July Morson reports

[Tman2]

Post 'em if you got 'em! (almost two weeks till I go up)

[Eastwind]

My wife and I just got back from fishing/golfing in the Morson area for three + days.. We started fishing on Wednesday. Up till then, the wind had been howling for three or for days, according to the people that were already at the resort. The water was murky and the mayflies had just hatched so fishing was tough. I'm up again on July 24th through 28th and expect the fishing to be improved.

[Shorelunch]

We're heading up on Thurs - Sunday. Looking forward to fishing the reefs and deep points. Our dock was just repaired and I hear can now withstand a pseunami (sp).

[Tman2]

We're heading up on Thurs - Sunday. Looking forward to fishing the reefs and deep points. Our dock was just repaired and I hear can now withstand a pseunami (sp).

Can I get the plans for that? Seems like we've been repairing my buddies every other time up.

Good luck with the walleyes. I'll be impatiently waiting for your follow-up post.

[Shorelunch]

Originally Posted By: Shorelunch

We're heading up on Thurs - Sunday. Looking forward to fishing the reefs and deep points. Our dock was just repaired and I hear can now withstand a pseunami (sp).

Can I get the plans for that? Seems like we've been repairing my buddies every other time up.

Good luck with the walleyes. I'll be impatiently waiting for your follow-up post.

We used a guy from Emo who's a metal fabricator . . .

Looks like a windy Thursday and Friday and a nice Sat and Sun.

[Shorelunch]

Man o man did the wind blow Thurs, Fri and Saturday and also blew, but somewhat less, today (Sunday). We primarily stuck to the Sunset channel area Thurs - Sat to hide from the hurricane winds. We worked really hard to catch some fish. Most were at 25 feet on humps or deep points. The waves were rolling on the big water and even rolling pretty good on Hansen Bay area outside Mylies, etc.

Today we got out on the reefs south of Basil island and also south of Dawson channel. Saw a fair number of boats on the reefs out there. The wind picked up in the afternoon. We caught some pretty nice fish on jigs and Gulp. Also trolled spinners but did better with the jigs. Caught some nice eaters and a few big ladies. Not the greatest fishing weekend in the world, but good to get back up. Back up this weekend or next.

[Wild Thing]

Spent July 2-12 at Morson, first 6 days were perfect -- temps in the 70s, mostly calm and wealleyes on the reefs big time!! They were about halfway down off the tops of the reef and we caught TONS in the 17-22-inch range. The year class of 18-19 inch fish is incredible. All on crawlers and bouncers. Biggest was 25'' so nothing big this time.

Water temp ranged from 69 to 74, still pretty cool. Two rounds of mayfly hatches first and second fridays. But they don't seem to turn the fish off on LOTW like they do on some lakes.

The last three days (as folks said above) was total big wind (have I mentioned I hate wind?) and on Saturday I tried but didnt even get out. When waves come over the stand-up top of a 19-footer at Pork Point, it's time to turn around and go back to the boathouse and drink (coffe or beer or whatever.)

Got a lot done around the cottage and the kids had a great 10 days with shore lunches, shore dinners, tubing, swimming, nature hikes and more. We hardly had a drop of rain and the lake is dropping fast; down a foot now from the high last month.

A great vacation. Home for a week or so then back up July 22-26.

See ya all on the lake!

[huntercj]

My mother in law just caught a 33in walleye out of Miles Bay. If you want to see a picture, let me know how to post it.

[Wild Thing]

Holy Cow! 33'' would be the longest walleye I've ever heard of coming out of Lake of the Woods, or at least Morson, as long as I've been paying attention!

You have to post photosto a web site elsewhere to get them to show up here, I don't bother. It's one of the may odd quirks of this HSOforum.. like how they have areas broekn down geographically... not very user friendly...

Give her a big kiss for the rest of us! 40 years of walleye fihsing and she has me beat by 2.5 inches!!!

[chaffmj]

My mother in law just caught a 33in walleye out of Miles Bay. If you want to see a picture, let me know how to post it.

Send it to me and I will post it for you.

mike.chaffin at isilon.com

[Shorelunch]

Just got back from a Friday - Sunday weekend. Nice cool day on Sat and a beautiful blue bird sky, mid-70 degree day on Sunday. We hit a lot of reefs and humps both days finding a few fish on each from bouy 12 to south of Dawson channel to west of Manitou isl. A few spots really held fish and we caught all we wanted. Lots of fish 12-21 inches. Caught them trolling with spinners and minnows and jigs and minnows in 20 - 25 feet. Had to have live bait as they just nibbled on Gulp/grubs. Biggest was a 24 and a 26 and lots of nice 15-17 eaters.

[rockpt]

Anyone have the number for the bait shop in the little town just south of Morson? Want to order some crawlers before we head up next Friday.

[Sumander]

Bergland Cafe & Bait Shop (807) 488-9670

We are heading up Thursday after work, fish Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Looks like we will have a bit of wind to contend with on Fri & Sat.

[rockpt]

Thanks. We arrive July 31 and I'm hoping someone reminds Mother Nature it's summer by then.

[Tman2]

There seems to always be wind to content with this year.

[Sumander]

Drove up late Thursday night. Spectacular light show and massive thunderstorms from Black Duck to about the Lowrance tower south of Baudette. Started raining about Bergland again.From Morson to BVR it was 5mph trying to find the road.

