FISH REPORTS 2011

Link to FISH REPORT 2009 FISH REPORT 2008 FISH REPORT 2007 FISH REPORT 2006, FISH REPORT 2005, FISH REPORTS 2004, FISH REPORTS 2003, FISH REPORTS 2002

2010 was one of the best seasons yet on Bete Grise Bay. We caught our limit (and the limit is now 5 trout per person) most trips. Seas were calm and the fish bit in June, July, and until mid August. Then the winds came and our fish left us. The 2011 reports will be listed below. The "Fishing With Willy" secttion is after the current fish reports.

August 28, 2011

Bruce and his friend Chunky were here right at 8:00. I had the boat ready to roll and we had two grapple hooks that Chunky made ready to go. The goal was to put floats on some abandoned Indain gill nets. There are 5 of them out there in the bay this year and everyone is getting tangled and loosing fishing gear in them. It took us a while to hook the grapple in the first net. Poor Bruce worked up a sweat trying to catch it. While we were trying to hook it a small boat trolled by us and caught the net on their first pass, I guess they thought it was a good place to fish. They recovered as much gear as they could and headed out of Dodge. We set the grapple into the net and put a couple of floats on it. On our way to the second net there were some fish marks on the finder so I put a couple of waypoints on the GPS. Bruce and Chunky got the floats set marking the second net and started fishing. It was slow and not many fish showing up. When the boat got out to 150 feet the rod jumped and Chunky got the first fish. The fish were down on the bottom in 150 feet. There were also lots of marks down 50 but don't get fooled by then. This time of year the spiny water fleas are in clusters and they look like suspended fish. Our box was full by 1:30 with a nice collection of 15 lake trout and we headed for the barn.

August 20, 2011

It was a nice afternoon and Martha wanted to get out on the Lake. I called Ed around noon and we headed out. It was a little rough but not too bad and we headed over to some humps. The fish were not on the humps but we found them in 130 feet of water. The wind picked up and trolling got a little tough. We fished for 3 hours and ended up with 5 trout.

August 15, 2011

Dead calm seas greated Ed and I when we cleared the breakwall at 6:00 PM for an evening fish. Dyno was already on the water so we figured it was the right time to catch some salmon from the bay. We started fishing 30 to 40 foot down in 50 feet of water. Six lines were set with sliders on the outside riggers. The front side of the bay proved to be fish free except fot all the piles of baitfish showing up. We hit the drop at 60 feet and a large trout hit a dipsey. The fish was landed and still in the net and a salmon hit the slider. I was fighting the salmon when a trout hit a deeper line. Ed and I landed all three fish but out boat was a mess with lines tangled and hooks in the net. After we got everyting rigged again we headed back and marked quite a few trout near the bottom. One more trout hit and he ended up in the box. The moon gave us a show as it came up out of the water, it signaled the end of a prefect night on the water.

August 13, 2011

Why is it always rough when I decide to fish. Bruce was out on Friday and they filled up their box with 10 trout in a couple of hours. We invited Bruce along on this trip to be our guide, smart thinking hey? Well it didn't work, "You can't catch yesterdays fish". They were gone and the few we did find were hard to fish as they were tucked right on the side of a reef in 113 feet of water. We picked up a couple and decided to go fish some other rock piles farther out. Our crew, Uncle Bob, Gene, Bruce and Ed thought that was a good plan so we pulled up lines and headed out. It is really nice to have a crew that can handle lines while rolling around in 3 foot seas. The move paid off and soon a couple of clumps of trout were showing up on the finder. Bruce would bump bottom and give his "secret" fish call and the trout would hit. They were hitting short and we lost as many as we caught but in the end we had 16 trout in the box. Everyone went home with some tasty fillets of nice orange Lake Superior trout.

July 26, 2011

Fishing with Helltown Willy

Joe was up from Niagara, Wisconsin and the plan was to go out at 8:00. Helltown Willy was to meet us. He was on time but the rest of us were a little slow after having a few and talking and talking and talking. There was an excellent Pannu kakkua (Finnish pancake) cooking for breakfast and we were not going to miss that. It was served with wild raspberry jam and fresh raspberries on top. It was well worth waiting for.

