Spider Lake Fishing Reports

[gregg52]

Never been there

Good walleye lake ?????? Pan fish?????

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bmc]

It's a good multi species lake, muskies included. I've only fished it once a long time ago for bass and we got some decent smallies and largies in there. I heard from a friend that he thought the crappie fishing has went down hill since the muskies have been stocked in there. There's also a couple primitive "boat to" campsites on the lake, if you're looking for something like that. This lake is on my "to fish" list for this summer.

Brian

[kingkobbla]

I caught some nice crappies there in the winter.

[T-water]

Really great all-around lake. Don't have to fish too hard to get a few fish, the biggun's take some work. Probably want to start by focussing on the shorelines for bass and pike, I've never tried for walleyes, crappies are plentiful. Most importantly it's a beautiful lake, 2 nice resorts (i have my favorite), and lots of lakes surrounding if you get ambitious.

[mrklean]

my buddy has a cabin up there said ever since they had some fishing show out there a few years ago it got fished out and hasnt been a eye lake since

[gregg52]

thats sounds like a tall tale !!!!

hard to believe a show or anything like that would fish out the entire lake

i saw a 6 lb walleye caught there mon evening

[fishuhalik]

There's still a decent amount of eyes out there. I haven't fished the lake myself in the summer, just in the winter for crappies, but have some buddies that do quite a bit. They do really well for smallies and largies while they're pulling leeches and crawlers!

Also, the crappies haven't gone downhill because of the muskies, they've gone downhill since the fishing pressure exploded out there in the winter. I hardly both going there any more for panfish, there's just alot better lakes in the area

[bmc]

My daughter and I hit Spider yesterday from 2pm till about 9pm. We mainly bass fished and did well, more largies than smallies. Biggest largie was 17" and biggest smallie was 15". Of course, Amanda caught both of them. We also caught a bunch of nice gills, a 25" walleye, and a couple northerns.

Highlight of the trip was when her 15" smallie got mauled by a muskie at boat side. Amanda fought the muskie/bass combo for about 5 minutes, giving me time to get a big sucker minnow in the water, but the muskie wasn't interested. Talk about exciting!

Brian

[fishuhalik]

That's always fun! How big do you think the muskie was?

[bmc]

It was definitely in the high 40" range. After that my daughter wanted to spend all night out there with that big sucker minnow swimming around in hopes of hooking up with that fish.

Earlier in the day we trolled over that spot, she was dragging a decoy sized sucker under a bobber and I told her there should be a muskie on this spot.....and there was.

Brian

[Esoxmn]

oh no! she may have been biten by the musky bug!

[bmc]

"May have"?????????????????? I've been looking for a kid friendly muskie combo ever since!!!

Any suggestions??? I don't want to break the bank though. Especially I'm still using a 6' Tony Rizzo heavy action pool cue for a rod! LOL Maybe I should let her have that and shop for a new set up for myself? The only thing bad about that rod/reel combo is that it's muskie cherry hasn't been broke and I've had that combo for................15+ years. I don't think I could pass that curse on to her. LOL

Brian

[whitewolf6647]

REEL

Abu Garcia "Abumatic" 1276 Superline Closed Face about $60.00

ROD

Daiwa Heartland-S Specialty Musky Casting Rod 6'6" H action HL-M661HRB $60.00 or

Shimano "Convergence" Graphite Rods CVC-66XH $80.00

Or if she uses a spinning combo:

ROD

Daiwa Heartland-S Specialty Musky Spinning Rod (Aluminum Oxide Guides and Tip Top) 6'0" H action HL-M601HRS or 6'6" MH action HL-M661MHRS $60.00 or

Shimano "Compre" Muskie Rods CPS-M70MH $100

REEL

Shimano "Sedona" 4000FB $60.00 orQuantum "Optix" OP60F $30.00 or

Abu Garcia "Cardinal" 176 Spinning Reel $60.00 or

Shimano "Spirex" SR-4000FG $60.00

I actually have 2 of the spinning combos my wife uses and have caught fish up to 46" with them, had them over 4 years and still work great. I also took my buddy and his kid out last year and his kid was 8 and used one of those combos and had no problems with it.

