Morson/LOTW Mid-Summer report

[Shorelunch]

Went up to the cabin Wed - Sunday. Weather was very windy and a "mix of sun and cloud" with more clouds than sun for the most part. Also received some rain, too.

In general we fished walleyes in the morning and small mouth in the afternoon. We tried to stay somewhat out of the brunt of the wind and found walleyes on humps and reefs about every where we stopped. However, usually the next day, they moved from the spots we fished the previous day, so we moved to find them. We had best luck trolling spinners with minnows, with most fish caught in 10 - 17 feet. They didn't seem to want crawlers as much as minnows.

Larger walleyes were gorging on mayflies and crayfish, but it really didn't slow down the bite.

Am also gradually learning to fish smallies. We caught them on rip rap shorelines with boulders using a variety of lures.

[jerkin'm]

Great pic! It's killing me that I can't make it up there this year....

[Eastwind]

Fished Morson last week and did well two out of three days. Favored deeper reefs in the range of 15' to 22'. My friends fished with a jig and minnow and I used a jig and crawler. On day one, we got the most big fish with 8 of them being in the 22" to 26" range. Second day they weren't as big and we didn't catch quite as many but had plenty of fish on both days. Day three was dismal. Storms in the morning, then no wind, high humidity, the only biting was the flies. Had a great trip and am now looking forward to the annual October trip.

[bigtimeelectric]

eastwind did you make it up to the miles bay area? what resort did you stay at? we are heading up Saturday for a week can't wait!!!

[Eastwind]

bigtime...

No, I never got up to Miles Bay. Was going to do so on day three but the weather looked threatening most of the day. There are better places to be than Miles Bay if it happens to storm. I get up in to Miles Bay at least one day, usually more, on all of my open water trips to Morson. This trip was the exception.

[bigtimeelectric]

Just got back home today from first nation guides outpost on sabaskong bay. Nice cabin beautiful scenery, however the walleye fishing proved to be pretty tough. We traveled as far north and west as stairway point. We used a clicker and caught an average of 25 walleyes a day for 3 of us. 23" being the biggest with a a couple 22", 1 - 21" 6 - 20" all the way down to a fingerling. We found our best fishing in miles bay 20 to 25 FOW. Went through a flat of crawlers pulling spinner rigs. We finally got a leech bite going yesterday with 16th oz jigs tipped with some nice leeches from gills in morson.

The highlight of the trip for me was hooking 2 different muskies and having 2 other follow ups. All over 45" fish and I am no Musky fisherman example is I don't even own a bucktail had to borrow one from my brother in law.. haha

Also we got pulled over by the CO for a spotcheck and that was a very pleasant experience as he was very nice and happy to answer any questions we had.

We did try a bunch of reefs, however we only caught a handful of eyes on them and we didn't really mark any fish on them either. We even fished a couple reefs that are not mapped

[Eastwind]

bigtime...

Thanks for the report. Twenty five fish per day isn't a bad average for three of you, especially with some + 20" fish in the mix. That's a lot more fish than three of us would catch in a whole weekend until I started fishing up in the Morson area, 15 years ago. Not even sure whyI buy a MN license any more, although Mille Lacs has some nice fish to catch. Glad to hear that the MNR officer acted in a professional manner when you were checked. They seem to be getting more helpful and less confrontational these past few years. Same with the CA border officers. Odd that the reef bite was so slow for you at this point of Summer.

[bigtimeelectric]

Eastwind, yes it wasn't bad we caught enough fish to eat and a few nice ones. I don't know, the thing is I suppose if we continue coming to Morson we will build our list of spots to fish and that's how you get the higher numbers in my opinion. We have been going to lac seul for 8 years and have built up a small arsenal of spots and techniques so I feel we had greater success there. That being said I am sure if we go to Morson for several years we would have more and more success. The spots that we had our best success on we found on our own. The ones that were suggested to us did not produce, probably because they are fished pretty hard.

I love the area and the short drive I can be there in less than 5 hours!!

[Eastwind]

bigtime...

Yes, Lac Seul, one of the few places that I am curious enough about to try on one of my yearly open water trips, as opposed to Morson. I've heard lots of good things about the lake. Is Lac Seul mapped on a GPS chip?

[bigtimeelectric]

Yes it is mapped, however I am more confident on the route lines and hazard marks on LOTW than Lac Seul. Lac Seul used to have a good buoy system that was maintained now there is very few buoys out there any more, where LOTW is maintained very well from what I see.

