Lower Manitou Lake Fishing Reports by Camp Manitou

[frydog21]

Gotcha...thanks!

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[Agent Andy]

We are staying at Barker Bay Resort and plan to arrive early Tue am.

[Dave33]

Frydog,

I've always used 8Lb trilene XL green on Upper Manitou for smallies with great success. A tip i've use the past couple of trips is to tie an 8 -10" leader of 20 or 30 Lb green braid on the end of my line with a surgeons knot or double uniknot. The low diameter braid doesn't seem to affect the action of the lures or the fishing and it keeps the darn pike from slicking off your jig all the time. We've had the best luck with smoke, black, and dark green jigs and tubes on 1/4 oz heads. Stick those kids in a weedy bay with a number 5 Mepps (black/silver)or some buzzbaits or spinnerbaits till they get sick of catching pike. That'll break em in good. Dave

[frydog21]

Great advice Dave...can't wait to "break 'em in" the right way!!

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[frydog21]

So what is the average size of the smallies on Manitou these days - and what is the top end size range (in inches)? Thx!

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[Outfitter17]

Hey Guys,

Great info being shared, I like it. We had a bunch of guys in the past couple of weeks and they were all bass fisherman. From the reports I have gotten lots of 15-16 inches being caught, with a few 18-19+.

Our portages have been fanastic to say the least. Gates lake, Dogfly, and Alonghill produced great numbers of smallies each time they have been used.

Mister has continued to give everyone who goes there record days for Lake Trout being caught.

We are going to open a few portages next year, so if you are looking at for a 2011 trip you might be able to take advantage of a few new lakes.

As most people know, the reason the portages are so good is the strict C+R program we have used the past 9 years.

See you shortly Frydog.

Have a good trip Agent Andy.

[Dave33]

The largest we've caught on upper manitou is 20 inches. And very few that big. That's over six trips or so. Though we don't focus on bass the whole trip. Most are twelve to sixteen. I've had days though when we couldn't catch one UNDER the 13.8" limit. Had to eat pike for lunch because the bass were all too big!

[frydog21]

If we fish for lakers in Mister, what is your recommendation for lure/weight? How about the other portages...what species, etc? That might be fun...we like smallies, but will go after whatever else is biting too. Just have to bring the right equipment....Thx!

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[Hiddenbay]

Outfitter17,

What new lakes are you looking to open portages on for next year?

Thanks,

[Agent Andy]

Hey Hoffer. Bob and I just got back from L M and had a great trip. We were there just over 2 days and managed to catch 19 lakers the first half day. Wed our first full day we caught 22 lakers. We left Thur am and did pick up 6 more on the way out. Not bad for our first trip to the lake. We had a trip planned for another lake north of Ignace but change our minds and are headed back to L M. On this trip we may try for a few smallies as well. We had 2 meals of lake trout and I have to admit they were the best tasting lake trout we have had.

[Outfitter17]

Andy,

Glad to hear you had a good trip, Lower Manitou is a great body of water - especially being this close to the border.

Hiddenbay,

We are going to open up Aronson (havn't fished it in 9 years), George Lake never fished it, and Ester (never fished it), We may also put a new boat in kamini.

[Robin]

Glad you had a good time, the Lakers are awesome here on the Manitou! We will see you next month.

[SimilarIsland]

How's the water level and the weed growth coming?

[Hiddenbay]

Similarlsland,

I was up on the Manitou last week and the water level seemed to be close to normal level. The weeds were coming up and were thick in places like Calder Bay. The fishing was great for big fish. My friends and I boated some nice Muskies and saw a ton more. We even caught our first Manitou Walleye. The bass were tougher to catch but when we found them they were good size.

[SimilarIsland]

Great, thanks! I'm having terrible withdrawal symptoms already!

[Outfitter17]

Craig,

The fishing has been awesome the past 10 days or so. The weeds are up just about everywhere and I have seen them in a couple of new spots this year. The water is still down about 12", but that is alot better than what is was when we arrived in the early spring.

The bass fishing has been very good, wacky worms and anything topwater is hot right now.

There are tons of pike in the 8-12' cabbage.

Lakers are down in the 50-65' range right now.

As hiddenbay mentioned, Muskies are smoking hot right now. Last weekend we boated 38", 41", and a 47" and saw many more. We also just had a group checkout yesterday that was here for 5 nights and they boated 18 skis with the largest being 48".

You better take some time off work and get back up here;)

[SimilarIsland]

Stop, stop, you'r killing me!

[Agent Andy]

We are headed back to LM. I just bought a new graph and am wondering if there is a chip for the lake and is it worth getting???

[Hiddenbay]

Yes. The chip is on our boat and it is very good.

[Agent Andy]

Re: the chip. what brand do you recomend???

[Outfitter17]

HI Andy,

You want to get the Navionics Premium Chip for $149. It has alot more detail than the regular one. I have switched all my graphes over to the Premium chips. There are a couple of reefs that are not on it, but all in all it is pretty dead on.

You won't be dissapointed.

Good Luck.

[Outfitter17]

7/11/10

Over the past 8 days we have had 2 really strong storms pass through, the first one last saturday night dropped approx. 6" of rain and brought the lake up about 8", the second storm was last night and it dropped approx. 2" of rain and so far the lake has come up 2". With the past rain, we have just hit our normal water level for mid summer.

With the jump start in cabbage growth this year due to the early spring, guests are having their best season in years for pike and good numbers of big pike are being reported.

The small bass can still be found on just about any shoreline as well as the numerous water falls that are blowing out water as if it were early spring. The big bass are down a bit deeper as the water has warmed the big ones moved down to the 13'-17' range on the main lake rock reefs.

The trout have really turned on if you like to jig for them, the have been on a consistent bite for the past 2 weeks or so in the 60-75' range over 90-100' FOW. If you troll down riggers they have been biting pretty good all season.

The muskies have been hot this past week, we had some high 40's caught and many more (almost stories). All the big fish have moved out to their summer patterns on the main lake rock reefs and should continue to stay there until sept.

If anyone has any questions about this area, just let me know.

[Outfitter17]

7/17/10

July seems to be the month on the storms, we had another bad storm roll through on wednesday and we also had a couple of days with really high winds.

Pike fishing has been really consistent even with the bad weather. The trout are still deep and fairly easy to catch. Muskies have continued to stay hot, like the past couple of weeks.

The bass have been a different story however. Manitou is known for fantastic SMB, but this past week the bass fishing was terrible to say the least, for some reason they have just about shut down completly.

The forecast for this week looks better, so I am assuming that everything will get back to normal regarding fishing patterns. We will have to wait and see.

[Robin]

A fishing update from some of our recent guests:

Kentucky Muskie fishermen found some great Muskies just under 50 inches, also a 43 inch Pike and several nice Smallies.

Another fisherman from Rochester,MN boated a 51-1/2 inch Muskie

A Hermantown, MN man caught a 34 inch Lake Trout, and a Proctor, MN fisherwoman got a 10# laker, I even caught a 17# Laker, it was great!!

A Duluth, MN fisherman actually got a 32-1/2 inch walleye on the Manitou!! and the next day he got a 23 inch and a 28 inch walleye.

I will try to post a few photos.

[Hiddenbay]

Were the Walleye caught in Mosher Bay or in the Lower Manitou?

Thanks