Canadian Shield Lakes in June

[10,000 Casts]

Just booked a trip to Lower Manitou for My wife and me June 21,21,22,23,24!

First of all, anyone here ever fish this lake? What did you think?

I am in the early stages of formulating a game plan which I would love some advise on. Water temps will still be very cold I imagine. And I haven't had a chance to look at a map yet but I know that Navionics has this lake on thier Canada Premium Chip in High Def!!! It is a very clear lake with lots of islands, rocky shelfs some weed beds. Max depth is around 300 feet! There are no Northerns or Walleyes. It just has Muskies, Smallies and Lake Trout.

Last Time I was up on LOTW in June I struck out. Every spot on the lake looked like it held fish and I fished it hard with no results which is ok, we had fun.

Lets all try to formulate a June Canadian sheild lake game plan, No spots, just a general game plan. I will chime in with more info as I come up with it.

Thanks Guys

[MUSKY18]

Depending upon the water temps, I would be looking into the spawing areas for the fish at that time. If not up in the spawing bays, then on the points and other sturctural elements right outside or adjacent to them. I would imagine with it being a clear lake, the water is going to be much cooler than that of stained water, and fish will be holding in the shallows. Rocks are always good, but that early in the year I would definately be looking for weeds or weed/rock combinations, especially if the fish are still up in the spawing areas.

Just my random thoughts!

[10,000 Casts]

Makes sense, I was figuring on Looking for the emerging green weeds outside the spawning areas. Those fish should be up real shallow. I am also going to look for some tribtaries that dump warm water into the lake and fish the mouths of them.

Also, there is good reproduction on the lake, they base it on the fact that there is a healthy # of all year classes in the lake. The other thing that interests me is the # of lake trout in there. I can't imagine that the muskies aren't far behind them looking for a meal. That might even dictate my lure choice a bit. Little twitch baits that resemble Lakers might not be a bad ticket.

[Scoot]

John, I've never fished there. However, one question I have will address all your needs... Have you read Pearson's book, Muskies on the Shield? If yes, you'll be fine- especially if you reread it with those waters in mind. If no, get it and read it. For me on similar waters at that time of year, I typically do best in sandy bays with good cabbage growth. If no fish there, I hit classic looking rock or rock/weed spots nearby- particularly points (even more specifically, wind blown points).

[Black_Bay]

We used to fish the Lower Manitou and the stretch between Esox and Camp Manitou for lake trout. Trust me there are northern pike in there too, big ones. I haven't been there for years but remember the stories and photos from one of the guides that did really well on muskies. Try posting this on the Canada forum also. Camp Manitou is the sponsor for that one.

[10,000 Casts]

Scoot,

Read the book a couple times and I watch the movie about once every couple of months or so.

[cjac]

It was for pike, not muskies, but one year we were in northern Manitoba in the same 3rd week in June and it was primarly big weed flats. More like all big weed flats.

Look to weeds as they'll hold a bit warmer water, and look to weeds adjacent to main lake structure and off shallow spawning areas.

Good luck, I'm jealous!

[mskyfshntchr]

Like Black Bay said...there are northerns in the lake. You can catch them all day long. There are some nice ones in there also. Walleyes? Well, there are a few in there. Not a fishable population by any means. We saw one last summer follow in my buddy's jerkbait. Only one we have seen in 6 years of fishing the lake. Supposedly on the upper manitou there is one bay where they are seen more frequently.

The lake itself is gin clear- mid 20' water clarity. There are very few weeds in the lake. It is rock, rock and bigger rock! It isn't going to be like LOW or other lakes that have a lot of weeds. THEY ARE SCARCE!!! Earlier in the season like this, you might be best off hitting esox lake for 'skies.

As for fishing...

Lakers? That time of year you might be able to get them near the surface. If so, gold or silver rapalas. If they are hanging deeper- silver and gold spoons (doc's, williams wobbler , etc) seem to work the best. Jigging with a white bucktail jig or white tube will work also. Take some frozen suckers for more succes. There are some very nice fish in there and A LOT of eater fish.

Smallies-They will follow your bucktails by the school. If you get bored or during a lull, go fish for them. There are some pigs in there. Small rapalas, jig and twister tail and tubes produce the most for us. Find rock

Muskies- As far as a lot of fish...If you are thinking the Manitou is going to be a numbers lake, you are going to be greatly dissapointed. It isn't by any means. This time of year I would fish small. As with most clear water lakes, natural colored baits seem to be the best.

Where are you staying?

Are you sure this is the Manitou lake on the chip? Some people have said it was to be there, but I haven't seen confirmation. Maybe it is new out this year?

It is a fun lake to fish because of the clarity. You can see them from a long ways off and some of them are true monsters!! It can be a tough lake to fish because of this clarity.

