Heading out to Thomas lake via Snowbank August 26th for five days. Looking for advice fishing the clear water during this time of the year. I am used to fishing shallower stained lakes. Where will I find the walleyes and trout?

I'm thinking trout will either be suspended over deep water or off the bottom... and walleye will be around reefs and mid-lake structure (but how deep)?

Thanks,
DJ

Trout fishing would be deep and very very tough.

I base camped on Thomas the week after Labor Day last year, and had ok luck with walleyes on drop offs in 20 fow or so. I found out on day 3 that my depth finder battery was bad, and died, so the last couple days I fished blind and still managed to get a few. Also had some luck on Fraser, same thing, drop offs and points in what I’m guessing was 20 fow. Never got any trout, but from what I read and researched, they’ll be deep

IowaFishinGuy: "I base camped on Thomas the week after Labor Day last year, and had ok luck with walleyes on drop offs in 20 fow or so. I found out on day 3 that my depth finder battery was bad, and died, so the last couple days I fished blind and still managed to get a few. Also had some luck on Fraser, same thing, drop offs and points in what I’m guessing was 20 fow. Never got any trout, but from what I read and researched, they’ll be deep"

Thanks man, appreciate the info. That stinks about your depth finder... especially in a lake like Thomas and Fraser. Always worried about my finder doing the same thing.

Bumping this thread for any last minute advice. We will be heading out next Wednesday. TIA

DJ

We just got back from Thomas and had good luck with Walleye trolling stick baits in about 20' of water over sunken islands. We did have leeches but managed to catch 0 with jigging over the same spots, this was mostly because we had solid wind almost every day it seemed. In 50-60' of water I marked many fish towards the bottom which I assume were lake trout but I had no means of really fishing that deep.

Send me a message if you want the spot I had the best luck in for walleye.

We camped on Thomas Lake Aug. 9-15. and have a similar report to jasonf. Reef fishing was often made difficult by the consistently moderate + winds encountered most days. Most walleyes were caught between 17-22 fow by trolling over reefs or along tapering structure extending off of islands or main lake points. We did catch about half of our fish jigging salted emerald shiners in these same areas. No one location produced a lot of fish for us, it was generally 2-4 fish per area and we would then move on to another location or come back to that location later in the day. One bait you may want to try is a #5 Rippin Rap. I had tried this bait for the first time last year on Sturgeon Lake in Quetico and had good results and also did well with it on Thomas Lake this trip. The hits seem to be more aggressive than when fishing a jig and is a lot of fun to use. We made a day trip into Sagus Lake one day and did well trolling and jigging for walleyes there one afternoon. We also tried fishing Fraser Lake one afternoon but high winds made it extremely difficult.

Thanks for the info Jasonf and schucanoe... Much appreciated. You guys gave me a good idea of where to start. Hopefully they bite! Jasonf, I will shoot you an email.

DJ

dpreiner21,
Looking at your pics from your trip last year, you did well on Ima. Nice work. My girlfriend and I are heading through what I presume is your same route late August this year. We will be spending some time on Ima and would love to have a walleye fry one one night. Any pointers you could pass along? What were you catching them on? Depths? Time of day? I plan to hit the 20' humps with leaches on slip bobbers and bounce some jigs off the bottom maybe with plastics or minnows, if I can find a way to get them out there. Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks!

Back in 83 a friend of mine caught a nice laker on Thomas, casting a rapala at a cliff face, on the surface, in mid August. Very freak event....Don't expect that.