The theme for this fishing report is "HOT". The fishing has been hot. The weather has been hot. And our guests say they are hot. A guest stated that even though the weather is hot, the beer is cold. Now there is a positive fisherman.
For about the past 2-3 weeks we have had very warm temps and not much rain to speak of. We know it has been very warm back in the States so we are not complaing too much. The evenings have been cooling down somewhat so it is not all that bad. The great news is that the fishing has been extremely good. We thought all fish would start to go deep especially Walleyes but we are still catching Eyes in the range of 12-16 feet. Surface temp of the water is around 75 degrees which is considerably higher for this time of year so we think everything should go deeper fairly quickly. The Mayfly hatch is over which is putting the fish bite back on a normal sequence. It was not a bad year for Mayflies and we believe the 2 days of higher winds about a week ago helped decrease the effects. During the hatch, Walleyes were tougher to catch during the day with morning and evening being better. Now, it is back to normal with Walleyes biting all day long. Cranking for Eyes is still working but there is no doubt that live bait is producing the majority of the fish. Nightcrawlers and Leeches are working the best for Walleyes but Minnows are a close second. Most all of our reefs are producing fish but some deeper points are still active. The Sandbar is in full swing for Walleyes and Pike with many Eyes over 20 inches. Our secret lure is still catching the majority of Walleyes so we are sticking to what works. One theme that is standing out considerably is that the size of Walleyes are bigger than ever. Many 18-24 inch fish are being caught with acouple over 30' boated. We greatly appreciate all of our guests throwing back all Walleyes over 18 inches and we know this is making Perrault Lake one of the best fisheries in Northwest Ontario. We know there are times when it is tough to find the smaller Eyes for a shorelunch but this is a problem we are willing to accept.
Pike have been quite active but the monsters have been elusive. We are catching many in the low to mid 30 inch range, but the over 40's have been scarce. We are seeing a few big fish follow baits but they are not biting. Normally, I would not think that higher water temps would effect Pike but it might be. We are changing our tactics slightly by targeting our deeper reefs to see if we can entice some of the hogs to bite. This is starting to work as two different parties this past week caught larger Pike and even Muskies on the reefs. The first Father/Son group fished mostly reefs yesterday with a Bucher Shallow Raider and boated 5 Pike all over 30 inches. The second group was fishing another deeper reef and had a Muskie come and follow there jerk bait around the boat for about 5 minutes. It would literally just swim around the bait and nudge it with its nose. They have it on video which we will try and post.
Bass have been on an absolute phenomenal run at the moment. Guests are consistently coming in saying they are catching 16-19 inch Bass. On a daily basis fisherman will tell us that it is nothing to catch 15-30 Bass in one fishing session with quite a few being 18 inches. Leeches are "killin' Bass but Rattle Traps & Mepps Spinners are also working very well. Some plastics are working but Leeches will definitely outfish any rubber bait. Go figure.
Without a doubt, this is the best year ever for numbers of Muskies caught. I believe it is safe to say that almost every day a fisherman tells us they have caught a Muskie. While most of the fish have been on the smaller size, the number of fish caught tells us it will be a great future for the toothy critters. I can even go one step further for the higher numbers of Muskie this year. I was at the dock last evening when Chris, one of our guests, caught about a 22 inch Muskie right off one of our floater docks. It was an absolute beautiful fish and actually put up a pretty good fight. In our 12 years at Manotak Lodge, this is the first Muskie we have caught off our dock. We have caught alot of fish off the dock but never a Musky. Chris's wife Jean has been coming to Manotak Lodge since 1959 starting as a little girl with her family and she believes this is the first Muskie off they dock. It could not have happened to a nicer guy than Chris.
We are still working on our webcams to get them more effecient so please be patient. It is becoming evident that trying to send this much live streaming video through our remote internet service is no doubt stretching the limits of the service available. Keep watching and we will wave every now and then.
We have had quite a few guests venture over to our remote Walleye lake and the end result is a day of countless, large Walleyes & Pike caught. This is an adventure that we hope everyone does because we know it will make a memory that you will never forget. Where can you walk through the bush to a remote lake, to fish all by yourself and catch monster Walleye? This is Canada at its best.
Linda wanted me to remind everyone that if you are thinking of a Fall September trip, you might want to give her a call or email. There are only a few spots left. September fishing is my favorite time of year and can produce some great fishing stories. It also helps that we are running a September Special with the first guest at regular price and the second at HALF PRICE! Try to find this good of a deal at any other lodge and still have the fishing like Perrault Lake.
Gotta go. We hope you enjoy this blog. We want to remind everyone to send us your pictures of your trip to Manotak Lodge. We are still learning how to work our new website but if we do not have your pictures, we cannot share your memories. So please send pictures to my email at: manotaklodge@gmail.com I might not be able to post all pics but will try and post a few. As a note, we are working with our website designer to possibly have a new Facebook page that our guests can enter their own pictures so you would not have to wait for us to post them. We have been spending alot of time at the dock taking care of trophy fish which leaves us little time to spend on the computer. (ok, ok, this might be stretching the truth alittle bit but not that much).
Linda and I want to thank all of our guests that have visited Manotak Lodge so far this year and also to the groups that are currently reserved for the rest of the summer. We have said it many times that Manotak Lodge has some of the best guests in all of Northwest Ontario. We are very fortunate to have the life we live and it is all because of you.
Stay tuned for another fishing report update soon. We are sure there will be more stories to tell.
Posted on
Sat, July 14, 2012
by Dave Becker