Master Angler Winners & Fishing Update

I know you have all been patiently waiting for a fishing update but I have been too busy fishing. I had to rub it in just a little bit. We also need to update the Manotak Master Angler winners for the past few weeks. We would like to congratulate Tor Saile, Gary Borkowski & Mark Melius as Master Angler winners. They are all guests who have been fishing at Manotak Lodge for a few years so they definitely have it figured out where the fish are. It helps that they are all good fisherman also. Tor brings his two sons along with him, Tyler & Tanner. We are not sure who fishes harder, the kids or dad but we do know that Tyler and Tanner are very good fisherman. It is exactly what Linda & I had hoped would happen at Manotak and that is to promote fishing to the younger generation. Gary & Mark are very good friends of Linda and I who originate from our home town. GO PACKERS - GO CHEESEHEADS! See their pictures at right.
Onto the fishing report. Walleyes are still on a great bite. Reefs are the place to be if you want Walleyes! They have not gone as deep as we thought they would at this time of the season especially for how hot it has been this summer. We are catching Eyes in the 14-22 foot range with Minnows & Leeches an equal choice for bait. Nightcrawlers are working but minnows and leeches are catching more fish. I have snuck out fishing the last two evenings and have absolutely pounded Walleyes by Twin Islands, Sand Dunes & Sandbar. Last night as an example I was fortunate to boat over 20 Walleyes in an hour & a half. My ego enlarged my head so big my hat would not fit. I can mention one secret weapon that I came upon for Walleyes for the past two days of fishing: Gold Glitter Jigs. A vendor stopped by the lodge and asked me to try his newly painted jigs that were covered in gold glitter. I guess I am like most fisherman in that I was skeptical but thought why not. They should give off a flash in the water which should help attract fish. Well, they have been red hot or should I say gold hot. I fished with Earl my dockhand and he could not believe how many fish I caught compared to his jig. Last night same thing. I fished right next to one of our guests, Craig from Denver, and he finally had to ask what the H_ll I was fishing with. He caught one to my 12 Walleyes. I have to admit that there are absolutely no problems in the world when you are catching fish. I sure wish the foreign countries that are fighting right now would come over and fish for one week and change their attitude. They can fight it out for the Manotak Master Angler Award. Pike are on a strange bite at the moment. One day they are jumping in the boat and the next day they are no where to be found. We can always rely on Pike to give action through most of the day if Walleyes are finnicky but I guess this is fishing. Yesterday was a slow day for Pike while today was fantastic. Gold spoons were good for one of our cabins that fished close to the lodge. They caught 12 pike in 2 hours time. Bass are not on a good run, they are on a phenomenal run at the moment. Leeches and Nightcrawlers are pounding Bass one after the other. Without bragging, it is common to have a guest tell us that they caught 25-40 Bass in a short days time frame. 15-19 inchers are very very active at the moment. Reefs where Walleyes are hanging out are very active for Bass as well. Some of the deeper points are also very good. Muskies are increasing in activity but we are not knocking them dead by no means. Mark & Gary who I mentioned earlier fished for them fairly actively and saw afew in the lower to mid 40's. I was fortunate to see a brute that would have definitely been over 50 inches strike one of my 17 inch Walleyes as I was bringing it in the boat. Needless to say my heart lodged in my throat for a fraction of a second. Muskies will only get better as the season progresses. Unfortuntely I do not have great news for Jumbo Perch. We are catching lots of Perch but not able to find the bigger ones on a consistent basis. I have been saying this for the past month without finding a solution. We have seen streaks of glory where a guest will catch maybe a dozen larger Perch and then they just dissapear the next day or even that afternoon. We ask our guests to keep only 9 inch or larger Perch so that they have a good meal of fillets. We appreciate this greatly.
In other news at the lodge, we have been greeted by our pet duck Lunch and her offspring. All 10 of them. They have been eating us out of house and home. They are averaging about 3-4 loafs of bread a day. We love it! In fact, another flock of ducks has shown up to take advantage of the free meals. At one time we had 18 ducks eating right out of our hands. We also found out that one flock of ducks don't like another flock of ducks. We thought we were in the "Hood" and there was going to be a gang war. Ducks were chasing each other and biting at each others tail feathers. Absolutely Hilarious to watch. We also hope you are enjoying our Live Webcam. It has been a great feature to the lodge. Guests tell us they really like watching from home and seeing what is happening here or what the weather is like. We are really close to starting up another camera right at the dock. Everything is close to being installed and should hopefully be up and running this week or maybe next. Stay tuned, literally. Don't forget about our new Fall Special where one fisherman comes for full price and the next fisherman is half price. This starts in September when it is my favorite time to fish. It may be yours also. Well, that is all for now. Sorry for the delay in reporting but I know you will cut me some slack when you know I am out fishing and doing it for a good cause. Maybe that should be our new slogan: Fishing for World Peace!

Manotak Master Angler Winner & Monster Walleye

Two great news stories for this past week. Our first woman has won our Manotak Master Angler Award. Betty Smith took this past week honors with big fish in each category. Betty is a hard fisherwoman who deserves this win. Congratulations to Betty. Betty's husband Ken won on a previous week. I do have to mention that Betty probably owes all of the big fish that she caught to her son George who knows all of the fishing spots by heart and is a great net man. I know first hand because George netted one of my Walleyes one evening. And one more thing. It took Betty 5 weeks to win while Ken won right away. (could not resist that little jab). Betty's picture is on right.
The second big news story is the MONSTER Walleye caught by Ron Abel this past week. A 34 inch behemoth. Yes, this is no typo: 34 INCHES LONG. The great thing was that Ron was with his wife Cindy and son Matt. This is the longest Walleye that we know of in our 11 years as owners of Manotak Lodge. There have been alot over 30 inches but not many close to 34 inches. Ron and his family were here for two weeks and caught a tremendous amount of fish and definitely deserve this trophy for the time spent on the water. And the absolutely best part of the whole story is that Ron released this fish. He said he thought about if for less than 10 seconds about whether to keep it and quickly decided to let her go. We are now checking with our taxidermist about getting a long enough mold for a replica mount.
Congratulations to Ron and check out the picture on right.
Will update fishing report soon but the good news is that fishing has been very good and the better news is that the SANDBAR is in full swing for Walleyes. As everyone knows, the Sandbar is one of my favorite places on earth so I am a very happy fisherman.