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avs11054
member (16)member
  
07/05/2018 10:57AM   (Thread Older Than 3 Years)
I was just wondering if I could get some input on what I could have done differently to catch more fish. A little background first...

We just got back from a 4 day/3 night trip to Quetico. I fished a ton, and only was able to catch 3 fish (2 medium sized smallies and a 20 inch northern). I didn't catch the first fish until the evening on day three, so needless to say, I was extremely frustrated. I threw everything in my tackle box trying to catch all four types of fish (smallmouth, pike, walleye, and lake trout). I fished morning, day, and evening.

One of the most frustrating parts about it was I was in Quetico four years ago during the same week. The fishing was insane. I used many of the same methods for smallmouth and northerns and had no problem catching anything. We caught fish the entire trip.

Here are the methods I used this trip.

Smallmouth - I tried buzzbaits, spinners, and crankbaits. I threw buzzbaits into the weeds, by rocky shores with steep drop-offs, and around fallen trees. I threw spinners and shallow and medium diving crankbaits in the same locations. One smallmouth I caught came on a shallow diving crankbait on the edges of some weeds where a small creek was coming into the lake. The other smallmouth came on a buzzbait by a rocky shore.

Northerns - In the past, I have caught northerns using the same techniques as smallmouth. In addition to this, I threw spinners, spoons, and shallow, medium, and deep diving crankbaits on the outskirts of bays and around narrows. I also trolled those lures through bays, at the entrances to bays, and around narrows.

Walleye - I will admit I have never caught a walleye, so I may have no idea what I am doing. I did not put too much effort into this either. That being said, a guy paddled past our campsite about twenty feet off shore, tossed a jig in, and pulled out a great eating sized walleye and left. I threw probably a total of twenty casts with a jig after that in the same location with no luck. I tried two different colors.

Lake Trout - I have also never caught a lake trout and did not put too much effort into lake trout fishing either. I tried "vertically" jigging with white tube jigs for lake trout. I was unsure if I was doing it right though. I tried fishing for lake trout on a calm morning. I dropped my line into the water, and even with it being calm, my canoe continued to drift. My line was pulled behind the canoe, and was at an angle almost similar to when I was trolling. It looked like anything but vertical. I am wondering if my biggest issue for this was that I did not get the lure down far enough since my canoe was drifting.

Thanks in advance for the responses. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
 
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Savage Voyageur
distinguished member(14416)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished membermaster membermaster member
  
07/05/2018 11:25AM  
First of all you need to be on a lake that has a good population of fish. I know this sounds obvious but many time I read that a person is fishing a lake for trout when there is none in the Lake. Second is to use a leech or crawler on a plain hook under a slip bobber one foot off the bottom. You will catch a Walleye bass or pike this way. Also troll a Rapala in about 8-16 feet of water. These two measures will put fish on the stringer.
 
avs11054
member (16)member
  
07/05/2018 11:31AM  
Savage Voyageur: "First of all you need to be on a lake that has a good population of fish. I know this sounds obvious but many time I read that a person is fishing a lake for trout when there is none in the Lake. Second is to use a leech or crawler on a plain hook under a slip bobber one foot off the bottom. You will catch a Walleye bass or pike this way. Also troll a Rapala in about 8-16 feet of water. These two measures will put fish on the stringer. "


We were on Beaverhouse and Quetico. From what I have heard, both of those lakes contain all four species. Also, in Quetico fishing with live bait is prohibited, so unfortunately leeches were not an option.
 
07/05/2018 12:42PM  
I guess you haven't heard. The Q has been fished out for years.
 
yogi59weedr
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07/05/2018 12:43PM  
Have ya tried golf instead.

Sorry couldn't resist
 
smoke11
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07/05/2018 01:19PM  
That is why it is called fishing and not catching.
 
Mad_Angler
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07/05/2018 01:32PM  
avs11054: "I was just wondering if I could get some input on what I could have done differently to catch more fish. A little background first...

...

Thanks in advance for the responses. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated."


I'm sorry that you had tough luck (and also sorry that you haven't received many helpful responses).

One idea is when did you fish and how long? If you only fished for an hour around mid-day, that might be part of the reason. One nearly foolproof method is to cast topwater baits near shore around dusk. Just paddle slowly and work the shoreline with poppers. You'll certainly catch a few smallies (at least until a pike steals your lure).

Another good technique is to use a zulu lure. Use the search function at the top of this screen and search for zulu. You'll learn all that you need to learn.

