Yeah, it's tough to find reliable people to fish with period. We cautiously add new members...if you know what I mean. Soloing is rough up there.
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Senior Member
Yeah, it's tough to find reliable people to fish with period. We cautiously add new members...if you know what I mean. Soloing is rough up there.
Senior Member
Great website, Geo. I especially like the pics. I'll be going to the boundary waters in August. I was wondering what lures are most productive for Smallies, Waleye, and Pike. Thank you for any info. Dave
Senior Member
Nice trip George. Wish I could do something like this but I need my creature comforts way too much and would not want to chance busting another hernia or something. By the way, I was told last tuesday in the hospital that I have another hernia above all the mesh that they put in last year. I will have to get it fixed soon which may just put me out of the FNF season for basically the 3rd year in a row. Trying to deal with it until the end of the year and get it fixed just before Christmas, which will give me a couple of weeks to Float the Fly. Great pictures and nice trip. Mark has invited me to take a Canada trip with him but I just can't do it. I don't know if his is similar to yours but his did involve a canoe, which won't go with the size of my behind anyways or my bad knees either. Love to do it but will have to live these trips thru you fellas. Your daughter looked like she had a blast. Great to have a kid that likes the outdoors like that. I can't wait until Joshua is big enough to go on more of the trips with me.
Senior Member
Woody,
That's not good news bro. Good grief!!
You can always do a trip where you stay at the lodge and rent a 25 horse boat. Minus the larger engine, you could take your boat. That's pretty much all they have up there anyway. I don't think I saw a private boat that wasn't an 18' deep-v.
I'll give you a call in the next week or so....I saw a post that your working so we'll catch up. I'm pray'n for you guy.
Mark
Senior Member
Great pictures and notes. Those pictures of you guys in 3rd bay made me homesick! We were there for 8 days in September last year. It's not a trip for the faint of heart. Year before last we had 75 degree 100 fish days, last year it was 60 some days, 40 others. We lost 2 days to the weather (wind) and the highest fish day was 40. The 8 hours we spent wet and stranded a mile from American Point was fun too...
The saving grace last year was the huge walleyes we found in Swamp hanging above the weed bed. They were eating huge perch colored swim baits. My biggest was 11 pounds! I was used to catching the small 1-2 pounders off the reefs, those big fish are a different animal all together. Even had one jump out of the water and hit the side of the canoe when I pulled the swim bait out of the water.
Skipjack-In August leave the topwaters at home. We use mostly jigs and carolina rigged sweet beavers, crawfish type lures. A weighted rapala, teeny craw works good too. For walleye we slow troll spinner rigs and eary dearys tipped with crawlers or right at dark on the cliffs that get dark fastest. For smallies fish 20-30 feet of water over rocks. I do well drop shotting either livebait or artificials, it keeps you from getting hung up as much. You have to watch the conditions, year before last their favorite bait was black gulp 3" curly tails (don't leave home without them). Last year they were eating minnows more so the best thing was the 3" gulp minnows either on a jighead or my favorite is a double rig, two 4 pound smallies at the same time is FUN. Are you leaving out of Ely or Gunflint trail? If it's Gunflint PM me, I'll give you some spots to try. For pike look for largemouth type terrain, weedy spots, beaver lodges (you'll always catch at least one pike off a beaver lodge) and down trees. Year before last they were eating buzz baits early, then big swim baits and spinners in 10-15 feet of water. Last year it was flukes worked slow through the weeds. My biggest fish have come from Swamp and Zepher lake. Good luck!
Senior Member
Thank you for your response. We will be fishing and canoeing in the area of Twin Falls, Tanner Lake, Maligne River , Poo Bah Lake, and Sturgeon Lake. This will be my first trip to this area. We will be staying for 1 week. Dave
Senior Member
SHHHHHHH............Originally Posted by nonamesleft47
Actually Zephyr and Swamp are some of my FAVORITE lakes, but I've never caught monster walleye out of either. Swamp doesn't get too much pressure, but Zephyr gets hammered. I'd love to see guys practice C & R on Zephyr just because there are TONS of BIG groups that use it every year.
