And just like that it’s time for Stop #2 of the 2024 Champions Tour, Presented by Skeeter Boats. This time we venture back to Central Minnesota, to visit the Tourism Capital of Minnesota (according to Champions Tour Pro Will Pappa) in the summer months, Gull Lake. This tournament will be presented by Humminbird, and hosted at Ernie’s on Gull.
If you aren’t familiar with the Gull Lake Chain located in the Brainerd Lakes Area, this chain is known for being one of the more fun tournament venues in the state of Minnesota. Boasting over 10,000 acres of fishable area, this chain is filled with sandy shores, incredibly healthy vegetation, and a remarkable population of Largemouth Bass, as well as a couple Smallmouth. This Chain of Lakes is often split up into 3 different sections. You have the resort bays on the south side, with Wilson & Steamboat Bays taking up a majority of the lake south of Squaw Point. The Middle Section, known as the Main Lake, is fertile with breaks, reefs, and miles upon miles of docks. And lastly, to the North, you have the Chain of Lakes that includes: Upper Gull, Margaret, Roy, Nisswa, and more. Round Lake will be off limits to our anglers.
The last time the Champions Tour came to Gull Lake was on August, 25th of 2022. This event late in the season had our field of anglers looking forward to an epic slugfest, but they were caught off guard by a unique lake split. Anglers had to choose between fishing the North Lakes, or the South Bays in the morning period, and our whole field was on the main lake for the afternoon. In the morning, Champions Tour Pro Tyler Bahr took a quick lead, however, when the wind slicked off, and the sun burned; we found ourselves watching a battle between Aaron Teal and Noah Schultz down to the last minute. With Noah Schultz pulling out the victory, weighing in 38 fish for 73 lb 4oz.
This time, the Champions Tour is coming earlier in the year with this event in Mid-July. All areas of the lake should be playing, as well as most depth ranges. We caught up with Champions Tour Pro’s Hunter Wendt, Noah Schultz, and Will Pappa to preview Stop #2 of the Season.
Immediately when talking about Gull Lake, all of our field oozed excitement and optimism about the fishery located in the Brainerd Lakes Area. Schultz summed it up well, “It’s a clear body of water that’s mainly a grass fishery, that’s how I look at it.”
Wendt, the winner of both events this year, chimed in, “Gull Lake is probably one of the best grass fisheries in this state,” the Elliot Rods Pro chuckled, “ You can catch them anyway you want to; flipping, deep, sand drops, you name it.”
We’ve started to see a transition on Gull Lake, from talking to Will Pappa. When first starting practice he was seeing some water in the Upper 60’s, but now after some consistently hot weather, water temperatures of sky rocketed, with temps in the Upper 70’s being found everywhere on the Chain of Lakes. Wendt, a local to the Brainerd Lakes Area, commented that he still feels like the fish are pretty spread out as of right now.
“But the big ones are biting, and it’s absolutely going to be a shoot out,” Wendt exclaimed.
Schultz sung a bit of a different tune, with some hesitant optimism in his voice. Fans of the Champions Tour have seen Schultz win in about every way possible over the past several years. But those who know him well, know his preferred method to fish is offshore.
“There’s some big schools to be found, and we’re definitely out on the front end of the summer pattern,” Schultz stated. “They’re just getting out there, and they’re fresh.”
Even with this optimism building for this event, Pappa kept things in perspective, “Even with how good it’s fishing, 65 boats is going to make any fishery end up becoming a little grimy by the end of it.”
Those who remember the last time the Champions Tour came to the Brainerd Lakes Area, by the afternoon on Gull Lake, the bite has virtually hit a stand still. With very low bite numbers coming through the Reel LiveWell App as the afternoon went on. Compared to last time we were hear, all of our Champions Tour Pro’s are expecting a very different fishery to emerge.
“That’s why I like grass fisheries,” Schultz exclaimed. “They change every year. So yes, it’s nice to know the lake, but it’s not a necessity. The grass grows different every year, the bait follows the grass, and the bass follows them.”
And from the sounds of things, those bass are chewing right now. It sounds like the majority of fish are in the “in-between ” stage, but when you are able to get into an area with bass they are big and they are biting. Expect to see a lot of changes on the Reel LiveWell App on gameday, as Gull is known for it’s sheer number of 3 lb class fish these days.