The Kala left the dock at closer to 9:00 and headed out into Lake Superior. The seas were calm and we could have gone anywhere but we decided to hit the shallows first. Lines were set from 25 to 45 feet and we looked for fish. Bait fish were showing up on the finder but not many trout. We did manage to get two trout but no salmon from the shallows. It was decided that this was a waste of time so out we went to deeper water.
The fish were not where they were last week, surprise surprise. A few fish were showing up near the bottom but they didn't like our lures. Our hits were coming from our suspended lines at 60 to 75 feet down. They were nice lean lakers running in the 3 to 5 pound range. We were doing pretty good with Joe doing a great job of easing the fish to the net. Helltown Willy was getting a little excited and pulled the hook out of one fishes mouth. After another ten to twenty jokes from Helltown Willy and a few more fish in the box we decided to call it a day. We had 12 trout in the box when we headed back to the dock. It sure was nice to have help cleaning the fish. Joe and Helltown did an excellent job.

The afternoon cruise

Tina, Sandy, Debbie, Marge, and I went out for an evening cruise. We tried to be the first boat to use the new marina dock but the workers were still working and told us that we could not dock there. After a tour of Lac La Belle we went out to Bete Grise beach to see the eagles nest. Tina and Sandy had never fished on Lake Superior so Joe and I set lines. We started fishing at 10 feet and then worked out to 40 feet. A rigger tripped and Joe was fast to a nice trout. We managed to land it and give the girls a demonstration of what happens when things go right. They probably think that fishing on Lake Superior is easy.

July 20, 2011

Fishing with "The Duck"

Our school reunion is this week so some of our class mates are in town, of course we had to set up a fishing trip. The first car pulls in the drive of Fish Camp and out comes the Duck. He starts on his old greeting phrase "Maars, Maars, Robert Maars, that boy just doesn't come to class". Pappy Hughes a professor at Michigan Tech used to say that in class when I must have been hungover and not in Thermodynamics class that day. Then Sac emerges from his side of the car saying "Yousa, Yousa". Deer slayer, deck hand Emil was next and Demolition Expert Gene after that. That rounded out our crew of classmates from the class of 1963 and yes we are all getting old. Sac and Duck got into a discussion about how many pasties they brought for supper. Duck said he brought five and Sac said he told him to bring six. Duck checked his email on his phone and sure enough, it said to bring six. Duck screwed up again! He turned out to be the whipping boy for this trip. Ya got to have one of those.

Out we go and as we approach the end of the channel we see lots of white caps. The sea's were running about 2 footers when we got out into the big lake. The Duck was flopping all over the boat, you would think that a duck would have better sea legs especially with a low center of gravity. We set lines in 50 feet of water and soon we had a hit on a dipsey. Duck was on the rod and Gene grabbed him and set him down on the cooler so we didn't have a wet duck. It looked like he wanted to go swimming. The trout was landed and then the other lines started to pop. Emil was a busy deckhand and Gene was netter as fish after fish started to come over the side. We lost a few as the Duck was getting excited. On one fish he pulled so hard that the lure flew over the top of the boat while everyone else hit the deck.

It was too rough for our pasties and there were some clouds coming over the hills so we headed back. We had seven trout and two salmon in the box that needed cleaning. I was the slabber and Emil took the ribs out. We were just about done when the wind hit and the horizontal rain drove us inside. We had to finish cleaning the fish in the camp.

The "Class of 63" survived another adventure and this one didn't involve explosives, car chases, or jail time.

Addendum:

The Duck wanted to remind everyone that last year the "Lucky Duck" was the only one to catch a fish. One suicide fish hit his line while he was reeling it in.
Luck will outfish skill any day.

July 16, 2011

Out we go again to the same fishing hole. The first fish hit within seconds of the line getting set at 75 feet. Boy this was going to be the day, wrong. The fish had moved overnight and neither Bruce or I could not find them. We scoured the bottom from 75 feet to 150 feet and very few marks were seen on the dept finder. The fish we did find were mostly suspended and the largest fish was caught by Nikki on a dipsy. We ended up with 9 fish in the cooler and though not as many as the day before they were bigger. We quit at noon and headed in for a large lunch that was prepared by the people left at camp. Joe, Kam, Nikki, Austin, Dominic were the fishermen - fisherwomen and Justin was the official observer.

