Lower Manitou Lake Fishing Reports by Camp Manitou

[Hoffer]

Outfitter-

thats awesome...

How big? What lure? Color?

I went out with Scott this last Wednesday. I got out in the afternoon and fished and had 2 nice follows. Scott got out and joined me around 6:30. We went to a spot and he picked up a 30 inch Muskie to start things off. Went down a ways on same side of lake and he picked up a really fat 42 incher....then to top it off we went over to where I had my follows and he picked up another 40 incher that fought probably as well or better than any Muskie to date. Just peeled line off the drag a bunch of times. We were pitching the same thing...#5 Meppps in Orange and Black. Scott must have just had the touch that day! This lake is 25 minutes from my house! I will send a few pics...

I miss the Manitou...heading up to my friends on the 16th - so that would be nice - but would have liked to try the outpost in the fall too! Hope you have a great Fall...keep the posts/updates coming.

[Outfitter17]

Hey Mark,

I guess Scott had his lucky horseshoe with him that day. We caught most of them on an orange and black bucktail, a small gold bladed bucktail with yellow hair caugth 1, and a blue/white giant jackpot caught 2.

We did some trout fishing today with downriggers and it was incredible. We set 1 downrigger in 55 fow and the other in 60 fow. There were trout scattered on the screen anywhere from 40 to 85 feet down. We caught between 25 and 30 trout in about 2.5 hrs of fishing and everyone was caught on a small rainbow colored needle fish. I usually like to jig for them, but it was nice to let the riggers do the work for once.

[SimilarIsland]

Hey guys,

Got back from Manitou a week ago. Fished Pickwick (walleye) for a couple of days also. Caught mostly numbers this time rather than size. Vegetation seemed to be way down from years past. Water temp was low to mid 60's. Fished Mosher Bay, Doyle Bay, Kiminni Falls, and made it up to Gold Rock. Lots of smallies and northern. The largemouth, believe it or not were really biting in Holcroft this trip, along with the smallies and northern. Man those canadian largemouth are footballs! I think they actually fight better than a smallie up there.

Outfitter's outpost cabin was great - love the location. He also treated us to "Cabin 5" for our extra day at the end - very nice.

Thanks Outfitter for a great trip once again!

[SimilarIsland]

Matt,

How'd the bear hunters' do?

How's the little boy and his dad do?

[Outfitter17]

Similar,

Jay and Jake did very good. Their guide took them over to straw where they caught alot of walleyes and pike the first day, then they went to calder the second day and did great on the muskies and even got into some hot lake trout action in the SE section of the lake for about an hr. before they came in. I don't know how they did the last day, I had to go to a funeral for my uncle down in Duluth, MN. I do know they went back to calder for their last day, so I am sure they did well.

The last group of bear hunters did ok, they were only a group of 2. The first day 1 hunter had 2 bears come in right at dark. The second day he went to shoot and his gun miss fired and the bear ran away. The third day the 2nd hunter shot a nice bear from our adams stand. The fourth day the 1st hunter saw another bear right at dusk. The fifth day the 1st hunter shot at what he thought to be about a 400lber right at dusk and missed at 17yds. He was so disgusted with his gun I think he is going to put it on HSO-Classifieds when he gets home. They both saw plenty of bear and should have been 100% but I guess things happen, (stange few days for the 1st hunter) We have our last group coming in on Friday 11th, and the baits are getting hit pretty good right now, so it should be good.

I will post their results when the hunt is over.

[SimilarIsland]

Thanks, Nice to know. Very nice guys - entertaining too!

That little boy was just casting his heart out from the dock one day. I told him there were probably some 60" muskies in the lake and his eyes became just like saucers. That's what it's all about about isn't it?

[Outfitter17]

9/13/09

Similar,

You're right that's is what its all about. The search for the big fish, on this lake you don't know if the next follow is going to be a 10" bass or a 50" muskie.

We headed over to one of our drive to walleye lakes for the day and it was fantastic. We had an overcast sky and that with a light breeze is the receipe for hot walleye action. We boated between 60-70 walleyes and about 25 small pike, most of them were caught back trolling in 8-11fow with hammered gold, red reflecto, and red/chart. spinners. It was the last trip in for this year, so it was nice to finish on a high note over there.

The trout fishing has been very strong the past few weeks. We had a group that just left this morning and they were only fishing trout the past 3 days with down riggers and they said they boated between 40-50 trout per day using little rainbow trout colored needlefish on the riggers that were set at 55' in 80-100fow.

[Outfitter17]

FYI,

If anyone is looking for some good winter trout action, we have 3 cabins that will be open this winter. They sleep up to 6 people, so if you are interested email [email protected] for details or just go to the HSOforum listed below.

Thanks

[Hoffer]

Matt-

Next time I hit Manitou - I am bringing some downriggers!

Hey, I know you search these threads...did you pick up the thread about a 61 inch Muskie being caught in Ontario?

I wonder what lake? Have you heard any rumors?

See ya-

Hoffer

[Outfitter17]

Mark,

You can pick up some portable downriggers pretty cheap if you look around. They really seem to work well, even when you don't see fish on the screen you still catch fish?

Yea, I have also heard some rumors. When I get more info I will pass it along to you.

Good Luck at your buddies this week.

[Hoffer]

Thanks Matt!

Heading out in exactly 7 hours = 5am.

Will report back. The weather is actually supposed to be really nice...to nice really for fishing. However, I will take it! This trip is more of a fun relaxing type of trip...the fish bite is just the icing on the cake. Gonna try deep. Gotta beat the 10.4 eye from last year...(not likely!!)