Now, the biggest question is going to be what pattern is going to prevail on Gull.
“It’s Gull Lake, so there’s always going to be a dock bite,” Wendt commented. Schultz, who ended up winning in 2022 on a dock stretch in the afternoon explained, “If you look back at the Champions Tour, this will have been the 5th time they’ve been here, and it’s been 50/50 on if docks or offshore wins.”
So right now, it sounds like it’s up in the air. But all of our Champions Tour Pro’s believe you will have anglers littered in the Top-10 doing a little bit of everything. They do not expect one pattern to completely dominate this event. However, if you’re on the front end of the fish that are “getting out there” you could run into a pretty magical bite. One that Wendt is familiar with from earlier this year, when he ran into a magical school offshore on East Okoboji.
“The pattern is going to change during the day,” Will Pappa explained. “And whoever figures that out is going to win it. We have a cold front coming in right before the event and that’s going to change some things up.”
Heading into this event, our X-Factor is going to be a Cold Front that is rolling into town on Monday.
Wendt shared the same belief as Pappa, stating that normally when a Northwest wind hits Gull, for some reason the bite slows down a bit. But even with the cold front coming, Wendt exclaimed, “I’m jacked, it’s going to be a really fun time. It’s probably the best time of the year to be on the lake because everything is healthy, and there’s bait everywhere.”
Looking back at last year, we only saw one bag over 70 lbs, which is pretty low weights for Gull Lake. Especially for a day that didn’t have any inclement weather.
“I would anticipate much bigger weight than last time to win,” Schultz stated. “These fish are fresh and haven’t been picked on. I think it’s going to be 100 (lbs) plus for sure. The way it’s fishing it’s going to be very attainable. It’s just going to matter who gets on what school.”
All of our Pro’s commented that they believe the winner of this event will need multiple schools of fish in order to win. It won’t be able to be done on one spot.
Pappa, showing a lot of the same beliefs as Schultz, kept some of his cards close to his chest knowing that some variables should change on gameday. However, he did say, “I’m going to guess 107 lbs for the winner. It should be higher than last time, but that cold front is going to slow it down.”
All we know is, it sounds like we’re going to be running into a potential buzz saw at Gull Lake, and our field should be prepared for a good ‘ol fashioned summer weedline smashfest.
Now, our Bass Fishing Pundit Rich Lindgren (HellaBass) will give some insight into who you should be paying attention to at Gull Lake this time around. And from the looks of things, you might just need to look back to the results in 2022, because we might be running it back this time around.
HellaBass Forecast
Middle of July in the Brainerd area is about as Minnesota as it gets. Gull Lake should be a fun tournament for the anglers and for fans to follow along with. Bass should be getting fully set up on their summertime patterns and anglers should be able to find and pattern them consistently. The Champions Tour is no stranger to Gull Lake and we have seen anglers in the past find success both deep and shallow and both in the main lake and the upper end dirty water of the gull chain. Gull Lake can be a trick place to practice for without knowing the lake split until the night before the tournament. The upper end presents a high risk high reward situation with the extra travel time and slow wake zones.
5 Anglers to watch at Gull Lake
Until Hunter Wendt stops winning every event with Classic Bass this year we will have to put him on the watch list. In 2022, he finished 9th in an August Champions tour event on Gull, and he’s a local. Could Hunter make it 3 wins in a row?
Noah Schultz is your defending Gull Lake winner for the Champions Tour and had a disappointing opener on Okoboji. I assume a mad and determined Schultz won’t be good for the Gull Lake bass or the rest of the field.
If there is a shallow dock bite on Gull, your defending AOY winner Arnold Helgerson will exploit it. Also of note, Helgerson was 6th in the last summer Champions Tours on Gull.
I picked Tyler Bahr on Mille Lacs and that didn’t work out, but I am pretty sure he grew up in Brainerd so I look for a bounce back from him and look for him to notch a top 10 like he did in August of 2022.
Offshore fish should be set up and ready to eat and I think Aaron Teal could be a threat to get his first Champions Tour trophy. He has come close on Gull in the past, this could set up perfect for him to lock down a few mega schools and knock it out.
