Morson Fall Fishing report

[Shorelunch]

So, has anyone been up recently? My father-in-law and the morning coffee crew at Mylie's have been stumped to where the walleyes have gone in the past few days and week. There's some pretty good sticks, aside from all the talk, in that group.

I'm heading up Friday - Monday. Weather seems fairly steady over the next week, but has been unsteady weather there recently. It will be interesting where we find them, if we do at all.

It's "generally" too late for the reefs and "generally" too early for the typical fall spots, so are they in the transition spots, or what's your thoughts?

[Wild Thing]

Shore.. isn't a little early for "Fall fishing report?''

Labor day isn't really fall yet, is it! Ahhhhh!!! Where did summer go?

...you stole my post idea. I'm reading up Thursday night and am also wondering where to catch dinner. Will try to shoot a goose or two Saturday and do chores but likely will fish, too... duck season in 13 days!

Funny how on August 1st the walleyes were red hot on the reefs... by August 17 they were no where to be found... sounds like they still aren't back and likely won't be... Maybe I caught the last one?!!!!

You can tell its slow when one of the local guide's blogs hasn't mentioned fish in 3 weeks!

Come on guys, spill the beans. Are they already deep or what?

And why have there been so few people posting this summer? Seems not as many regulars getting up there.

See you on the water!

[Sumander]

Was At Buena Vista the weekend of the 17th and 18th. My fourth trip this year. We found decent fish in 17-20 fow.Numbers were not spectacular but certainly enough to eat and bring home. Largest fish were a 25, 22 & 21.

Another guy from our group was up last weekend and struggled for fish! They finally found them deep, 25-30 fow.

I'm heading up again sept 7-9. Let me know how you guys do.

[Eastwind]

I haven't posted any reports because I haven't been up to Mylie's since May 25 thru 26th. Golf game's been improving though.(from bad to mediocre) I will, however, be up to Morson the weekend of October 5th. Don't want to wish Summer away but I'm starting to count down to that.

[Wild Thing]

Great, a guy with 1 post outfishes me!

Seriously, Sumander, thanks for the depths but what kind of places were you fishing? near reefs, islands, current? Thats the first mention of decent fishing I've heard or seen in 3 weeks up there.

Thanks.

[MuskieDowg]

marknamy will be back from his 11 day trip to Morson on Monday with a report I'm sure. I'm going up tomorrow at noon and will also be back Monday but I'm guessing I won't have much of a fishing report with the new flooring we plan on putting in over the weekend.

[Sumander]

Wild Thing, Been lurking on this board for a long time. Just now feeling comfortable with my (fishing) ability to be able to add a somewhat intelligent post. We were fishing islands and current. We tried the reefs but they weren't there. Pretty much the same story last weekend.

[Eastwind]

Sounds like a Fall pattern.

[Wild Thing]

Sounds like we have a new source of information!

Welcome aboard, Sumander!

[Sumander]

Thanks Wild Thing! I have learned a lot from this board. Been going to BVR 12+ years. Bought into a trailer a couple of years ago, so my trips are more frequent now. Took out my first lower unit 3 years ago.

Can't think of too many other places I would rather be than "at the lake".

[Eastwind]

Welcome to F.M. Always good to add a new contributor.

[dmoore]

Just got home yesterday. Limited out on walleyes. Nice fish. Largest 23". Shorelines, rocky points. Jigs with a twister tail and a chuck of crawler worked best. Got some real nice perch. Two limits of really nice crappies. Muskie action was so so. Nice fish being seen. Some large ones lost. Double Cow Girls were hot.

[Wild Thing]

Small fish in current and weeds.

Well it wasn't great but a little better than the last trip two weeks ago. Fished for about 4 hours on Friday and caught a few walleyes in wind-blown current with Benelli Dude and his dad and four kids. Mostly small fish on jigs and Gulp and jigs and minnows. Hit and miss but enough for a meal. Threw back a few really small fish.