Nothing wrong with catching and EATING fish up there, but I've seen coolers full of NICE walleye come out of Zephyr. If they keep that up.........NO MORE FISHING. I've noticed a dramatic decline over the years there..........but I've not been back in spring in a while.....
Last year, though, it was the only place we could catch fish
Later,
Geo
Junior Member
Well here is something that hasn't been hit on in this thread BUGS. Last trip mosquitoes weren't as bad, just those darn black flies, and their bites don't feel good either. Trip before last the mosquitoes were pretty bad too! We use deet, it helps some. What do you guys use to keep them off of you. I though about soaking clothes in prometherin...used it in the military, and it worked overseas pretty well. I have also checked out those handheld thermacell mosquitoe repelent systems. Anyone used those with any luck?
Senior Member
The bugs where UGLY this year.........REALLY BAD......probably because of all the water, and I suspect they will be bad all the way up till mid August/Mid September. the Prometherin works GREAT. I've used it on all my trips, and it eliminates the tick issue. It also helps with black flies, because they land, the shake, and the DIE. Does nothing for mosquitoes though.
Deet........well it works, but is a KILLER on your equipment. It will eat plastic, melt no see um netting, destroy fishing line, and is a GREAT fish detracter.......
the Thermacell........well there is a class action against the company right now. Seems the active ingredient has not been approved by ANYONE for use as a bug repellent, and it is DEADLY to fish. In fact, I believe they are outlawed in Canada. There were a couple threads on BWCA.COM about this. AND on top of that, they device really doesn't work too well if it is breezy, and breezy up there.......IT IS.
For "bug management" here is what I do.
* Wear LIGHT clothing........long shirts, and long pants. I know that is a PAIN in the BUTT.........especially when it is HOT, but around camp and early morn, that will pretty much keep them at bay.
* NO BLUE..........especially Royal Blue, or Navy Blue.........Attracts bugs. In fact, pretty much all dark colors should be off limits. TAN, Olive, Grey, etc, etc. Those colors are neutral, and seem to work better.
* Take a BUG net for your head.
* If you must use DEET, get the 100% stuff, and use it ONLY on the cuffs of your sleeves, and pants, and spray a little on the coller of your shirt, and then some on your hat. That will keep them at bay..........
One other thing you can do to minimize the amount of deet absorbed into your skin, is this......
USE a sunscreen that is absorbed into your skin, instead of one that "smears over". The ones that absorb into the skin help block the poors, and Deet can be put over this easily without causing health concerns.........I've never worried about it in the past, but with kids going up.......I took my daughter this year, I used this idea, and it seemed to work OK.
One other thing..........those black specks in the fish and potatoes at night..........it's not pepper.......Justs some extra protein.
I hope this helps.......
Later,
Geo
Senior Member
Geo--I always C&R on the smaller lakes, don't usually keep much anyway. I can't stand the thought of catching and keeping those old fish for some reason, I eat fish here at home all the time but up there to me it seems like stealing. Nothing wrong with keeping a few small ones for dinner but I agree, why go that far out to load a cooler up with all the walleye in Saganaga?
Have you ever fished Plume? It's actually a really fun little lake to fish. We circled it on foot a couple of years ago, deciding whether or not to spend some time there. The guy I was with was on the other side stomping and breaking sticks, I could hear a moose on that side thrashing around and bellowing. When we met back up he asked me what all my waving and jumping up and down was for... I told him there was a moose over on that side and he should have been more quiet, it's their mating season.
When we go, last week of August, first of September, there aren't many bugs. Last year it got down to 29 degrees on the coldest night. We had mosquitos come into camp one night that tore everybody else up though. They don't usually bite me and if they do I don't swell up so I didn't even notice, the next morning everybody was talking about how bad they were though.
It's the camp mice that bother me more than the bugs, ever put a few peanuts in a 5 gallon bucket and see how many mice you have the next morning?
Sorry Skipjack, that's west of where we put in, probably out of Ely. Just think subsurface and you'll catch fish. I always take a fishfinder with me, the little wrist models don't work but the 100-150 dollar portables do fine.
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