Lower Manitou Lake Fishing Reports by Camp Manitou

[Hoffer]

Link worked fine on my computer too Matt

[KEN W]

Still doesn't work for me.....getting an error message closing the link.

[Outfitter17]

Hey Ken,

I just checked it on another computer and it worked just fine. Maybe just type the HSOforum right into your address bar at the top.

[jhenney22]

Matt

Hows the crew you have up there doin' on the muskies? My dad, brother, and I are getting excited to come up at the end of August! Can't Wait!!

[Outfitter17]

Hey Joe,

I will be doing a little musky hunting this weekend. I will post how we do, so check back in on Monday.

[Outfitter17]

7/23/09

The bass are scattered anywhere from tight to the shorelines to 30'fow. There seems to be a heavy concentration of them in the 12-14' mark however. The hot ticket right now for easy bass is a lindy rig either with a live leech or a gulp leech or gulp shinner minnow. Crank baits have also been working just running them over the main lake reefs and points, the jointed floating rapalas in the 4-5" versions seem to be doing in the best for hard baits right now, just a week or so ago it was the nonjointed rapalas.

We had some guys in the outpost last weekend and they boated a 40" musky and moved a couple more, rough conditions weather wise probably didn't help them on their quick 3 day trip. One of the guides went into one of our portage musky lakes yesterday and they boated 7, but the largest was only around 35".

Water temps today were 64f.

[Outfitter17]

7/25/09

Two of our boats did a little musky fishing the past 2 days.

5 muskies boated, biggest 42"

approx. 25 follows, approx biggest follow 46-48"

1 muskie was caught on a med. size double bladed bucktail with gold blades and rainbow hair.

1 muskie was caught on a mepps musky killer, red blade and white hair.

3 muskies were caught on an orange and black topraider.

The best lures right now seem to be the topraider, along with the 3 caught fish there were approx. 10 follows.

The best lure that didn't catch a fish was a Joe Bucher Magnum tinsil double silver bladed bucktail in the cisco/nickle color, it had the three biggest follows yesterday before it broke off with some bad line.

All the bigger fish came off main lake rock reefs and all the big ones came from Esox lake.

Some of the smaller fish and smaller follows came from around down timber adjacent to deep water.

[Outfitter17]

7/28/09

The Nothern Pike fishing has slowly been picking up, mainly they are being caught in the 8-10' cabbage beds, if you can find cabbage that is out in 10-12' of water and up to about 2' from the surface you will find the pike. They are in the shallower cabbage when it is cloudy and in the deeper cabbage when the sun is out.

The water is 64F today and the cabbage is about a month behind, but it is about where it needs to be and the pike seem to now be where they need to be.

The bass are still scattered from shorelines to 30'fow. There still a heavy concentration of them in the 12-14'. The best thing going is still a lindy rig either with a live leech or a gulp leech. Crank baits are also still working just running them over the main lake reefs and points, the jointed floating rapalas in the 4-5" versions still seem to be doing in the best for hard baits right now. We have had some luck with tubes working them very slowly on the rocks.

[Lower Manitou]

Has anyone been fishing the main lake? My parents have a cabin near the weatherstation camp, and I'll be heading up this weekend. We generally jump around the area casting/trolling for smallies and northerns, and jigging/drifting for trout depending on the action. Any insite on current conditions would be very appreciated.

[superbee]

The current weather conditions are rain, wind, sun, and rain again. It has been cool and the weather has not been very favorable. The bass are scatttered like Outfitter mentioned. Most trout are down deep, but about 2 weeks ago, I caught a bunch just trolling deep diving black/silver cranks in 30 fow. Outfitter might be able to give you more insight.

[Outfitter17]

Lower Manitou,

You should be in Luck weather wise they are predicting thunderstorms for the next 10 days on the forecast, but it looks like it might be clear between 1am and 5am sunday morning, so be sure to take advantage of the little bit of nice weather we are going to get.

The bass are still scattered, but again there seems to be a pretty good concentration of them in 12-15fow of the main lake rock reefs.

The pike are in the deep cabbage/weed beds on the main lake.

The trout are going pretty good right now, they seem to have stabilized in the summer trout holes and they are very active in the 75-100ft. range in 110-115fow. Bullet saltwater jigs with a 4" twister tail in white or glow seems to be hot for trout right now.

I would guess you should do fine, it just depends on all the weather moving in and out of the area is going to do to the fish.

Good Luck.

[Lower Manitou]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Looks like we can probably leave the sunscreen at home.

[Outfitter17]

Lower Manitou,

Do you have a report on fishing from your side of the lake?

[jhenney22]

Outfitter,

Almost time to come up CAN NOT wait!!! Anything we need to know or should bring up? See you in 24 days!

Joe

[Outfitter17]

Hey Joe,

Just over 3 weeks now, so it's coming fast. I don't think there is anything that you really need to know. If you have any questions, you can just email them to [email protected]

The muskies are starting to go right now, I would assume it's due to the more stable weather we are getting right now. The other day one of our female guests caught her first muskie ever and it was a beauty, a 47" without the tail pinched clear muskie. Her dad caught a few smaller ones in the morning, but this one beat everyone in the boat. We had a 40" today, and a few other good follows. I would assume with all the spot we have right now with located fish, you guys will do just fine.