[Shorelunch]

Was up at Morson this past weekend. The wind howled out of the SW, which limited where we wanted to fish. Fished for walleyes north of and around the Sunset Channel. Fished some humps and points catching lots of smaller fish. Tired trolling spinners and jigging with spinners doing better. Also fished for muskie and smallies with not much success. One of the more poorer fishing weekends in a long time.

Back up next weekend and then Labor Day weekend (already).

FYI, it' been pretty dry up there, but Morson/Hansen Bay got about 1.5 inches last night and further south around Berglund got pounded pretty hard.

[Shorelunch]

Back up to Morson this past weekend. Friday was a very nice day. Fished walleyes out on the points and humps west of Manitou/south of Sunset. Did well on walleyes either trolling spinners w/crawlers or minnows and jigging produced, too. About 18-20 feet was best.

Saturday the wind howled out of the SW. We headed and hid north of Sunset Channel/south of Miles Bay and tried some new spots for walleyes. Fished the same depths trolling spinners and caught a few fish each spot. Caught tons of 12 inchers along with some 15-16 inchers. Biggest of the day of a 25 incher.

Storms went through Saturday night with quite a few trees down between Bergland and Sleeman.

Went back out to the humps Sunday morning and had some multi-species action. Used jig and minnows and caught an 18" smallie in 15 feet and my 9 year old caught a 36" northern. Still found walleyes in 18-20 feet. Marked them deeper but didn't get them to go.

[welfedted]

thanks for the report shorelunch.

[welfedted]

Was up to Morson last week. I strugled finding large numbers of walleyes until the last day. Thank you Rob @ Pelica Landing. Each day crappies were plentiful, along with large perch and northerns. I was amazed by the number of rock bass that were caught. Any one else seeing larger then normal amounts of rockies. I'll be going up again next week and as much as I can until ice up. Man, I love this time of year. Any FM'ers up to Morson between now an ice up it would be nice to hook up @ Pelican Landing or my house, have a couple "pops" and solve a few of the worlds problems. WFT KRANZ JIGS = BIG FISH

[Shorelunch]

Was up to Morson last week. I strugled finding large numbers of walleyes until the last day. Thank you Rob @ Pelica Landing. Each day crappies were plentiful, along with large perch and northerns. I was amazed by the number of rock bass that were caught. Any one else seeing larger then normal amounts of rockies. I'll be going up again next week and as much as I can until ice up. Man, I love this time of year. Any FM'ers up to Morson between now an ice up it would be nice to hook up @ Pelican Landing or my house, have a couple "pops" and solve a few of the worlds problems. WFT KRANZ JIGS = BIG FISH

WFT - I'm heading up Friday - what type of structure/depth did you find the walleyes and crappies?

[welfedted]

Shorelunch, walleyes came out of 20 feet of water. Some shallower & some deeper but most from 20'. Crappies came alittle deeper 25'. Points off islands and reefs. Caught crappies east toward Nester and out west past Sunset, also a good amount around Morson. Best walleyes came from out west. All crappies were caught on a jig & plastic. Walleyes caught on minnows, dead & alive. I hope this helps. I'll be up on saturday. I drive a Sylvan Pro Select. WFT

[ducksnbucks]

We were up last week TH-Sat mostly musky/pike fishing with walleyes thrown in just to catch enough for dinners. TH we experiment fished Sab Bay and the muskies seemed active, we saw 8 fish, caught a 38" ski, 35" pike, and some mid 20's pike. Friday we fished north of morson and didn't see as many, only 4 but had a 48-50" class fish hit at the side of the boat and got off, also caught a tank 40" pike and some smaller pike too. Saturday started well until the starter went out on the boat and we didn't fish the rest of the day. For the two hours we did fish we lost 2 muskies and saw 2 others and boated a smaller pike. Fish were very active, would have liked to have seen what would have happened had we been able to fish when the front came through.

Muskies came from all depths and structure. Shallow rocks, deep rocks, shallow weed bays, and rocks with random weeds. Could not put a pattern together at all, just fished everything!

Walleyes were mostly smaller, 11-14", a few 15" fish but good enough to clean for a meal. Only fished for them for a total of 3 hours in 3 days, just picked rock points and took what we could get with jigs and minnows. We also noticed a bunch of rock bass and did catch a 12 and 13" jumbos too.

Good luck up there! Wish I could be back before ice but not going to happen. Oh well.