Fishing report and review, TFF, June 19-21

So I finally had my first experience on the TFF. Overall, the fishing was difficult for us but a great time was had by all nonetheless. We went out on Friday and camped at F15 for the next two nights. The site had a nice wrap-around view of the water, an easy soft landing area (just big enough for our two boats) and plenty of room to pitch our four tents.

Friday was a beautiful, mostly-sunny day in the 70's. We focused on the area from our campsite down the shoreline into Blair Lake. An hour or two into fishing, we'd landed a respectable smallmouth, a 15 inch walleye and a few small pike. It looked like the fishing was going to be solid. But it REALLY slowed down after that. I personally went the entire day without a bite.

Saturday was the rain and cool weather. We stayed off the water until the storm cleared and fished hard from early afternoon to evening. We ventured out to a set of islands south of R16. It was the best looking bass fishing spot of the trip - LOTS of rocky shoreline and rock bars surrounded by water. Almost looked like Canada. We fished this area hard for a few hours and only managed a rock bass (my first fish of the trip - hooray!) and a dink smallmouth. We went out around sunset and fished near Fisherman's landing and only managed a rock bass and a smallmouth.

Sunday was beautiful, and we had until early afternoon to fish before having to break camp and leave. Our fishing focused on the area from F15 and proceeded in the direction of Murray's Landing. We had a brief flurry of activity in the morning boating five fish in about a half hour (pike and bass), but it slowed down after that.

All in all, we landed 20 fish between five guys over three days. I believe this was a combination of the cold front, not knowing the TFF (our first time), and maybe being a few days late on the furious smallmouth bed action. I was very impressed with the beauty of the flowage and could not believe the amount of spots that looked like great fishing areas. Rock reefs, humps, weeds, downed trees, submerged boulders, stumps, flats - we attacked all of them. We threw Senkos, hula grubs, jig/twister, crankbaits, beetlespins, flukes. Crawlers were the only live bat we had and they were next to useless for us. I worked my jig and crawler down so many drop offs, pitched into weed edges etc, and I was amazed that I didn't even get rock bass or pecks from tiny fish. Maybe minnows were the ticket?


With how vast the TFF is, you are always curious as to what is around the next bend or corner, and of course the wildlife is abundant. I have no doubt the fishing can be great here, but it doesn't seem to me to have the idiot-proof easy fishing of a place like the Sylvania Wilderness, Boundary Waters or a Canada fly in lake. I think there's just enough fishing pressure, boating, and development to prevent a maximized fish population.


But while the fishing was slow, it was a great experience and I loved the whole "Boundary Waters meets state park car camping" vibe of the power boat camping. Great to have a steady supply of cold beer as opposed to a dirty flask of whiskey! Many more creature comforts can be packed into a boat than a canoe. Make no mistake, I will be back, but probably not every year. That said, I do wish I was still up there.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the place. I've been spending a week or 2 every year on the TFF for the last 40 years or so, my brother even longer, and the place still skunks us. I admire the skills of Don, Jeff, Doc & others, who consistently put fish in the boat, day after day. Admittedly, they are much more willing to try different baits and locations, Me,,,, I'm happy throwing a Firetiger Rapala at a shoreline until my arm falls off.

But, the beauty of the place will keep me coming back for as long as I am able.

HRG

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Originally Posted by Hot Runr Guy

Glad to hear you enjoyed the place. I've been spending a week or 2 every year on the TFF for the last 40 years or so, my brother even longer, and the place still skunks us. I admire the skills of Don, Jeff, Doc & others, who consistently put fish in the boat, day after day. Admittedly, they are much more willing to try different baits and locations, Me,,,, I'm happy throwing a Firetiger Rapala at a shoreline until my arm falls off.

But, the beauty of the place will keep me coming back for as long as I am able.

HRG

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I too have had my troubles. I have been coming to the North Woods for 46 years. The last five in the Mercer area. Take a look at my prior posts. My son and I were skunked for several trips. I begged for help. A couple of guys from this site helped me out. They actually met us on the water and showed us how to fish the TFF. Since then, we have had many great days fishing on the TFF and as many tough days. My son caught his first Walleye through the ice on the TFF thanks to a guy named Ira. I helped him clean tornado wreckage that summer because I was so grateful. This weekend we fished two area lakes. We were shut out all day on Moose and caught 9 pike, muskies, smallies and eyes the next night after the rain on Pike Lake. How it goes I guess. I can't think of anywhere I would rather be. I love the TFF area and I enjoy talking to both the locals and the people that visit it.

