Minaki Fishing Report

[IaTag]

Fished Minaki from July 27 - August 1. Started out the week fishing in calm water and shorts, but ended in very windy conditions with rain gear and sweatshirts. Temps later in the week topped out around 70 and got into the lower 50's at night. Water level was high, but slowly dropping (3 inches the day we left.)

Walleye fishing was surprisingly consistant throughout the week. Numbers were down from previous years (about 1/2 as many walleyes caught this year by our party), but size was up a bit. Biggest fish for our party of three was a 29 incher, followed by a couple of 25 inchers. We caught almost no walleye under 17 inches, with most coming between 18-21 inches. We also got many in the 22-24 inch range.

Bottom bouncing in 30-45 feet of water produced the largest fish. Fishing on the bottom ran in spurts. We would land a few, then go cold for an hour or so. Our best luck and biggest fish came on the humps around Pickerel Island on the west side.

Trolling was consistant all week. People were picking them up all day while trolling, but we trolled mainly in the evening. We landed many 18 - 24 inch fish trolling the middle of Big Sand in 200 feet of water and in an area on the north end of the lake called the triangle in deep water near the rockpile. In our best hour of trolling we landed six fish, but more often it was around three and sometimes four per hour. ShadRaps (#9), Reef Runners, Thundersticks, Hot-n-Tots, and Mann's all seemed to work well. Some nights the shallower running ShadRaps worked better, but other nights the deeper running Reef Runners and Thundersticks were better. Clowns and white were good colors, but other colors seemed to work too. Word was that the evening before we arrived was phenomenal for trolling. We've experienced that in the past and it's a lot of fun.

We didn't fish for muskie, but word is that it was slow. We did fish northerns for a day and caught quite a few smaller fish (20 - 24 inches) and had a larger fish (around 30 inches) get off at the boat. We also caught some nice smallmouth by accident while fishing for walleye.

All in all a good week, but not quite up to our Minaki standards from previous years. The 29 incher was my friends largest walleye and it was a lot of fun to watch. He's looking for a 30 incher for the wall, so this one is still out there waiting to be caught and photographed again!

We'll be back again next year looking for that 30 incher!

[Muskyhntr]

I'm leaving for Minaki in a week.Going to try a little walleye troll ing in Big Sand.What works best?Picked up a couple of Reef Runners,but don't what kind,little or big? deep or shallow? colors?Any help would be appreciated.Thanks

[IaTag]

We used the deep Reef Runners. Good colors were clown, blue & silver, green, and grey ghost.

Deep Thundersticks seemed to work just as good as the Reef Runners and are a little easier to keep in tune. Perch and Fire Tiger worked well. We also used Mann's Stretch 15's (grey ghost) to cover the deeper water.

Be sure to take along a few #9 shad raps. Clown and pearl white were the favored colors. The white ones can only be bought in Canada. #9 shad raps seem to be the most consistant lure from year to year. Shad Raps run a little shallower than the lures mentioned above.

We trolled around 3 mph with 100 - 200 feet of line out, depending on how deep we were trying to get. Depth seemed to be more important than color. If you have multiple people in the boat, try lures that run at different depths to see where the fish are most active. We usually started out with deeper lures early in the evening, then moved to Shad Raps as the evening progressed.

It also helps to have a marine radio tuned in to channel 68 if you have one. This is the channel that Duane #####, the owner of Paradise Cove resort uses. He and his buddies and guests will be discussing what locations and lures are producing most evenings. We also like to use a GPS once we get a hit or two in an area and work back over that spot. It is amazing how close your hits will come to the marked location. We did most of our trolling northeast of Green Island, and on the north end of Big Sand near the rockpole in an area called the Triangle.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

[anon]

thank you

[Fuzz]

IaTag-

Very interesting, detailed report. These are my favorite type of posts on this board....a chance to learn. Thanks for sharing it. I used to fish this area, and stay at Duane's, so recall some of the areas you mentioned. I've been going to Lake of the Woods for the past 8 years. We had good luck trolling the Reef Runners in both June and July on deep reefs (20-25' tops in 35-40' basin depth). Two colors that have almost always produced for me are Monkey Puke and Blueberry Muffin, so you might give these a try sometime. Good fishing.

Fuzz

[Tom]

I am leaving for Minaki tomorrow night. Was up there three weeks ago and they seemed slower on the humps. I'm sure that the water level has a lot to do with it.

Did you fish the very small hump just off of Pickerel, or were you further out in the lake?

Thanks for the help.
Tom