Agate Bay Lodge

Fishing Report 2007

Ok, I am a bit late getting this report going. It has (as always), been a busy time getting things going for the start of the season. Some general items before we get to fishing. The ice-out was quite a bit later than the last 2 years. Ice-out was May 4^th this year. The water levels were still down at the start of spring, but that was going to change soon. This spring has been very wet. The 2 years of drought we experienced, had lakes filling up over a run of rainy weather during May and early June. One of the portages is wetter than I have ever seen it. Now for this lake it is not a bad thing. The last two years the portage was bone dry, and boats were being drug over the rocky bottom. As I write this, it is knee deep, and you can float a boat through.

Some other things… just so they stay in my mind. It is interesting how fishing, fish movement, and spikes in the bite relate to other parts of nature. The black flies have not been nearly as bad as other years. Not yet at least. Not sure if it had anything to do with a lower than normal snow pack, dry conditions for a couple years, or what the reason. Not complaining mind you, just an observation. On that end, mosquitoes are down also… I fully expect that will change at some point, but for now, enjoyable. The black and yellow butterflies hit the scene around June 1. Wild roses started blooming on June 16. The june bugs were out June 5^th. The grouse are very numerous, heard lots of thumping by the males trying to attract the females. Snowshoe hare are more numerous than I have ever seen. With the increase in grouse and hares, the lynx population will be on the rise. With the elimination of the spring bear hunt, the black bear population has been steadily growing. I have personally seen more bear than ever. With the increase in the bear population, people need to exercise caution anytime you are in the bears environment. I have not seen as many moose as normal… I think one of the reasons, with the lower black fly hatch to this point, they are not chasing the moose out of the woods. With a higher concentration of black flies, the moose will get out of the woods and get into lakes just to get away from them.

Lets talk fishing… Opening day for walleye, third Saturday in May every year. What would opening day be without snow, ice, and cold. Woke up that day to snow and ice on the ground, 19 degree temps, blowing wind, frozen water lines, and a very stubborn bite. Hard to believe the day before it was sunny and in the 70’s. It took a couple days for things to recover. Had the water thawed out by Tuesday… then had some things to fix from that frozen water, but that is part of life up in the northwoods. After the tough opening day, things seemed to smooth out for fishing. The pike as always in spring were biting very well. Spoons, crankbaits, you name it, they were working.

Week of June 2-8, the wet unstable weather continued. In spite of that some good fish catching did happen. One of our groups landed a 39 ½” pike… gorgeous fat fish. They also caught some other nice fish as well. Perch were biting and some good fish fries will come from them. The bush lakes are the place to be, they are giving the best chances for numbers of fish. Once the weather stablizes… look out, the fishing will really take off.

Week of June 9-15, Well that stable weather has arrived. The temps have heated up, after all the cool unstable weather we now had weather in the 90’s with a consistent southerly wind. Having that wind blowing from the same direction has really fired up the walleye. We had an amazing few days of fishing on our bush lakes. Not only numbers, but bigger fish as well. Once we located them, anchoring and tossing jigs was really working well. For that matter the pike were hitting and we even got into some jumbo perch as well. Right now colors are not making much of a difference. Just get your lure in the water, and get ready. I would normally say this lure was hot, that color… but honestly, just get something in the water… the fishing is that good right now.