Fishin.com in Canada

It was a tough job, but someone had to do it, and I will gladly volunteer to take the trip again any time. Team Fishin.com went to Green Island Lodge September 6th to the 10th. Peter Maloney, Steve Hensley of Wave TV, Vince Hissong, and myself Jim Dicken flew into the lodge which is on Lake Manitou. We had a great time, and I am going to share some of the photo's and stories of the trip with you.

Arriving at the lake. September 6th.
Green Island is in the Background

ABOUT LAKE MANITOU

Lake Manitou is a huge expanse of water. It covers over 100,000 acres of water and is over 50 miles long. Minnesota may be the "Land of 10,000 Lakes" but Manitou is the lake of 10,000 Islands.

Some of the many Islands on the lake.. You may see the
Cabin on the Island on the left.

The Flight In

We arrived in Fort Frances after a 14 hour drive from Louisville. We crossed the border at International Falls. We arrived at Rusty Meyers our Fly-In take off point on Rainy Lake. The Green Island Lodge is part of the Fly In Companies system of Fly In lakes. Jerry was our pilot. We flew in over the lake and the flight was great. Jerry took the time to tell us about the lake and to point out quite a few of the local camps, islands, and other lakes that were within site. Flying in in a plane that was about the size of 2 of my vans was a bit unnerving at first, but the ride was awesome. Like riding in a really smooth roller coaster.

Just the essentials, Coca Cola and Le Blatt Blue Beer


The Cockpit. Vince Hissong got to sit in the Co-Pilot Seat on the way in...

Lake Manitou Fishing

Original species of fish in the lake (According to the guides) were Largemouth, Perch, Whitefish, Lake Trout, Muskie, & Pike. In the late 50's or 60's smallmouth found their way in from Rainy Lake which is on the southern end of the lake and joins the lake by way of a water fall and a dam which was originally used to control flow of the lake for Lumber Operations.

Walleye

About 18 years ago, an Ontario Natural Resources pilot accidentally dumped 2 / 45 gallon drums of Walleye fingerlings into the lake by mistake. The walleyes were placed in Mosher Bay which is near Green Island Lodge. No one knows for sure how many were in the drums, but the walleyes started to grow and multiply. While the lodge does not currently advertise walleyes, they do catch them. The first offspring are getting up in the 15 to 16 pound range, and while they may not be caught on every cast, they do manage to get on the line enough lately to really impress some folks.

Muskie

Muskie and Lake Trout are the most popular fish at the lodge though. Muskie on this lake can grow very slowly, and one muskie caught in 1989 was only 1/2" shorter than the World Record Fish. It was caught early in the year, before the Muskie Season opened and had to be released. Mepps featured the fish on their 1991 Tackle Magazine. See article " Legends of the Manitou " for stories about some of the HUGE Muskies that are told about around the camp fires and tables at Green Island Resort.

Photo Courtesy of Mepps Company Fish was not weighed. Caught before the opening of Muskie Season It was measured at 1/2 inch shorter than the Current World Record. The fish still swims the lake. Ask Peter he saw this monster, and I saw the wake.

Lake Trout

Lake Trout are great battlers, which live most of the year in deep water. Early in the spring just after Ice Out the fish mass in the shallows for a feeding spree. Then spend the summer in deep holes at depths of over 50 feet. Fish are caught normally jigging spoons like the Swedish Pimple and Exude Twister tail jigs on jig heads, and on Silver Buddies. I desperately want to go back and try fishing for these fish again. At depths over 50 feet there can not be much light, but on each day we found that one bait and one color worked better than another. Day one the swedish pimple with a green reflective tape and silver, silver buddies worked good. On day 2 the jigs worked pretty good, with a fish or 2 caught on the silver swedish pimple. What I want to try are some glow in the dark jigs and twisters. I would like to see the reaction of the fish to a lighted bait.

