Grand Marais Report (3/20 - 3/21)

[JBMasterAngler]

Made it up there for the weekend. Hit mink lake on friday...which is appropiately named, a mink was running back and fourth along the shoreline keeping an eye on me. Marked a few fish in 7 ft and had a couple strikes, but no takers. On saturday we spent the entire day on gunflint...fished from 8 to 70 ft. on the west end by the reef. Used various jigs, colors, baits and depths, but aside from marking a couple fish we didn't get a bite. I even tried bouncing on the bottom in hopes of bringing in an eel pout. Nothing! Alot of spots I drilled had 6 inches of frozen slush with very soft ice all the way down (especially closer to the shoreline). Was gonna get an early start on sunday to fish trout lake a few hours before heading home, but we all slept in and honestly didn't feel like giving it a try. So no fish, but was still a good time.

[monstermoose78]

My dad was up on Sag with my cousin and some friends they limited out on lakers between 4-9 pounds. The had 5 people and came home with 10 lakers. They also went to mink and had no luck. JB did you get your rainbow chubs

[JBMasterAngler]

I did not. I ended up using fatheads, sucker minnows, and frozen cisco. At the very least I know a handful of places to go for future reference though.

I have a sneaking suspicion the opposite side of mink would be a better place to fish. Do you know what types of jigs they used? I was using a rainbow trout colored forage minnow tipped with euros...wondering if maybe I should've used smaller jigs? Talked to a group of 6 people that had fished kimball and they caught 2 trout and 1 perch between them...hopefully the perch will not become re-established in these lakes.

[protrapper]

Did you fish over by the steep cliff on Mink??? We have been fishing steps off the road by the small culvert in 9 feet.. The perch have always been in those lakes.. It's what makes the browns big in Kimball... We used small Genz worms and Genz bugs with waxies on Mink.. My buddies got they're limit on Trout Lake... Been the best lake all winter..

[JBMasterAngler]

I remember when I was a kid that's all we used to catch out of mink and kimball...I could only get trout out of trout lake back then. According to the lakefinder though, the DNR hasn't caught any perch since the rehab back in '93 (pretty sure that was the year). I suppose it was just a matter of time before they came back.

I fished around the "community spot" at the access point right off the road, as well as right in the middle of the lake.

Rainbows or lakers or both out of trout? In all honesty, that's the lake we should've fished. I've seen some nice rainbows come out of there.

[protrapper]

Lakers.. 40 feet of water.. On fatheads on a deadstick.. You should have stayed closer to shore.. Sucks you didn't catch anything.. But be happy you missed the ice storm, we lost power last night..

[JBMasterAngler]

Yeah, sounds like you guys got hit bad. Anyway, there's always next year...actually I'll be up again in june, then in october, again in december...as far as march, I'm not sure if I want to hit ely or chequamegon bay instead. We'll see when the time comes around.