Bete Grise Fishing for Lake Trout with New Downrigger Weight

Had to to some seat repair work on the Cruisers today at Lac La Belle, so I towed the Harbercraft to do some fishing afterwords. I found some fish on the bottom in about 130 to 150, so I fished with one of my new home poured down-rigger balls and a FinnAction Lure and picked up 2 fish before heading back for son Bruce’s baseball game.
The surface water was still only 46 degrees. I also saw some fish that I suspect were Coho suspended at 40 to 60 feet down. Tried with a couple of dypsy divers and missed one, but mostly they did nothing. Early morning fishing would be better for them.

Here’s the set-up I used for the down-rigger fishing on the bottom. On the tail of the weight I put a glow stripe and a green prism, on both sides, to act as my fish attractor. Sort of like a herring dodger… My FinnAction Lure was just 4 to 5 feet behind the ball and I think next time I will put them ever closer together. This transfers more “boat-bobbing” action to the lure when it’s close to the ball and I think attracts more fish.

We’ll be out of town on a family vacation for the next few days, so I can’t fish until next week.
Can’t wait to get back on the water!

Bass and Pike Fishing Lac La Belle

We’ve had a lot of wind lately, so it’s been tough to fish the big lake, but I got out a few times lately to wet some lines.
On Saturday we had a graduation party for Julia, so I couldn’t fish until Sunday morning. We had about 8 boys sleeping at the cottage and some expressed interesting in fishing, so I tried to wake them at 5 am, but only one said he’d get up, but soon lost interest when his buddies were too tired to get up.
I fished myself, and since it was too windy on Lake Superior, I stayed in Lac La Belle. Tried several methods… trolling with spoons and spinners, casting crank baits and jerk baits and jigging with tube baits. Fishing was a little on the slow side though, as I caught only one pike, 2 small mouth bass, a rock bass and one crappie. At least the variety was there.
Monday was much the same as far as the boys were concerned, even though I didn’t get up until 5:30… oh, I almost forgot – I called Norm at 10:30 the night before, but his wife must have been influential in his decision not to come fishing.
I trolled around the irons in Bete Gris for an hour or so with no luck, then into Lac La Belle.
The small mouth bass were really active, hitting on dark colored tubes, jigged real slow. The bite was not real aggressive, just feeling like a small nibble sometimes so I had to pay attention to any little resistance. Even so, I got several on a set-line with the same tube bait on a weighted hook. A slow drift, controlled by the GPS anchor (Rhodan electric trolling motor with a gps built in) was the method of fishing.
The water temp is approaching 60 inland now and was about 50 on the bay.
The bass were mostly in the 16 to 19 inch range, with a couple smaller, but all very fun to catch. All were released to grow larger for another day’s fun.
Hope to see you on the water this summer. Get out there and have fun, enjoy the summer while it’s here.

By the way, I plan to add a mounted video camera this summer to show some action shots.

Stannard Rock Lighthouse Sithseeing

Margaret and I brought a really nice couple from Tennessee to see Copper Harbor Lighthouse, Gull Rock Light, Manitou Light, Stannard Rock Light and Mendota Lighthouses on Tuesday this week. We both had a good visit during the ride and enjoyed their company. It was a great day for us since she just returned from a 2 week vacation AND was the day before our 31st anniversary!

I tried casting around for Lake Trout for a short time near the Stannard Rock Light, (since I have a hard time NOT fishing when I’m on the water) but nothing in that shallow. No fish showed on the sonar either. Water Temp was at 40 in the open water and 42 near the light.

We had really great, flat seas, all the way there and back and a good time was had by all, even Margie who is prone to seasickness on the water. This was lucky, because the day before was a little windy and the days following have been windy.

Saturday Morning Fishing for Lake Trout

Steve T. and his boys came out with me for the morning into South Entry. Seems to be pretty good fishing out there at the moment, at least for lake Trout. Missed a few, due to in-experience, but caught 11 all together. Greens are working good. Caught about 1/2 of them on FinnAction Lures (showing in pictures.) with green prism stripes at about 1.6 to 1.9 mph in 140 feet on downriggers. Ran some dypsies just for funsies, but no action on them even though there were some suspended fish showing on the graph. Water’s warming up a little, up to about 40 now.

Jake got to drive for a while. He’s doing 28 mph in this photo, but doesn’t look like it, it’s so calm.

Up-date for the last 2 weeks

Sorry to say, I have not posted in a while. Since last time, I made another trip to Isle Royale with son Leo and stayed one night at Tobin Harbor. Did not see any other boats there, but heard some talk on the radio, that sounded like they were at Caribou.

We tried trolling in Tobin and caught 1 lake trout there, then snagged up immediatlely after losing a 2nd laker. Both on FinnAction Lures that I made.

Later on as we left the island, we stopped on the flats and cought our limit of Lake Trout before heading home in the fog and missed a freighter by 3 miles that we only saw on the radar. Foggy all the way accross, but flat as a bumpy pancake. We were able to cruise 28 mph all the way to Copper Harbor.

Big boat is still in Copper H waiting for another early charter, perhaps around the point to Lac La Belle. I have a lighthouse charter to Stannard Rock next week in case anyone wants to join it… can give a good deal at this time.

Fished South Entry last Thursday and again today. Came home with 3 last week, tossed one back and today I caught 3 again. Tried for bass in the canal for a short time too, but no luck there.

Catching the Lake Trout on FinnAction Lures, one black with opal stripe and one green one called a Fish Grinch. Another good one has been white with gold back and a black Ladder. Fishing on the far eastern side of Farmers Reef in about 130 to 170 feet deep. Found a nice spot about 4 miles or so 152 degrees from the lighthouse. Not getting anything suspended though. All on the bottom. Nice orangy/pink meat and healthy looking fish.

Don’t have any recent picts as my Iphone has been giving me trouble, but finally have it figured out.

Will be getting some from here on out.

Can’t wait to get out again… any takers out there for a little trolling?

Monday Fishing out of Copper Harbor

A couple days ago, I took 4 guys and a girl from Northern Minnesota out for some trolling on Lake Superior for Lake Trout, but instead they caught 3 Splake Trout in Copper Harbor. No size to them, so we tossed 2 of the 3 back. Didn’t get any pictures, so I inserted one of my own from a previous trip.

2 of them were caught on a small pink Mepps spinner and the other was on a small gold bladed Panther Martin. We were not set up real well for splake fishing since it was not in the original plan, but I did happen to have a few spinning rods and spinners aboard the Fishin’ Mission.

Alex was the most avid fisherman in the group and he proved his skill by catching 2 of the 3 splake. Katie caught one also, proving once again that girls are usually more successful than many guys. Got an invite from Alex to visit him at his fishing house near Bemigi Mn. next winter… hope  I can make it there as his house is like a house on the lake with heat, bunk beds, tv, microwave and all the necessarry and maybe un-neccessary fishing  electronics.