Minaki fishng report

Our group of 12 just returned from Birch Island Resort at Minaki fishing the Winnipeg River for the week. We had a great trip. The lodge has purchased new 17.5 foot Lund outfitters to replace the older Outfitters. They also purchased electric trolling motors for the boats. The lodge is very nice.

We had an excellent fishing and especially smallmouth trip. I caught around 180 smallmouth with around 4 or 5 in the 18 inch plus range. There was one 20 incher caught and five or six 19 plus inch smallmouth in the group. No muskies greater than 38 inches. All were caught fishing for walleye or smallmouth. The largest walleye was 28.5 inches, with several in the 25-27.5 inch range. Most of these were caught shallow. I fished shallow some for walleye and caught around 20, nothing more than 19 inches. My partner and I caught 5 crappie up to 14 inches. The largest pike was 42 inches in the group. Many pike in the mid 30's size. Usually we catch several in the upper 30's inches.

Overall it was an excellent trip. Hope everyone has great trips this year.

Don

Nice report on Minaki, we leave this coming week. Glad to see the smallies and crappie are active. I wonder if you got the crappie up in Rough Rock or in the two very small lakes?

Chuck

Chuck,
We caught the crappie in Holst Bay. Did not make it up to Rough Rock. No crappie caught in Lost Lake.
Good luck with your trip,
Don

Thanks Don! The back end of Holst has always been good for pike for us, with nice smallies on either shoreline leading out from it. The long and narrow cove to the south of Holst on that side is one of our go to spots for topwater smallies -- you can just about always get out of the wind in there there. I'm very familiar with the area.

Of course on the other side of the river is Adamson Lake. There's some monster smallies in there, and it gets very little pressure. It's only about a 100 yard walk from the river cove just to its south. Sometimes we'll walk the banks and fish it for a few hours, but a couple years we had a small boat. We didn't tell anyone back at the cabin about it for years, just brought back nice pitures of the fat pigs we caught. WOW!, what a blast!

Chuck

Don....are the smallmouth still pre-spawn. Any idea what the water temps were? Glad you had a good trip....I leave on the 25th.

Aaron,
We'll still be up there when you are there. What kind of boat will you be in? I'll have my Nitro this year.

Chuck

Aaron,
The smallies are in pre-spawn. The water temps in the bays were in the low 60's and on the main river in the upper 50's. After 2 days of colder weather Wednesday and Thursday, the temps dropped about 3-4 degress.

Chuck,
Thanks for the tips.

Hope both of you have great trips. I will be up there again in late August or September. I have yet to pattern the big smallmouth that time of year. I catch smaller ones without difficulty in moving water. We caught plenty of large pre-spawn females above, under, and below the railroad bridge on the McFarland River.

Don

I never take water temps, but as fast as I jumped into the lake was as fast as I came out.
I was fishing with the kids this weekend on Sunday in little sand on a reef on the northwest and the walleye fishing was fantastic. Jig and minnow was the ticket,as I found it was to early for leaches.
Plus the pike were on a feeding frenzy as were the small bass.
My daughters friend landed a nice 26.5" walleye ( her first as well )
It seems all those small walleye's from last year grew up. lots of slot size around the 16" mark this year.
My daughter had a little muskey on for about 3 min before it broke off
Saturday we spend the day for lakers in Vermilion (no kids ).
The walk was hot and sloppy, but the trout fishing was good.
Should be a good year at Minaki.

[coop]

Thanks for the news. We leave for Minaki this Friday. What was the water level like?

the water is normal, but no current at all. But with all the rain they could open the dam in kenora.