Didn't fish Saturday with howling se wind and too many onshore chores. Did manage to miss on 4 big honkers that came in to a bay to the call. Miss-timed my pop-up and shoot routine! Uffda... need more practice on the clay pigeons.

Big NW wind sunday and I caught a few where huge rollers were coming between two islands -- just nosed into the current with the bow mount and caught them on the edge of the calm water. Small fish on jig and Powerbait twister tail.

On Sunday night it calmed down and B-dude's dad and I caught several fish in 6 feet of water in and near the weeds! They had caught a lot of nice ones that way on Saturday.

Decent fish but nothing huge... first time I've ever seen walleyes caught right in the phragmities!

Definitely a fall pattern now for anyone going up.

Heading back up on Friday night for two last days of fishing, then it's feather flying time starting Monday for the rest of Fall!

[Sumander]

Wild Thing, Same for me. Headed up Thursday night. Fish Fri, Sat, Sun. Then it's time to bring out the shotguns. Sounds like we are looking at a major cold front Thur/Fri.

[Shorelunch]

It was an interesting walleye weekend for us. We caught about 40 10-12" on the shorelines/weeds/points - some with current - on Friday evening and Saturday. We came across the highest whitecaps I've seen up there on Saturday afternoon between Rabbit to Pine Island. We fished at Burrows (with a lot of other boats), Obakinon Bay and the Big and Little Mink areas. We sorted through a lot of fish to get some OK-sized. We fished in 8-20 feet.

On Sunday, we went to the Blueberry area and fished around the Sabaskong lodge area (nice looking place that I forgot about). There we fished in 15-30 feet and caught about 20 in the 12-15" range. Still no larger fish. We trolled spinners and popped jigs - both with minnows or Gulp minnows or leeches.

Would anyone share what structure, depth, technique, etc where you caught larger fish? Or email kyle13850 at msn (Contact Us Please) com

Finally, I'll be up again on the 15th - anyone else going to up?

[marknamy]

Got back on Monday from an eleven day retreat. We fished the first weekend and did ok on numbers and picked up two 19's. Poor weather through the week limited our fishing time. We spent some time working around the cabin. Even managed to play 9 on Thursday and Sunday at Spruce Creek. Great addition to the area.

Picked up a good number of eaters on points and breaklines north of Boomstick. We were using a spinner and crawler. No big fish but enough 15-18's to make a great meal.

Judging by the amount of baitfish hanging on the edges of current I would agree they are moving to fall spots.

Back up this weekend to build a new storage shed and then not back until October. Good luck to everyone venturing out this weekend. Keep the posts coming.

[Tman2]

A new shed- there is always work, isn't there? My buddy just started a screen porch last time, and the wind in a short overnight storm felled a tree on to the biffy (new 3 yrs ago). He goes up Thursday and I follow on Saturday (or Sun). I'll look for you working. I think I know which island you are.

Tman

[Wild Thing]

What the heck happened to the big fish? I see the same posts from everyone here about smallish fish. Mentioning 19-inch fish, even 23-inch fish, is pretty unusual for this lake. They usually don't warrant much space.

In May and especially June and July we were catching a ton of 25-inch class fish. At least one a day and often four or five per day. And I'm not talking all-day fishing.

Since mid-August, not one.

What gives? Like Shorelunch asks, where the heck do the big fish go? People talk about great fall fishing, and maybe that will come after I hang my rods up, but for me August is always the worst month of the year. I do better ice fishing up there than I do in August and September!!

Two more days fishing and I hope to go out with a bang instead of a whimper.

See ya on the water!!

[Sumander]

Had another good weekend on the lake. Fishing was good. We caught limits of 16-18" fish on both Friday and Saturday. We had to sort through a number of small fish to get there, but we did it. We found the fish out west both days in current and 13-15' FOW. Sunday morning we ran up to the bottle neck. We caught a ton of walleyes, not much size though. 15" was the biggest, but also numerous 13-14". First fish we caught was a nice crappie. We never caught another one all morning.

