Lower Manitou Lake Fishing Reports by Camp Manitou

[Robin]

Yes, the Walleye were caught in Mosher Bay. Last night another 30 inch Walleye was caught and released there.

[Hiddenbay]

Thanks for the report. Was in Mosher in mid-June and caught a 22 inch Walleye. We did see larger fish under the boat however. I wish these Walleye would move down to the Lower Manitou. Plenty of bait fish for them to eat.

[Outfitter17]

Hidden,

I thought you might have caught your walleye in hidden bay, in the middle of June while guiding one of my guides caught a 19" walleye right off the little reef with pencil reeds coming off it in the back of hidden bay on the right side.

Robin,

Funny you mentioned some nice walleyes in Mosher, My dad was staying at a friends cabin up on beaver head the 1st weekend in June and two boats from the cabin went up there and they boated approx. 60 walleyes in 2 days. of the 60 approx. 20 of them were 27" and larger, with the largest being 33" caught by Jim Bartkowski his biggest ever - Ted knows him.

Because they did so well on the big walleyes, My dad went back the following wednesday with my uncle, brother and cousin, they caught about 20 walleyes with the largest being 32.5" caught by my cousin - also his largest ever.

We also had a guest catch 3 walleyes at the aronson waterfalls early last spring and 1 walleye was caught in smokey bay.

It's nice to see a handful of walleyes slowly moving down the lake.

Maybe in 20 years we will be able to sell walleye trips on the Manitou - can't wait.

[superbee]

That is great to hear that some walleyes are being caught and that they might be starting to take a hold in the lake. The odd walleye and a few people getting small numbers in the last 20 years have been repeated over the years, but yet the population has remained minimal, not a good fishable population. Hopefully everyone is wise enough to put them all back and give them the best chance to reproduce and get to a sustainable level. Outfitter17 knows another lake that was very similar(deep, cold, clear water) with just a few odd walleyes caught each year, then more numbers started to be caught and with C&R being strictly practiced until they were abundant on most of the reefs and it turned into an excellent walleye fishery and produced many big eyes. The future of a sustainable walleye population on the Manitou relies heavily on how they are handled now. Congrats to everyone lucky enough to have caught their personal best walleye on teh Manitou.

[SimilarIsland]

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[FlyLine]

Robin,

I am new to this forum. How do you catch the Walleye Mosher bay or on Lower Manitou, Aronson Falls or otherwise?

[Hiddenbay]

Outfitter17,

This is great to hear. What did your dad catch all those Walleye on? Live bait?

[Agent Andy]

We will be coming up late next week and I am wondering if there are any good spots for lake trout. We did find quite a few when we were there in early June.

[Outfitter17]

Hidden,

The walleyes that were caught on the first two trips up to mosher were all caught on a jig and minnow. The Last trip up there was jig and leeches. Chart. jigs seem to be the best color.

The Walleye that was caught in hidden bay was caught on a dark green wacky worm.

Andy,

We have been doing very well jigging for LT right behind the island, there is a 110' hole where they like to school up in the summer. The east side of black island has also been good, the big bay in front of hailstone has been producing, the gap in front of Snare bay is good. Mirror Bay and Canoe Bay have been dynamite for the past month or so.

If you guys have any other questions, just let me know.

[Dave33]

Went to upper manitou in mid june and we caught some walleye here and there outside of Mosher which we've never done before. Something's changing. Put em back folks and we'll have a hell of walleye fishery someday.

[Robin]

FlyLine,

The Walleyes our folks got were caught on a 3/8 oz yellow jig and 3/8 oz green jig with minnows in Mosher Bay. We have not fished for Walleyes at Aronson and walleyes on the Lower Manitou itself are very rare. It is a trek of about 20 miles past us through the Manitou Straights to get up to Mosher. We request our guests to practice catch and release of walleyes on the Manitou.

[Robin]

Andy,

The trout slowed a bit the last few days, but a big front is going through again right now, maybe it will be better after this is done. Our last trout fishermen had the best luck jigging deep, even 160 ft, over by the Weasel. They used white tube jigs with ciscos...got a few 10-13 pounders. A little gold along with the white tubes they said was also good.

[SimilarIsland]

Well, what's up on the Manitou? I'll be up a week from Saturday. Can't wait!

[Robin]

We had trout fishermen in this last weekend...they did very well with a couple of really big trout. The largest was 36 inches and around 20#. The weather is a bit unsettled the last few days, some rain and wind. Lows in upper 30's and 40's with daytime highs in the 60s.

