Late winter Morson reports

[Wild Thing]

Okay, it's looking like 20 below again this week so it's not exactly late wiinter yet. But has anyone been out lately? Not seeing much traffic here again.

I'm heading up Wednesday night for four days. Will again target walleyes to win the Derby on Saturday. Will report here on return.

Any help would be greatly apreciated!

[pelicanlanding]

I fished Saturday afternoon the walleye bite was great 18 ft of water off a island west of Morson. The lake is still rough but we did get some wet snow Saturday evening hopefully this will smooth things out a bit. Looks like a warm up for the weekend see ya at the hall.

[Wild Thing]

At first I thought you wrote "see you in [PoorWordUsage]'' which may be accurate but i thought was kind of rude.

Yes, see you at the Hall!

And thanks for the report!!

Seems like the bite has been a bit deeper this winter, 17-19 feet rather than the 12-15 last year.

Take care!!

[Wild Thing]

Two big fish, same hole!!!

The annual Morson Fishing Derby was a blast as usual! Perfect weather, didn't even need a shelter or a heater on Saturday...

Kudos to Pelican Landing who took first place. He nailed a nice walleye and a nice northern, then he got hammered himself at the party afterward!!

Our group of 7 (5 adults, 2 kids) started out slow but then made a move to a different reef. We started catching bigger walleyes right away, including one lady who landed a fat 26-incher... she put it in a bag and scooted off on her snowmobile to weight it in (it's a live release derby and the fish has to swim away to count!)

Turns out it was the second place walleye with just 60 minutes to go until the 4 p.m. deadline....

But while she was still gone at the weigh-in station (about 5 miles away) her husband picked up her rod and fished in her hole.. and caught a fat 27-incher!!!!

So he hopped on his snowmobile and took off.. turns out his was a bit bigger and he bumped his wife into third place!!!

Same hole, same rod, same bait, two big fish in 15 minutes!

Lots of people out having fun and a good time was had by all! I won a very fancy (expensive) rod and reel in the raffle which more than paid for the day, so all is well!

Walleyes are still biting on the reefs from 16-19 feet, but not quite as consistant as they were 3 weeks ago.

I'm heading back up in 10 days and will post again after that.

Take care all!

P.S. The lake is incredibly bumpy, the worst I've ever seen it. Don't plan on going anywhere fast. Anything over 20 mph and it will jar your spine loose and break everything in the sled!

[Wild Thing]

One more P.S.

Make sure you have the auger extender! There's about 30 inches of ice and a foot of hard-packed snow on top. Not sure if I would have made it through both w/out the extra foot.

FYI.

[Wild Thing]

Hello? Where is everyone?!!!

You know nobody is going out when I have to reply to myself!

I'm heading up Wednesday and 5 of us will hit the walleyes again.

Will report back on Monday.

Any reports before Wednesday would be greatly appreciated.

[benelli_dude2002]

Oh by the way 186 days til the Ontario duck season. My benelli looks so bored just sitting in the safe. Hey WT thanks for telling me. Hope to run up there saturday night and make sure you and the guys are behaving. Maybe have to bring more beverages eh!

[Tman2]

WT,

Fish are in there usual locations, but travel will kill you. Our biggest was a 25" on Sunday morning (released). No ice heaves that we or Gill's were aware of. We found hugging the southern and eastern sides of islands to provide the best speeds for travel. If you go on the main lake areas, you won't be travelling more than 20 mph unless you really enjoy chiropractor visits.

[Wild Thing]

Thanks Tman2,

We had the same thing up there 10 days ago, Brutal, hard drfits.. at first I tried to sled around them but then you just hit more...

I kept it at 20 and my 10-year old still had to hang on for dear life on the back! It was so bumpy the gas gage in my gas cap broke off in my tank! Hope that doesn't cause some problem now!

The weather is what really sucks. It's January in March!

But we'll muddle through.

How deep did you fish under the ice, from the bottom of the ice?

[Tman2]

Yes, you think going around is better, but it just seems like a minefield.

Caught fish in 12-20, but 15-17 still seems to be the ticket (flasher readings). We had a snowstorm, and 15 mph winds with 0*F. That was chilly!!

[Wild Thing]

Uffda. Fourth trip of the winter was by far the toughest, and not just on my liver.

Small fish. Few fish. Coldest temps. Roughest ride... we just hit bad timing.... It was like January in March...

Two of us fished Thursday afternoon in -30 degree windchills and only got a few. On Friday we opted for a hard-sided shack as it was -22 below, although no wind... five of us caught only 5 keepers all day in the shack but had fun!

On Saturday it was warmer but back to being windy. We went out about 6 miles on sleds and we caught a few more keepers, but it was still slow on what has been a great reef...

Not sure why we didn't see ANY walleyes over 15 inches. None! Maybe they have left the reefs to move to spawning areas. Or maybe the high pressure and cold temps had them dormant. Don't know.

DEFINITELY NEED AUGER EXTENDERS NOW! There's 34 inches of ice and a foot of snow on top of that and even with a 12-inch extender I barely had enuff clearance.

The lake is still incredibly rough, 15-20 mph tops. Lots of fresh snow but it hasn't helped much. Maybe the melting temps will soften the drifts up.

I assume the warm temps will kick-start fishing but not sure if or when I'll get back up on the hard water.

Good luck all, take care!

[nerdsbro]

HEADING TO MORSON TOMM. 14TH

FISHING WALLEYES, ANY ADVICE WOULD BE GREAT.

NORMAL LATE SEASON SPOTS OR?

[Tman2]

gold rattle buckshot- nuff said