Lake Manitou Report-May 3-5, Some Bad--Some Good

A group of 9 of us made our annual trek to Lake Manitou to fish for lakers.

Weather was great all 3 days, especially Thursday. On Thursday the lake was like a mill pond all day.

Fishing was another story altogether. A very disappointing year! One laker caught on Tuesday evening, nothing on Wednesday and one laker caught on Thursday!

We each put $50. into the prize pool for the biggest fish. Tuesday was practice day and a prize of $225. on each of Wednesday and Thursday for the biggest fish, with a carry over from Wednesday to Thursday when no fish caught on Wednesday. So $450 for the biggest on Thursday.

No fish caught on Thursday AM, so it all came down to the afternoon/evening fish.

We had been doing our usual of trolling in 10 to 20fow and then working deeper when we had no results. Still nothing. Marked some fish in 50-60 fow and tried jigging them and using dipsey divers, but no takers.

Early Thursday afternoon, my fishing partner was having a nap and I thought--try something different. I looked at my charts for Manitou and figured I would go and jig in 110 fow, especially as the lake was flat calm. I planned to use the new mackerel jig I bought last month in Nova Scotia as it was heavy and it would get down quickly.

I get out to 110fow and drive a round slowly looking for marks on the sonar and select a spot. As I'm getting ready to drop the jig, I see a fish come on the screen, down 60 feet. I drop the lure and I can see the track of the lure as it is heading down. At 60 feet things merge and the lure track stops!! Close the bail, reel and strike! Game on--5 minutes and I have an 8lb, 2oz laker in the boat.

Tried some more then and later in the day but that was it---a $450. fish!

No one else got anything and I figure between the 9 of us when you add it all up, we put in around 175 hours of fishing. Pretty frustrating and disappointing.

Don't know why the fish were not around? We did not mark anywhere near the number of fish we have in other years. Were we too soon after ice out? Too late? Were the fish just not biting?

Attached is a pic of yours truly and my winning trout.

SDC

Very nice fish sdcaller.

Sorry overall, the trip was clearly very slow to say the least.

Congrats on your winning!!!!

tuna

If I hadn`t looked at this post and saw the pic of you holding that minnow, I would not have recognized you Ralph. Last time I met you, you had the beard.
Seems that fishing has been slow in many areas this year. Water temps here are still quite cold, but at least you enjoyed some nice weather before the Blackfies started.
By the way.........nice fish!

Yes indeed, a good news/bad news story! Money was nice but I bet fish would have been better!

BTW--I think for all future pix you should wear that toque of yours, winter or summer. That way nobody gets confused!!

Nice going, Ralph; too bad that fishing was slow. Are you going to be trying that mackerel jig on Simcoe?

And the winner is!!!! that's why they call it fishin!!! That's an expensive fish!!!!! At least you should feed it to them... Lol.. Nice job!!

Hi Michael

For sure!

I bought it with the thought that it would be a good lure on Simcoe mainly in the Winter, but that I could use on calm days in the Summer as well.

Ralph

Nice fish. Congrats

Nice fish Ralph,

Well done and congrats on the win!

Wow that sounds like really tough fishing.. The only thing I can think of is the fish were scattered and inactive. But your persistence paid off.. The only clue you can gather is check the stomach contents of your fish. May help in unraveling this puzzle..

All in all, still sounds like a good time with good friends.

good to hear you had a good time, too bad about the bite...

we usually get in there in July and we work the west side of the main lake,
80 to 110 feet of water.

cant wait to get back up there.

congrats on the nice fish!

Nice laker... To answer your question...too close to ice out for sure. I go in Algonquin interior each year with a small group of guys. The last 6 or 7 years we've been getting well over a hundred - closer to 150 lakers & specks. Just got back from our trip yesterday and we managed to scrape up 73 this year...wasn't easy and we had to first find them, which took a long time, and then change up everything we've successfully done in the past - and 're-learn' how to catch them. You need to have a tackle box with a bit of eveything in it - and also be willing to step outside of "what's always worked before", which can be the toughest part.

Sorry...just realized you may have been (and likely were) speaking of the lake manitou on manitoulin isl. I assumed it was the one in Algonquin Park near the town of South River...which is why I said the things I did...and you know what happens when one assumes, right?! I honestly have no idea about the how's and whys of the other lake manitou.

Hi Jerry

I did check the stomach of the fish when I cleaned it and there were 3 herring in it. One about 5 inches and the other 2 around 7 inches.

In prior years, we usually found smelts in them, 3 to 4 inches long.

After that, we tried trolling some larger than usual smelt imitating baits, but still no takers.

Anyways, it was a fun trip with friends. some drinking, some good food, some cards and lots of fishing. Too bad the fish didn't want to get involved.

The more I think about it, with the cold Spring, the fish had not moved into the shallower water and just weren't in a feeding mode.

I know when we were jigging in 60fow, I had a fish come and do the Lake Simcoe thing--come up and look at the lure and then go back to the bottom.

I checked the MNR stocking records and in the last 2 years they have stocked nearly 90,000 yearling lakers. Fishing could be good in the next few years .

Ralph