fishing report for june 30

[Tanner Wildes]

sunday evening guided out on the chip. it was extremely windy, managed to move a good fish, mid to upper 40's followed real lazy though. then my client lost a fish, never saw it though. all the fish we moved were on blades.

Yesterday, windy and overcast again, managed to move only one mid 30 inch fish on the chip over in chief lake area. on a wind blown weed bed on a walleye colored Rabid Squirrel Spinnerbait.

With the colder weather water temps are down in the upper 60's now.

Good luck and post any reports that you might have.

Tanner Wildes

[muskyaddict101]

Thanks for all your reports Tanner,
Im coming up this weekend to try to find some fish in small clear weedy lakes. Are you still finding your fish up in the weeds mostly or are they starting to move to open water/points?
Thanks!
Ryan

[SecretLake]

We just got back from a trip to this area fishing Lake of the Pines, Winter lake, Connor lake, and Butternut. The hot and sunny high pressure system was part of Thursday and Friday's fishing challenge. On Thursday I raised a 36" musky on a Big Fork Papa Chubby in the river channel opening on Lake of the Pines. My buddy fishing in a different boat got a 38" on an inline spinner with a rubber perch trailer.

Friday on Winter lake was dead sea for us for musky, although I took in a 19" bass on my black, blue and purple Llungen DC8.

Saturday on Conner, just after the showers and a break in the clouds, I blew my opportunity with a good 46" size musky hitting a black and silver musky rattletrap. I attribute this to the lack of hook set as I let the rod out thinking I hit wood, then looking down to see this beauty of a fish let go of my lure, and me swearing for the blunder I made. He was not interested in playing a second time as I tried to follow up. Winter lake ate up a lot of lures for me, and too fresh on my mind fishing Connor, which was uncharted waters for me.

Sunday on Butternut was also unknown water but was flashed by a decent 40" class musky in a calm bay using Lundberg Black Night. He hung around the boat, but wouldn't commit to this lure or anything else I followed up with.

Monday I looked at Deer lake, but the high winds were good for sailboarding. With constraint of time, I thought it would be best to call it a trip and hit Deer, Soleberg, and Butternut on another trip. All in all, considering I was new to these lakes, the opportunities were good but could have been better with more familiarity of the lakes, how to fish them in various conditions, and commit to the hook set regardless of cost.

[Mark Benson]

SecretLake:

I just finished reading the latest edition of "Musky Hunter". Steve Heiting's article regarding 10 lures for Canadian fishing trips had a tip in it that applies anywhere, IMHO. Invest in a lure retriever!!! I did for trolling walleye plugs on reservoirs and it has paid for itself countless times!!!

I am actually thinking how stupid I was last fall fishing with the Shumway Giant Spin and loosing it to a crib that I will snorkel for this summer, when I had the retriever in the boat and didn't think about it. Probably could have put this in the post about boat plugs and tie downs!!!

Though come to think of it, Thursday night after fishing into the wee hours of Wed. night, I ran out to mess around on a new spot for a couple of hours and forgot my fishing rods!!! I looked over the spot with the Navionics chip and depth finder and went to home to get some sleep... Good luck, be safe, stick a pig and practice CPR!!!

Mark

[SecretLake]

Mark,

I have seen those retrievers and just never bit the bullet thinking they were gimmicky. With your advice I think I will have to do so. The question is which one?

There are two basic types; telescopic and line cord models. The telescopic seems to make more sense to me as it gives the ability to push the lure off of wood, but is limited to about 16 feet of reach. The line cord model that uses an chain to snag the hook extends to 30 feet or more with longer line and would be more usable in deeper water or in windy conditions. But even if the chain grabs the hook, I don't see how well it would work to remove a lure from a log that can't be pulled up.

Thanks.

[jkahler]

I've used the cable kind to pull a DCG out of a stump and it worked fine.

[Tanner Wildes]

I personally love the Frabill Lure retriever, it is telescopic and can fit in your rod locker. it is a fantastic investment and will pay for itself the first time out.

Good luck,
Tanner Wildes

[curleytail]

I first bought one of those weighted on the string retrievers, and it got every snagged bait back, but sometimes it took a LONG time of banging the thing into the bait. If the chains did snag, a lot of times you could bend the hooks just enough to get the bait free, even on fairly heavy hooks.

I bought a Frabill telescopic lure retreiver and I like that. I think it extends to 15 or 16 feet. Really, it's hard to run a bait that deep in a casting situation. It ususally gets the baits out pretty quick. I did lose a Jake to a crib with it once. It must have really been stuck in there.

I like the idea of the weights on a string, but I think for most musky baits, the weight could be a lot heavier to work well, and have longer chains. One of these days I'm going to make the ultimate string retreiver using some heavy round bar stock.

Both work and I think both are worth having in the boat.

curleytail