Minaki early ice out and seasonal fishing patterns

[DonC]

We will be in Minaki July 3-10 with a group of 15 at Birch Island Resort. I will be fishing mainly smallmouth, with some walleye fishing thrown-in. There is likely to be a very early (record) ice out. If the temperatures are above normal on average till then, how will that affect fishing? We will be fishing a mid to late July pattern?

One fellow that has fished at Birch Island and is from TN and who I have fished with down here, fishes late July up there usually. He has great success fishing drop shot rigs for smallmouth and large walleye. I will most likely have to try that as I am mainly a tube fisherman if the fish are deeper. The crappie are a lost cause most likely.

Any comments on fishing drop shot rigs in Canada, or other mid to late summer techniques for smallmouth would be appreciated. ChuckE has given a primer on locations and techniques for early July, and I will be applying them initially. Hopefully the water temp will not have changed those patterns too much.

Thanks,
Don

[Aaron-IN]

Don,

It's going to be a lot different for you for sure this year with the early ice out. I would not abandon the tube jigs for smallmouth though. I've done pretty well up there in August running tube jigs off of drop offs and in the deeper flats. Pretty much the same presentation you just have to go deeper. I have also done well with leeches drift fishing in the deeper water of the bays. You can always catch them with top water baits early morning and late evening as they come into the shallows to feed. You should be able to work the cabbage in July this year as well. One of the best producers for me mid summer is just using a simple 1/4 oz black jig spinner with a yellow twisty tail around just about any island off of the main basin (Big Sand Lake). Good luck, I'll be up there June 17-26 this year.

[DonC]

Aaron,
What top water baits do you like to use? I fish 8 pound test mono with spinning reels.
Hope you all have a great trip.
Thanks for the information,
Don

[Aaron-IN]

Aaron,
What top water baits do you like to use? I fish 8 pound test mono with spinning reels.
Hope you all have a great trip.
Thanks for the information,
Don

I like 15 lb power pro with a spinning reel. For topwater you can't beat the Green/Yellow with a the red underbelly 3 inch Torpedo. Good luck and have a safe trip.

[RANDY @ ORD]

Hey Don good to hear you and your crew are going back to Minaki again this year. I always watch for your post about conditions.
Our group may be late arriving this year due to one member's last daughter is getting married around the first of September. Good news is he wants to come with us next year.

Randy in Illinois

[DonC]

Randy,
Congratulations on your daughter's wedding. I will post a report when we get back.
Sounds like you will going in September looking at your message.
Hope you all have a great trip this year and many more with your new son-in-law in years to come,
Don

[camp chef]

Equally if not more important is the whether or not there is current and if so how much. Last year the current was fast and the water was high and it created very different fishing than two years prior when there was relatively no current. (This was during the last week of May) Fishing was great both years but very different techniques and areas were needed. I am not sure what to hope for this spring.We found things we could only do with slow water and things we could only do with fast water. I can't wait.

[DonC]

Camp Chef,
I have had great fishing with high water and current, with overflow areas that are not usually there in normal water flow years. In addition to tubes and some topwater, if the action is slow, I may for the first time drop shot Berkley 3 inch Power Leeches. If someone has experience with drop shotting patterns they want to share for smallmouth or walleye, that would be great.
Don

[Aaron-IN]

Don,

Drop shotting with leeches works really well after the spawn (1-2 weeks post spawn). I like to work them in a little deeper water off of spawning areas (mouth of bays). It is hit or miss though, you will either do well or you wont.

[ChuckE]

Don,
The areas that I gave you before will be a good place to start, but if the water temp gets warmer it will move the smallies a little deeper during mid-day. In the morning and late evening I'd look to the same or similar areas only in shallower water, near rocks/weedlines/on top of the drop-offs/etc. They usually don't move far during mid-day, and they still remain active, just in deeper water feeding.

Tubes are a good bet, 3/16 or 1/4 oz tube jigheads inside a 3-1/2" green pumpkin tube is what I use. Cast it out and let it periodically contact the structure and pop it to trigger a bite after you do. You can also swim it down along the bottom of a sloped shoreline or even drag it on the bottom if it's not too snaggy.

Many of the better areas you'd like to drop shot at Minaki are pretty difficult in mid-summer. The jagged and fractured granite make for a lot of cut lines, and the bigger bolders leave a lot of opening for a drop-shot weight to fall into and get stuck. I've had many times when I've hooked a good smallie in one of these locations, only to have the weight hung up in amongst the rubble and bolder strewn bottom -- a very frustrating experience! This is totally different than many of the southern lakes/river areas, which have limestone or sand/mud edges and much flatter bottoms at the 8-16' depths.

If you have your heart set on drop-shotting, what you can do is look for transition areas; areas where silt turns to sand, sand to grave, gravel to smaller stone. If you can read your sonar you'll see these areas and can drop shot them a lot easier. In addition, the same areas often hold crawfish that are either molting or feeding on new vegitation. So, look for areas just off shallow shorelines 8-16' where there is plenty of structure; and work the transition zones nearby. You'll often mark a small pyramid of smallmouth on the sonar in these areas. (I have better luck pre-spawn fishing for smallies in these transition areas, as the smallmouth stage and are getting ready to move in. The water is colder and the smallies tend to need the bait in front of them longer as well; and it is a good cold front pre-spawn option.)

I use a tube instead of drop-shotting post-spawn in migration areas that have fractured rock, larger boulders on the bottom, etc. -- I'm just too impatient to work through the snags with drop shotting! Topwater is another option that seems better post-spawn in these areas, the smallmouth are usually active enough to come up from 8-20' to hit topwater if there isn't too much chop on the water.