Jay

The local Native Americans take all the best game fish---------- and they feel like it's all OK because of what
happened 150 years ago. Sad------------

Here's my suggestion...next time up, hire Don Pemble. He's worth his weight in gold. He'll show you techniques and spots to get you a good start. The TFF is a good sized body of water and there are "a lotta places where they ain't." You're spending the money to come up and stay here, spend a few bucks more and let Don help you begin to understand the TFF.

JayandCade,
Glad to hear you've figured a few things out on the TFF. Out of curiosity, what does a good day of fishing look like for you on the TFF?

For me, I start to struggle when an hour or two goes by with no bites. A bite will always keep my head in the game, or even a catch of small fish or garbage fish. After a certain period of time with no bites, I start to lose focus and think about things other than fishing (work, women, bills etc). And then it seems like that's when I do get a bite, and I miss it because I wasn't paying attention.

The flowage can be a frustrating place to fish, but with time and persistence you learn tricks that help.
Two of the biggest things I watch for, when deciding whether to fish the flowage or another lake, are consistent
wind direction, and changing weather conditions. Bluebird sunny days are tough, but nothing will shut fishing
down faster than a strong cold front. To be honest, you should have been out on the water on the crappy weather
day. You would have seen an improvement right before that bad weather came in. Then, second death knell for
fishing (at least for me) is the Mayfly hatch....and you hit it dead on the money. They have so much to eat out
there...it's like a buffet. For me, live bait outperforms any artificial I fish on the flowage (3 to 1).
Better luck next time!

I feel your pain. I fished the Flambeau Riv from Robinson's Landing down to Holt's. water was at good flow, not too low, not too high. prefrontal conditions cloudy and steady rain. I have had literally 50 smallmouth days with a muskie or two mixed in on several trips down that same water.
Saturday:
1 -15" smallie caught from 7:30a til 12:30p
5 smallies (all small) 1 walleye and 1 rock bass caught after 12:30 til 4:30.

Was mildly disappointed in the catching but it was a great float. saw lots of wildlife and didn't see a person other than the guide the whole time. sometimes you eat and sometimes you get eaten

SpringMilker

To answer your question without writing a book, I have created a monster. My son, now sixteen, only thinks about hunting and fishing. Since he was little he as had more patience than any person I have ever known. He has sat in a bow stand since 7 on his own. No bow, just sat for hours. He has always out lasted me fishing. I can't ever remember a time when he asked to go back fishing. He is out fishing and then comes back to pick me up. He makes his own lures. He worked odd jobs for two summers to buy his own boat at home. I won the kid lottery. My wife chases me out of the house to take him hunting and fishing.

Having said that, I am not a great fisherman. Honestly, I love to fish, I just never was taught. I wish he had a teacher like Don. He would be the next Don. He consistently out fishes me, although I tend to catch more Muskies and Eyes. He catches many more smallies and Northerns. We rarely have a day like Don. One or two eyes in a day is a good day. One musky, not necessarily legal, is a good day. Five or six big fish is a good day. We rarely get skunked on everything but I does happen. We occasionally catch what we call a boat grand slam. That is when the two of us catch at least one snake, one muskie, one smallmouth and one eye. I have never caught a boat grand slam on my own. He did it again last weekend, but it is rare.

What he is good at is switching gears. He doesn't know what will work or what species is biting. He does know enough patterns and bait presentations of what has worked and he will work something until he gets action. We rarely, and I mean rarely, fish with live bait.

I believe much of the action depends on conditions. You hit the Mayflies on the head. It was a tough week. We didn't do well that weekend either. On Saturday, I caught an eye with a bulge in the stomach. When I cut it open it was stuffed with two 5" panfish in it. It was still feeding. Go figure. This winter we put six flags out one day, six the next day in the same holes, and nine out the last day. The first day we had 5 flags. This made us come back to the same spot. The next day we had eighteen flags and ran out of shiners. The last day we drug my daughter out with us. We got two flags and both were duds. Exact same holes, three completely different days.

The excitement for him is what the new day will bring. The excitement for me is I get to spend more time with my son in that environment.

Jay