Vince who is a friend of Steve Hensley's one of our companions caught 6 or 7 lake trout in about an hour while the rest of us worked furiously the first day to attempt to keep up. He used one of the Swedish Pimples with the green reflective tape on day one. The fish supposedly should not have been able to tell the difference, but for some reason once we all switched the size did not matter, and the color did. In Lake Manitou the Ontario Department of Natural Resources says that an 8 pound laker is 20 years old. The fish I am holding is about 10 years old. My big fish, about 10 pounds would have been about 49 years old. Now you understand why catch and release is so prominent here. Catch a small fish there are plenty of them, but the larger fish are fewer and grow slower so getting them back into the lake is important for the lake and for the fishing experience of those who follow us to the lake. We left all but 2 small fish in the lake. I hope you catch the Ten Pounder I released. I caught it with Vince the guide about an hour before the plane flew in to pick us up within site of the lodge. It was a 30 inch fish with a 14 inch girth.

Peter and his first Laker. Notice the Chocolate color of fish caught deep in the lake

Smallmouth Bass

On our first day at the lodge, Peter and I got to take one of the 16 foot Lund Boats that the Lodge provides for guests. Our first stop was the back side of Green Island, well the side opposite the lodge since I dont guess you can say which side is the front. Peter drove and I got to make the first casts .. I planned it that way, but dont tell Peter. We had a hard time figuring out where to start. There are weedbeds, and rock structures almost anyplace you go on the lake. The whole thing looks like it holds fish. We settled on a rock reef and started to cast. I was using a Mepps Muskie Killer, and on my 2nd or 3rd cast I managed to get it over the rock which was out of the water. I figured it would hook on the back and was right, well almost right. I hooked something but it was not the rock. A Smallmouth of about 4 pounds pounced on that darn spinner bait. As I reeled it in I could see about a dozen fish, some about the same size and others even bigger swimming after the one on the end of my line. I hollered for Peter to drop the net and get a line with a bait in, but too late. He had landed the smallie and we watched as quite a few good fish swam under the boat and away from the rock reef into the weedbed.

During the rest of the trip, we did not catch another smallie, (in our boat) that was as big as that one, and I still regret not having a tube or other bait to drop in and catch a second fish with.Worse yet, I forgot to bring a camera and Peter had not yet unpacked the digital. My best luck was with some 5" Prowler Tubes in Green with black flake. I had at least 2 bite offs that I am sure were Muskies. Probably thought the green tubes were baby pike. I caught several more smallmouth on the tubes. Vince and Steve fished Mosher Bay each night for smallmouth and were very lucky at it.

Vince used a lot of #4 Mepps and Grubs from Mepps. Steve used the spinner baits and the occasional crankbait. I would like to have tried a few more crankbaits. The one Manns Bait I used worked Ok on the few casts I made. I did catch one nice smallie on a Lucky Craft Pointer in a Rainbow Pattern. It also caught a very nice Pike, which I would have taken a picture of, but Vince our guide was attempting to take the hooks out of the fish when it started flapping around and he got the hooks from the bait in his hand. Vince did that Hook Removal trick on 4 barbs which were in his hand, and we went back to the Resort for some antiseptic. About an hour later I was reaching for another Pointer when I got hooked. It took 3 pulls but Vince got it out of my finger without any major damage.

Vince and Steve in Mosher Bay

Perch

Perch in Lake Manitou are the primary bait fish and do not get to a catchable size for the most part. I did manage to hook one of about 4 inches. Our guides told us of one monster caught on a #4 Mepps which went about a pound and a half. They called the fish LUCKY and let it go. As the major bait fish on the lake these fish dont really get the chance to grow very large, and since they never get bigger than 2 pounds they are bait fish for Pike, Muskie, and Lakers their whole lives.

Jim with the 4" Perch he caught. Too bad you cant use them for bait
Lake Manitou and Ontario have a No caught fish for bait law.

PIKE

The easiest of fish to catch, can sometimes surprise you. While I made no secret of my dream of catching a Trophy Lake Trout I never dreamed that I would catch a trophy Pike while attempting to do so. Pike are supposed to be creatures of the weedbeds and edges, but this pike was holding in about 20 feet of water over the Lake Trout hole where I caught my trophy Lake Trout a few days later. The fish was 38 inches long and according to the weight charts weighed about 13.36 pounds.

Jim and his 13.3 pound (approximately) Pike
NO those are not Ferengee Ears.. thats my Flats Fishing Hat...
Now my LUCKY Fishing Hat

Peter was as succesful as I was with pike. Peter caught a nice 34.5 inch fish while trolling for Muskie using a Rapala Husky Jerk black over silver. Peters Fish weighed about 10.5 to 11.5 pounds. Below is our great Canadian Guide Vince Korzinski holding the fish. Spinner Baits, and crankbaits were very succesful for these fish.