I would guess at this time of year there will be a lot of people trout fishing. You will be one of 5 boats on the lake targeting muskies. You don't see many people up there, especially if you head into some more remote spots.

[10,000 Casts]

wow, great info mskyfshntcher!

I am staying at the Manitou Weather Station Fishing Lodge. The accomadations look unbelievable and it is very reasonably priced. I will be tickled pink if all we catch are smallies and lakers.

It will be the clearest water that I have ever fished muskies in. I was figuring that June would be a tough month for skis up there but I just can't wait to get up there any longer! If everything goes well, I am going to make this an annual trip.

Where is esox lake?

I checked the 07' Navionics Canada Chip yesterday and it was 3 ft contours.

Also, when heading up through the narrows from Esox Landing for the first time, are there any spots where I need to be super cautious? And last can I boat up to Upper Manitou?

Cjac, there are still some openings for the same week!!!

Thanks

[mskyfshntchr]

Ok, you will be up lake a ways. I wouldn't mess with Esox lake then. Esox lake is where you put in.

There is one spot you need to be cautious of. Look up barker bay outposts. then go to their fishing page. They have GPS coordinates for the one rock area and for the narrows into the manitou. After that you will have pretty clear sailing to the resort. I normally stay about a 1/2 mile before the stretch opens up into the main lake. a buddies dad owns a cabin. You will be able to boat to the upper manitou.

You are actually staying in the best area on the lake, IMO. We always head up towards beaverhead and manitou islands to fish. I'm sure the resort will be able to tell you all the hot spots in the area. That area does have more weeds than a lot of the lake, but they are not overly plentiful.

I will have to check that map out, must be new.

if you checked the resorts picture page you will notice most of the muskies were caught on cloudy, rainy type days. that is pretty much the norm from what we have seen up there too. Trolling on hot, bluebird days can be productive though.

You can email me for more info if you want. it's in my profile.

[10,000 Casts]

ahhh that explains why it's called esox landing.

Thanks for the info on the rocks, I will mark my gps later today. I am going in later to get the chip so I can start scouting a little. The Map Canada map is in the mail.

Also, thanks for the correction on the pike. For some reason, I thought I saw on a HSOforum that the reason this lake has good #'s was because there wern't any Northerns. Must have been another lake.

The best way to check the map chip out is to go into a local Gander, Cabelas, Scheels, Joes or whatever, (if they have it) a toss it into a unit. Thats what I did and it was mapped all the way from esox landing up to Upper Manitou. Probably won't make a huge difference for me since I will be primarilay fishing shoreline structure but it is certainly nice to have. One their HSOforum all they list is Manitou, not Upper and Lower. A Guy I work with told me that one of the owners of Navionics has a Cabin on it.

[Silver Scale]

I've been told there are a few errors, rocks not on, the Navonics ship so be careful. There are actually two hazard areas going from Esox to the straights. One is a reef, rock way out on the west side of a small island and the other is a very narrow spot just before you get to the straits. Both are usually marked by white jugs, however if the water is high they may be under water. There is also alot of floating logs at times so watch out for those. As far as fishing you are in a good area. There are also northerns present and some walleyes up in Mosher Bay. Guy with me even caught a 5 lb largemouth last time I was there. I've done OK throwing brown,purple,pink,red,white and black hair with silver,gold or copper blades. Not a numbers type lake but some big fish present. Trout fishing can be great that time of the year.

Find the weeds and you'll find the muskies. Good luck.

[10,000 Casts]

Thanks!

[Lals]

I have been fishing LOTW at this time for the last 7 years and typically the weeds are the best spots for me especially if it is late spring like it appears it will be. Of course, rocks in a weedy area can be the "spot on the spot". If your camp has a knowledgeable guide, it would be money well spent to use them when you first get there. This typically can help you dramatically enhance your learning curve. Good luck. I am going back up on June 28th!

[cjac]

 Quote:

If your camp has a knowledgeable guide, it would be money well spent to use them when you first get there.

Great point from lals, the resort guides are on the water the days right before your arrival, there's not a better way to answer the age old quesion of "What's workin' now?"

Based on the fish counts from lals the last couple years all I can say is listen to his advice!

[10,000 Casts]

They do have a guide that has been guiding the lake for over 20 years. Shore lunch will be fun and it definitly will cut the learning curve way down. We are using his services for the first day, the thing that I can't decide is, if we use his boat, it costs $300 a day, if we use my boat then $180 a day. If we do alot of driving, it's worth it to use his boat at $6 gallon dock gas, but if I can be marking all the icons on my GPS, sweet. I just hope that he puts us on some nice spots with potential, I hate siting in the back of the boat thinking, jeez, I could have figured this out myself. Its happened before....

[mskyfshntchr]

If you have the opportunity to use a guide on that body of water, DO IT!! NO QUESTIONS!!!

Every point, rock and tree line look virtually the same. So weeding out some of the unproductive spots will really shorten your learning curve up there.

