gull Lake is the granddaddy of them all.
The reason Gull holds such a phenomenal fishery is that it is blessed with superb fishing structure for all species. It's large, it's deep and it has sharp rocky drop-offs going down like stairsteps into the depths - perfect hideouts for big fish, especially walleyes.
The upper section of the lake is characterized by sunken islands, sand and gravel bars and rocky reefs. The lower section, south of Gull Point (formerly Squaw Point), is a group of large bays with numerous humps, sunken islands and massive weed flats that have a varied selection of healthy lush weeds, perfect for largemouth bass.
The guy who holds most of the secrets on how to fish Gull Lake is Glen Belgum, a member of the infamous Nisswa Guides for 33 years and a Lund Boat Pro Staff member. His advice for catching mid-summer walleyes on Gull Lake is to troll the weedline in the 16- to 18-foot depths, using a live bait rig and redtail chub. Stay north of Gull Point. The low light periods of morning and evening will be best. Glen can be reached at (218) 963-2547.
The sizes are running a little small this year, approximately 13-15 inches and some up to 20-inches, but that can change from month to month and year to year.
Largemouth Bass are going wild now and can be found in any of the bays throughout the lake. Try a 7-inch Berkley Power Worm on the weedline or skip a lure under the docks. Try to get your lure as far back as possible.
The three public accesses on Gull Lake are able to handle the larger boats and they all have plenty of parking.
Gull Point, on the lower east side of the lake is the party spot: you can park your boat and picnic, or swim or walk out on the shallow sand point for some exercise. There are four restaurants on the lake with good docking facilities: the Quarterdeck, Bar Harbor, Ernie's and Zorba's.
Hurry up, the summer is waning (where did it go???). Gull is too good of a lake to miss.
Sybil Smith is the author of the Twin Cities Fishing Guide, Brainerd-Mille Lacs Fishing Guide
and the Twin Cities Shore Fishing Map (East and West).
