2016 Grand Marais Report

[JBMasterAngler]

Not too much of a report this year. This is usually a week long trip (sometimes 10 days), but I got a different position at my job 2 weeks ago, which will cancel my vacations for the next year  So I basically drove up to Grand Marais after work, early friday morning, and just came back now. At least my kids will get to stay up a couple extra days, as my dad took them up a day earlier, and will be staying until tuesday. 

 

Met them at Two Island Lake on friday, and the minute I pulled into town, a rain storm passed through. Lasted a little over an hour. Ended up being a pretty nice evening after that. Luckily I know the lake very well, and with just a few hours we were able to cover all the good spots. Caught the typical crop of 12 to 14 inch smallies, but my dad ended the day with an 18 inch chunker. Caught a few small pike. The walleyes were active though. I caught 3 nice ones casting the shorelines, also lost another. We got to see a moose out on the lake...was walking along a weedy channel.

 

With saturday being my only full day up there, we went to our favorite lake, Greenwood Lake. And of course the wind was blowing right out of the north at 20+ MPH. Was a tough trek getting across the lake in that mess. So we really didn't get to hit our go to spots. We caught about 2 dozen bass, with the average size a little bigger than normal (but still small). I caught a chunky 18 inch lake trout, and lost another about the same size. But the highlight of the day (or the trip for that matter), was when my 8 year old daughter was pulling a little tiny x-rap over a shallow rocky flat, and her little ultra light rod bends right in half! Obviously I thought she was stuck on the bottom. She even handed me her pole, as she thought she was stuck as well. Nope! A 20 inch lake trout was on the other end of her line! That was her first lake trout ever, of course, and she still hasn't stopped bragging about it! 

 

So, trip was way shorter than normal, but Grand Marais is our favorite place, so we still made it happen. Luckily I was able to find a room over 4th of July weekend once I found out about my job, so we'll continue part 2 of our trip then.

[JBMasterAngler]

Grand Marais report part 2...

 

Got into GM at about 3 o'clock Friday, got our fix of donuts, then headed to Devil Track Lake. Fishing was terribly slow! Only caught 8 smallies, all small, and 2 small pike. 

 

Fished Saganaga on Saturday. Surprisingly there wasn't that many people out there. I didn't see any canoers getting shuttled back and fourth. Got checked by the game warden, and they gave the kids free DQ coupons. Trolled everywhere, and didn't catch anything! Only marked 1 or 2 fish. Only got water fleas on my line on the west side of the lake, none on the east side. Only caught about a dozen bass in the river, some of them were decent, but mostly small. A couple small pike as well. 

 

Fished Hungry Jack on Sunday. Fishing was pretty slow there also, but the bass were bigger. My daughter caught her very first perch. But the highlight came when she caught an 18 inch smallmouth on a tiny little minnow rap. She hasn't stopped talking about it since! Another highlight came at the end, when my van got stuck at the launch, and the guys at hungry jack lodge had to tow me out.  The people at hungry jack lodge have always been great to us, so this is just another feather in their cap for us.

 

Overall was a good, fun trip. First time I've ever been there on 4th of July, probably will be the last time. Can't beat going up there in early June, but we made the most of it.