Navigable Water?

Hi Gary, and everyone else.

I have never fished the Sugar Camp chain before, but plan on it very soon to expand on my horizons and to try something new for a change. This will probably be just a trial run for Muskies and covering water around the chain first, just to see what's all out there.

Since I've never been out there before, how navigable by boat are the channels between Echo, Stone, and Chain Lake?

I checked on a topo map but couldn't tell whether I'd have enough clearance to even make it into Chain Lake if I were to launch from the main landing between Dam & Sand Lake. I need some clarification on this.

I have those Fishing the North Country books by Kenny Jackson and Russ Warye along with the Sportsman Connection ones but they didn't say anything about the navigation through channels.

Thanks for the help, and for any extra advice if it comes.

andrew

Andrew,

My wife and I just returned from spending a week fishing on the chain and we no problems with navigating the channels. The channels between Chain and Echo and the one between Echo and Stone are a little shallow but you will be fine if you trim up your motor and take it slow on your first pass through until you are familiar with them. There were boats of all sizes navigating all of the channels, pontoons, bass boats, ski boats etc. The majority of the channel bottoms are sand/muck with the occasional log laying on the bottom. Watch yourself going around the sharp bend after you go under the County D bridge as it gets a little shallow there. You should be able to chase up a few muskies. We had numerous fish bite us off while we were fishing for crappies. The muskies and northerns were very active on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Saturday afternoon we boated 19 northern and lost a couple of decent size muskies. All fish were caught on either a chartruese or black 1/4 oz. spinnerbait with a large silver willow leaf blade. Biggest fish that we saw was in the low to mid 40's. It hit a 2" twister tail with a jig spinner about 4 feet from the boat. Go figure. There's also a nice landing on Stone Lake but the only problem is that it's a little out of the way to actually get there.

Good Luck!

Thank you. Just the information I needed.

Will post the results. :)

There used to be a rock in the channel before Stone coming from Sand.
(Been years since i've made the trip thru the channel)

Hey guys. I never made it out to the chain the last time I had for explorations.

Last I checked, I heard that the water clarity was green and soupy. Is it still the same, or with the cooler weather has it finally improved?

I'm thinking next weekend. :)

hey andrew,
water on the sugar camp chain is low, very low lowest ive ever seen it. Boat landing at sand dam lake is still good- no drop off after the concrete can still put larger boats in without trailer damage. I can still make it to stone no prob at all with 21 ft bass boat. i wish i had a map here to give you spots it is a dark water chain and remember weed line starts at 7 feet. If you hold boat in around 9 feet you'll be able to fish weed line pretty effectively. Dark buctails nickel blades, tally wackers in the mornings and afternoons also dont forget the rizzo wiz in blk/nik. try the large point by knockers if its cloudy or the wind is blowing into it. If u see the white nitro stop and say hello,,let me know how ya do, been fishing dam for 15 years now. Also dont forget a sucker pattern crane bait twitched hard almost had a hook pulled out of it, let me know how ya did