Friday was tough. 20 mph winds had us hiding trying to find fish. Finally found them in 30-32 fow. Caught enough to keep 15-16" but not many more. Talked to one of the guides at BVR who struggled as well.

Saturday morning wind wasn't quite as bad. We were able to run out west where we normally fish. In the morning we found fish in 20-22 fow. Nice fish including a 19 & 20". Kept 4 freezer fish in the 16" range. After lunch we were back in the same spot. fish had move up into 15' fow and were ravenous. In about two hours my brother and I caught and released 50-75 walleyes. We didn't catch anything big but it was a constant bite. We had a blast. The sun came out and it was a great afternoon.

We had to get back early yesterday so we weren't able to fish. The lake was glass when we left so I would bet fishing was great again yesterday.

Water temp was 66 degrees we caught everything on jigs and minnow. Tried GULP and GULP crawelers with no success.

Back up in 3 weeks.

[Shorelunch]

Sounds like an interesting but fun wknd Sumander. What kind of structure and what lures did you fish?

[Sumander]

Jigs and minnows. I had a buddy borrow me a "top secret" new lure that he uses on Rainy Lake. I forgot to put it in my tackle box So it will have to wait until the next time for it's test run.

We tried GULP on Saturday afternoon when the bite was so good. It was amazing the lack of action. As soon as you put even a dead minnow back on you went right back to catching fish.

Definitely have become rigid in our presentations. I can't tell you the last time I fished something other than a jig and minnow.

[Shorelunch]

Jigs and minnows. I had a buddy borrow me a "top secret" new lure that he uses on Rainy Lake. I forgot to put it in my tackle box So it will have to wait until the next time for it's test run.

We tried GULP on Saturday afternoon when the bite was so good. It was amazing the lack of action. As soon as you put even a dead minnow back on you went right back to catching fish.

Definitely have become rigid in our presentations. I can't tell you the last time I fished something other than a jig and minnow.

I had similar results with Gulp last weekend. They would take any kind of minnow but just, for the most part, nibbled at the Gulp - using jigs and also spinners.

What kind of structure were you fishing?

[Wild Thing]

Went up Thursday came back Sunday...

Thursday fishing was very good, but had to endure a rain and wind front just at noon when I got started.... caught plenty for a big dinner of walleye...

Huge storm Thursday night made the lake look like chooclate milk instead of usual tea....

Friday was windy and I hate wind, so didn't do much fishing. Managed a couple late evening but could hardly hold on the reef...

Saturday we just missed the one hour of mild wind and by 10 a.m. it was frothing out of the northwest again, 15-20 mph... I have three hernianted discs and I can't take that kind of pounding... opted for painting and mowing and other stuff and by the time I noticed it had calmed down and I went out, the bite was over....

It was nice and calm sunday as we left, but I was too angry at the lake by that point... I hate wind and this has been a windy summer.... I have used less gas this year than any previous year...

Kind of amazing how others can have a good weekend and it was kind of a bust trip for me... 'cept for the blueberries... lots of blueberries poppin'... glad others are getting to fish... I'm going to give it a break for 18 days and try again.. maybe it will warm up and the wind will stop by then...

[Sumander]

I had similar results with Gulp last weekend. They would take any kind of minnow but just, for the most part, nibbled at the Gulp - using jigs and also spinners.

What kind of structure were you fishing?

We were fishing a reefs. The one we had the best action on was surround by some very deep water. The reef tops out at about 14-15 FOW and has shoulder around the 21-22 FOW range. After that it dumps into the deep stuff.

[Eastwind]

rockpt,

Water temp was 68 this past weekend. Got lots of 'eyes over 20", including one that hit 30". First double digit 'eye ever in my boat. Every fish we got was in 18' to 30' of water, with most coming in at 19' to 24'. Offshore reffs and humps, mostly but don't be afraid to fish bars coming off the bottom of islands. Email me if you want me to be more specific.

[Wild Thing]

This may sound stupid, but where do you guys find all this deep water? Whitefish Bay? You guys aren't fishing close to Morson. I can count on one had the places over 30 feet deep that are "close.''

Just curious. Maybe my definition of close is different.

[Sumander]

WT, we were fishing out in the Rubber, Fadden & Todd area to the West of Morson. Plenty of deep water out in that direction. Not exactly close, but if the weather cooperates I don't mind a boat ride.

Eastwind, what were you fishing? our jigs and minnows didn't produce much for big fish.

[Shorelunch]

A majority of our big fish, 21-26" this year have been coming on jigs or spinners with minnows. I think we got one 21" on a Gulp minnow. Not much on leeches. I'm going to try trolling spinners with crawlers this weekend - for first time in quite a while.

I would imagine BV, Mylies or the coffee shop in Bergland have them?

As far as depth I've been fishing in, I've mainly fished the reefs south of Dawson Channel to around the bouy 12 and ballpark area. We've found fish on about every reef, with some of the larger reefs holding more fish. I haven't journeyed up to the Rubber Is. area though - haven't gone to that neck-of-the-woods too often, but have heard fantastic reports north of Rubber this Spring by a pizza man in Bemidji. We've had good fishing in the areas we've gone to.