July 15, 2011

The family arrived and we headed out at 8:00 with 7 people on board. Lines were set at 75 feet and the fish were on within a minute. We found a large school at 95 feet and started to work it. Kris was the deck hand, Kam was the netter. The boys Austin and Evan were our begainers. Amy and Joe were realing in fish one after another. Most fish were suspended anywhere from 60 feet to 80 feet. We had doubles, triples and at one time had 4 on at once. We landed 3 of the four fish. The box was filling up and we quit when I figured we had enough that I didn't want to clean any more. The total for the morning was 20 fish. Bruce was out with Ed and Ed in the Prime Time and they ended up with 23 fish for the day. It was an exceptional day on the lake.

July 10, 2011

Marge and I fished in 110 to 125 feet of water. Fish were stacked up everywhere. We caught 9 in a couple of hours and called it a day. The last fish was caught jigging. The weather was perfect but the ancle biter flies were out.

 

July 7, 2011

I was going to take a day off but about 8:30 Ed showed up on his 4 wheeler and said that he needed me as a deckhand. What could I do but go fishing. The crew was Ed, his son Scott, friend George and 3 sons so we had a good crew. George and the boys had never been out on Lake Superior so they enjoyed the trip down Lac La Belle and through the channel that connects Lac La Belle to Bete Grise Bay. It was one of those days just made for fishing, nice temperatures and a flat calm sea. Bruce was already out and was on the fish so we headed out where he was. It looked like the fish were out in 145 to160 feet so down went the lines. It wasn't long till a line popped and soon there was laker #1 flopping in the boat. We ended up with 7 in the box. On the way in we were treated to a pair of twin fawns playing in the shallows of the channel.

July 5, 2011

Joe wanted his fish finder set up. It is a Ray Marine color machine and it looks like it resets to factory defaults when you shut it off. It was a beautiful afternoon when we left the dock at 1:30, remember that fish don't bite in the afternoon. We set up in 90 feet and trolled over the drop off. Our first pass was a bust as we were busy reading the manual and fiddling with the controls on the fish finder. We found that the fish finder was picking up the second echo on the screen so the right parameter to adjust was the "ping rate". We reduced this from 30 to 5 and the screen cleared right up. The gain was adjusted and a split screen showing zoom on the second side did the trick. Soon we were seeing fish on the screen and we dumped our gear to bottom and fish started to come aboard. We fished for a few hours and caught five nice trout, enough for a nice fish fry.

July 3, 2011

Bruce needed a deck hand so I met him at his boat at 8:00 AM. We headed out to the same hole that Wendell and I fished the day before. Bruce put his usual lure on the bottom and I chose a nice shinny one and put it down at 100 feet. Bruce caught the first one on the bottom but then the shinny lure started to do its thing. I caught the next two fish on the high lure. Soon Bruce raised his lure to 110 feet and we caught the rest of our fish suspended. Fun to not have to work the bottom for a change. We caught our limit of 10 in less than 2 hours. Lots of fish out there this year.

July 2, 2011

It was Wendells birthday so we made a birthday trip. The sea's were about 1 1/2 foot from the SW so we trolled into them. We set up in 125 feet of water and worked the drop to 135 feet. We caught a couple off the bottom and they were hitting pretty good. Then we hit a large trout at 30 feet. while we were fighting that trout we had a line at 100 feet, that line went off. We landed the first trout and while fighting the second one another one hit the deep line. All three trout ended up in the boat so we spun the boat around and started setting lines. I let AUTO steer the boat while the lines were set. Then Wendel said that we were snagged and sure enough we were snagged in another abandoned Indian net. Doug got caught on another one earlier in the day. We have the coordinates four 4 of them and need to mark them so the Tribal DNR can come and pull them.

After the net fiasco we trolled back and found that we did better with suspended lines then fishing bottom. It looks like the fish are leaving the bottom and you can catch them down 100 to 110 feet in 120 to 160 feet of water. The box had 10 trout in it that weighed from 4 pounds to 9 pounds. The smokehouse will be fired up this week.

June 26, 2011

I tried jigging in the evening, I am still looking for the elusive whitefish. I got to jig a little by the wreck but the wind came up and I had to give up on jigging and try trolling. I caught 2 trout in the bay while searching for whitefish.

