How to Find Summertime Spots Where You Can Fish in Peace

This might be because of the seasonality of fishing in a lot of places or the timing of hot bites. If you head to the Mighty Mississippi, where I grew up in the bottom right-hand corner of Minnesota, you’d see an example of this where the walleyes stack up below the dams in the spring. It’s bumper boats on a scale that always made me either go trout fishing or look for antlers.

Steelhead anglers know how this goes. A lot of us do, and while you can easily avoid those situations by just not going, not fishing sucks a lot. It’s hard to find peace out on the water with all of the anglers, jet skiers, wakeboarders, and more. Just about anyone who can sign their name on a contract can own a boat of some sort, which means that our waters can get real crowded, real fast.

If this is about as appealing to you as the prep for a colonoscopy, you’re not alone. I don’t want people in my space when I’m fishing, and I don’t want to rock nonstop in boat wakes while listening to hip hop music blasting across the water.

Luckily, there is some respite for those of us who are in the get-off-my-lawn stage of fishing.

More Work, Fewer People

A couple of weeks ago I set out to mostly do some deer work over in Wisconsin, but I kept my schedule open just enough to fish. Unfortunately, it was the weekend and the weather was just about perfect.

Instead of hauling the boat to any number of lakes, I did a little recon and found a stretch of brook trout water that I figured would be buggy, difficult to cast into, and peaceful. And I was right. The brookies in that stream were eager to bite, native, and I had them all to myself. Better yet, they were on a section of water that flows through public land, so I did a little deer scouting during my trip.

The thing about finding peaceful water when the summer is on and the weather is nice is that you can borrow a tactic from the big game hunting world. Do the work that most folks won’t, and reap the rewards. If that means wet-wading a tiny trout stream, so be it. If that means hauling your kayak down a deer-fly infested path for a quarter of a mile to reach a small lake that’s full of unpressured fish, and devoid of jet skiers, so be it.

There are ways to find peace out there, but the biggest hurdle most folks have is finding the right access to the right kind of water.

Legal Access & a Little Initiative

Water access laws vary by state. Some states are generous and allow public usage between the high-water marks. Others allow access via public areas, and then as long as you don’t set foot on land and you stay in navigable waters, you’re good to go. In some states, landowners own the surface water, in others, they own the land beneath. It’s a mess and can be a big impediment to folks looking for a little adventure away from the crowds.

Brush up on your state’s regs, and then if you need to, employ a little help. I’ve been using the onX Fish app since they started beta testing it, and it has changed how I approach summer fishing. For starters, finding access is as easy as it is to use their Hunt app to find public land.

Just toggle on the right layers, and get to looking. This certainly comes from a regional bias, because I live where there is a lot of water, but I had no idea how much to be honest. What I tend to do is start at my first-choice location, and then farther and farther out. What I’m looking for are small, kayak-friendly lakes that don’t have a good public boat launch. Or rivers with legal access points that will allow me to wet wade.

It’s that simple, and while this kind of fishing doesn’t involve my boat, multiple rods, and tackle flats worth the financial equivalent of a University education, it sure can be productive. My biggest muskie ever ate a swimming jig while I was wet wading just such a spot, and I can tell you I didn’t miss my boat then. I’ve had some incredible days on the water, just by figuring out access that might not be obvious to the weekend warrior crowd.

Overlooked Lakes

If standing in thigh-deep water while missing your boat is too much to ask, don’t fret. One of the things a lot of anglers do is get married to the idea of a specific lake. Here in my home state of Minnesota, this happens a lot. We have some big, well-known fisheries like Leech, Upper and Lower Red Lake, Lake of the Woods, and Mille Lacs. These, and many more, are destination lakes for anglers and recreational boaters alike, which means even though they are big, they are often crowded.

While you can always find a bay to tuck into that might not be overrun with recreational boaters due to the sheer size, you might not think that is enough when you spend 45 minutes at the landing waiting for someone to launch a wake boat.

Fortunately, there are a lot of lakes to fish that don’t receive as much attention as the most well-known fisheries. This isn’t just an upper Midwest thing, either. This spring I spent some time in Arkansas and was blown away where I saw folks launching boats to target largemouth.

I’ve started to really enjoy the mission of finding hidden gem lakes that most folks ignore for the bigger names, and you should too. There are plenty of ways to identify potential hotspots, but I’m lazy now and just use the onX Fish app. Not only can I see what they look like through satellite imagery, but I can also instantly research the type of access they offer and what fish species are present. It’s like scouting for fishing, on cheat mode.

The ability to quickly pivot and try out a question-mark lake has saved some days on the water with my daughters, and brought back the feeling of going somewhere new to see what’s waiting to blow up on a topwater or inhale a swimbait.

If that sounds like a nice way to spend your summer, while not swearing under your breath at a nonstop armada of recreational and fishing boats, then you’re in luck. There are options out there, no matter where you live. You just need to do some due diligence and head out for a chance at something new, and hopefully, uncrowded.

For more hot fishing tips, check out the latest Fishing EDU video right here.