I am leaving on the 8-14 for my annual trip to Manitou Falls Fish Camp west of Ear Falls. I was wondering if anyone had a report on the conditions on the English River or specifically the area below Manitou Falls?
What is the weather been like and does anyone know what they are predicting for the next two weeks?
What are the water levels like this year?
Can you get into all the lakes?
How have the bugs been in the area?
Most of all, how has the fishing been??
Any report would be helpful as we are having a pre-trip meeting on Sunday and we would like to be as prepared as we can?

We were in Cabin #2 this year. Wow it sounds like you and Monica had a great half week. We mainly fished the river. I know that there is a lot of areas that we do not cover on the system. We seam to spend most of our time on far end of the system. We concentrate on were the depth comes up from 30\\\’+ to about 6-10\\\’. There is a sunken island that is in the middle of the Wilcox between Madi\\\’s Island and Damions Island that the three boats the were in our group caught a ton of 14\\” + and the elbow were the river turns 90° we caught the majority of the big fish. Your right if you want to go after #\\\’s this is a great area to fish, we easily could have put another couple of hundred in the boat, but we decided to let the other boats fish the hotspots. The other two boats that were with us like to anchor since they don\\\’t have a trolling motor to hold on a area.

The guy that had the Triton boat puts some nice fish in the boat if you get a chance to talk to him he will impress you with the amount of big fish he catches on this system. He seams to every year put a multiple trophy fish in the boat. Muskies, Eyes and Smallies.

Got back on 8/25 in the a.m., I thought the fishing was better this year with the water being above the normal level over the past 5 years. The thing about fishing the English River below Manitou Falls is that the water level is never the same year to year and the current never flows the same from year to year. Just for sh*%s we kept track of the walleyes caught out of our boat and for the week we had 249 \\\\\\\’eyes that were above the 12\\\\\\” minimum in order to count as a catch. Of the 249 a good guess is that 50 would have been over 18\\\\\\” , 150 over the 14\\\\\\” mark and 50 under the 14\\\\\\” mark. The largest was a 24\\\\\\” caught in the river between Goose and Wilcox.

Rumor has it that Naughty Pines is shut down and the owner has bankrupted himself. It sounds like the insurance company was not going to pay out for the rebuild until it actually was rebuilt. So he gambled and put some money into a housing development in the states and lost a butt load of cash and had to close the camp down. It is shame too, it looks like the owner just walked away and left everything there. I\\\\\\\’m guessing the bank has control over the thing now. Here is a link if anyone wants to buy it http://www.investorsfishcamp.com/index.html

Yeah Mike W. they does have a site http://www.manitoufalls.com/

I can not get too down on Naughty Pines since with out them I probably never would have got my dad to give up farming for a week. My guess is if you compared apples to apples on the two camps that you would see the difference.

Your right fishing where the river bottlenecks is probably the best fishin’. If your not snagged your not fishin’

The majority of the Muskies that have been caught have been on Wegg Lake which is the biggest lake on this chain of lakes. I’m guessing you are downstream from Oak lake? The thing that attracts the muskies to Wegg is that the river channel runs thru the main part of the lake and has some a lot of structure adjacent to the channel that offers the muskies access to shallow and deep water with current bringing bait fish to them.

As far as the smallies go we have never caught more than a few in a day either. Mostly below the dam at Manitou Falls or in the fast water eddies below the Barnston rapids leading into Wegg. I’ve seen a couple of 5+ pound smallies but have only caught a few in the 3+ range.

How is the fishing on your part of the English River? What resort do you stay at?

My dad and I started out at Naughty Pines on Wegg lake back in ’93. I won a free trip, so thought the price wasn’t bad if you split between the two of us. One we got there we figured out why the c.o. has to give a way a free trip so he can sucker other’s to come with the winner.

The good thing is that Manitou Falls Camp is next to the launch for Naughty Pines, so we stopped in to see the accomodations and we were impressed with the fact that they had showers, electricity and 30-40 hp motor’s on 16′ boats. Then we found out that the price was about $300 per person cheaper and didn’t have to go outside to take a crap. We’ve been going to Manitou Falls ever since. They oughta rename the other camp to Suckerville Lodge.

I agree that this area is as good of a fishery as I’ve ever fished. What camp did you stay at?

Thanks Gary, I just stumbled on to this site. It is a great area to fish for the average angler like myself. Many benefits that you get fishing on a chain of lakes with a river connecting them. Shore is always in view, current holds beefy walleyes, a couple of natural fast water rapids and more wildlife than one can believe.

Canada spoils a guy with the beauty and promise of great fishing. Makes fishing in the states more of a way to occupy time until you get the chance to head to the North Country again.

Hey Buschman, You should be in for some good fishing in late Aug. I’ve been going for the last 15 years to Manitou Falls and have always done well with walleye and pike. Try verticle jigging anywhere in the river system that it narrows down creating slow to moderate current. Or any where that the river makes a 90° turn. Usually in 12′ or under is where the walleye will be. Pike are plentiful in Unexpected and the NW side of Wegg as well as in the river. Nock on wood the weather is generally very stable this time of year and the fishing is usually very consistant. Good luck, I will be there the 18th thru 25th.