[SJMyers32]

Hey BMC are these primitive camp spots on the islands?

[Esoxmn]

they are along ther shore of the south end of the lake.

[bmc]

Whitewolf,

Thanks for the info!! I found her a used rod/reel combo on the Musky forum. If that doesn't work for her, I'll look into one of the spinning combo's you suggested!

SJM,

Like esoxmn said. Most of the primitive sites are on the south and south east side of the lake. My wife and I looked at a couple and they looked pretty nice. Picnic tables and fire rings too. Finding firewood might be a chore though. Keep in mind it's mainly Chippewa Nat'l Forest around the lake and you can't cut any thing that's alive for firewood, but I'm pretty sure you can use and wood that is on the ground from mother nature.

Brian

[glenn57]

hey BMC,could you send me your e-mail address? i have a question for ya, heres mine. [email protected]. thanks

[bmc]

Email will be sent shortly glenn!

Brian

[glenn57]

you now have my question in your mail. thanks

[BenO]

I was out on spider from sunday tell wednesday this week and did alot of muskie fishing. Never did get one in the boat had a few follows only one decent fish alot i seen were mid 30s. Did see something upseting my last night there. Seen a boat trolling and hook up with a musky and the got it in the net put it in the boat and drove away. I dont care if they were just going to take a picture on shore or something that fish died for sure.

[Hibbingite]

Hi all,

Just wandering if anyone has ventured onto Spider yet and if so, I am wondering what the ice conditions are. We are thinking of giving it a try this Tuesday for crappies.

Thanks

[Bass Whacker]

I'm heading up to my buddies cabin in a week and just wondering if people are finding some panfish. and any help on how to find them this time of year would be awsome.

[bmc]

I heard my first report of shallow crappies today. As a rule look for mucky, dark bottom bays on the North side of the lake. Don't rule out the same type of bays on any other side of the lake, as long as they are protected from the wind. You can't fish too shallow. If you're not getting hung up on the weeds by shore, you're not shallow enough! A small jig/minnow or jig/feather/marabou/plastic combo under a bobber is usually the best bet. If the bite is on, minnows are not necessary.

If the crappies aren't there, try the middle of the bay and if not there, look for them suspended out in front of the bay on the main lake.

Brian

[Bass Whacker]

thanks for the info. I will be sure to give it a try. I dont supose you have a water temp for the lake?

[bmc]

I would guess mid-40's right now. You should be looking for water around that 50 degree mark. I got a reliable report crappie report yesterday from a local lake. They should be in the shallows!

Brian

[Bass Whacker]

thanks again. this should be fun. I've never caught crappies shallow. I'll be sure to report back after the trip.

[Deet]

Yesterday I fished a smaller lake north (from Rapids) on 38. There were no crappies or bluegills in shallow; the only sign of fish was in about 13 ft. where i kept marking what looked like crappies 2 ft. off bottom (had my vexilar transducer hanging over the side of my little boat). If those were fish, they had lock-jaw. We showed them crappie minnow on jig, minnow on plain hook, and crawler on plain hook, and got not even a nibble. We ended up catching two lm bass in very shallow as we were leaving, which was peculiar for this time of year. It was a disappointing outtage, but still beautiful weather to be on the lake.

I think the crappies weren't shallow yet because the water temp is still too low in that lake, as it is relatively clear and deep for its size. Beyond that, it's not the best crappie lake anyway.

[Bass Whacker]

well we fished spider friday night with not much to show for it. But saturday we found a couple crappies on a steep drop adjacent to some pencil reeds we tried a few other spots like that one but all we could catch was smallies the rest of the day. It was a great time but it would have been fun to get into some crappies.

[Kayo]

Coming up in August. Anyone have any spots that would be good for Walleye? I have found great northern and great bass (small and large) and great panfish spots in that lake but am looking for walleye this year. Thanks