Talked to Rick at BV Resort and he said that he "heard" a group caught 65 crappies in Obobikon on Saturday afternoon.

Time to put the boat away and get the shotguns out. Will be in Manitoba in two weeks for the duck opener there. Good luck to all in your fall trips, be they hunting or fishing!

[Shorelunch]

Thanks for the report Sumander. I'm heading up for a three-day weekend on Friday. What type of structure were you fishing?

[Sumander]

Shorelunch, the place we had the most success was in an area with strong current through a channel. There were weeds nearby. Deepest water was in the 20-24'and it came up to as shallow as 9'. It was not particularly rocky, making it easier on jigs. We fished jigs and minnows exclusively. found a 13' foot table top surrounded by about 18'FOW. The fished seemed to be laying on the table top!

Don't know if that info is of any help or not.

We tried a couple of rock rubble shorelines with the wind blowing into them with little succes. Had talked to one gentleman who said he caught fish in 25 fow in sand. We tried the same area and couldn't come up with any fish.

[dnoz]

Heading up Thursday night for some duck hunting and a little fishing.

Would like to go out hunting early Friday morning. Does anybody know of a place that is open later (10 pm) or early in the morning where I can buy a hunting license?

Hopefully, I will have a good report next week.

[Shorelunch]

(I believe) you don't have too many choices in the greater Morson metro area. The cafe/bait shop in Bergland may be open, other wise it's either BV, Mylie's or Pier North (maybe New Moon?). I think the stores in Bergland and Morson close fairly early and open fairly late. I'd call all of them and see.

[Wild Thing]

Decent fishing, so-so duck opener...

D-Noz: On hunting licenses (and stamps): The Bergland bait shop/restaurant closes early, like 8. I think you are screwed for anything late. You might be able to call ahead to Buena Vista and see if they'll have one for you and stay open until you get there, not sure. The Morson shopping center closes at 6 (and fyi to all is not open on sundays now). Can you come up through the Falls and Fort? There may be something open in F-Frances although I'm not sure what since Witherspoons was razed. Definitely nothing in rainy river, the town that time forgot.

Had a so-so duck opener Monday with my 9 year old daughter. Only hunted 3 hours as she had a soccer game to get home to! Life is full of compromises, eh?!

Not nearly as many ducks around as last year's opener when I had 6 big ducks in an hour or so... managed a couple gadwall, wigeon and teal.. mallards were thin and were headed to a specific beaver dam and ignored me altogether... got a goose sunday morning but should have had 5 of them. I can't hit a bull in the (Contact Us Please) with a flyswatter, as my dad used to say!

Not sure why the big flocks of teal and mallards aren't there yet, maybe because there's a bit less rice this year due to higher water in July... also, the rice doesn't seem ripe yet, which is odd because it's ripe farther south...

Other duck camps had similar luck -- a few ringnecks and redheads and woodies around, too -- except the guys who hunted geese down by Rainy River did very well in fields...

Fishing is continuing to pick up after the August doldrums. Two other duck camps had great luck over the weekend on minnows up north.

On Sunday afternoon I had the whole family out (even the 19-month old kidlett) ini the sunshine and we picked up fish near Burrow Bay and Obabikan Bay. Still nothing big like summer but big enough to keep for eating!! We used only Powerbait-Gulp and Northland's slurpies (first time) and did just as well as the guys (B-dude's dad and friends) using minnows. Fished current. (That may be the last walleye until December for me!)

Good luck all. I'll be back up in 12 days. Fall is here. They've already had frost away from the lake and it will be near freezing at night all week...

P.S. On Saturday there were endless strings of lesser honkers heading south and flying very high... probably from Hudsons Bay... what a great start to autumn to hear that noise all day and look up and see 50-100 birds in a V!!

[Eastwind]

If you enter Canada through I.Falls/Fort Frances, Rainy Lake Sports is open till 10:00. The have a HSOforum and you can email them for directions. They are only a couple of miles out of the way.