[Outfitter17]

Craig,

The trout fishing has been nothing shot of phenomenal and this started about july 25, you can catch tons jigging, rigging and trolling. I was out on last monday and we caught 41 trout, biggest was about 12lbs. You will find them everywhere right now. There are tons of them right out in front of snare bay, hailstone bay, just south of black island, etc.

The bass have also been very good, we have been getting them fishing in 12-14fow with wacky worms and flukes, just working them slowly along the bottom.

The bigger pike seem to be more and more active, we have been getting some in the high 30" range along with a few in the low 40"s. The cabbage/weeds were unreal this year, I found 10 new weed beds that I didn't know about this year and I have been fishing the lake for 9 years. That being said some of the weeds are starting to die off.

The portages have been very good also.

Calder - is still producing muskies, biggest one last week was 38", lots of smaller ones.

Mister - big northerns in the large middle weedbed where the two sections of the lake neck down.

Dogfly - Bass, bass, bass, lots of 14-17" bass being caught right now.

Gates - Largemouth and smallmouth are being caught in very good numbers, gates is one of the only stained lakes we have and it seems (on) everyday someone goes in there.

Walleye Lakes - Our 2 walleye lakes that we go into have been dynamite the past 3 weeks, with the water cooling down they have taken off. It doesn't matter if you are trolling spinners or jigging the fish are biting like crazy. Yesterday 1 boat used 11 doz. minnows, I was in there thursday and saturday and we used between 8-10 doz. each day. The conditions were overcast with a light breeze and the walleyes were biting all day long.

[SimilarIsland]

Awesome! Thanks!

[Hoffer]

Sounds like its hot up there!

Similar - you should leave tomorrow!

I was just wondering for all you trout guys...whats the mortality rate for all those trout that get brought up from way down deep - and then are released?

Are trout stronger than the normal fish?

I know bringing up a walleye from down deep (and thats only 30 to 40 feet compared to 60, 80 or more for trout) its always touch and go for its health when released.

[Hiddenbay]

Similar,

How was your trip last week? Did your trip to the Manitou bring you any Muskies? How was the weather?

I was thinking of going back up there in mid October.

[Hoffer]

Hey Hidden...

I think hes up there right now!

[SimilarIsland]

Nope, didn't end up going. We had five in our group and I really hate fishing three to a boat. I'll be jonesing all winter long now.............................

[Hoffer]

Similar-

I am very disappointed!

I figured you were uo there and would actually be catching some of this nice weather!

I agree that 3 in a boat is a hassle especially if you are tossing big Muskie stuff.

What about going 2,2,1?? You could trade off with the guy that is the single.

If the weekend after this one looks good - I will meet you up there from like Thursday morning to Sunday or Monday. I will have my downrigger on and we can fish all day long. You can guide me around - and show me all the upper north area.

Hoffer

[SimilarIsland]

Oooooohhhhhhhhh, that's sounds pretty tempting! Go on................................

[mainbutter]

in case anyone's reading the canada forums in the next 24 hours..

A surprise last minute opportunity came up, and a musky buddy of mine invited me to head up tomorrow evening to fish (lower I believe) Manitou for Esox!

I've only ever fished upper, and only in may-june.

Anyone have any "must haves" for either pike or musky in mid october??

[Hoffer]

Mainbutter

Looks like your from Minneapolis....I am here in Maple Grove - wish i was going with!

I have no idea about the Fall Northern tactics up there - maybe Outfitter will chime in. I would bet though for northerns that mepps number 5 in orange and black would be good, johnson silver spoons and maybe some larger bucktails too. I know guys who have been doing well with larger plastics as well. For Muskies - who knows...but I would tend to go "big". Maybe even do some fast trolling with some big deep divers (believers etc...).

Good luck and let us know how you did!

Hoffer

[Outfitter17]

Mainbutter,

I am sure you already left, but hopefully you threw in a few believers and Jakes. In the mid to late fall you can do some trolling and cover alot of ground with them. I like to run them adjacent to main lake humps and deep points coming off mainland and islands.

Also bulldawgs work good you can cast them on deep reefs and the big late fall fish really seem to like them.

If you are just looking for some easy action you can't go wrong with silver mepps #5 or chrome and blue 3/4 oz rattle traps for pike.

Also, don't keep any trout - trout season is closed.