I like a 1/4 oz Tiny Torpedo in frog or baby bass pattern, a Rebel Pop-R in Baby Bass, or even a dark green buzz type frog for topwater. You can buzz a frog over the weeds and off the weedline and get some nice smallies that are in a little deeper water that way. Just stand by, because the northern like the same cover on the outer edge of the outside weedline. I use mono or a florocarbon hybrid line, like Yo-Zuri or PLine CX on my baitcasters with topwater.

Up north the deeper water tends to stay cooler than some of the other areas, especially with the southern breeze to keep it mixed up. [The smallies seem to stay a little more active as well.] So a few other areas you may look to that are better in hot mid-summer weather are the islands in the south-east corner of Big Sand, Sugarloaf Island, Pine Island and the north eastern shorelines on Big Sand. They have some nice vertical walls and rapidily sloped shorelines that will hold smallmouth on top in morning-evening, and at the bottom during mid-day when the water is warmer. Down South look to the river side shoreline of the 3 islands that are about 2/3 the way down the Big Stretch, and the islands down around Jewel Island (just outside of the MacFarlane River entrance) it has similar shorelines. Also there are some barely-visible islands closer to the river that everyone seems to overlook -- just go deeper with the tubes. If you are heading to Rough Rock, work the island at the entrance, where the narrows feeds the lake. It has some very nice deeper water with big boulders -- the smallies hang at the bottom of the boulders. The area should be the hot-spot for musky as well this year!

Good luck with your trip. We'll be there early in June for 2 weeks.

Chuck

[DonC]

Chuck,

Your patterns in this email and previous emails is what I will be mainly using. Here in TN fishing Kentucky Lake, and fishing on Lake Barkley in KY, I fish rock bluffs frequently, but have never tried that at Minaki. So I look forward to trying that in addition to the areas you suggested in 8-15 FOW. I would have never considered many of the spots, and appreciate the tips.

Topwater is something I have really never fished here or in Canada, but will give it a go. The drop shot pattern was recommended by a fellow who fishes in later July at Minaki, and is really a fall back position if there is difficulty with tubes. I fish tubes 90% of the time.

I have taken Aaron's advice and purchased some Power Pro yellow 15 pound line, and used it a few days ago catching around 25 bass on KY Lake. I usually use Stren hi-vis gold 8 pound and have had excellent success. The Power Pro seems to cast a little further, and I can pop the tube off rocks perhaps a little easier. Certainly has less stretch and some increased sensitivity.

Do you have a routine for smallmouth fishing in Minaki as the day progresses with lures and patterns?

Thanks all for your thoughts and suggestions.

Will be fishing with both my daughters and their husbands this year, in addition to many others. One son-in-law just got back from a year in Iraq, and this will be a treat for us all.

Hope you all have great trips this year,

Don

[ChuckE]

Don,
No real routine, things change so much from year to year and even week to week here lately.

Chuck

[Aaron-IN]

Not to throw another wrench into things but unless things change you can expect the water level to be much lower than in previous years.

[DonC]

Aaron,
I have fished both high and low water. I do not recall if the low water was a problem with catching smallmouth. I do recall we hammered the smallmouth in high water years. If there is a pattern change with low water, any thoughts are welcome.
Don

[camp chef]

I really can't recall if the water was as low as it is going to be this spring but the last week of may in 2007 there was no current,as they must have had the dams shut way down.We weren'tfishing small mouth but we found some pretty cool places to hook up some big northerns. If I remember correctly we finally found some pretty decent walleye fishing too. We haven't gone in search of Small mouthbut it sounds like we are right in midst of them.We fish mostly south of Cobalt narrows thru the throat rapid and myrtle rapids throught thrDalles and around to the Black sturgeon and Mcfarlane.We stay at Big North and have never been north of the tressel.Last year with the high water we found some Super walleye fishing where ever the current was eddying back itself. Those spots won't exist this spring.

[Aaron-IN]

Aaron,
I have fished both high and low water. I do not recall if the low water was a problem with catching smallmouth. I do recall we hammered the smallmouth in high water years. If there is a pattern change with low water, any thoughts are welcome.
Don

Mind you I don't fish much down in the current so low water would surely change things down that way. I would guess that the water level would be more what I would consider normal, unlike the last several years when it has been several feet high. I dont really have a preference unless the water level is changing drastically every day. I have always had much better luck with smallmouth when the water was rising vs. falling drastically. One of my neighbors up there sent me a pic of our place from last week and I'm seeing rocks I've not seen in several years along the shoreline.

[camp chef]

I just talked to Pat at Big North Lodge and she said that at this time passage through the throat rapids was probably not possible.This could be a real interesting year.The extra time on the water finding the fish could adversely effect ****tail hour......not.

[DonC]

I guess that may limit my smallmouth current fishing if the Throat Rapids is that low. ChuckE gave some locations and patterns I have not fished at Minaki, so I am planning on trying those anyway. He was not optimistic on fishing the shallow rapids anyway in July. I do catch a lot of smaller smallmouth in rapids in September, but few large smallmouth then at that time.

The weed pattern Aaron mentioned will be worked also. I have never fished topwater, so early morning, if 0830-1000 is not too late, I will get out the tiny torpedoes I have. I have some buzzbaits if they work. They catch largemouth here in TN. Do not know about smallmouth in Canada.

At Eagle Lake the prediction is the smallmouth will be on beds late May/first week of June. The prediction is for a banner fishing year for all species with the early iceout on Eagle Lake and Lake of the Woods. Should be the same for Minaki.

http://www.outdoors911.com/reports/showthread.php?t=14751
http://www.witchbaycamp.com/fishrpt.htm

Should be interesting.
Can't wait,
Don