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Fish Lake, Island Lake Boulder Lake Fishing Reports


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  • Northlander

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Island is a good one ft. low yet. I will be heading up to fish the reservoirs this weekend for the first time this fishing season. Actually, this will be my first outing since ice fishing!! Last week was hard with the withdrawals and all, but there is light at the end of the tunnel...

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Island is 1.6 ft low.

Fish is .09 ft low, so pretty much at normal levels.

You can find up to date water level and discharge info on all of the reservoirs run by MN Power (Island, Fish, Rice, Boulder and Whiteface Lakes) by clicking here

You can find some fishing reports on Fish Lake from another thread here

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  • 1 month later...

We may be packing up the tent and a cooler and heading for island lake for a 1 night camp outing. Any recent reports? Yes we will be bringing plenty of bug spray....

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I know not looking forward to the aftermath of a week full of rain. But weekends are limited, and summer is flying by. Just have to suck it up and get out there. Im guessing that a lot of people will also be out. We may now head up there this afternoon to grab a spot..

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Island is a good one ft. low yet.

No kidding...even with all the rain??

I stopped by Pike this AM and she looks up

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Camped on island lake Saturday night. Fishes from 10 am to 930pm and 730 -1 on Sunday. Slow action but nevertheless caught enough fish to have a walleye camp breakfast, and enough for the freezer. Nothing big. Just your typical island eyes. Big fish of the weekend was a 26" pike. Fun to fight in the shallow weeds. Best fish came Sunday morning windy and cloudy.. Another highlight of the weekend being woke up in the early hrs by a deer snorting at us. Lol... Fun weekend looking forward to c bay next weekend!

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Has anyone recently caught any walters over 20" on Fish or Island. Fished both of these lakes for years now and still cannot find the bigger fish. Just the small typical eyes..

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i have probably fished boulder more than island or fish. i have cought for the most part eaters as you say in island. although i believe there are larger walleys in there i believe its in the genes of the walleys themselves. we had a talk about this some time ago regarding island. i called the dnr and they basicly told me that the strain of the walleys in island [cant speak for fish] are for slow growth.

we talked about the forage being the problem perhapst. stock tullibies in there maby? wont make a difference according to the dnr. island is all natural reproduction so things wont change. so if you do get a 27incher it's a old fish and realease would be a good idea. there are plenty of walleys over 20 inches in that lake for they have been cought. however they are older than similar walleys in mille lacs for example.

i'm no expert on this lake. just what i gathered from the dnr. sure it's nice to get some big ones now and then, but i will be happy with a meal anyday. i have cought maby 5 or 6 walleys over 7 pounds in boulder, but that is over many years of fishing. the one in my avatar came out of rice. so i'm sure you will run into some nice ones in island. truly a great lake with great fishing to offer. good luck.

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thanks rein man. Good info, and I kind of do remember that topic of DNR maybe putting in some food for the island lake walters. Interesting. Yeah the "eaters" that we did catch were tasty. And yes I would let any big fish go. If its island lake a 17" seems to be big LOL.. Good population of fish. So thats a plus..

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Has anyone recently caught any walters over 20" on Fish or Island. Fished both of these lakes for years now and still cannot find the bigger fish. Just the small typical eyes..

I dont fish Island much because there are so many small fish in it. For a lake that size there should be way more big walleyes no matter what the DNR says! Natural reproduction or not!

I do like Island in July and August when the crank bite heats up. Otherwise I stay away from it for the most part.

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i think island is developing or already is a great smallmouth lake. they are there in numbers and some good size as well. i dont fish muskies, but island has some in there for those who want to fish for them. the crappies have always been the hard fish to find for me. one spot that seems to hold some is right under the bridge itself. i have seen some nice ones cought there by the shorefishermen. i have found them more by accident over the years than on purpose. ice fishing out from the sportsman's club in the deep water has been a spot in the past where they are suspended.

rice lake used to be a great walley lake and for big perch as well. still get some walley in the pockets of the weeds and on the edges of them but the perch are not there as they used to be. the pike have been steady and i go for them on hard water. been tough to get out on the ice the last couple of years with the deep snow though.

when i was a kid there was a guy who's name was Fred Burgmarker. he owned Burgmarkers garage on 4th street back in the 60's. he would take my brother and i fishing on fish lake. all he ever did was troll worm gangs next to weedlines. always cought walleys. still works to this day. good luck.

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"Island is a good one ft. low yet."

No kidding...even with all the rain??

