LDML Report

[Svenny Unlogged]

Going up to lac des mille lacs this saturday, anyone been up there lately? I was up there in june, just want a more up to date Sitrep.

[Fishinglund]

We just got back on Sat. from LDML(Pine Point). Very hot all week with little wind. We still caught a lot of fish, with most of them surprisingly shallow. (5 feet or shallower) We didn't use live bait hardly at all. Our best bait was a 1/4 ounce jig with a 3 inch white twister tail. We had 3 people fishing and we caught 238 walleyes, 317 smallies, 119 northerns, and 5 perch. We caught a lot of smaller fish, but I would say 70% of our walleye were 15" or better with the biggest at 24". (my wife out fished me again! lol) About half of the smallies were under 12", but we did catch quite a few over 16". The northerns were all about 20"-33", but we really didn't target them. All in all, it was a great trip.

Fishinglund

P.S.

We also had a fox come into camp a couple times, and it would almost eat right out of your hand.

There was a skunk that got into our trash twice, and we also got to see two deer swimming across the lake...very cool!

[Svenny Unlogged]

Thanks for the info. I also stay at Pine Point, been going there for along time now. Enjoy it alot up there and Bill & Chris are good people.

[jigmeister]

the smallie population is doing pretty well up there i guess..also fished pine point and maki bay resort for 20 yrs.never caught a smallie. havent fished ldml for about 6 years though.are they really that prevelant??thinking about ldml for next year.

[Fishinglund]

I would say that there are plenty of smallies in LDML. There are plenty of little ones, but 18"+ are a possibilty. We have found that they seem to group up by size, so if you are catching little ones just move to another spot until you find the bigger ones.

Fishinglund

[summitdave]

Fishing Lund,
Great report,we were up there the same time you were and had the
worst fishing in many years!! How much info and help can you
give me?? We stayed at Open Bay Lodge.
Thanks in advance,
Dave

[Fishinglund]

Summitdave!

We had most of our success around the windy side of small rocky islands. If there was no wind, then we tried to fish the shady side. We were able to catch fish all around most islands, but when we fished the calm side it seemed like all we would catch were small northerns. In our camp there were a lot of groups that had been coming up for years that always fish deep offshore structure. They were catching fish, but not the numbers that we were. I personally don't care what kind of fish I catch, I just want a lot of action. I knew that if I fished around the rocks that I would catch smallies, but then I was pleasantly surprised when we started catching walleyes in the same spots. I think sometimes people get stuck in a routine and are afraid to try new things. We looked for small islands/rock piles with deep water close by. We would cast shallow and slowly drag the jig back. (Be prepared to lose a lot of jigs) It seemed like the smallies would be on top of the rocks, while the walleyes would be right at the first drop off. We also caught them pretty much all over the lake, so I wouldn't say one place was better than the rest. I will say that the biggest smallies were up in Baril Bay, and the bigger walleyes were closer to our resort.

Fishinglund

[trapper John]

We were on Wabaskang and found pretty much the same thing. I've fished LDML and it was always the drift and drag down in Boot Bay. Crawler and a Lindy.
This year we were on Wabaskang and it was very warm and windy. We fished the reef on the windward side of an island. (any island that came from deep water to shallow) We hammered the wallys on vert. jigs with a crawler. We were told that my wife and I were the "hot boat" in camp. It's hard to change peoples habits. They get locked into one way of fishing and don't want to change. I just do what ever it takes. Sometimes it's kind of hard to figure out what "it takes" though.

[summitdave]

Fishing lund+trapper john,
Thanks for all the great info,we seem to be guilty of tradition
and do not want to change!! Our group does the same old-same old.
Eating Rock or Fishermans dragging bottom bounchers with spinners
and a minnow or leech. With the weather changes and lake level changes we need to also change and experiment. Your info reaffirms
what i had been thinking!! We talked about it quite a bit on the drive home to MN.Keep the good info coming and thanks again.
Summitdave