As a previous poster noted, leeches are great. In the Q, you can have nearly as good of results with Gulp Alive leeches. Try them on a single hook and a small split shot. Use the search tool to look for "TGO method"

As for lake trout, they are harder to find but not impossible. Here are the steps: 1. Find a lake with trout in it, 2: Find water 50 to 150 feet deep in that lake. 3. Tie on a purplescence deep taildancer. 4. Troll the taildancer for a few hours over the deep water. You'll eventually get some trout.


I find the tough trips even more motivating than the good trips. I am motivated to find out what went wrong and to take another swing at it. Keep swinging and you'll get some hits...
 
missmolly
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07/05/2018 02:14PM  
It sounds like you spent a lot of time casting at shorelines. I rise at four in the morning to fish for bass and work the shorelines. Sometimes the good shoreline fishing is done by nine. With this hot summer, they might have moved deeper before nine. When did you start fishing?
 
PikeChase
member (50)member
  
07/05/2018 02:17PM  
That's a tough trip. Sorry to hear that.

One tip is to troll the shorelines at different depths with cranks to find where the fish are. This works for us sometimes but I'm not as confident as some on this forum with the technique.

In the past I've also "search" areas that looked like they had good structure with a bottom bouncer with a leech or artificial leech and spinner rig. We're able to cover more ground than just a jig. Once we catch a fish or two we'll stay on the spot and start using jigs. The downside here is the bottom bouncers tend to get hung up plus they're kind of heavy to bring in.

As mentioned zulus are great lures for smallies. They've been our top producer on all but one trip. Next time give those a try in some moving water.
 
Atb
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07/05/2018 03:12PM  
I always try for ‘fishable’ campsites, so I can get more time with bait in the water.

I did Quetico Lake in the fall, and found it tough as well. We really just traveled through their on the way to Jean, but we definitely worked for the fish we got on Q.

I often try smaller water when things are slow, on the theory that my odds of finding fish are better.
 
QueticoMike
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07/05/2018 03:13PM  
I have an article called Zulu Magic which might help you out. If you would like to read the article just send me an email and request the article - queticomike@yahoo.com. This is a soft plastic jerk bait presentation. The Strike King Zulu is the same as the ZMAN ShadZ. I mostly use the ShadZ now, they slowly sink and the Zulu will float without any weight such as the size 3 or 4 ball bearing swivel I recommend. If you want to see how well this presentation works google " queticomike images ".

I also have an article called Grand Slam Lures - this article covers all of the species you were searching for that might also be helpful. Feel free to request that article as well.

If you have any specific questions just ask....either on the message board or via email.

Trolling the shorelines with a crankbait or stickbait should produce fish for you if they are around. Work the shorelines that have rocks about the size of your head. Make sure the shorelines aren't dropping off, look for the slowly sloping ones. Points and surrounding flats can be productive. Typically moving water has fish feeding where water dumps into a lake. Downed timber and weed lines can also be productive.
 
07/05/2018 03:36PM  
I am not a great fisherman and have had a lot of frustrating days in the BWCA, but have made an effort this year to up my game. After a lot of research and questions here on the forum, I decided to finally break down and get a fish finder and it has really made a difference. I went with the Garmin Striker 4 which is just about $100 or so, plus about $15 for the battery conversion. I have found now in two trips this year that the fish often are not in the places I would guess. On several lakes I have trolled around and found areas with nothing, then some areas where - for reasons I can not explain - the fish just seem to bunch up. I am no expert still, but I am definitely catching more fish this year.
 
lundojam
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07/05/2018 03:53PM  
Sometimes that happens. It is especially frustrating with spots/methods that have worked in the past. I would have either tried big and fast, or slow and small. Like, troll a big plug as fast as you can, or half a crawler or a small leech on a tiny jig under a bobber. Sometimes no fish means they are going in the middle of the night.

For the lakers, a drift sock and/or a heavier jig would have helped you. You are right; vertical needs to be somewhat vertical.
 
carmike
distinguished member(1721)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
07/05/2018 05:10PM  
A few thoughts....

1) I tend to prefer shorelines that *don't* have sharp dropoffs to deep water. I look for slowly tapering shorelines with smallish (softball/basketball sized) rocks -- the kind of rocks you'd like to hide amongst if you were a crayfish or a lonely minnow.

