Fall Trip Report

[DonH]

We're back from our yearly fall trip. We only had 6 guys, and we encountered truly lousy weather. The forecast was so good and the actual weather so bad, and so far off the forecast, it makes you wonder. We had rain every day. Cold every day. Wind most days. Does it get any better? The guys that don't wear glasses had knit caps on and the rain was just running off their noses.

I brought 2 cameras to take pictures of the fall colors, but we had no sunshine, so I didn't take any pictures.

We didn't hammer the walleyes, but we caught plenty and they were big and healthy. 18" and 19" fish were fairly commonplace. Of course the smallmouth bass were everywhere. We have a guy who hangs a 1/4 oz jig with a 3" orange or white twister tail, then he adds either a leech, minnow, or crawler below a beachball bobber. We call it the "Ball of Goodness". He only caught 1 walleye on that mess, but he did catch a bunch of smallies and lost an absolute monster smallie that jumped a couple of times before throwing his jig. Clearly a 20". Don't anyone ever tell me smallies are an intelligent, weary, tough to catch fish. We all caught them on everything we threw.

This trip we actually only caught a few fish under 15" or 16". Is this a sign of a couple of bad spawning year classes, or just superior fishermen targeting and catching some good sized fish?

As for the campers cleaning out the walleyes, not this week. Only saw 1 tent (poor guy), and didn't see any garbage either floating or up on shore. I bet a huge crew came in and cleaned the TFF up.

[St Croix Kid]

Thanks. Fishing one week from tomorrow. Looking forward to it. Forecast says nice weather. I will pack the guidewear!

[AndrewR]

Don, how was water clarity? And what were water temps?

Gonna give it a try early next week for the muskellunge. All I know is that it's about 3 feet low. More concerned about water clarity though. Debating whether to launch from Murrays, The Turtle, or Blue's Backyard. Might choose by a coinflip.

Smallies are putting on their fall feed right now. This will only last for a short while.

Thanks.

[Hot Runr Guy]

DonH,
We gotta talk. Just got back from a quick Monday-Friday trip, and had nowhere near the luck that you did. Shorelines, deep water holes, river channels, humps, you name it, we tried it. Please tell me you weren't the guy trolling coming out of Lake Bastine, by himself in a blue Crestliner, eh?

HRG

[BlueRanger]

I actually got a picture of some floating garbage, and once I get through all of the 2000+ pictures I shot last week, I'll include it in the posted ones. I've been at it for 2 hours and so far all I've done is to transfer half of them to my computer in an organized fashion. Shot some great fall colors on several day trips to the Porcupine Mountains and Copper Peak, including what I hope will be some nice panoramic scenes. Also got a couple more fantastic TFF sunsets on the few nice days. Didn't fish much, and didn't find the muskies very cooperative, but "had to" go out and catch a couple nice perch meals after my groceries ran out. Should have some photos uploaded later today, but the panoramic stuff will take a while to assemble.

Fall colors should still be good for at least another week on the TFF itself. Maples are at or just past peak - most of the red ones came off Thursday in the high wind, but the yellow/orange ones are right at peak. The birches and poplars are still partially green and will probably be near peak next weekend. Away from the water, it's definitely past peak in most areas north of Highway 8, although I found a few spots of good color on some back roads in the Blue Hills near Ladysmith on the drive home today.

[DonH]

Don, how was water clarity? And what were water temps?

Hi Andrew,

We launched at Donners and in his calm bay, we noticed some kind of bloom appeared to be going on as there was a coating of green slim on the water. Once out in the flowage, with the ever present wind, didn't see any of that. Clarity seemed pretty normal to me, standard couple of feet. (Although we launched at Donners, we had to pull out at Sportsman). Water temp as we left was
57°.