June 25, 2011

Ed and I went out in his boat to measure up some "SLOW NO WAKE" signs for the channel. We had fishing rods along so we tried the shallows for splake. No splake were there but we did get a nice steelhead there. Since the splake were not bitting we went out to the trout hole. We dragged tackle in 135 feet and picked up 5 nice trout. Fish for supper tonight.

June 18, 2011

It was the "Longest Day" fishing tournament. At 6:00 AM we were awakened to a horn and a roar from 35 boats all heading out to their favorite fishing sites. There was no such thing as a No Wake zone as the big boat rocked little boats, bass boats passed slower boats, the poor guy in his 12 footer with a 5 horse motor was being rocked and tossed around by all the converging wakes of the boats racing past them. Hope they do well, we would not be leaving the dock till 8:00. The plan today was to use Ed's boat and fish with his son's, John, Ed, and Mark. Bruce and I would be crew members and see how many fish we could find. Out we went to the 135 foot area that held trout yesterday. Lac La Belle was rough with a brisk East wind blowing down the lake, the channel was not bad but Lake Superior was not so kind today. She had good 2 1/2 to 3 footers coming right at us. Ed's boat with the new motor started to pound so Ed set the trim tabs and put the bow into the waves. The boat handled the waves well and soon we were out in our fishing hole. Fishing was pretty good and trout were coming in. The wind came up around noon and the trolling was tough so we trolled in. Our catch was 12 trout that will fill the coolers and make for some very good eating this week.

June 17, 2011

Bruce, Emil and I took Bruce's boat, Roamer, out. The lake was beautiful and Mother Superior was showing her gentle side and it was calm and beautiful out there. We all had jackets on, Bruce his long handles, and I had lined jeans. Perfect for a day with the water temperatures of 42 degrees. Doug was out and had 4 in the box when we came out. We set up behind him and fished a couple of humps in the 140 foot range. No luck for us but we did see Doug get a couple more. Then one downrigger bounced across a net and one fish line got tangled in it. Another one for the Indian DNR to come look for. That is our fourth tramp or abandoned gill net we have hooked up on this year. Use caution when fishing Bete Grise bay this year. After loosing some tackle on the net we moved areas and soon there was a nice bunch of trout on Bruce's fishes finder. Bruce bumped bottom and he was fast to a trout. The area held lots of eater size trout and we managed to catch out limit of 15 nice trout and had one that we had to release when we pulled out lines. By this time Bruce had his long handles off and we were all in our tee shirts. It was so warm on shore that Marge and I actually went swimming, I guarantee you that it was "brisk".

June 7, 2011

It looked like the rain was going to hold off for a while so I decided to head out to see if I could find a whitefish. The radar showed the rain to be the other side of Duluth. Well I ran out to a 75 foot drop off and started fishing. Then I saw the clouds coming in from the west and heard some thunder. That did it for that trip. I did have a fish hit so hard he opened up my snap swivel and he is now wearing my lure as jewelry.

It took about 2 hours and the rain quit. It calmed down and I couldn't stand it. This was a perfect day to explore so I fired up the Namycush and out I went. I tried numerous places and couldn't mark a whitefish. I decided to put a trout line down while I was searching and soon had 2 nice trout in the box. I jigged in 5 different places and never saw what I would consider to be a whitefish. I guess I will just have to wait for the expert, Whitefish Willy, to come up and show me how

June 5, 2011

Ed and I put the red boat (Namycush) in. It had finally quit blowing and storming so we took and afternoon ride out to the big lake. The plan was to try and catch whitefish. A drop off was located where the bottom levels off at 80 feet and we tried drifting. Even though it was slick calm on surface we could not hold bottom so we dropped the anchor. It wasn't long and Ed pulled up a 5 pound lake trout, nice fish but wrong species. I had a bite that I missed and then was fast to a large trout. It took a while but a 6 pound lake trout finally came to the net. Ed had a bite he missed and I had a fish on that got off half way to the surface. We still do not know where to go to catch a whitefish out in Bete Grise Bay. Guess we will have to stick to eating fresh lake trout, oh darn!