[superbee]

Was up visiting Outfitter for a few days and did some trout fishing and they were hitting good right close to camp on tubes and twisters in 90-100 fow. Matt can tell you exactly where they are and get you on them fast. Most were in the 4-7# range.

[jhenney22]

Outfitter,

Hey thanks for the reply. Just hearin' from you gets me even more pumped up! Good news on the muskies as well thats great to hear! I'm sure a few questions will pop up soon and I'll send them to the email. How are the smallies hittin? Lakers givin' any action?

Thanks,

Joe

[jhenney22]

Superbee,

Hey thanks for the info! You fish Lower Manitou a lot? Any info around the outpost? Any info is appreciated!

Joe

[superbee]

Not so much up around the outpost, Outfitter can fill you in on that area. Esox is a real good area for muskies and would be worth targeting a day or two. There are alot of mid rock structure that holds some big muskie and will keep you busy for a few days.

[Outfitter17]

8/9/09

Water Temp 66F, a little on the cool side for this time of year. The big bass are hold up on the reefs in 14-15fow, there was a good topwater bite yesterday until the rain started about 4:30pm. The pike are still in the cabbage and should remain there into september. The trout are being caught anywhere from 20 to 100fow. The really active ones are in 40-60 over 100fow. White and glow 4" white/glow twister tails or tubes seem to be whats hot. The trout fishing has been pretty much fantastic for the past 2 weeks or so compared to earlier in the season. Most of the trout fishing has been done within site of the main camp, there are a few groups reporting doing well for trout right at the entrance to the main lake by outpost. It looks like the rain is going to stop for a couple of days so we can dry out a bit, I don't think we have gone more than two days without rain this season.

Joe, I will check a few spots around the outpost and report back to you.

[jhenney22]

Awesome Guys!

Feels great to have some info from you two and is appreciated very much. Thanks Matt for looking into it for us.

Joe

[Lower Manitou]

Outfitter,

Main lake conditions last week. Northerns were in the weeds as expected, and the best bite most seemed to be in about 12 fow. Smaller than usual lures (#3 mepps) produced a lot more strikes, and luckily, very few hammer handles. We picked up some bass shallower, but most seemed to be in the 10-15 fow range. Trolling jointed shad raps worked pretty well (with a little help from some split shots), and so did jigging with about any 3-4" grub in likely spots. Didn't spend a lot of time working for lakers, but 80-90 down in 95-110 fow produced when we did. A small blue/silver little cleo was the best producer for us - downriggers. Didn't hunt for any muskies, but my dad hooked into a very very nice fish between manitou island and pecker point better than 30 foot down in over 100 fow. - had been pulling behind a down rigger and was reeling back to the surface. Lost it at the boat, but had plenty of good looks at it, and if it wasn't a legal fish, it wasn't short by much(not that it would have been kept). The weather also much better than expected, so that was a nice bonus.

[Outfitter17]

8/23/09

Fishing has been a bit slow the past few days. We have had some rough weather and cool temps recently. The trout are still going pretty good in the 75-95' range. Muskie seem to have slowed a bit, still reports of follows and 1 group that left the outpost today caught a nice 42" 2 days ago on a red jointed husky jerk. The bigger bass on in the cabbage right now, with small ones on the rock reefs. The pike are also in the dense cabbage along with the bass. I will be out the next few days, so I will post a more updated report in a couple of days.

[Outfitter17]

8/30/09

The water temps are slowly starting to fall, yesterday I saw them in various parts of the lake ranging from 62-66F. The muskie and trout action seems to be heating up. I was out friday for trout and muskie, we caught 5 muskies and saw a few other ones. We didn't find any monsters, the biggest one on was around 37". We boated 18 trout between 22" and 29", with alot of hit and misses.

Yesterday another one of the boats was out muskie hunting and they boated 3, while also seeing quite a few more.

The pike are going good in the cabbage out from shore in 7-12 fow.

The bass seem to be all over in the water column right now, guys are catching them on topwater, cranks, and going deeper with jigs off the main lake reefs.

[Outfitter17]

9/4/09

Todays adventure took us into Syndicate lake, a muskie only lake that hasn't been fished in 4-6 years to my knowledge. It was a little adventure to get in, but we made it. We took a 20 minute boat ride up to calder lake, portaged in and drove across calder lake. Once at the other side of calder, we portaged into Syndicate lake. Syndicate is a stained water lake with only muskies in it. It didn't dissapoint, we caught 8 in about 2.5 hrs of fishing. Once back on Calder, we hit a spot on the way out and caught 2 more muskies. To top off the day we stopped in front of the lodge and caught 6 trout in about 20 minutes in 75 Fow.

Trips are slowly starting to wind down, but I will update you until we leave camp.