I am guessing its going to be a record year for ice out in my area and all the lakes within 2 hrs of the border. We only have 12″-18″ of ice right now on Lower Manitou Lake with no snow cover at all on the ice. We have 1″-5″ of standing water, once the ice pops and the sun and rain hit the ice it will be gone in no time. Our record was April 13 in 2010 and we are quite a bit ahead of that the way it looks. I am guessing April 5-8 range if the forecast doesn’t change. Here are the highs for the next 9 days in Fort Frances 71,70,71,65,58,61,50,49,55 with rain 3 out of the 9 days. It hit 71 today, My yard is totally snow free and on Tuesday I couldn’t see any grass.

If you are still going on the ice, be careful.

Jason,

Why don’t you ask your outfitter that you are going with? He should know better than anyone what would be the best lures for his lake.

In think they are worth it. I have 2 canvas craft insulated portables and they really hold in the heat. I have never owned an uninsulated portable, just fished in friends and when it’s cold with some wind – they didn’t seem to do that great holding the heat in. It depends how much you want to use it and how much the $ difference is I guess, but for where we are the insulated ones are the way to go.

Hey Craig,

How did your trip go? The weather was sure nice for it.

Craig,

The trout fishing has been nothing shot of phenomenal and this started about july 25, you can catch tons jigging, rigging and trolling. I was out on last monday and we caught 41 trout, biggest was about 12lbs. You will find them everywhere right now. There are tons of them right out in front of snare bay, hailstone bay, just south of black island, etc.

The bass have also been very good, we have been getting them fishing in 12-14fow with wacky worms and flukes, just working them slowly along the bottom.

The bigger pike seem to be more and more active, we have been getting some in the high 30″ range along with a few in the low 40″s. The cabbage/weeds were unreal this year, I found 10 new weed beds that I didn’t know about this year and I have been fishing the lake for 9 years. That being said some of the weeds are starting to die off.

The portages have been very good also.
Calder – is still producing muskies, biggest one last week was 38″, lots of smaller ones.

Mister – big northerns in the large middle weedbed where the two sections of the lake neck down.

Dogfly – Bass, bass, bass, lots of 14-17″ bass being caught right now.

Gates – Largemouth and smallmouth are being caught in very good numbers, gates is one of the only stained lakes we have and it seems (on) everyday someone goes in there.

Walleye Lakes – Our 2 walleye lakes that we go into have been dynamite the past 3 weeks, with the water cooling down they have taken off. It doesn’t matter if you are trolling spinners or jigging the fish are biting like crazy. Yesterday 1 boat used 11 doz. minnows, I was in there thursday and saturday and we used between 8-10 doz. each day. The conditions were overcast with a light breeze and the walleyes were biting all day long.

6/29/10

Craig

The fishing has been awesome the past 10 days or so. The weeds are up just about everywhere and I have seen them in a couple of new spots this year. The water is still down about 12″, but that is alot better than what is was when we arrived in the early spring.
The bass fishing has been very good, wacky worms and anything topwater is hot right now.
There are tons of pike in the 8-12′ cabbage.
Lakers are down in the 50-65′ range right now.
The Muskies are smoking hot right now. Last weekend we boated 38″, 41″, and a 47″ and saw many more. We also just had a group checkout yesterday that was here for 5 nights and they boated 18 skis with the largest being 48″.

You better take some time off and get back up here;)

5/27/10

The bass on are on the beds big time in the warmer sections of the lake. Right now the guide boats are averaging 80-110 fish per day and the unguided guys are doing pretty good with reports of 50-60 fish per day.
Some of the portage lakes are heating up as well, alonghill, dogfly, and gates are putting out good numbers of bass.

The laker are still being caught trolling, the numbers are down from two weeks ago which is normal due to the warming water. We will start jigging for them soon.

The weeds are about a month ahead of schedule and the pike starting hang out in them, so they are very easy to target.

We have a few openings in late june if anyone is still looking for a last minute trip.

5/20/10

The trout fishing has continued to be very productive even with the hot temps and rising water temps. We had another great weather day today and one group pulled up to a small island and fished from shore with dead bait rigs on for trout and limited out as well as had a few to throw back all while enjoying the sun and playing some cribbage.
We had another group at our outpost hammer the smallies in phairs lake and at a few of the flowing waterfalls around the lower manitou stretch.
The bass are starting to make some bed, so it looks like we are about a month ahead of last years spawn.

5/18/10

We had a group fishing in mister lake yesterday and between 8:30am and 3:00pm they boated 53 lake trout between 3 guys. They caught all the trout on 3/4 oz jigs and 5″ white sluppies, when all the sluppies were tore up they went to plain white twister tails. Along with the Trout they also boated 15 pike, the largest being 37″.

