Lower Manitou Stretch/Dogfly Slush Report

[Outfitter17]

Dogfly lake has some bad spots for Slush especially just south of the dogfly manitou portage. The slush around the lake other than just south of the manitou portage wasn't bad at all. I only found about 2 inches of water and there is a nice 2-3 inch crust of frozen slush in alot of spots and with the cold temps we are going to get tuesday night it will improve a bit more for opener.

Between the dogfly portage and camp manitou there were only 2 small slush spots otherwise the manitou stretch is in pretty good shape.

With all the bad reports around the area it was nice to get out and check things for myself and I was glad to see we are in pretty good shape compared to other lakes to the west of us.

If anyone has any questions, just let me know.

[Ron Vroom]

Matt, are we still planning to go in thru Dogfly on Jan 2nd. Should I give you a call on the cell phone when we get to IF on Friday morning. Thanks Ron

[Outfitter17]

Hi Ron,

I will give you a call tonight, I am heading back in tomorrow and I want to touch base with you before I go.

[superbee]

The conditions should be even better than Outfitter and I went in the other day. I went up Pipestone this morning and the trail was healed up real good and hardly any issues. The conditions should be even better after tonight with the cold temps today and tommorrow.

[Cootz]

Hey guys, me and some buddies are renting a cabin on Dogfly the end of January and are new to fishing that part of the world. We're looking for Lakers. Any tips? We figured we'd spend some time fishing Dogfly and lower Manitou and maybe moving over to Esox for some walley and northerns.

The other question is that I have a Can Am 650 ATV and would rather bring that up there for transportation then a sled. Your thoughts?

[Cootz]

Superbee, I just read your WWW's and I guess we are going through you? January 23-26.

[Cootz]

Was wondering about ice conditions and thin ice. Any area's you need to be in concern about on Dogfly and lower Manitou or is it a pretty normal lake? I was fishing up on Dryberry last January and the ice was MUCH thinner then I would have figured at that time and I was talking with a guy grooming the trails and gave us some spots to stay away from on that lake.

[Outfitter17]

Hey Cootz,

As lucas mentioned above, we went in an packed a good trail to his cabin on Dogfly and then another trail over to camp manitou from dogfly on monday. Things should be in alot better shape when we go back in tomorrow with the cold weather we have been having the past couple of nights.

You should have good luck the third week of jan. when you do your trip, however if you run up to lower manitou you are passing some really good trout spot in the manitou stretch. If you want to try something other than dogfly, you can cross the dogfly portage to the manitou stretch and you can fish most of the points between that portage and my camp which is only 2 miles north of the portage.

Also, I wouldn't go down to esox to fish there is some open water to contend with on the north side of esox and there are no walleyes.

There is a small walleye lake that we fish in the winter and its only about a 15 minute ride from camp or about 20 minutes from lucas' dogfly cabin, ask him about the walleye lake and he can tell you about it.

Good Luck on your trip.

[superbee]

I will give you some spots to fish and areas that are not good for travel, nothing real close to theh cabin to be concerned about. There a few areas to watch further from the cabin, but I will be sure to let you know about them. I don't recommend a quad this year with the snow, unless you have tracks. If you have any other questions, email me and I can get you all set up.

[superbee]

I was out on Dogfly and the Manitou Stretch today. Lots of fresh snow. The conditions seemed similar to the other days report, just alot more light fluffy snow. Fished about an hour with the group, had 1 nice one on and lost it at the hole. Another guy caught about 6# trout. We will have to see what the next few days brings for the conditions.

[Cootz]

Boy was there slush in some places. I bet there was 15" of water in one spot. And then in other places there wasn't any slush at all. With being down one sled we mostly stayed on Dogfly. Took an afternoon trip over to the Stretch but didn't catch anything in the hour we were there. I'd love to spend more time on it next year.

Superbee, the only thing I would have liked to see at the cabin that wasn't there would be for there to be lag bolts in the ceiling with eyelets and rope strung between them to hang wet clothes on. Other then that the cabin was great. Plent of solar power. We didn't conserve all too much and the beds were comfortable. Great place.

[Outfitter17]

Cootz,

Where did you fish in the stretch? If you would have fished almost any large boulder point heading north from the dogfly portage you should have gotten some fish. You could have even gone right up to my camp and fished off the flag pole or on the sw corner of the island, its only a 3 minute ride from the portage. Anyways next time you are up try it, you will certainly put some fish on the ice.

[superbee]

I will add a few more hangers and another clothes line for wet clothes. After you get me some of your pictures, I will post a few of the lakers you caught. I hope the pic of the 15# laker turned out good! Glad you enjoyed the trip and look forward to getting you back up in the future.

[SimilarIsland]

Lucas,

How does the Laker size compare between Manitou and Dogfly?

[superbee]

They run pretty much the same on average. I seen big trout out of both, but I have a few 30+#ers caught on the Manitou and have never seen that on Dogfly. They might be there, but I haven't seen them. What's the biggest you've caught on the open water?

[SimilarIsland]

30's a very nice trout. I'm still very jealous of your musky!

I haven't really chased the lakers much on Manitou, but the largest is probably around 7 lbs. Never caught any in Dogfly, but I've not really targeted them either. We usually fish for Smallies and Pike. Now that I have a decent boat with a decent graph, I may have to try the lakers a bit more.

[superbee]

Outfitter has some old vhs tapes of some bug fish caught on the Manitou during the openwater. I am very pleased with the Musky I got. It was real pig.

[Cootz]

We really didn't give the stretch a chance. My Marcum ran out of batteries and we only had a line in about forty five minutes. I think we saw your camp to the southwest of us. I seen an island with about six or eight buildings on it. Unfortunately no one was around with a camera for the big fish. The guy that caught it gutted it right away. There are some pictures at the end of it but it's frozen and I'm sure that it's not as impressive as it was. I'll have Joe get them to you. He's having some personal issues this week so it might take him some time.