My buddy and I taught ourselves how to musky fish up there. We were taking 2-3 day trips a few times a summer. Mix in never having fished muskies before, a gin clear trout water and a huge lake....well....I wish we woulda found a guide up there on day one. Sure would have saved us a lot of time. However, looking back, it sure was fun learning all that on our own and finding the fish. But, we have had the time, not one week.

As for who's boat to take? Well, if you take yours you will have your trip map in your gps so you can get back out of some of the spots if you get turned around. It will happen, trust me. You can usually get out of most spots in more than one way, but, then you might be dealing with rock hazards you didn't know about, etc. Plus when you drive, I think you pay more attention to the travel detail and will be able to get back out of spots.

I would haul up a bunch of gas. We normally take a full boat, plus an extra 40 gallons or more. If you are taking a reasonable amount in, the border people won't mess with ya.

Man...all this talk about the manitou, mixed with all this white stuff on the ground....UGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheguN]

Well mskyfshntchr sent me a link to this so I thought I would pipe in my 2 cents!

couple things that will shorten you learning curve is! leave your big buck tails and big baits at home! That is if your going to target musky!(The big buck tails work well for pike on this lake!) take a few black red and white #5 or #7 meps musky killers and that is about all you need for spinners for musky! I know your thinking big musky you need big baits!

Not the case here for whatever reason! take some suiks and some other [jerk-bait] baits and as far as top waters go walk the dog styles seem to work! never had any luck on this lake with any buzzbait style lures! Dont forget a bulldog or 2! msky's fav. is the cisco color! might want a black one as well! (dont forget your repair kit for these! repair kits for your bulldog might just save your trip)

I have not seen the navionics map of this lake so I dont know how well the rock hazards are marked! but know this! there are a lot of them! in the area of the lake you will be staying there are a lot! keep your eyes open!

good luck wish I were going with ya!

[10,000 Casts]

Thanks for the post TheguN!

I grew up throwing #5 Mepps so I have alot of them and to be honest, I don't throw them as much as I should anymore! Bulldawgs are another favorite of mine and you may have mentioned my favorite color I have a feeling that I am going to be throwing alot of small twitch baits as well. Should be a good time, man is the water going to be cold.

[mr walleye]

For the Lakers I use a HJ14 Husky-[jerk-bait] in glass white on a three-way with a 4oz sinker

Just look for hooks on the bottom in 30-60 ft of water and pull that area works every time

[mskyfshntchr]

TheguN has been my net man up there a few times over the years, so he might be onto something with that cisco colored dawg...

but yeah, smaller is better.

TheguN...my bday is Monday....maybe you want to get me a few of those favorite lures of mine...just in a smaller size....get that net a little more workout!!

I don't think the water will be "THAT" cold up there then. My guess will be low to mid 60's. The area you are at has a lot of islands and bays, so some shallower water that is off of the main lake and should warm up faster.

10,000--you got a link to that map chip? i am not finding it anywhere...

[Gary2242]

Hi

Manitou Weather Station is a great choice. Their fishing is awesome and have the nicest cottages you can imagine. I use to guide up in that area. They have great fishing tips at their web site http://www.manitouweatherstation.com

Lower Lake Manitou has great Northern Pike fishing. You will find in June they will be right along the shoreline as the other guy said. If you want pike, you have to go up into the islands north-east of the lodge and fish the points leading into shallow weedy bays. Red & White DareDevils with a silver back is the best for that time of year. They will hit just about anything.

Musky and Lake Trout will be fairly close to shore and off rocky points leading to the large open parts of the lake. The Musky will also be on the outside of weed beds. Try to find cabbage weed, that's what they like best. Lake Trout will be between 10 and 25 feet deep.

Smallmouth Bass are tricky that time of year. They leave the rocky points and shoals and look for bays where there is sand and logs on the bottom, which is where they spawn. The reason they like old rotting logs around where they spawn is because the logs help moderate the alkalinity in the water and increase the survival rate of the eggs. Bass will just be finished spawning but will still hang around the spawning area.

I was talking to Donna a few weks ago and she told me that they are adding day-long fly-outs to trophy Walleye lakes just off of Manitou. There are lakes that can only be fished by people that have their own float plane and you can go into these lakes and catch 100 walleyes in a day because they are virtually untouched.

I am waiting to see if my buddies can get time off so we can go to the weather station this summer.

I hope this helps

Gary

[10,000 Casts]

Thanks for the info Gary!

Words can't express how excited I am!!!!! Good all around fishing in Gin Clear water in June, it doesn't get much better than that.

It is going to be a really late ice out up there which should make the fishing even better when we are up there.

Not to mention that I am stimulating the Economy with my stimulus check!!!! Whoops, wrong economy. Guess I will have to fill up in I Falls, wait... there went all the money!