It is hard to believe that it is August already but time passes fast when you are catching fish. And we are catching fish. I actually could just copy my last blog in regards to what is happening with all species. Walleyes are still really active with most being caught on the reefs or humps as we like to call them sometimes. We are starting to go slightly deeper for Eyes with 18-22 feet being the target depth. One exception where Walleyes might be slightly shallower would be my favorite place to fish and that is The Sandbar. We are catching Walleyes there at 14-18ft. Glitter jigs are still a great choice for Walleyes but I will be honest and say that the bite is so good that any color will work right now. Leeches are the bait of choice with crawlers right behind and minnows being a distant third.
Pike are also active but the big guys were slightly scarce. We had quite a few in the low to mid 30's but nothing over 40 inches. It is hard to beat the previous weeks Pike fishing with young Matt catching 38", 43" & 44" Pike all within a few days of each other. That is in addition to many in the 30 to 36 inch range also. There seems to be 2 patterns emerging for Pike. The first one is fairly traditional and that is to cast weedlines with spinner baits, rattle trap type baits and spoons. The second method is to troll our reefs or humps with slightly larger stick baits like Bucher shallow raiders, grandma baits, Jake baits or Thunder Sticks. The first method can produce big fish but there is no doubt it will show more numbers of fish. The second trolling method might not produce alot of numbers of fish but it appears to bring up the bigger fish.
It is easy to say that Smallmouth Bass fishing is at an all time high right now. I know I mentioned in previous reports that Bass fishing was really good but what is better than really good? I know, really really good. We had one couple, Dave & Cheryl, tell us this week that this was by far the best Walleye and Bass fishing they have had in years in coming to Manotak Lodge. I was glad to hear that they caught alot of fish because it softened the blow of Dave losing his new St Croix rod that Cheryl gave him for Christmas. We need to teach Dave how to hold the pee can and the St. Croix at the same time. Leeches are by far the bait of choice but we are still getting quite a few Bass on cranks, and spinners.
Muskie fishing has slowed somewhat in the past week or two. We have caught afew on the smaller side but Big John who has been here 4 weeks so far pulled in a 46 incher the other day. He has seen a few nice fish but nothing monster hooked as of yet.
Perch fishing is about on the same par as the past few weeks. Not great but not bad either. If you work at it you can get your limit of big slab Perch but you will catch 5 to 10 times the number of fish for what you will end up keeping. In other words, you will catch 20 Perch but only keep 3-5 of the bigger 10-13 inchers. You have to travel many spots around the lake as we have not caught the larger guys in one particular spot. One of the better days were the Smith's who caught 48 monster Perch on their last day here to finish their limit.
On a seperate note, we have our pet duck Lunch back at our dock again after a long hiatus. She brought along her girlfriend we call Decoy and they are eating us out of alot of bread at the moment. It is good to have her back.
We hope you are enjoying our webcams and we also hope they are easier to view with the many changes we have made recently. We know there are still a few times when they will not load but we believe they are better than in the past.
The weather has turned cool today with rain showers or misting for most of the day. It is supposed to be sunny tomorrow and in the 70's for temps. This is perect weather in my opinion.
That is all for now. Keep submitting your comments or questions.
Posted on
Sat, August 4, 2012
by Dave Becker