FISH REPORTS 2012

Link to FISH REPORT 2011 FISH REPORT 2009 FISH REPORT 2008 FISH REPORT 2007 FISH REPORT 2006, FISH REPORT 2005, FISH REPORTS 2004, FISH REPORTS 2003, FISH REPORTS 2002

August 15, 2012

The crew consisted of Paul, Emil, Joe and Gene. Lines were set and we decided to try the bay first. The salmon are in and there were reports of trout in the bay too. Two salmon came in from 70 feet of water, one 30 foot down and one 40 foot down. There were no trout showing up on sonar so we left the bay looking for trout in one of our favorite holes. We trolled all the way out to over 200 feet without a hit and very few fish on the fish finder. Lines were pulled and the engines fired up for a big move. The lake was calm so we cruised to a new spot at 30 mile per hour. Fish were marked at 135 foot as soon as we stopped. The first two fish to come up were salmon from the bottom at 135 feet, what are they doing down that far? It didn't take too long and trout started to hit. A large steel head hit a spoon on a dipsey but we lost that. We ended up with 7 trout and 6 salmon for the day, another good day on the lake.

August 10, 2012

Bruce and I went out in the Roamer. We took a grapple out and marked another abandoned net for the Indian DNR to pull. After the net was marked lines were set and the hunt for fish was on. We hunted and hunted from 120 feet to 200. Some fish were spotted on the fish finder when we got to 155 feet. One dink was caught and then we finally got a suspended fish to stick. It turned out to be a nice trout. After many more hours of trolling, changing lures, washing lures, we landed one more trout. We tried the bay on the way in without a nibble. A real slow day, the wind, storms and lightning have chased the trout away.

August 7, 2012

We fished the bay in the evening and caught 4 salmon in 65 feet of water, most fish were down 30 0r 40 feet. We also had some action on dipsey divers. The salmon were cohos ranging in size from 3 to 6 pounds. They are growing up.

August 2, 2012

Emil, Wendell, Ed and I found the trout suspended at 100 feet. Lines were set above and below them and 8 nice trout came into the boat. All fish were suspended and were the nice larger Mackinaws. On the way in we tried for salmon in the bay and landed 4 of them and lost 2 others. Looks like the fish are in the bay.

July 19, 2012

Uncle Bob and Aunt Marge were here to get some fish so out we went. That made our crew Marge and Bob and Marge and Bob. Rowdy came along to be our boat dog. It was rolling in the irons so we knew it was going to be a little rough out there. There were 2 to 3 footers rolling in from the NE when we got to the fishing grounds. Lines were set in 170 feet and we trolled down wind. One line went to the bottom and the other suspended at 100 feet. The 100 foot line was the first to go and soon a nice trout was in the cooler. We landed a second trout and then it really slowed down. The sea was so bad that we couldn't fish into it so we kept moving. I told Marge to keep a watch out for a couple of clorox jugs that we have connected to an abandoned indian net. With the rough sea we didn't see them till we were right on top of them. We had to do a net drill and get our lines up quick to keep from getting caught in them. I sure wish the tribes respected the lake enough to get their old net out of the water so they don't keep killing fish and ruining tackle. We survived that and decided to move again. This time we got into fish and things got busy. Fish were hitting, lines were coming up and lures were going back down. We ended up with 9 trout, about half of them caught suspended and half on the bottom, one being a 28 inch Mackinaw that took all four of us working together to get into the boat. Aunt Marge and Uncle Bob ended up with a nice cooler of fish to take back to Crystal Falls.

July 17, 2012

I took the Namaycush out to look for whitefish. The lake was calm with some swells from the SW. I ran out to 150 feet and dropped the anchor. The boat settled on the end of the anchor rope and I put the small whitefish jig down into the depths. It kept going down and down but the current was so strong I could not get to the bottom. I pulled the anchor and tried in 125 feet. I could get to the bottom there but no luck. I moved to 134 feet and that didn't work either so I gave up on the jigging and started to troll back. I picked up 4 trout and lost 2 on my way back. This probably will be my last attempt to catch whitefish from the bay here. The current and depths are to great for the delicate fishing that whitefish require.