I don't normally fish deep water at the TFF. I've caught fish in 26' of water (last fall), but I'd rather find active fish ready to feed, and those are usually much shallower. On this trip, we caught our walleyes in water between 5' and 12' deep. We do a lot of casting and the tackle that produced the best were Shad Raps -#5 and #7, Bomber Model A's, Hot n Tots, and Spoonbill Rebels (I paint these to be Clown colored - actually carry yellow and red spray paint in the boat as I love that color on this tainted water). Of course I'm targeting walleyes.

[Randy]

Hot Runner Guy,

The water clarity was really poor and the water is down quite a bit. Less water for the fish to hide!!

As far as the guy you saw trolling in the blue Crestliner, if it was Tuesday 9-27 around 8:00 in the morning that may have been me. I was heading over to Donner's Bay to put the boat on the trailer as we were leaving. I didn't have any lines in the water and wasn't trolling. I had the livewell pump running and was trying to rinse it out before heading home.

We caught the majority of our fish in 3-6 of water. A few were caught deeper 8-12' but most came from shallow areas with wood/rock. We caught a lot of walleye on small #5 shad raps, perch color. We also caught a fair amount of walleye on slip bobber rigs with crawlers. The smallmouth were definitely on a feeding frenzy. They were hitting anything and everything we were throwing. My brother actually caught one on a crawler rig he had hanging over the side of the boat as he was pulling up the trolling motor. The crawler was half out of the water. That's an agressive fish!

All in all it was another great trip to the TFF. Have fun out there!

[Hot Runr Guy]

Randy,
Nope, it wasn't you. This was on Wednesday early afternoon, and the guy had a line off the back, with a slip-bobber type float on it.

Don, we did the same launch & retrieve you did, once my trailer "fell off" the ramp at Donners while launching, there was no way I'd be able to get 'er back on the trailer without getting deep enough.

Tell you guys what, even though the bays (Donners & Cedar Cove) had that green sheen on them, you can't imagine the vegatation and stuff I had to deal with down on Delavan Lake, at the Community Park, this past Saturday. As nice as that facility is, I won't go thru that cleaning routine again. What a mess!

HRG

[LittlePike]

DonH or Hot Runr Guy:

Would you mind explaining a little more about what the situation is at Donner's boat ramp?? Sounds like you both had some trouble there. When you say you "fell off" the ramp, does this mean there's a deep hole off the end of the pavement? I'm coming up in a week or two, pulling a 17 ft Lund Tyee with a minivan having no 4-wheel drive. So, if this boat ramp is not good, I'm afraid I'll be in big trouble. Thanks for any help on this.

[Flambeau Vista Retreat LLC]

Little Pike,

Use Sportsmans Landing if you want to launch on that end of the TFF. With the water down 3.3' below pool, it will work a lot better for launching than Donners Bay's launch given your set-up. You can still stop at Donners Bay for a beverage, pizza or minnows.

[Hot Runr Guy]

Donners has a concrete pad, that ends too soon (for the current water level), so the trailer tires literally "fall off" the end of the pad, to the tune of 6" or more. Like Scott mentioned, use the ramp at Sportsmans landing, just down the road toward the dam.
HRG

14810

[LittlePike]

OK, thanks so much Scott and HRG. I'm coming up alone, and staying at Donner's, so I was hoping, for convenience sake, that the Donner's ramp would work for me. But I'm sure I'll figure out a way to launch at Fisherman's, dock it at Donner's, and retrieve my vehicle later. May need to do a little walking, but I can use the exercise. Thanks for the info guys.

[Flambeau Vista Retreat LLC]

If you launch at Fishermans Landing you will get a lot of exercise walking to Donners Bay! LOL You want to launch at Sportsmans Landing. Since you are staying at Donners Bay, Porky or Rozann will probably give you a ride or email me when you are going to be there and I may be able to help you.

[LittlePike]

Oh duh, sorry Scott. I of course meant Sportsman Landing. That would be enough of a walk for this walleye fisherman. Thanks for the offer of a ride though. I appreciate that. I'll only ask you if the walk is too far, and Porky or Rozann aren't available.