Mine pit lake trout

[Mojo88]

Hello! New to this but I come across a lot of these threads and wanted to give it a try! I’ve done some fishing on canisteo mine pit for lake trout and have had some good days and very slow days. Was wondering if anybody fishes the taconite side for lake trout in the winter? When I’m out there I never see any traffic out that way so I’m curious if anybody has had success!

 

Thanks

Mojo88

[JBMasterAngler]

Canisteo Pit has been closed to the public several years ago...has it opened back up to the public? Would be cool if it has opened back up, as I’m planning on going to Grand Rapids area in Septemper. 

[Mojo88]

It has! Game wardens are out there every once in a while checking fishing licenses and such! I was told by a local sheriff the mining land has been returned back to public land due to mine going bankrupt and not complying within a certain amount of time!

[PRO-V]

Are you using the south access off the plant entrance road? If so that first portion is the Buckeye Pit and north though the narrows is the Canisteo. I've mostly fished points off the narrows and north from there. The whole area can be good depending on the structure. I've had many days where you did good and others they weren't interested. Have caught them on 3" white tube jigs but did better ripping Heddon Sonars. Go to 1000 Lakes Sports in Rapids and get some Sebile Vibrato's. I would recommend white and pink/white. Rip them like a Sonar. Have found them to be one of my most effective lake trout lures. Friends of mine get on behind Bovey and Taconite but with the deep snow I don't think they have been out. I wouldn't trust the ice this winter.

[JBMasterAngler]

That is great news that it’s open again! I knew the company had gone bankrupt, but I couldn’t find any updates on the status of the lake. Has the water level changed at all? I had heard they would lower the level by as much as 100 ft. 

[PRO-V]

They quit pumping it out when they shut down so I would expect levels to rise again.

[Mojo88]

I know the only way to get on is thru coleraine bovey or taconite. Ice is good out there but lots of slush. All these pictures are from this season so far 

[JBMasterAngler]

Looks like several years of zero fishing pressure was very kind to the lakers 

 

 

[PRO-V]

Looks like you guys are doing pretty well as it is. Those last 2 pics are a pretty fish. Respectfully though I am not a fan of any photos where people hold the fish straight out in front of them. It doesn't give a true impression of fish size. No offense intended. 

Edited February 4, 2020 by PRO-V

[JBMasterAngler]

Out of curiosity, you mentioned the towns on where to access the lake...I’m guessing the road to the boat launch isn’t plowed? That doesn’t look like an ideal place to target winter trout anyway. So, are the access points roads that dead end at the lake? Some maps I looked at still show the roads, as they existed before the lake filled in. This would be a 2+ hour drive for me, but since ice fishing on Lake Superior (not even Chequamegon Bay) won’t be an option this year, Canisteo looks like it would be the next best thing!

 

 

[Mojo88]

all Boat lands have been completely shutdown and blocked off except one that is in taconite but that one is gated and you would need permission to use it! The 2 boat landings on the buckeye side have been blocked off by magnatation when they were still running. Now from what I was told by local sheriffs the land is public again but you can’t touch any of there property witch would include the gates blocking the roads. The boat access off scenic 7 has been out of commission for many many years. It’s hard to explain the other entrances from bovey and coleraine as there just trails heading down to the lake! Best I could tell you is to get on thru bovey the entrance is behind the old middle school. Park by train tracks and follow path down to lake. From what I’ve been told this year is that it has been plowed and is very nice!

[Bigfatbert]

Mojo88 has summed it up good about the status and access to the Canestio . The Bovey trail is the way in ... Good luck out there and be safe as this large pit can have very inconsistent ice from one spot to another ..

[J_D]

How much ice have you been seeing out there mojo88?

[JBMasterAngler]

Thanks for the info. Bummer about the boat launch situation.

[Wanderer]

Great intel @Mojo88
 

Sounds odd the county is allowing a “private” gate to block access to public space. 

[PRO-V]

10 hours ago, Wanderer said:

Great intel @Mojo88
 

Sounds odd the county is allowing a “private” gate to block access to public space. 

 

I'll second that!!!! Our DNR is rather spineless though (excluding the wardens).

[JBMasterAngler]

Yeah, I e-mailed the DNR. They really didn’t tell me anything that hasn’t already been shared here. Although they did say magnetation still owned the access points. 

[PRO-V]

Mojo88 - was this you guys out there this afternoon? Looked like the Clam hub in your picture.

Edited February 7, 2020 by PRO-V

[Mojo88]

Yes that was me!!! I remember seeing a plane fly over that’s so awesome!! What an awesome view from the plane I would live to see it from up there!

[PRO-V]

That's one of the spots I've fished. My buddy lost 3 airplane jigs there before he looked down the hole and saw a standing power pole.

[BobT]

On 2/3/2020 at 7:28 PM, PRO-V said:

Looks like you guys are doing pretty well as it is. Those last 2 pics are a pretty fish. Respectfully though I am not a fan of any photos where people hold the fish straight out in front of them. It doesn't give a true impression of fish size. No offense intended. 

