Spirit Lake Skies

Just wondering about some general information about fishing skies in Spirit or E and W Okoboji? Don’t need to hand out gps coordinates but some general patterns or things to look for, good time of year? How do you deal with the traffic… accept it or fish when there isn’t as much… do the fish care? I’ve done quite a bit of musky fishing but only on deep, clear lakes in MN… Spirit is a whole other can of worms (I know i mentioned bait on a musky post)
Any tips would be great. I only live an hour away and I heard from a guy who lives on the lake that he smokes them(he may be full of … so wondering if it is worth checking into

Thanks!
RE

They can be had with time on the water, we had a 12 fish weekend last year on Spirit with a 46″ average. West is tougher but more action once you learn the lake and the patterns. Weed, rocks ect are key and most days if your in 20′ of water your to deep. We ended up 09 for the IGL’s between 3 of us with 55 fish, 5 at or over 50″ and 1 49.5. Join the chapter 29 muskies inc chapter and come join us in our Tourney trail and our other money and fun tourneys held on the IGL’s each year.

Baits, not much different than your used to except leave the topwaters at home for the most part. Rubber, Blades, Jerkbaits, gliders will get you a few fish.

Wow.. Thats a great season Shaley! I’ve only fished the lakes once for an early season bass tournament and ended up catching a 42″ on a Senko in the boat channels on West. I must say I was very surprised by the water clarity and very nice structure for an Iowa lake. BTW the Smallmouth in there are awesome!

Wow maybe the guy who lives there isn’t full of it. You certainly have my attention! I was planning on fishing with my dad a few weekends. I don’t have a boat yet, is there spots in the tourneys for guys without a boat? I found a club website for the area not sure if its the right one though http://www.muskieclub.com?

thanks for the good info

Yep thats our club. We have averaged over 40 for the boat between the 3 of us in the last 4 years. PM me the guys name you know from Spirit, I’ll tell you if he’s full of it or telling you the truth.

The IGL’s is amazing fishing but it can humble and intimidate you at the same time. Gin clear waters, heavy boat traffic make things interesting some days. It takes time to learn and get on patterns and every season the hot spots someplace new. Classic spots that scream fish you might not see one in a week then get 5 in a couple hours then nothing again.

10# plus eyes swim the waters, smallies well over 20″ are not uncommon, 8 pound largies can be had, and plenty of bull gills and jumbo perch if you can get them to bite. Of course plenty of snot rockets and even a few upper 30’s low 40″ pike and the rare Silver pike in plenty.

Gotta keep in mind though we are on the water almost every day during season partly why we have such numbers. Theres many days we never get hit but rare to not at least see a couple. Also a good network of friends to compaire info with.

I won’t be on the water everyday but it would be nice to up my usual 2-3 fish year. The lake I’ve been fishing in MN for 15 years has 14 ft clarity so that doesn’t bother me but the traffic does… I suppose you learn to deal with it though. Is there a night bite at all? What about open water trolling? We get a lot of our fish out in space away from structure following ciscoes. From what I can tell the muskies are somewhat overlooked there… is there a lot of serious musky chasers other than guys in the club?

Thanks for the info… making it hard to sleep at night though… not sure the snow will ever melt

Not alot of night bite, no ciscos but a few are caught trolling each year. Yes lots of guys chase them our tourneys draw 50-75 people. Boat traffic you get used to but never hurts to keep something hooked on to defend your space.

Thanks for the great info Shaley … dumb question, but what is “IGL”?

Also, what is the muskie fishing season on Spirt Lakes. My daughter’s boyfriend is entering the armed services on May 18th, and would like to try Muskie fishing before he ships off to basic training. Thinking this might be one of the closer lakes to the Twin Cities that will be open before he leaves. If you have a better suggestion we could take him that would be closer, please shoot me an e-mail to [email protected].

Thanks!

IGL’s is short for Iowa Great Lakes, the 5 lake Okoboji chain and Spirit. Muskie season here opens May 21, your best bet would be Clear Lake near Mason City just off I 35.

Where is a good place to start trying to target muskies on Spirit and Okoboji?

In the waters a great place to start Pretty simple sorta fish weedbeds and weed edges, only hard part is they go all the way around both lakes and out along ways in places. Big water boats a plus Boji gets wild on weekends with pleasure craft wakes, Spirit can get wild if the winds blowing ( thats about every day) Other than that pick and area and start learing it, we are on the water almost daily and still finding new spots or areas we have missed or overlooked in the past.