Next TFF Trip!

[byronbears84]

After making our first trip to TFF this past June, we have made our plans for our next trip already! Our trip is set up to be from May 21-27. This past summer we went in mid june and the temps were in a very wide range, even got to 30 degrees some nights. I would expect this to happen during late may as well, correct? As for wind, does it tend to matter or is there maybe a little less wind a little earlier in the year? We are not used to being that far north that early so we arent sure what to expect! thanks a lot for the help!

[Mark Benson]

byron:

Not sure I heard much of a report from your trip this year and maybe I missed it... You are assuming correctly regarding the cooler May nights... regarding the wind, you can probably expect to see more of it in May than in June... You might even see some of the early species of mayflies hatch...

Mark

[DonH]

We've been coming to the TFF in May and September for many, many years, in fact our fall trip starts next Friday. If there has been 1 constant on our May trips, it's been the wind. I can probably count the calm days on 1 hand over about 35 years. The good news is that wind really helps turn the fish on and we've had some of our best days when there are 3' rollers. We've had more than 1 person see us loading the boats and tell us we were crazy to even think about heading out (never claimed to be a genius), yet those have been some of the top days on the TFF.

I'm 65 years old and have been fishing my entire life and know how to handle a boat. I'm not advising people to throw caution to the wind (no pun intended), and head out no matter the weather. There have been days when we fished quiet water because it was just too dangerous, or we've taken shelter for a period of time until the wind backed off a bit. The problem we have is our time up there is 4 days in spring and 4 days in fall. We all just hate to waste a precious day up there not fishing.

But getting back to the original question, in May expect it to be windy.

[George]

Hey Don,

Haven't done a lot of fall fishing on the TFF in recent years. What's your favorite baits and techiniques? Will be up the first week in Oct.

[DonH]

The first week in October might be OK, but good luck. We used to go up in mid October and got tired of fishing in the sleet & snow. We seemed to just hit the most miserable weather. Because of the bad weather, the fishing seemed to suck also. We now schedule the fall trip for late September and have hil some pretty decent fishing the past few years.

We've tried deep water (down to 26' or so) and have caught a few decent fish, but have mostly caught fish on the small side from the deeper water on the fall trips. I've heard guys talk about 50 fish days, but they were all 13" or smaller. No offense, but I don't drive 300 miles to catch 13" fish. Our best luck has actually come from fishing the same areas we hit in spring (mid May) and using the same tackle too.

We like the Beaver Flats and even with the water being down, I expect to catch fish there, and good sized fish too. We'll just have to change from casting #7 Shad Raps for instance to casting Bomber Model A's or Shallow Shad Raps or even #5s. We also have a couple of rock bars we fish that will still be producing better than average fish (just like on the spring trips).

We hit some spots near Rat Lake, or Four Mile, or the Lake Ten area that work in spring and we'll just change tackle and lures depending on water depth. We'll also hit the windy rocky shores like we do in spring.

One of my favorite baits are 4" Twister tails on either a 1/4 or 1/8 oz. jig. But these are not regular Twister tails. I use a sewing needle and string 6 rubber legs of a length of 2" or 3" in various colors. The action on these babies is astounding. They look alive. I just sew the thin rubber strands through the tail and cut to the length I want. This all comes along in my tackle box and I can create 1 in about 30 seconds.

If I was you, I'd be bringing along hand warmers, ear muffs, and a snow mobile coat! Good Luck!!

[byronbears84]

byron:

Not sure I heard much of a report from your trip this year and maybe I missed it... You are assuming correctly regarding the cooler May nights... regarding the wind, you can probably expect to see more of it in May than in June... You might even see some of the early species of mayflies hatch...

Mark

I believe we did make a post on here, but if not i know i did on lakelink.com. Thanks for the help but thats not good news! We hit the mayflies this year and we wanna move it up just to avoid them! and with the wind, is it pretty nasty? We have a small boat with 5 guys, so there is a lot of weight, not to mention not that much experience driving the boat. This does worry me quite a bit :(

[George]

Thanks for the help Don!