Not to hijack this thread but is this better? If you look you can see that his arms are not fully extended but his elbows are actually close to his ribs. Last year on July 5, my brother-in-law caught this on Lake Osakis while we were working jigs and minnows for walleyes with my nephew. We are not bass fishermen but catch a few nice smallies occasionally when chasing walleyes. We didn't measure or weigh it but we both agreed it was probably close to 25" and he thought it weighed close to 9 lbs. Afterward, when his son kept needling us for releasing it, we looked up what a 25" smallmouth might weigh. What we found was 8 lbs - 4 oz. give or take. Then looked up the state record and learned it was entirely possible that he may have released a new state record. As far as he is concerned it was.

 

[BobT]

On 2/6/2020 at 5:53 AM, Wanderer said:

Great intel @Mojo88
 

Sounds odd the county is allowing a “private” gate to block access to public space. 

If the access is a privately owned road the county would have to either negotiate an agreement for public use, buy the road if the owner is willing to sell, or exercise eminent domain and take it through court order with court ordered compensation.  

[HossFisher]

1 hour ago, BobT said:

Not to hijack this thread but is this better? If you look you can see that his arms are not fully extended but his elbows are actually close to his ribs. Last year on July 5, my brother-in-law caught this on Lake Osakis while we were working jigs and minnows for walleyes with my nephew. We are not bass fishermen but catch a few nice smallies occasionally when chasing walleyes. We didn't measure or weigh it but we both agreed it was probably close to 25" and he thought it weighed close to 9 lbs. Afterward, when his son kept needling us for releasing it, we looked up what a 25" smallmouth might weigh. What we found was 8 lbs - 4 oz. give or take. Then looked up the state record and learned it was entirely possible that he may have released a new state record. As far as he is concerned it was.

 

 

That's a nice smallmouth and one to be proud of, but from what I can tell it wouldn't be any more than 20"-21" and 4-5lbs.  I mean no disrespect, just my opinion.  Nice catch!

[Wanderer]

@BobT Did you intend to repost that in this thread?  I remember the first time you posted it. Seems odd it pops up here. 

[PRO-V]

9 hours ago, BobT said:

Not to hijack this thread but is this better? If you look you can see that his arms are not fully extended but his elbows are actually close to his ribs. Last year on July 5, my brother-in-law caught this on Lake Osakis while we were working jigs and minnows for walleyes with my nephew. We are not bass fishermen but catch a few nice smallies occasionally when chasing walleyes. We didn't measure or weigh it but we both agreed it was probably close to 25" and he thought it weighed close to 9 lbs. Afterward, when his son kept needling us for releasing it, we looked up what a 25" smallmouth might weigh. What we found was 8 lbs - 4 oz. give or take. Then looked up the state record and learned it was entirely possible that he may have released a new state record. As far as he is concerned it was.

 

That's a better picture.

[Joel Kreller]

Wow I used to catch smelt out on that pit at night when I was bored and not catching anything else. I legitimately have never caught a laker through the ice but this lakenjas always been in the back of my head after loosing a big fish out there. Looks like some beautiful Lakers there!!

[BobT]

On 2/21/2020 at 10:29 AM, HossFisher said:

 

That's a nice smallmouth and one to be proud of, but from what I can tell it wouldn't be any more than 20"-21" and 4-5lbs.  I mean no disrespect, just my opinion.  Nice catch!

First, my bad. I mistyped when I wrote that we thought it was over 25". Our estimate was more like 24".

 

Maybe the photo doesn't quite do it justice and remember, we are fishermen so we can sometimes exaggerate the truth.  I admit we did not measure it and without doing so we cannot confirm nor deny that it was approaching or possibly over 24" but every June for the past 20 years we have been chasing walleyes on the Lac Seul in Ontario and it is common for us to encounter smallmouths. Many of those that we catch measured in the 22" - 23" range and both of us believed this one was larger than any either of us previously caught. I remember my words when I netted it for him, "Wow! What a hog of a smallmouth!" It was fun and will live in our memories for sure.

[Rick]

Welcome to FM @Joel Kreller

 

Looking forward to seeing more of you!

[JBMasterAngler]

I went to Canisteo today and did not catch a single thing, except a nasty sunburn! That trail was surprisingly easy going...thanks again Mojo for telling me about it! 
 

I fished anywhere from 30 to 200 ft. Only marked a few schools of Cisco in the deepest holes. Thought I might have found something at 35 ft. But I think they were little perch. I tried some panfish baits to see what they were...felt like perch nibbles, but couldn’t catch one. Really cool lake! Felt like I was in the badlands, rockies, and Mars all in one!

[lithbeef]

I am just curious about the laws for this body of water - only perch and cisco would be open right now? Correct? I will admit, I have not yet spent time reading the regulations.