July 15, 2012

Calm and foggy. When we got up you could not quite see across Lac La Belle. The crew was Bruce, Wendell and Heikie Poykka. The engines were fired up at 0800 and off we go into the fog. It wasn't bad enough to hide the channel so the trip out was easy. We set lines out in 110 feet of water and trolled out to deeper water. The first fish came at 140 feet and right on the bottom. They kept hitting the deep lines and a couple came off the side riggers at 90 feet. We quit at 12:00 and headed back. The fog was still there with visability of about 1/2 mile when we quit. We counted up our catch and we had 18 in the box. Most fish were in small schools near the bottom in 140 to 160 feet of water. Not many suspended fish today.

July 13, 2012

Well the class of 63 did it again. Emil, Paul M, and Sac were the crew. The Duck didn't make it, hungover? Probably not cuz like the rest of us we know better.Well we were looking for the suspended fish that were there last night. Of coure they were gone and we had to search a little for them. Marks were showing up near the bottom in 155 feet and as soon as a down rigger was dropped to that depth we had fish on. Two schools about 1/4 mile apart were located and we whent back and forth through them. We caught 20 fish in three hours and had to throw the 21'st fish back. We were on our way in by noon and had a cooler so heavy that it took two guys to get it off the boat. What a wonderfull day on the water.

 

July 12, 2012

Great news, the fish are starting to suspend. We caught most fish from 80 to 100 feet down in 130 to 160 feet of water. Easy fishing and you don't have to look for abandoned nets all the time. I was fishing with Wendell and Dyno so I had excellent help on board. On our first pass we got 7 nice trout. We made a pass to the South and marked fish but they would not hit. We figured they would hit trolling North like the first pass, wrong. They were still there but had just quit bitting.It was getting late so we headed in with the 7 trout in the box. If you ever need fish cleaned contact Dyno. Normally I can slab a fillet with my electric knife faster than the guy taking the ribs out, not true with Dyno, boy is he fast.

July 9, 2012

Bruce, Chunky, Emil and Ed went out with me on a mission to mark abandoned nets. There are at least 5 that we know of out there again this year. Chunky made a couple more grapple hooks for us to use to get the nets. As luck would have it I lost some of the points that I had on my boat GPS when the computer in it locked up and had to be reset. I did have a couple marked with a navigation program running on a Ipad. We fount the first net with no problem and put a grapple in to it right away. The second net we missed with the grappel and got it stuck in the rocks just to the NW of the net. If you are fishing off Point Isabelle and see double clorox jugs floating out there avoid those spots as that is where the aboandoned nets are. Well we started fishing in that area and were catching fish. I looked up and saw the floats ahead of us. I ran for the back to get the downriggers up but too late, we were stuck. Another cannon ball is donated to the tribes nets. We ended up with 8 fish before a thunder storm ran us off the lake.

July 7, 2012

The whole family came up to fish camp. They swam and caught rock bass off the dock on Friday. We took the Kala Moiakka II and had 3 adults and 3 kids on board. It took a little while to locate the fish but we found them near the bottom in 125 to 135 feet. The kids had fun landing fish and we caught 8 by noon time when we headed in for more swimming and fishing in Lac La Belle. They sure had a good time at fish camp again this year.

July 4, 2012

Wendell hadn't been out on my boat yet this year so he and Bruce came over for an evening fish. The breeze was a little ESE with about 1 to 2 footers when we cleared the channel and headed out to the middle of the bay. I had a malfunction of my GPS but had enough points on my Ipad to use. We headed out to where Tom and I found a bunch of fish but they were gone. We figured the strong thunderstorms chased them to deep water. We made a turn and headed to deep water but crossed a 110 foot reef and a trout hit, then another on the other side so we had two fish and an idea as to where they were. A few more turns and they showed up on the fish finder and we boated a couple more. We ended up with 5 trout for our efforts and headed in before a strong thunderstorm reached us.

