Lower Manitou Fishing Report

We broke camp yesterday and the fishing was pretty good right off the bat. The first group in unpacked yesterday about noon and headed out fishing after lunch and were back around 5 pm for dinner. The brought in a few keepers to eat and released a a few more. The biggest was about 8lbs, with most in the 3-6lbs range. They are first timmers so it was nice to see them get off on the right foot.
It’s nice to get back on the water after a long winter. I will try to update out fishing reports when I get a chance.

Good luck to everyone this year.

is the main lake open?

or just the streatch? water temps? man i cant wait to get out there!

The entire system is open all the way to the top. I don’t know what the water temps are, but I will ask one of the guests and report back to you.

5/11/09

Hello Everyone,

I just wanted everyone to know that we are going to try to report weekly on the fantastic fishing that we have at Camp Manitou on Lower Manitou Lake.
We broke camp on thursday and and we had our first group in thursday afternoon. The trout fishing has been fantastic to say the least, the first group in was just 3 guys, but they pounded the trout. They were new to the lake, but it didn’t take them long to figure the trout out. They were long line trolling big crankbaits, for most of the trip and it seemed to be the ticket. On Friday alone they boated 30+ lake trout with over 50 total for the 2 1/2 day trip. The best thing is it is only going to get better, the spring fishing is usually the best 7-10 days after ice out and with the ice only going out wednesday, the groups coming this weekend should be in for some great trout action.

Check back for more updates

30 lakers a day… sounds blissful! What kind of size range do you see on the lakers this time of year?

The trout are running in the 3-6lbs range. The biggest caught was just over 10lbs. It’s been a good start to the softwater season.

In the words of Rachael Ray my ultamite TV crush “YUMMO”

5/14/09

Trout seem to be slowly moving up, we had snow on the groud today and it looks like we might get it again tonight – so the water isn’t warming up like it should.
With the wind and cool temps the group of the guys in right now have been dead bait rigging with ciscos off some of the small islands on the north section of the stretch, as well as in south bay and doing pretty good.
It’s a very simply way to fish, you just set your cisco up on a dead bait rig, drop it in 25-35ft. of water and open your bail and go back to shore. You can set your rod in a pile of rocks or in the croch of a tree, just something that if you get a hit the rod doesn’t go in the water. I like to put a piece of yarn on the line, so when a fish pulls it out you can see it moving. You can have a nice fire and enjoy not being bounced around in the waves.

5/29/09

Water temp vary from 49.5 at the dock, esox is around 51, Lower Manitou is around 45 and some of the small lakes that you can boat to off the SW corner of Lower are in the low 50’s.

We had a full camp this past week that just left this morning and they were all smallmouth fishing, some were new to the group, but at the end of the trip they were all tearing them up. It didn’t matter what part of the system the guys were fishing the bass seem to be hitting like crazy.A 1/8 jig with a watermelon colored tube seemed to be the ticket. The group leader brought up a 20lb box off bulk watermelon tubes and they only had a few left when they departed. I have never seen a group of guys go through so many tubes, especially of the same color. They were hitting every where:

Gussie lake, sawbones bay, mirror bay, canoe bay, rock jug narrows, adams bay falls, gates bay falls, grant falls, all of hidden bay, hidden river, peep bay, hailstone bay, phairs lake, flossie lake, caulder bay, the backside of Barker bay, olson bay, the weasel, holcraft lake(largemouth), and glass bay.

Like I said, the guys fished all over and it didn’t seem to matter where they went, they were on fish. The funny thing is the water varied from 42 to 53 degrees on different parts of the lake during the trip and the fish were pretty much going all over.
Now the pike on the other hand seem to be pretty scarce right now, but they should come around once we get a little weed growth.
Most of the trout are still up in the 20-30ft. with even a few a bit shallower. The bass guys picked up a handful this week in the shallows fishing for bass.