Island & Fish Lake Resevoirs

[JBMasterAngler]

I've only fished island once (many years ago), and have never been to fish. I'm wondering how the bass fishing is...does fish have smallies? I might goof around and fish for walleyes a little bit, but I'll just kinda' learn as I go for them. Also, is there any bait stores in the area?

[ripstick]

Fish has more large mouths than smalies, but not that many. Island is coming up in the smallie population.

[Northlander]

Lots of nice smallies on island lake. Hit back bays with rocky shorelines and Im sure docks, rafts as well.

As far as walleyes there arent many and they are all small.

[Down Deep]

I've never caught a largemount on Island, but I hear that the smallmouth can be had on the shallow reef tops and prominent rocky points. I found some shallow walleyes in the bullrushes the week before the 4th of July. The walleys are getting scattered now, but come mid-September they will be ganged up on the reefs and deep dropoffs. Some nice fish can be had from mid-Sept. till freeze up. There is lots of action as well.

I'm not much of a Fish Lake fan, but from what I read on some other threads it is darn near like fishing in Canada, so I'm headed there on Saturday to see for myself.

[Northlander]

Dont believe the hype DD.

[MOBY RICHARD*]

Enjoy your day Steve!

Don't blow the frosting off the cake

trying to get "all those" candles out!!!

[ewirz]

Both fish and island can have very good fishing, especially earlier in the year. Like someone already posted, this time of year can be a little tougher. Especially on island, there's just a lot of water and structure to cover. Some big fish can be caught trolling cranks, even during the day.

ERW

[JBMasterAngler]

I'll post a report on how I do...unfortunately I probably won't get to fish as much as I'd like while I'm up there for the trip is technically a family get together (the future in laws) and they're not much for fishing. But if there's a will there's a way.

[Down Deep]

Northlander you are reading my mind.

[Minnesota Fisher]

I'm heading to Fish Lake tomorrow AM. A relative is in town from Florida & he's never caught a walleye before. I usually fish for them earlier in the season, but I'm hoping we can find some this time of year. If not, maybe we'll hook into some crappies or head over to Island. I'll post my results.

[Minnesota Fisher]

I took my cousin's boy out on Fish yesterday and we had a blast. After we caught some walleyes, we moved on so he could catch some other freshwater fish. In all, we caught walleye, bass, big panfish, huge perch, crappie, and lots of pike.

The pike were probably the most fun. We caught some really small ones, but the majority were between 20-25 inches. I had a ginormous one (as he called it) right by the boat, but he couldn't get it in the net before it cut the line. I'd have to guess it was about 36" long. It hit a crawler harness on the bottom in 12 FOW, but the other pike were caught on spinnerbaits in about 5-6.

Great day to be on the lake, he had some fish for a fish fry, & he has a nice Minnesota fishing story to take back to Florida.

[Surface Tension]

I've got a quick Island lake report from the weekend.

Water temps of 70 degrees on the surface and down to 24 FOW.

Its that time of year when Island lake will have multiple situations and patterns to get the gold.

Could be slip bobbing the weeds or jigs deep over structure. For this report it was a spinner/crawler in the main basin over deep water keying in on the slight bottom changes on an otherwise featureless flat. In a short time I managed 3 eyes and one rock bass all from the same depth and same area. 2 eyes were 12", thats usually a clue to move but the third eye was 26". That one had the blue tint thats common with large Island lake eyes. Would've liked a picture of that one but because of a fussy camera it wasn't to be.