Morson question

[srj]

I'm going to Morson for a couple days next week with a friend who just bought a trailer there. I'm a regular on the US side of LOW but I'm sure things are a good bit different in the island area. Any tips appreciated on reef fishing--top, sides, bottoms? Do the fish cruise the basin like they do on Big Traverse? Jig and ?, bouncers, crankbaits? How about buying bait?

We'll be in a OD Crestliner breaking in a new 60 Yamaha--if any FM'ers around, say hi.

Thanks for any help and good fishing.

[Obabikon]

Miles Bay is a great area to fish... look for humps 10-18footers. Basically, if they're not on the shallow humps, they're on the deeper ones. I'm full time up here, and the cold front that just came through slowed down the fishing. But, it's supposed to be stable for a couple of days now, which should help out. Bait... I prefer minnows (medium sized). Leeches work great too, and I hate night crawlers (the dang perch pull them off too frequently).

[srj]

Thanks for the reply, Obabikon.

[Shorelunch]

Obabikon, the Gulp nightcrawlers work fantstic - especially behind a spinner with a two-hook harness - the perch can't rip em up.

[Wild Thing]

SRJ

Funny how personal fishing is. Obabikon hates crawlers but that's all I use after about June 15. First, I can get them for $1 dozen and bring them up from u.s. in newspaper. Minnows and leeches will cost you about $4-$6 dozen (exactly 12 up there) in Canada and are often too big or too small and don't seem to work much better for me. Obviously, oithers disagree. I don't seem to have the problems with perch the other guys do, but Gulp and Powerbait work great on jigs in the spring so they probably will work great now, too, even on spinners.

I have found almost NO similarities between the U.S. side of the big lake. There is no downrigging on the north side, that I'm aware of (save trout on whitefish bay.) Your going into an island studded area reather than a big open basin. You fish rock shores, current, rock reefs and weeds (sand in the spring.) I guess some people troll the flats between reefs, but I never have.

From Morson you have lots of choices, east into Sabaskong (a good choice in heavy wind) north to mIles and west into the hinterlands. I avoid Sabaskoong and mIles because there are more boats than I care to see, but Miles can be very good, including crappies.

If the walleyes get back on the reefs you will be fishing all rock and tons of snags if you don't figure it out. Use a lot of weight and keep as little line between your rod and the bottom as possible. The farther back it goes, the more snags. If you don't go heavy -- 1.5 ounce bouncers or 3/4 to 1 ounce jigs -- you'll spend more time tying than fishing.

Experiment. The fish may be just off the reefs, halfway up or on the tops. (Or not there at all as I found last weekend!) Forget very early a.m. late evening and night fishing, in my book a waste of time.

Be very wary of rock reefs and know your marker buoys! Some lower-unit eating rocks are not on cheap maps or GPS maps. If you don't know, don't go, or go very slow.

Good luck. You'll love the scenery even if the fishing is slow.

[srj]

Thanks Wild Thing. Just got my computer back--disk puked. We had an enjoyable couple days but didn't fish a lot. My bud had a new motor to break in and we didn't get on the water until about 7 Tues and just basically scoped out reefs and cruised a bit. Wed we were out for a few hours and caught a few smallish eyes on the rocks--jig and leech seemed to get more bites than minnows or crawlers. A few smallish smallies too. No takers throwing crankbaits over the reefs, a bit of a surprise. The word in Sportsmans Bay was---SLOW. We agreed. Late last week the fish were still snapping we were told.

Bought 2 doz minnows and 2 doz leeches---$20. Hello crawlers.

Pretty country. Sure a lot of Bemidji guys around Morson.