July 1, 2012

Tom Talvensari has a new boat and electronics so we went out looking for trout. After a little tweeking on his Fruno fish finder we spotted a nice school of trout. Lines were bumped on the bottom and soon a trout was on. The competition was on for my lure selection and Toms. He caught the next one and then they started on my lure. We took Tom's lure off and went to the one that I had on and then both lines were producing. We had our limit of 10 trout with another released as we had a double to end our day. It was a very sucessful day on the pond, flat water, good company, and bitting trout up shallow in 135 feet of water.

June 30, 2012

Willy and I are still looking for whitefish, we are stubborn. There were some marks on the bottom out by a trap net in 150 feet of water. The marks were fuzzy and didn't look like lake trout. We dropped anchor and tried jigging. The current was quite strong and we had some trouble finding bottom. I did have one fish hooked but it fell off on the way up. Was that our elusive whitefish? Soon the current picked up and we couldn't hold bottom any more so we decided to troll back to Bete Grise Bay. We located two more trap indian nets on the way back but managed to avoind both of them. That makes three so far this year. It sure would be nice if the tribes would take their abandoned nets out of Lake Superior. If you are fishing in 125 to 135 feet of water watch out for the abandoned nets.
Our trolling was a little more productive then jigging and we ended up with 8 nice trout for our efforts.

June 26, 2012

Harly has a new Gredy White and wanted to fish so Richard and I went out with him for a shakedown cruise. We found a few things he needed on his boat like a pea can, net, ice for cooler and line retreivers. It was a windy day so we had to stay in the bay from 50 to 65 foot of water. Lines were set at 40 and 50 feet. Soon a line tripped and a nice trout came over the side. Our trip was sucessuful even with a strong wind from the West, we ended up with 4 trout and one salmon and Harley had a good boat check out trip.

June 24, 2012

Ed and I went out jigging, still after the elusive whitefish. We fished the bay in 65 feet of water. When the bottom turned fuzzy on the fish finder I felt something on my jig. I hauled up a stickle back. Our total catch for the day was 5 sticklebacks, the largest about 3 inches long.

June 10, 2012

Went out my myself to look for the elusive whitefish again. The big lake was dead calm so I didn't have to drop the hook and was able to just drift. I found some schools of bait in 55 to 65 foot and stopped over a large school. I was fishing with a little ice fishing rod and a small sweedish pimple. It didn't take long and I had a hit but lost it on the way up. I tries a few mor spots but no whitefish showed up. I had a strike and my line started to peal off the reel. The battle was on and for the next 10 minutes I didn't know who was winning. Soon I started to gain a little line. Up came a nice trout and in the net he went. It was a 28 inch lake trout with bright orange meat. A beauty on 8 pound test and a two foot rod.

 

June 4, 2012

Lac La Belle was calm and looked like a mirror while I sipped my hot cup of morning coffee. The sauna dock was just to appealing so I headed there just to sit in the sun and drink my coffee. Anybody that know me knows that I can't just sit there and look at the lake without a fishing rod in my hand. I keep a rod rigged for pike behind the door of the sauna for just those kind of urges and out it came. I fished a top water lure and tried over the deep water with little success. When i threw into the shallows by the reeds it was another story. First a small bass about 15 inches hit and I landed and released him. Then a large bass about 4 pounds hit and even on the relatively stiff pike rod it gave me a battle. That fish was landed and released. A couple of casts later the lake erupted as a large pike tore a large hole in the lake as he went after the surface lure. The battle was on and I thought I had won but the pike did one of those up in the air backwards summer salts and the hook came out. Ohh well, it was fun while it lasted.

