FW and I spent another week on Spirit Lake South East of Aitkin, hitting several different area lakes over the course of the week.
It’s very dry up there. The lakes are all low and due to the lack of rain and runoff the water is unbelievable clear. This didn’t help the fishing during the day time. I spent most of my time chasing Bass and the best bet was to jig the deep weedlines. I get the feeling that the Bass just got done spawning as the larger fish were noticeably absent. Several times we would land 20-30 fish in a few hours time but they were all 12-15 inches. I was using my new Limit Creek spinning Rod, 6# Trilene, and a B-Fish-N Super Doo on an 1/8th ounce jig head. That Limit Creek rod is so senitive that it was very easy to feel the weeds and the slowest pickups making this great fun. During low light periods the Bass were moving up into the Cabbage beds in 6-10 feet of water and fell to a wide variety of presentations. Swim Jigs, Spinner Baits, wacky-rigged Senkos, and of course my personal choice using the Fly rod. Our best fish were in teh 18 inch class, and once again the FW landed a nice Northern. This time it was a 34 inch fish that hit a slop frog of all things!
Panfishing was pretty slow. My oldest daughter and grandson met us up there for a few days and I wanted to put her on to some decent sunfish action. I found fish everywhere from 18 inches of water out to 28 feet but no real concentrations. I finally found a few fish stacked up near a section of shoreline. We kept enough for a good meal and let the rest go. It was wonderful having the opportunity to spend an afternoon in the boat with my daughter, “life in general” has gotten in the way to often!
I have to commetn about one more thing…there is a huge difference between a “resort” lake and a “no-resort” lake. The numbers and size structures of the fish populations are entirely different. I’ve seen this for years, and it seems to be getting worse. Somewhere along the line we have to get the message about selective harvest out to the more casual anglers. Last weekend I watched boat after boat throw 14 inch bass into fish baskets or onto stringers. You can’t do that to a 300 acre lake and expect it to be good.
Like most vacations this one was over way to soon and I can’t wait to get back up there! If anyone has a question about a specific plake please shoot me a PM.
Rootski
