Motlongs Rod and Reel

[Kingfisher]

Hi Hemlock, Whats the status at Motlongs these days? Is the bridge at Siuox Narrows completed yet? Plan on being up in that neck of the woods the week of the 23rd this month. Thanks

[Hemlock]

The old bridge is completely out. All that remains are the concrete uprights.

Temp. one lane bridge is still in place. Traffic light is still set up. Motlongs is open, restaurant is not, apparently. They have a sign on the highway side of their office/restaurant that says the bridge project has "taken their parking" and that the restaurant is closed. I suppose that is a pretty poor deal for their parking lot to be turned into the temporarty lane of travel.

May 23rd, eh? Great time to come up and do the trout thing. I wish I could get away, but I'm swamped here for now.

[JZ]

Hemlock, Mabey if you would get your work done instead of surfing FishingMN all day you would have time to go fishing!!!

[uffdapete]

Hemlock - could you expand a little on "Great time to come up and do the trout thing"? I'll be up in the Falls area and points north May 22-30.

Are they likely to still be shallow the last week of May in the Nestor Falls area? It's a blast fishing them through the ice, but I've never really fished for them successfully in open water and would love to try when they're still in the shallows.

[Hemlock]

I would say it'a s great time to come up because they are active feeding and they are in the shallows. Prior to walleye opener here (May 21) you can't use live bait in Whitefish Bay. After this date, you can. We have had better luck in the spring, generally speaking, than any other time of the year. Trolling with lots of flash. Usually they transition from the bays, to the points, following the baitfish or other food sources. 25-35 would be some depths to try.

[uffdapete]

Thanks for the tips - that's going on the list of must do's on this trip. Sounds like a lot of fun.

[uffdapete]

We fished lake trout only one day - that's the bad news. The good news is we caught 14 in about 4 hours. After we got the F+L+P right, they hit well. We fished a small lake on the way to Dryden off of 502.

We trolled no. 12 husky jerks and fat raps - blue/chrome/orange and they hit with a fury! Caught all the fish except on those lures in 8-15 ft. We did have a couple more really hard hits which could have been bigger trout or pike. I know they were bigger than anything we landed - you never see the biggest ones, right? LOL Actually the ones we landed were around 4 lbs. but I know from ice fishing there are larger ones to be caught.

Anyway that was the highlight of the week for me. That will be on the top of the list when I do an early trip from now on and we'll spend the energy to get into more remote lakes next time.

Thanks again Hemlock!

[Timber]

Just got back from staying at the Rod and Reel yesterday. We were there for five days, and did very well on lake trout. Not so good with walleyes. Everything was great at the resort, although the restaurant was closed. Chan Motlong, and others there were very nice, and very helpful. Plan ahead if you're eating out. Most/all eating places close early. The bridge is not done, and from talking to people it'll be a while before it will be done. No one was working on it, and from what I was told, won't until Fall. There did not seem to be as many people around as in past years, or boats on the lake. Going up we went through customs quickly, but returning we were in line for more than an hour. Customs people on both sides were very courteous.

[Hemlock]

Timber, thanks for the report. Were you shore fishing the lakers or were you in the boat?

Does your nick name have anything to do with Timber Island in Whitefish Bay?

[Timber]

We "dragged lines" out from shore using ciscoes. We also trolled from a boat, catching lakers both ways. The larger ones came from shore.

Timber comes from the name of my golden retriever.

Question: is there anyplace in Regina Bay, etc. to catch walleyes? It's not as far as Yellow Girl.