Sand Point Lake

It’s been a challenge the last 24 hours with VNP closing all the Rainy Lake sites yesterday and and our reservation for June 11 canceled. We were fortunate enough to find an open site on Sand Point at Browns Bay View. We have never visited this part of VNP before and are looking for some info. Looks like Handberg Marine is the best place to launch and park. Is there any bait stores in Crane Lake or is it best to get bait in Orr? Any other words of advice?

Norman’s in Orr is where I would stop for bait.
Watch out for debris in the water. Docks, barrels, logs, we even found a pontoon boat adrift on namakan last weekend.

thanks grubson!

Pine point lodge on crane lake is a great place to get bait/beer/ice. You can pull up to it by boat and get everything you need right there at the dock.

Sand point is a very deep lake. Have only fished it while traveling to namakan but we’ve had some luck before on the mid lake humps/reefs north of Harrison narrows and west of border line.

Walleyeguy34 wrote:

Pine point lodge on crane lake is a great place to get bait/beer/ice. You can pull up to it by boat and get everything you need right there at the dock.

Sand point is a very deep lake. Have only fished it while traveling to namakan but we’ve had some luck before on the mid lake humps/reefs north of Harrison narrows and west of border line.

Thanks Walleye!

Recap from our trip, yea the water was high, about 2′ over the dock at our site when we got there on 6/11 but it did drop about 8″ during the week. Our site was nice once we got everything to the top of the hill. Thankfully we had 7 young men to help us old guys get our stuff up there. The weather seemed to be constantly changing except for the E to SE winds and I found out my tent is no longer waterproof! But all the adversity is part of the challenge and I think it helps pull our group of dads and sons together and make a better experience.

Fishing was tough. Shoreline fishing was basically non-existent. We would get a small pike, bass or walleye here or there but no consistency. We had our best luck in current eddy’s. The outlet of Steges bay into Grassy bay was the most consistent spot. Slip bobbers, bottom bouncers with spinners n leaches, vertical jigging and snap jigging Jigging Raps all produced consistently.

We did make a run to Namakan and got some dandy walleye on slip bobbers and stumbled on an amazing bluegills in the eddy of a current break. Once we found them we were getting 9″ gills consistently until we got tired of catching them. We kept 10 for supper and threw the rest back. Well worth the ride.

Even with the tough fishing and high water we had a great trip and are already talking about planning our 2023 trip to VNP.

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scottaheller wrote:

We did make a run to Johnson waterfall in Namakan and got some dandy <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>walleye on slip bobbers and stumbled on an amazing bluegills in the eddy of the waterfall. Once we found them we were getting 9″ gills consistently until we got tired of catching them. We kept 10 for supper and threw the rest back. Well worth the ride.

How was the ride as far as floating stuff?? Thats a pretty good trek, gotta be over 20 miles one-way, glad you made it worth the trip with some nice fish!! Glad to hear the water is receding, hoping it will be below the dock top when we head up to Nam on the 2nd, think it will be close if they don’t get much rain the next 12 days.
I’m guessing you were able to take the shortcut thru the narrows at the south end of McManus island??

There must be some kind of mistake. There’s no bluegills in that lake and definitely no fish at the Johnson falls.

We could have taken that shortcut but I’m not very familiar with that water so I stuck to the main navigation route. I figured 25 miles from our site in Browns Bay to the water falls each way. But we had light winds and little boat traffic so not a bad ride. I really wanted to get back there mid week but the wind and weather just didn’t cooperate. Until next year I guess.

I honestly didn’t know about any gills in Namakan. I heard about some nice crappies in Sand Point and we did find some sporadically there wasn’t any consistency.
That gill fishing will be one of those moments I’ll never forget.

There’s limited numbers of them and they are generally pretty much impossible to find and very susceptible to over harvest when they congregate just like the crappies. It’s also possible that those fish came from upstream with the exceptionally high water.
Part of me wishes you’d delete this thread now.
Glad you had a great trip though!

David, I was down to the trail Saturday and I would say the water dropped about a foot last week.

We are going to Crane on Friday, any update depths for walleye/smallies/pike in VNP? We might get into Sandpoint, but fishing will be limited with this being more of a family trip.

Dave,
I’m fishing west Namakan this week. Water temps are 66 main lake. Rocky Shorelines/islands for smallie/pike so far. Tried 8-12 shallow weedy bays for eyes but struck out. Limited with my wife Sunday afternoon in 22-25’ rocks.
Last two days has been all overs or unders, biggest is 23. Cleared out this afternoon, was up at Kettle Falls, guessing the water will warm in the next three days as there’s no rain in the forecast.

Oh, and water is about 8” high right now and has dropped 6” since Sat. AM.
Guessing it will be normal when you get here Friday. They were closing gates at Kettle Falls dam today when we were there.

xplorer wrote:

Oh, and water is about 8” high right now and has dropped 6” since Sat. AM.
Guessing it will be normal when you get here Friday. They were closing gates at Kettle Falls dam today when we were there.

great, thank you!

The FW and I are heading to Sandpoint this Saturday and will be camping at Swanson Bay. I assume water levels have gotten back to normal. VNP is one of my favorite places to go, I’d love to buy a houseboat there!

Water levels are normal. Just got back yesterday from Namakan. Stayed on MY Island. Fishing was good with bottom bouncers/spinners and fat heads or crawlers in 28-34 ft. Jigging Raps worked on the slots if you could locate them. Most fish came off of mid-lake humps. Only caught a few slot fish but the eaters were plentiful and lots of 8-12 inchers. Bring bug spray, the mosquitos are nasty. Good Luck

slowpoke wrote:

Water levels are normal. Just got back yesterday from Namakan. Stayed on MY Island. Fishing was good with bottom bouncers/spinners and fat heads or crawlers in 28-34 ft. Jigging Raps worked on the slots if you could locate them. Most fish came off of mid-lake humps. Only caught a few slot fish but the eaters were plentiful and lots of 8-12 inchers. Bring bug spray, the mosquitos are nasty. Good Luck

Thanks for the report! I need to get a island!
Hopefully they’ll be good winds at sundown to beat down the skeeters.