The original plan for the day was for Ed to come by and we were going out in the 16 foot red boat. It took us quite a while to get everything in the boat because we were rigging for trolling for splake, jigging for whitefish, and trolling for lake trout. Each of these required a different kind of tackle and by the time all this equipment was loaded on board there was hardly enough room for Rowdy the fishing hound, Ed and myself. We squeezed in and headed for the big pond. Lake Superior was just as flat as Lac La Belle, not a good sigh for trolling the shallows for splake. We did manage one splake off a planer board and gave up on them after a lot of trolling with no hits. We did see a lot of boulders slide under the keel, ducks fly by and a large eagle land in a pine tree. Since it was calm we moved and were going to jig. As soon as we put our jigs down a slight breeze came up and jigging without anchoring was not possible so out came the trolling tackle. A few trout showed up on the drop off at 120 feet and soon Ed pulled one up. We worked the drop for a while and marked quite a few trout but they were not in a bitting mood. I scoured my dads old tackle box and it was pretty bare of the kind of tackle we use now. It did have cow bells and flashers, stuff we used to run 20 years ago. I wondered if they still worked so I rigged up a set of bells on my line and down it went. It didn't take long and a nice trout came up on my line. Then Ed caught another and we called it a day with Ed catching 3 and the captain catching one. I cautioned Ed about not outfishing the captain next trip and we headed in to clean fish. A good end to a beautiful day on a calm lake.

June 1, 2012

What a different lake. It was flat calm when Gene, Emil and I cleared the channel. Doug, Lucky Strike Charters and Ed, Prime Time were already out there. The reports from both boats was not good. Sounded like the fish were not hitting. The plan was to go bobbing since the lake was so flat. After searching around a while some fish were located on a sharp drop off in 130 feet of water. We drifted through them and soon had 4 in the boat. It was hard fishing because the fish were in a small area on the side of the drop. A move was made to 190 feet and that spot came up empty. We took a chance and hit another bobbing spot that has held fish over the years and set up in 200 feet of water. Gene caught the first one about 5 minutes after we set up. That may be a good or bad sign. In this case it turned out to be a good sign. Gene and Emil were hauling fish on a regular basis but the captain was just straining water. After a couple of bites and misses I decided to sharpen my hooks. That worked and I finally landed one. Then I started to catch up and by the end of the day we all caught our 5 fish limit for a total of 15. A real good job by Gene our rookie on this trip.

May 28, 2012

Fog and 5 foot swells, no bobbing today. Lines went down and we were trolling. They were on the humps two days ago so lets start there. Well you can't catch yesterdays fish. There was not a fish to be found where they were the other day so a plan B was made. We trolled from 170 feet to 120 feet. A few fish started to show at 130 feet and soon one was in the box. We circled and searched the area and ended up with 10 for the day.

May 26, 2012

The boat was launched and the crew this day was Joe, Dave, Bruce and me. There were left over swells but it seemed to be calm enough to bob (jig) for lake trout. We started out in 190 feet and it wasn't long and Bruce had a fish. (If you want to catch fish bring a Finnlander with you) Soon he had another one. Then Joe caught one but the fish left us. We moved to some nearby humps and found some trout on the side of them. The wind was picking up but we were able to stick our anchor on the side of the hump and there were fish there. Bruce was busy hauling them up on his Geppo while the rest of us watched. It wasn't all Bruce as one time we had a triple and landed all of them. The wind picked up and our anchor slipped. Since bobbing was out of the question we had to troll. The total for the day was 16 nice trout, not bad for a shake down cruise.

MAY 25, 2012

The boat is not ready yet. We were going to launch but it is a rainy day with strong NE winds. The plan was to change the cutlass bearing on the Kala Moiakka II. The cutlass bearing is a brass bearing with a rubber insert that supports the propeller shaft. It was showing signs of wear and needed changing. We had the crew to do it, Wendell the machinist, Joe the mechanical engineer, Dave the instrument technician, and me the electrical engineer. There were more theories on how to do it, tools designed, parts made and in the end it took a four pound hammer to remove the old one from the boat. The new one went in easily and we had a boat ready to go.