Just Got Back From The Manitou

[10,000 Casts]

We just got back from the Lower Manitou earlier today after being up there for 5 days. We stayed at the Manitou Weather Station fishing lodge. The fishing was awesome! Lakers were hitting white tube jigs, northland airplane jigs and Northland bionic bucktail jigs all tipped with a little sucker meat. They were anywhere from 30 fow to 100 fow off of breaks and points. Avg fish was around 10 Lbs with a couple in the 15 Lb range. Smallies were everywhere! Just like the guys here said, Kalins cotton candy grubs were the ticket on 1/8 oz darter head jigs. They also hit Mimic Minnows, mepps spinners, and white X Raps. Northers were good too, biggest was around 12 Lbs but most were in the 6-10 pound range. No Muskie this trip but we did see some nice fish. Saw 15 in all and had a few going around on figure 8's but no takers.

On a more important note, The Weather Station was awesome. Great location, very nice cabins, (too nice in my oppinion) and Chris was there to help us with anything that we needed. They certainly came through in the clutch when my 2 year old trolling motor decided to die. Chris had me rigged up with one of thiers with-in an hour and we were back on the water.

One of my lakers, caught on an airplane jig

One of my Wife's Lakers, caught on a Northland Bionic Bucktail Jig

One of my Dad's Lakers, caught on a Bioinc Bucktail jig

One of my Smallies

One of my wife's Northers

The Moose Out numbered the boats that we saw!!!! Which was fine with us.

We had an absolute Blast

[SimilarIsland]

Nice pics! I'm so jealous.

What areas did you fish?

We've been by the WeatherStation, but not much past it.

[10,000 Casts]

Similar,

We caught all of the Lakers on the west and North sides of Manitou Island. The Smallies were everywhere. For Muskies we mainly stayed up in the Beaverhead Area (my favorite area for sure) but we did see a few muskies in the NW corner of Lower Manitou up by the rapids, thats where the pic of the Cow and the Calf are from. Northerns on every cast up there too. We made it as far north as the Waterfall. (Watson Falls?) We could have boated into upper from there but decided to save that for next time.

Where do you guys stay when you are up there?

[SimilarIsland]

Hey 10,000,

One of my friends for over 40 years has a family island near Camp Manitou - I'm very lucky. We'd love to do an overnight up into the Upper Manitou area someday soon. We mostly fish Esox up to western Lower Manitou. We also fish Dogfly, Gates, and a number of other portage lakes. I go twice a year when I can. I'd stay there six months a year if I could.

Did you fish Bolton Bay and Doyle? How were they?

Similar

[Hoffer]

10,000 and Similar -

Just got back myself from Camp manitou (saturday to thursday).

It was awesome! I am going to post a new thread abour the trip tomorrow - too tired tonight after the long trip back!

We didnt figure out the trout - but caught so many smallies the last 3 days we couldnt keep count - at least 40 each a day and most likely many more. 10,000 - did you fish flossie or phairs?? Thats where we caught all our smallies - and I swear the last pics of your wife with the northern looks just like one of those lakes??

Look for my post tomorrow...

[10,000 Casts]

Hey guys,

Similar, you'll have to help me out as to where those bays are.

Hoffer, Nope, we stayed on the Manitou, we had our hands full the whole time with catching Lakers and chasing Muskies. Too bad we couldn't hook up, I would have given you the location of the Lakers, I passed Camp Manitou a few times on the way down to pick up my Dad from Esox but didn't see any Lund Rebels, saw one on Sunday on the way down but no one waved so I figured it was someone else. One of the guides from Camp Manitou did pull up right next to us and caught one and left.I am looking forward to seeing your post!

[SimilarIsland]

Doyle's NE of where you stayed and Bolton Bay is north of Watson's Fall's. Kinda hard to explain without looking at a map.

[10,000 Casts]

We were in Doyles Bay but we didn't fish it, we did fish Glass Bay and marked a ton of fish but couldn't manage a bite. I think that they were white fish. We only fished it for about 20 mins for trout and then an hour for Muskies. We didn't make it past Watson's Falls. What a cool waterfall that was though. One of the best weedbeds on the lake with the warmer water flowing in.

[SimilarIsland]

We fished Glass Spring of 2007 and had little luck - a few Smallies. It was very tea-stained, which surprised us. Never been to Watson's Falls, but we will. You're wetting my appetite!

How'd you do with all the rocks? That can get pretty intense down there. Did you have a guide?

The Weather Station looks like a nice place.

Similar

[10,000 Casts]

Similar,

The rocks were nerveracking to say the least! Especially up in and north of the beaverhead area. We did take off a a bit of the skeg down in the stretch. My fault, I had gone over the spot 3 times and had my route over it on the gps and I even had it marked and I still hit!!! For some reason on the way down to Esox while taking my Dad to the Landing, it just looked different to me and thank god I wasn't going too fast.

Yes we did have a guide on Saturday. His name was Dennis and it was $180 if we we used my boat and $350 if we used his boat so we used mine. Kind of nice to waypoint all the spots and he got us started on the lakers. However, I ran boat control while he sat in the back seat and fished. With the Navionics Chip, I really didn't need a guide but I didn't think that the fishing was going to be that easy! The first night we were there, we picked up 30 smallies in 2 hours in the first spot we tried. After Saturday, we already had a milkrun of Spots.

8am-11am Lakers

Lunch

1pm-3pm Lakers

3pm-6pm Muskies and Smallies

Dinner

7pm-10pm Muskies and Lakers

It doesn't get any better than that!!! Even better that we could sleep in.