[SimilarIsland]

Good Luck Mark!

[Outfitter17]

Hey Craig,

I ran into you buddy Chris at the landing around 11:30am today, it looks like they were having some motor problems. I asked him if they were going to be ok, and he said that having motor problems for them is normal?

There was a really old guy with them, maybe 90yrs old. Is that the old guy you were talking about with all the stories?

[SimilarIsland]

Yeh, they have that old 9.9 and 20 they use to get to the island. It is better and faster when we use my boat.

Yep, that's him. He's been going up there since about 1952. Sitting around with a drink or two and listening to his stories of the Manitou is entertaining. He's still a pretty darn good fisherman too. I hope someday I'm 88 and can still fish ten hours a day! You should have a blue with them, they're a very good group of guys.

I almost came back up with them.

[Outfitter17]

If I have a chance I might stop over for a CA Bud light. One of the guys with chris mentioned something about trying to borrow your boat next time they come up?

[Outfitter17]

9/18/09

The fishing has been really good the past 10 days or so, we have finally gotten summer. We have had stable weather with temps between 70 and 80 with lite wind for the longest stretch of the season.

We went into Mister this morning to fish a bit and pull out our portage motor. We fished the center of the lake, where there are a couple of huge weed beds and also where we caught some nice pike last year at this same time. Needless to say the cabbage was down/behind where the growth should be, but the pike were still there. The biggest was about 39", but we had a couple of bigger ones follow up to the boat.

The lake is unique, it really only holds cabbage in about 5% of the lake, so in the summer/fall after you fish that area, you are basically done.

The few guests that are around this week are still doing really well on the Lake Trout, September on the Manitou is a Fantastic time for the trout fisherman.

The bass have been very active this week in 12-16 fow of sharpe rocky points that drop into deep water. Small jigs with various colors of twisters are working good, as well as leeches.

If you are planning a trip next year, don't forget about the great fishing september has to offer.

[prov1900]

Matt,

With the cooler summer, have your lakers stayed "shallow", i.e. mid 40's?

[Outfitter17]

ProV,

The lakers didn't really move out deep until august or so. They did get down to about 100' for a few weeks, but that was short lived. It seems like it took them forever to get down, they were down for a short time and then started moving back up. We have been catching them around 45-55' right now in 90fow. They have kinda stopped moving up for the time being, it has been in the 70's and 80's for the past 2 1/2 weeks or so. The water is actually a bit warmer today than it was on Sept. 1. It has been a very strange year for lakers, they didn't seem to ever get into a summer pattern. They were always very catchable during the summer, just seem to be in all depths of the water column. I am hopping to get a really hot bit at the end of sept., just before the season ends.

[prov1900]

Thanks Matt. That is really interesting. I am heading up to Sioux Lookout on Wednesday and wondered if we had any shot at them. The spring (late May/early June) was pretty good, but am curious to see if they will be in there same haunts. Thanks again for all your info all season long. Hope you have a great fall bite.

[Outfitter17]

Prov,

Good luck, hopefully you will get into them. There water should be a bit cooler than ours being farther north.

Craig,

I have been up and down the lake a few times this week and every time I see the guys from Similar they are fishing about 20ft. from shore. (not 20fow, 20ft. from shore) You can almost jump to shore from as close as they are fishing? Also, 95% of the spots I see them at seem to me to be very unproductive water, do they have portable graphs in their boats?

You might need to mark up a few spots for them or if they don't have graphs, get them to spend a few $ and buy a couple of portables, so they can at least see how deep they are fishing.

[Hoffer]

Hey Matt-

Just got back a few hours ago from jackfish. Dont want to hijack your thread..but just thought I would post something quick. We had 5 days of weather that was almost TOO nice! 70s and sometimes 80s.

The first 3 days I fished from 7:30 am to 8pm without coming in once. The fishing was tough and most of the big ones were deep.

I could have caught all the 14 to 17 inch eyes I wanted..but was after something big. I decided to fast troll in deep water and that was the ticket. i started with deep divers about 25 feet down and it was sporadic. then I switched to a somewhat shallower deep diver and trolled around 4mph in 40 feet.

The last day I picked up a 23 and 28 inch eye - and then with 15 minutes to go picked up a 30 inch eye with the same EXACT lure I caught my other big one last year with 15 minutes to go!

Talk about deja vu.

I have a few good pics...but number 1..i dont know how to post them...and number 2 - they arent manitou fish and I dont want to fill up this thread with them

I will give manitou and your place a good plug though...even though I love the jackfish area and have been going for years and it has sentimental value...the manitou offers more fish caught on a daily basis without having to work as hard

[SimilarIsland]

Welcome back Mark. Congrats on the big Eye.

Matt, No, they don't have any graphs. They're not too big on pattern fishing.

[Outfitter17]

Sounds good Mark, Thanks for the update. The weather has been unreal the past 3 weeks or so, especially for the type of summer we've had so far.

Craig,

You are right, they don't seem to be following any type of pattern. The only pattern I can see that they are trying to follow is an early spring pattern.

I hope you outfish them when you are up with them;)

[Outfitter17]

10/1/09

Trout season ended just about the same as prior years. The trout we up to about 45-50' in 90fow, they will continue slowly moving up while the water starts to cool. In mid to late august I expected them to be up on the reefs and castable, but with the very unseasonably warm weather we had in September they stayed at about the same depth on sept. 1 as they finished on sept. 30. It ended up being a pretty good year for the lakers even with the strange weather, I can't wait to see what next year brings for them.

[Lower Manitou]

Any recent main lake reports? I'll be up around Beaverhead this weekend and next week, and would sure appreciate any feedback.