2) Casting/Trolling shorelines works...if the fish haven't moved to deep water and mid-lake structure like reefs, sunken islands, etc. Mid-summer can be feast or famine...the fish are eating more than they will at any time of the year, but they can either be scattered, on specific offshore structure, quite deep (as in, 25+ ft deep), or randomly scattered throughout the lake chasing baitfish. If they fish have just moved to deeper breaklines, then you'll probably want to troll them -- but you need to work to keep the lure in the strike zone, as trolling at the wrong depth won't do much good. You've gotta be fairly precise, which can be difficult without the right gear.

3) I'm surprised you didn't contact fish in the weeds. Don't be afraid to fish right in them, ripping the lure through as it invariably gets snagged up.

4) Did you head to the east side of the lake to fish the inflow from Quetico Lake? There are always fish there, though there are almost always fishermen there, too.

5) Did you try fishing the windy side of the lake? I know Beaverhouse is big, but it's also clear, so daytime fishing might be tough if there's not a chop.



 
thlipsis29
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07/05/2018 05:27PM  
Just a few comments to add to the information overload. Admittedly, I've never fished the Q, but I'm not sure there's much difference between Canadian fish and U.S. fish

1. I would agree that a depth finder is critical, especially if you're on a lake you don't fish often. One year a canoe in our group found a dropoff from 14' to 17' in the middle of the lake that was stacked with walleye and crappie simply because they saw it on on the depthfinder. Looking at the lake surface, there was nothing to suggest fishing at that spot in the middle of the lake would produce anything, but clearly that was not the case.

2. The one thing I didn't see in all that you used was Berkley Gulp or some other plastic like that. I have a few friends who fish in Canada regularly and because of the live bait ban where they fish, they swear by Gulp. I don't rely much on plastics because I take live bait with me into the BWCA, but I do know that this works.

3. Weather and moon phase can change everything. I know there is some debate about whether or not the phase of the moon really influences the bite, but weather and water temperature do. If for any reason a cool front went through just prior to your arrival, the bite can all but die for a day or two before it picks up. I'm sure the late spring this year has changed the timing of the patterns, and sometimes the best thing you can have in fishing is a short memory. There's no guarantee that what worked yesterday or last year will work today.

4. Some of it is just dumb luck. Why the fish bite my jighead just 12'-15' from my canoe partner's jig (same color and minnow) or vice versa is hard to explain. Does a mono line make the difference compared to a flourocarbon? Is there something on my hands that transfers to the jig and repels the fish? There have been times when I've been outfished 3-to-1 and outfished my friend the same way, and we have no solid explanation. As someone said earlier, that's why it's called fishing and not catching.

5. I've done 18 BWCA trips and I've come to accept that some years will be great fishing and others not so great. While my primary reason to go is to fish, and we fish at least 14 hours a day, I've come to appreciate just being there. So much is beyond my control and getting angry about it doesn't make the trip very enjoyable. What I can control are my attitude and my effort, and if I only get 5 days up there, I'm going to do all I can to make them 5 great days regardless of the circumstances. Pardon, the sermonizing, but I have found that this more than anything else has really made a difference in my approach to my trips.
 
salukiguy
distinguished member(597)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished member
  
07/05/2018 06:53PM  
I fished Quetico Lake once mid summer and here is what we did. We found a magic spot in a channel between an island and the mainland. The bass were all through the channel but a little deeper like 15 feet. I was using a silver Rap and fishing it pretty slow to the point it was bouncing off the rocks. My friend that loves to beat the shoreline was not catching much until he got with the program. Once we found this spot we kept going back and prime time was mid afternoon. We caught a lot of big smallmouth in this one spot and only scattered fish everywhere else. I think maybe you spent too much time on shorelines and shallow instead of structure.
 
Thwarted
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07/05/2018 08:40PM  
I share your frustration. I have had great weeks and poor weeks for fishing.
I once spent a week on Kawnipi without catching a walleye. That is hard to do but I pulled it off. This year we caught fish as much as we wanted. I am not a great fisherman like many others so I have no magic ideas. I just roll with it until next time because it's all good but... there did seem to be a excessive number of crayfish this year.
 
07/05/2018 11:33PM  
I commend you for admitting your lack of success. Most of us only talk about our best fishing experiences:) Lots of good advice. With the hotter summer so far, and lack of success casting the banks, most likely the fish were deeper.

When all else fails troll deep cranks while checking out pictos, camps, sight seeing ya never know what you find either way.

There are also times when fish are just not feeding and the bite is tough.

T
 
missmolly
distinguished member(7681)distinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberdistinguished memberpower member
  
07/06/2018 06:08AM  
carmike: "A few thoughts....


