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Anyone know Lake Despair/Upperjackfish??

Hoffer
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Hoffer Mentor

Hoffer

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Hey Canada guys-

I have been going up every Fall to Lake Despair/Upper jackfish with a couple guys I know from College. Not sure if we are going this Fall or not - but in any case I was wondering if anyone goes up this direction in the Fall? I have been going for years - and know some decent spots but would love to be able to share some ideas and areas with others...

We go up through Lake Despair, then through the river system and up through what we call "the rapids" then continue on a ways in a direction that I would call Northwest to the island.

We usually have no problems with finding some decent eyes - but the smallies are always just sporadic and for me hard to target, i wuld also love to try for some larger norts. In the past few years I have fast trolled deep diving cranks in the deeper water - but still not much luck - maybe a few 5 to 8 pounders - but not the quality we are looking for - and I know they are up there! We usually catch at least one to two 40 inchers each time up - but not many.

Anyway, any info that you would care to share would be fun to hear and greatly appreciated!

Thanks! Hoffer

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TheguN Rookie

TheguN

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Been fishing that system for about 10 years now! (there are a few spots on footprint! that is the lake in between despair and jackfish!) that have been very good for producing huge walleyes! upper 20" to mid 30" fish! and are common on these spots!

West Jackfish is about my best area to go target large pike!

one other spot that should not be overlooked is in the mile river! when you first go into mile river from despair there is a deep hole with good current and it comes up fast to shallow weeds! that deep edge has produce many large pike for me!

back to west jackfish! way to the west end there is a large sunken island that has a nice weed bed with steep edges all around it! this is a great spot for big fish in the fall! walleyes and pike! just down past that the entrance to the portage lake! (i cant think of the name of it!) this is also another good area! as far as bass! east jackfish seems to hold large numbers of bass! there are a few shorelines that are loaded at all times! gold lipless rattle traps are key! tubes have worked well too! sometimes they seem to stage out a little deeper from shore! like 20' and you will mark a ton of fish! guess what they are bass! Texas rig a plastic of some type and get it down to them! I have spent days on east jackfish targeting white fish! i have found that to be a lot of fun!~ they are easy to find! deep watter near steep deep shorelines seem to hold lots of them! lake despair has lots of bass as well but from my experience not as good as jackfish or footprint!mile river and the rapids are full of bass and the river heading up towards loonhaunt! i wouldn't recommend fishing these areas due to the danger of getting hit by a boat! there are plenty of fish elsewhere! boats run these areas at full speed and many of them are blind corners! best stay clear!

well I hope this helps ya!

Ill be up there on the 18th!

good luck!

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Hoffer Mentor

Hoffer

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Thegun-

That is a great post! Thanks for all your advice! I cant believe you will be up there on the 18th - that is the date we are planning on being up there...the 18thy tot the 23rd or 24th. Where do you stay/go?? If you follow the way to West jackfish - there is a spot we call "the cut" basically a channel between 2 large steep rocky shorelines - it is what I would say separates east and west jackfish. Anyway, go about 1 to 2 miles and you come to an island with a larger newly built gray cabin. It used to be red - but was hit by lightning about 6 years ago - and rebuilt. If you go to west jackfish - you cant miss the island unless you veer left and go around the other side - but most people go to the right and follow that area into west jackfish. I know the area you are talking about where there is a portage - if you keep going to the northwest all the way to the end there is a cabin right up the hill from where a small creek runs between that portage lake and jackfish. I would love to know the relation of that sunken island you are talking about?? Do you know where those jugs are that mark the rocky reef that comes up on the left hand side of the lake as you are heading toward the far end of west jackfish? If you keep going there is an island - and when you go between that island and shore it gets realy shallow - like up to 4 feet...do you know that area? There is a small cabin on that island as well - not used much and very small kind of hidden. Where is that sunken island in relation to that area?? would love to find that!