 

 

 

May 29, 2011

Jigging didn't work so we would try trolling today. Lines were put down in 115 foot of water with the "usual" on one line and the "secret weapon" on the other. In five minutes we had a double that we landed. Things would go down hill from there. Next hit we missed but the secret weapon caught on the other line and the two lines were hopelessly tangled. It took us 20 minutes to get back to fishing. Doug is on the radio telling us how good the fish are hitting while we cut line and tie on new terminal tackle. Then we get back to fishing and a cannon ball is bounced off the bottom causing a nice snarl of line on the down rigger spool. Any one who has tried to untangle a down rigger cable with the 10 pound ball bouncing on the bottom knows how much fun this is. Joe is watching the fish finder and telling us "there is a fish", "Oh that looks like another fish", thanks Joe. Dave and I work on this mess for 45 minutes or so before we clear the tangles rigger. Finally back to fishing. We troll back and pick up another trout. By this time Bruce and Willy are fishing behind us in the Roamer. They are catching fish on a regular basis. We stop to try jigging where we marked a nice bunch of fish. Joe caught one and Bill caught one. Then no bites. We go back to trolling, Doug and Bruce have both limited out and were heading for the barn while we tried to pick up some more fish. We hooked fish, lost fish, had hits that didn't stick, then we caught in an abandoned indian gill net. We broke off the tackle on the end of the down rigger. Doug had got caught in two other ones earlier in the day and we saw two on our depth finder that we were able to avoid. They are all over there this year. I sure wish that the tribe would take responsibility for there abandoned gill nets. After we got off the gill net we called it a day and ended up with six nice trout for our efforts.

Epilog: I forgot to mention Bill's rabbit fur hat. He put it down in the Fo'c'sle with Rowdy the rabbit dog. Well you can guess what it looked like when Bill got it back out from down below. Bill had a bad trip, his back was sore, he didn't get enough to eat, his hat was eaten by a dog, and he was yelled at by a frustrated captain that was getting out fished by two other boats on the lake. How come when I swept the floor of the cabin after the guys left the dust pan was full of grey hair. It used to be just some red dog hair but not this year, I wonder why?

May 28, 2011

Out we go expecting to find the fish with the schools of bait fish in the 135 foot hole but they were gone. The bait had moved and we found the bait but the fish had moved. A couple of trolls through the area convinced us to move. The seas were calm so we tried jigging in a 200 foot hole. We caught one fish there, moved caught one fish there, moved caught one more fish there. It seemed that the fish were scattered and you could catch one but that was all in any one area. Our catch ended up with 4 trout all caught in 170 to 200 feet of water.

May 27, 2011

After a large breakfast of Joe's sour dough pancakes we headed out. Doug was out and had half of his box full when we got out. He was fishing in 135 foot off the Mouth of the Montreal. The waves were about a foot and building. We no sooner started fishing and the wind picked up. Jigging was going to be our preferred method of catching trout but even with the drift sock down it was hard holding bottom with a 6 ounce jig on. I brought one fish up and it caught in Dave's line that was caught in an abandoned indian gill net. (Dough go caught in one earlier that day about a mile away from where we were fishing) The fish slid up Dave's line and when he tried to net it the hook got caught on the outside of the net. The fish did make it to the gunnel and it fell off taking the lure into the water with it. Why do they always have to fall on the water side of the boat and never into it. There went my new experimental lure that I bought in Finland last summer. It had a life expectancy of 5 minutes. Two fish did come over the side and both were nice Mackinaw's in the 10 pound range. The wind kept building so we had to quit for the day and head for camp and some of Dave's bloody Mary's. They are out salads there at camp. He puts olives, pickles, and asparagus spears in to make then an outstanding drink.

.MAY 26, 2011

It is the start of the Memorial Day weekend. The boat is ready to launch and Dave and Joe are here to help. We splash the Kala Moiakka II in at 6:00 in the evening and start our shakedown cruise. Most things work as planned. The gas gauge appears to be stuck and two down riggers seem to be malfunctioning. Since we will be fishing the shallows for splake we don't worry about the riggers.

At the end of the break wall the Kala was turned to starboard to fish that end of Bête Grise Bay. Fifteen foot of water was what we wanted to fish. No hits there so to the North side of the bay we trolled. The captain is a little chicken to take his boat into the shallows on that end of the bay so we fished in the 20 foot depth and didn't get into where there are large rock reefs that come up to right under the surface. There was one hit and that fish was a 5 pound splake. Not a bad way to start the season.