1) I tend to prefer shorelines that *don't* have sharp dropoffs to deep water. I look for slowly tapering shorelines with smallish (softball/basketball sized) rocks -- the kind of rocks you'd like to hide amongst if you were a crayfish or a lonely minnow.


2) Casting/Trolling shorelines works...if the fish haven't moved to deep water and mid-lake structure like reefs, sunken islands, etc. Mid-summer can be feast or famine...the fish are eating more than they will at any time of the year, but they can either be scattered, on specific offshore structure, quite deep (as in, 25+ ft deep), or randomly scattered throughout the lake chasing baitfish. If they fish have just moved to deeper breaklines, then you'll probably want to troll them -- but you need to work to keep the lure in the strike zone, as trolling at the wrong depth won't do much good. You've gotta be fairly precise, which can be difficult without the right gear.


3) I'm surprised you didn't contact fish in the weeds. Don't be afraid to fish right in them, ripping the lure through as it invariably gets snagged up.


4) Did you head to the east side of the lake to fish the inflow from Quetico Lake? There are always fish there, though there are almost always fishermen there, too.


5) Did you try fishing the windy side of the lake? I know Beaverhouse is big, but it's also clear, so daytime fishing might be tough if there's not a chop.





"


I second the rocks. I was fishing a lake in June 2017 that seemed mostly barren. Then, by luck (just the right light), I happened to paddle over a field of basketball-sized rocks. That's where they were and I didn't bother with the rest of the fruitless lake after that.
 
QueticoMike
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07/06/2018 03:09PM  
missmolly: "
carmike: "A few thoughts....



1) I tend to prefer shorelines that *don't* have sharp dropoffs to deep water. I look for slowly tapering shorelines with smallish (softball/basketball sized) rocks -- the kind of rocks you'd like to hide amongst if you were a crayfish or a lonely minnow.



2) Casting/Trolling shorelines works...if the fish haven't moved to deep water and mid-lake structure like reefs, sunken islands, etc. Mid-summer can be feast or famine...the fish are eating more than they will at any time of the year, but they can either be scattered, on specific offshore structure, quite deep (as in, 25+ ft deep), or randomly scattered throughout the lake chasing baitfish. If they fish have just moved to deeper breaklines, then you'll probably want to troll them -- but you need to work to keep the lure in the strike zone, as trolling at the wrong depth won't do much good. You've gotta be fairly precise, which can be difficult without the right gear.



3) I'm surprised you didn't contact fish in the weeds. Don't be afraid to fish right in them, ripping the lure through as it invariably gets snagged up.



4) Did you head to the east side of the lake to fish the inflow from Quetico Lake? There are always fish there, though there are almost always fishermen there, too.



5) Did you try fishing the windy side of the lake? I know Beaverhouse is big, but it's also clear, so daytime fishing might be tough if there's not a chop.







"



I second the rocks. I was fishing a lake in June 2017 that seemed mostly barren. Then, by luck (just the right light), I happened to paddle over a field of basketball-sized rocks. That's where they were and I didn't bother with the rest of the fruitless lake after that."


Basically the same thing I replied earlier............Work the shorelines that have rocks about the size of your head. Make sure the shorelines aren't dropping off, look for the slowly sloping ones. Points and surrounding flats can be productive.
 
mastertangler
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07/09/2018 07:35PM  
I would be curious to know what sort of line you are using? The quickest way to failure on the shield is to over tackle or use "here I am" line like florescent glow type lines or brightly colored lines.

Having said that your primary problem is your not fishing where the fish are at. Fish want to be close to the grocery store. Find what they are eating, and find the fish.

If it got hot then your fishing to shallow. Your starting point should of been 15 ft. and quickly progressing to 20 and 25ft. Even Quetico Mikes Zulus will suck if the fish don't see the lure. Same with everything else your using. Catching fish is usually less about the lure and more about putting it in front of them.

A few other questions,,,,,,is your boat ugly? Are you wearing the latest in designer fishing attire? Have you been living right? These will all factor in to your success.

All kidding aside......you are smart to question why you did poorly. The big question is "what are you going to do differently next time your not getting bites".
 
Lotw
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07/10/2018 05:05AM  
id say 99% you were too shallow. If you do that in june you cant keep them off your hook.
just moving away from the shoreline another cast length will sometimes make all the difference. Quetico lake can be tough. trolling deep would be a good bet especially mid day.
 
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