I stopped by Pike this AM and she looks up

Here's a link to the website that shows the water levels around Duluth. Island is 0.31 feet low right now and rising. It's up about 9" since this time last week.

http://web15.mnpower.com/web/public/Hydro/ShorelandTraditions/Levels.html

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I will be making a trip up to my dad's place over the fourth. We are going to stay in bayfield fri-mon. I will hopefully be able to fish island mon pm, and tues am. Jarrid or anyone else - pm me if you are interested in going out fishing...maybe we will break the 20 mark for ya wink.

In all honesty, I grew up on island lake and have fished it for years. My biggest eye (that I got in the boat) was 27". I have had one other eye up to the boat that was at least that big, but it bent the hook on my jig and got off right as I was pulling it into the net. I tend to have a week or two each year where I will find the 15-23 in. fish...but more often than not, I too only find the eater 13inchers. Hardest walleye lake to nail down, that's why I like it. There are big fish present, and rh1 is right they are very old. Every year in the ALS the same locals win the tourney and they usually have at least one 4-7 lber. They are in there, but they don't get old from biting hooks...

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Would love to join you fishing, but I am going to be heading out of town for the holiday weekend. Coincidently I will be in Bayfield too, but only to launch the boat. Then we are heading over to Madeline for some overnight fun with friends & family. Thanks for the invite though, and let me know how you do! Gd luck...

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hit island friday about 10a.m. (BIG mistake, got nasty sunburn lol) for muskies, 20 casts into it decided it was too hot for "physical fishin", so took the lazy route... went for drive around lake lookin to mark fish, stop n jig here n there, not much action so tried trolling, nothin doin there except one lil smally.... next was slip bobbers.... that was the trick, at least with the heat n sun. never did cool down enough to musky fish frown

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Fished Island over the fourth. The fish cooperated to say the least! Caught tons of fish on slip bobber and leeches. Some nice ones to boot too! All fish were in between 14-22".

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Ya thanks for the call man. frown I see you greened out the hotspot. You should send me GPS coords to that spot. wink Im headed up there Sat with the wife. Any crappies or didnt ya try for them. Pull any cranks?

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Sorry I didn't give you a call steve, I had a family reunion on the pontoon with me while I was fishing. I only ended up being able to fish for an hour and a half. I did green out my spot so that trolls cant just go slam them, but I will send you an email after work and give you some good pointers. I don't mind giving info out to those I have met. Just my personal policy I guess. Mayflies were just starting to pop up on the surface. They were the really big ones, hex flies I think. No crappies, but some dandy perch thrown into the mix. Didn't try anything other than a slip bobber and leech. Usually that is the ticket out there for me until the water gets really warm, then I like crawlers.

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Nice catch! when we camped a couple of weeks ago-minners seemed to do the trick for me, glad to see leeches are hitting though. Caught a fat 23" on a leech last week, but it was on the river, so cnat be afraid to use the blood suckers!

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  • 2 weeks later...

thursday we hit FISH LAKE about 7pm, 11 crappies, 2 pike, and a walleye all on minnows in 8-12 fow. Spent friday night out there til from 9pm til 1am, 1 crappie. went to ISLAND LAKE saturday about 6pm til 10pm. NOTHING!!! marked LOTSA big ones, no takers. Mosquitos were UNBEARABLE.

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tried fish last night from 6-9. fished all over the lake and managed to snag a rockbass, 12" walleye, and 9.25" bluegill. all fish came on leeches- was my first time out this year.

i purchased a new boat this weekend and hope to be able to put it to use the rest of this summer/fall and have a little more input for everyone

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  • 3 weeks later...

I was able to get out with Gunflint on Island Lake yesterday afternoon. Fished 1pm to about 8ish and caught about 14 eyes all on cranks. Depth of around 20' was best. Flashy billed reefrunners were the ticket. Brang home 10 nice eyes for dinner. We probably could have squeeked out our limits of nicer eyes but I was late for dinner already. wink

Would have liked to bottom bounce spinners but the winds were just too much for that. Great day weather wise besides the wind picking up off and on.

I hope we get that type weather for the Hawg Walleye Contest up there August 20th and 21st.

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • Kettle
      Walked today and yesterday, flushed 9, shot at two and got two. Hopefully next year I'll have a dog to hunt with. Still warm up here, skim of ice on ponds. Weather has been nice. Hopefully walk a bit more the next few weeks. Been pretty cautious walking for birds to not interfere with deer hunters. There sure are not the deer hunters there used to be 
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