Report from jackfish

[Hoffer]

Had the annual jackfish lake Fall fishing trip.

9-10-12 to 9-17-12.

Fishing was the best ever.

Weather was very cooperative.

We had some windy days but our best fishing day (25,26,27,28 and 30 inch walleye) came during the most gusty day we ever had up there. We witnessed 4 trees blow down while we were trolling.

The big fish were biting on the schools of Ciscos. Find the Ciscos...find the big fish.

here are a few photos. The fish looks like e it could be the same one...but they were different ones. The Horizontal hold was the fattest 27 incher I have seen...and the vertical hold is a 30 incher that went 11 to 12 pounds. And yes...I know it looks like the 30 inch eye is being held out to the camera...but take it for what its worth...it was all of 30 inches and 10 plus pounds

And all were caught with the lucky hat on.

[Tuma]

Wow, awesome report Hoffer! Makes me very excited, we are making our annual trip up to Despair this weekend. We usually fish Jackfish and Despair, but have never managed walleyes like that!!!

Any tips or pointers you could divulge???

I greatly appreciate any help! Can't wait to be up there!

Tuma

[Hoffer]

When we were there West Jack fish was green. So we mainly tried to stay East and find some deeper water. Find the baitfish on your screen and you should be able to find the eyes and Norts. Dont be afraid to go deep. Other than that...nothing more than the traditional style of fishing. Mainly minnows and some perch colored lures.

Also try some Crappie fishing up in Squaw Bay. We didnt try that too much but heard the action was good. Since your going even later than us - you do really well on Crappies too.

Where are you staying? Looks like your from Maple Grove too?

Good luck!

[Tuma]

I am from Maple grove, small world!

We stay at a family friends cabin on one of the smaller islands on Despair straight out from the landing. As you'd be heading to Jackfish it would be to your left and it has the two smaller islands behind it.

Do you guys fish the south east area of jackfish or north east? The one time we tried the north east side we didnt catch a fish... What exactly do you mean by deep? We generally never end up fishing much deeper than 20ft and usually less. Probably why we did so poor last year.

Is Squaw bay on Jackfish or where is that? Never fished for crappies up there, always just walleyes. We only do 3-4 day trips though.

Thanks again for the info! It's going to be a long work week!

[Hoffer]

Yeah we didnt find many fish NE due to the green water.

We usually do fish both areas though. Deep like even 40 feet deep or more.

Squaw bay is kind of hard to describe but you go into East Jackfish and then around the corner and head North again. There is a kind of channel you will go through (careful - its shallow this year and there are boulders...so we go slow)

Then that channel leads you up to another area of the lake we call squaw bay. They fish for big crappies up there with good luck. We have also found them though in the NE/NW part of Jackfish too.

Good luck with everything...send a report here when you get back!

[Hoffer]

Tuma

email me.

[email protected]

[Hoffer]

a few more.

[SimilarIsland]

Nice fish Hoffer!

[ozzie]

dandy fish and great report Hoffer!!

[WalleyeChaser]

Nice! We are headed back up again the first weekend in Oct. Those pics get the excitement going! We stay with Bill and Nell and fish Despair, Footprint, and Jackfish if we can get the rigs through the narrows. I have a 17 ft fish and ski that makes it no prob, the father in laws ranger 620 is another story. Higher water is definitley needed for that. We also head over to Rainy to catch some chunks for the braggin photos!

Hows the water level looking up there?

[Hoffer]

River

The water is super low!!

Probably 2 feet lower or more than "normal".

In fact going through the narrows - the water was going the OTHER direction - WITH the boat on the way up.

It was a very easy trip up though...you basically just had to glide the boat through the channel. No current to fight.

My buddies had an 1850 fish and ski and made it up and down just fine. Be sure to trim the motor up.

Good luck and send a report here when you get back!

PS Pretty sure there will be a group up there on Kandahl island where we stay the same time you are there. Grey cabin on island on West Jackfish before you go around the point that goes to the Ross' beach/camp areas...

[WalleyeChaser]

Well we postponed the trip till a week later with the forecasted cold/freezing temps.

And ended up with beautiful weather! We had a cool start friday afternoon at 45 degrees. But it warmed up nicely to the mid 50's for sat., sun., and mon. The water was pretty calm for the most part all weekend. The fish didn't seem to mind though. We didn't head into jackfish as the water looked really low and there wasn't really any need to. Caught this and many other mid 20" fish in Footprint and Despair:

27.5"

And my new PB eye came from the Northwest Bay of Rainy:

29.75" and close to 10 lbs!

3 of us caught over 150 fish in just 3 days of fishing, with over half of them being in the 20"+ range. Gotta love the jig and minnow/plastics bite up there! We had some excellent fish fries! I just can't get enough of Canada!

Hopefully the water goes up in the spring so we can make it back to Jackfish!

[Hoffer]

Thanks for the report! I know the exact time you guys were up there because I was watching the weather - and if not for work trips already planned - would have made a quick 3 or 4 day trip up there!

Sounds like you guys had great luck South of the rapids. Did you go upo the rapids at all?

I would love to get in touch with you regarding how and where you approach footprint. I have always wanted to venture there - but with the rapids in the way - it always seems like a better idea to stay North once I make it up there!

Its interesting the color of your bigger eye (congrats on the PB by the way!) it may just be the angle and lighting of the pic - but it looks like what I call a "white" walleye. All of our eyes this year were very dark - like the first one you had pictured. However, around 2 years ago i caught a 30 incher the last night that just looked more "white". It didnt have the really super dark and gold coloring. Anyway...just thought that was interesting.

Glad you guys had great luck...would love to touch base sometime about Footprint, how, when, where etc..

Hoffer-

[Hoffer]

Heres a pic of that lighter colored eye. It was actually from 2009. Its hard to tell from the pic...but the colors were very different than normal...very light especially on the fins.

[WalleyeChaser]

Shoot me a pm somtime. I would actually like to learn a little more about jackfish!