The bass are really starting to get active also, this same group fished a few of the waterfalls off small bays along the stretch and they did very good on white banjo minnows.

5/15/10

We had a nice downpour thursday night, it rained hard from about 6pm until 6am. We must have gotten 1.5″-2″, the water has come up about 3″ so far. Some of the creek have started to flow, now that they have filled up a bit.

The trout fishing has been very stable the past couple of weeks. Cabin #5 fished mainly trout today and they boat 41 trout and 4 pike. The trout are still around 25′ out over 40-60fow.

The water temps in some of the back bays we around 56-58F and the main stretch was 49F today.

5/4/10

Looks like the trout have started to move up. One group that we had at our outpost limited out and had a few extra to throw back just dead bait rigging with ciscoes from the shore in front of the cabin. Another groups of two have boated 20+ trout trolling and the hot bait seems to be blue/chrome husky jerk. They are trolling breaklines around 25-35 feet.

The Ice has been off the whole system for 2 weeks now. We have had alot of warm weather and alot of wind for the past month and just about everywhere has had a record ice out.

Back about 9 years ago I owned (1) 200 and (2) 225 optis and they all blew up, so I switched to evinrudes and they havn’t had near the issues with the big motors for me.
That being said this was back in 2001 and 2002 and from what I understand they are much better today.
I have a ’06 135 opti on my work boat and it has been fantastic, so maybe I just had a run of a couple bad motors.

It was great to watch the first show We are heading into camp on monday, so I am going to have to Tivo the rest of the season. Can’t wait.

Rainy Lake is a great lake in N. Minn. Check out Rainy Lake houseboats, if you need a place to stay.

Thanks Ron,

I was trying to find a show for the weekend of Jan. 8th and they both are on that weekend – perfect. I will take a better look when I get a chance.

Thanks again,

Matt

I second Pinewood Sports, we get all of our boats and motors from them and they do a great job.

http://www.pinewoodsports.com

Ron,

We are going to try to post weekly fishing updates for our area. Starting approx a month from now.

Since you live down in the Dallas area, are there any good sport shows that you would suggest trying? I thought there was a decent one in early Jan., but I can find any info on it?

Thanks,

Matt

Hey Ron,

I was going to go to the Dallas AC show, but opted out and was at a show in Memphis that weekend.

Kinda glad I didn’t go to the Dallas show. I was talking to a resort owner that has been doing the AC shows for 25+ years and he said it was his worst show ever, From what he said there was basically no traffic. I guess they are going to move the show to a different location and give it another try next year, hopefully with better results. I know there are alot of avid fisherman in your neck of the woods, I guess the AC advertising was a little weak and they really didn’t get the word out about their show?

Ron,

I know Jeremy, I see him around at a few of the same sport shows I do. He’s a good guy. How many guys do you fly in with on your trips?

Ok Ron,

You are staying with CC, is Sawbill bay on Mormiam (sp.) lake? If it is stained water then you may being looking at bed fishing during your trip, stained water warms up quicker than trout water being it is darker. With the darker water and early ice out patterns will be ahead of schedule.

Hey Ron,

Yes, it is alot earlier than last year. The past 2 years my lake has out on May 14 (2008), May 5 (2009). The earliest I can remember was Ap. 17 a few years back and I know we are going to be ahead of that date with the weather that is here and on it’s way.
Regarding smallies, I don’t know where you go, but on our lake they would normally bed around the middle of june, know I am guessing late may/ 1st bit of june this year.
Everything with be ahead of schedule, maybe on the lake you are on they might even be bedding when you get there?

With the conditions they way they are right now, I will have to update my ice out prediction to around April 8-10 range.
The weather forecasted for this area the next five days is high in the middle 60’s with rain wed.,thur., fri.
It’s going to go fast – so get your boats ready.

From what I have seen and if the weather stays like they are forecasting, you will have a good shot at ice out by the weekend of the 10th.

Hey mskyfshntchr,

Thanks for stopping by the booth, give me a call when you want to look at the dates for the outpost in July.

cpetey,

What type of trip are you looking for? American plan/housekeeping, walleye/Np or ice out lakers? Bringing your own boat or using the camp boats?

If I were planning a trip to either of these two lakes on the US side, I would go with Rainy Hands Down. As Matt Shermoen mentioned if it gets a little rough, rainy has lots of islands and bays to tuck into vs. US Low being primarily wide open – especially if you are looking at staying in the baudette/warroad area.
Go with rainy you will enjoy it.

If he has any questions, just tell him to call or email us.

Thanks,
Matt

fish bite my hook,

just click on the banner below.

Red Lab,

You are right, The heavy water is sitting on the ice right now and pushing it down once the water runs through all the cracks and holes it can float again. We call it the lake popping, I don’t know if that’s the right term or not?