I have also had good luck with smallies on the far northwest end of jackfish. i would love to be able to taget some big pike and smallies this year - we usually just kind of hit the shorelines willy nilly. I have also always thought that the mile river would be a great place to try for northerns or bass - we usually just bypass that area and just travel straight through to the island and fish west jackfish. I also have NOT fished much in east jackfish.

About footprint...can you get to that without portaging??

I would love to keep in touch with you about this - and hopefully meet up at the island one day...

Have you been up there this year yet>> I usually run a 16 foot lund rebel and this year I have a 1650 fishhawk - a little deeper and wider and am a little concerned with getting through the rapids without getting dinged or scratched...think i will have any problem?? the lund being smaller - always made it through with no isssues at all!

Thanks again for you help with the post and hopefully will hear more from you!

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TheguN Rookie

TheguN

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my dad owns moose track cottages it is rite near the landing! I ussually fish out of my blue and white skeeter bass boat! but will be useing one of my dads boats this trip! I think i will be coming home on the 21 in the later afternoon!

Thursday I think im going to head out to my dads outpost on the Lower Manitou make a day of musky fishig!@ as far as this year gos i have not been up yet due to lack of funds!

If you like you could e-mail me and we could set something up and do some fishing!

You ask about footprint??

mile river seperates despair and foot print!

my e-mail is [email protected]

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Hoffer Mentor

Hoffer

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Hey-

Just thought I would post results from our trip to jackish. We hjad perfect weather for 5 days! We caught plenty of walleyes around 15 inches, plenty of Norts - but the biggest were all around 30 inches - 7 or 8 pounds nothing bigger. The last night there I was speed trolling for Norts and had 20 minutes until dark. I had a strong hit - thinking this was the best Nort of the trip and when I pulled the fish up to the surface it turned out to be a huge 30 inch walleye. I was fishing in 50 feet of water and tried to revive the fish and it want looking good. I have also been coming up to Jackfish for years and this was the largest walleye any of our group had ever caught dating back probably 40 years or more for the family that owns the island. The area has always been my favorite and holds great memories so I decided to keep the fish for a mount. I rarely if ever keep any fish at all - so I thought this would be OK. I wouldnt mind posting the pic - but dont really know how. If anyone has an e-mail address I can e-mail you the pic and maybe you could post it for me. We put the fish on ice in a cooler - and I got it weighed over 24 hours later at my local meat market on their digital scale and it weighed 10.47 pounds at that time. I am thinking it probably went 11 pounds...let me know if anyone out here on the canadien thread would like to leave an e-mail address and I will forward the pic if you can post it.

Thanks. Hoffer.

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gnfishn Apprentice

gnfishn

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Hey Hoffer!

Nice fish man. She'll make a great mount with awesome memories. Fugawe bay I bet. grin You had to figure there was some big girls there if you could find them.

I finally made it up there this spring after over 10 years. The last time was with all you guys, whenever that was. Too long. We had a good trip as well. No big ones but plenty for table. The Loonhuant/trout day trip was pretty cool. Were Rupert, Brad and Jim Beam there too?

TR

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Hoffer Mentor

Hoffer

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Ha!!!

Good to hear from you Troy. Wow, if you hadnt been up there in 10 years it was the first time you have seen the new place right?? Isnt it awesome!! I loved the old place - but the new one is pretty cool. This trip was just Rupes, Brad and Me. I fished from sunup till sundown for 5 days - and those guys basically drank for 5 days laugh

We were talking about how it would be nice to get the old group yup there all together for a reunion trip - I think that would be great!!

I actually caught that thing out past the cut in east jackfish. I didnt make it up to fugawe bay this trip - but did fish east jackfish more than west jackfish this trip and seemed to have better luck on east jackfish - especially for smallies. If you head up there again with Steve and those guys - give me a shout - maybe I could tag along for a Spring trip - I have never done that.

I would also love to try the loonhaunt trout thing too. I went up with Rupes one winter on the snowmobiles. That was fun - but alot of work in the winter.

Anyway, hope your doing well - and maybe we can all get together for a trip up there sometime soon.

Hoffer

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