Peter and his fish... At least he was wearing some shorts.

Jim and a SHORT one..

Largemouth Bass

While the Largemouth is native to the lake, the fish are not prominent. We never say one the entire 4 days we fished. Smallmouths have pretty much taken over that environment of the lake. Of course we never fished a lot around wood cover, and that may have had something to do with our success. We spent most of our time working both deep and shallow weedbeds on the lake.

Whitefish

Whitefish are kissing cousins of the trout. These fish are bottom feeding in nature and tend to stay in the deep holes along with Lake Trout. I was the only one of our group to catch one and the laugh of it was that it was caught on a 2 ounce 4.5 inch long Silver Buddy that our guide Vince dubbed Baitzilla. It was a rather large bait, but I was determined that I was going to catch a BIG Laker. Instead I caught about a 3 pound whitefish which while we managed to get it to the boat, it got off as we touched it coming in the boat. These fish are reported to have worms in their flesh a lot of times, and are normally only good when smoked in a smoker. I hope to catch another if I go to the lodge next year.

Tackle and Baits

Personally I am even more enamored of Power Pro fishing line after this trip. I stood up to the Pike, and Muskie and was never cut. I did use a Titanium Leader on one rod which I used specifically for Muskies. While we raised quite a few, I did not catch one and only Steve caught one. Several fish chased or charged the 2 ounce Silver Buddy (Baitzilla) and I left one for Vince to try on deep weed beds next year. My poles consisted of 2 Ugly Sticks a Galyans IM7 Rod and one rod Peter loaned me. I took 7 reels, and used my Penn Reel for the Muskie Rod and my Shimano Symetre for heavy lures and Pike fishing. I used a Cardinal Abu Garcia Cardinal 2000 for light fishing mepps spinners, and jigs as well as plastics.

According to Vince our guide you can fish for everything in the lake if you just bring some #4 and #5 Mepps spinner baits. He is mostly right. However, I highly recommend a few large Crankbaits for Muskies, Swedish Pimples for jigging for Lakers as well as Silver Buddies. I would make one suggestion... the vibration of the Silver Buddy can not be beat for lakers, however see if you can find some reflective tape to the baits if they do not work within a few casts. The Green Chartreuse reflective tape on our Pimples really seemed to make a difference on day one. Day 2 Silver worked great and you can see one of the fish I caught on the Silver Buddies above.. (sorry Kendall)

Crankbaits to take would be the Husky Jerk's in Perch, and Black over Silver. I would also add some of those great Lucky Craft Baits. The Rainbow pattern worked great for me, and as Vince will tell you the hooks are VERY sharp.

All in all I can not remember a 5 day trip that I enjoyed more. The staff was great, the food, oh the food! Steak the first night, Pork Chops with Tart and Tangy Sauce on night 2, and Country Fried Chicken on night 3. Hot breakfasts of either Bacon or Sausage, Egs or Pancakes and French Toast made from home made bread. The shore lunch day one was also awesome. Smallmouth and Lake Trout along with Potatoes, Corn, Bacon and Beans. (See Shore Lunch Article and pictures.) Basic every day food, but for some reason it was better in clear air with a Cold Canadian Le Blatt Blue Beer. OH and one last thing.. the coffe was really good. The water comes straight from the lake. No filtering really other than to make sure there are no fish in the water. Ice is cut up and stored from the lake in the winter just before Christmas and is so clear you can read a newspaper through it. Makes the water from the lake taste great.. Yep I actually drank the water right out of the lake.

Folks if you want a great trip, try Green Island Lodge. World Class Muskie's, Lake Trout and terrific Pike fishing. Smallmouth that will go to 6 and maybe even 7 or 8 pounds, are numerous and hungry. There is something for everyone to catch and you will, I guarantee it..

Fishin.com staff is returning to Green Island this summer and will be using baits purchased from
Dave's Bait and Tackle and by Punisher Lures.

P.O. Box 668 
Fort Frances, ON P9A3M9
Summer Ph/Fax: 807-938-6841
 

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