Grand Marais 2020

[JBMasterAngler]

Just got back from our annual Grand Marais trip. Fishing was pretty good, despite this being the latest in the month I’ve ever been up there. This year was always planned to be a camping trip, but because several of the campgrounds are still closed (including the one I planned to stay at), I luckily was able to get a spot on Flour Lake. Weather was darn near perfect the whole week. We setup camp slower than expected, so we got a really late start on West Bearskin. Only caught 5 bass. But I didn’t fish any of the normal spots I hit. 
 

Tuesday, we fished Hungry Jack Lake. Holy cow was the resort a zoo! I’ve never seen that place so busy! Which is good...those guys have always been really good to us. Kids caught a bunch of sunnies off the dock. Bass fishing was normal. There were still a few late bloomers on beds. Caught about 35 fish, including a 19.5, 19, and 18.75 inch smallies. Also caught a skinny 20 inch walleye. 
 

Wednesday we fished our favorite, Greenwood Lake. We caught 100 bass. Mostly the typical small ones, but my son landed a 16.75 incher, which was his personal best. Also caught 1 little northern. Never caught one out of here for 25+ years. Now, ever since we caught the first one a few years ago, we always catch at least one every time we fish here. Lakers have moved away from the shallows. I marked a lot of them, but I didn’t get any to bite.

 

Thursday was Loon Lake. Caught about 35 fish. They were tiny as usual, but for some reason my son’s favorite fish is rock bass, so he was happy to catch a bunch of them. I caught a 30 inch pike. Had several more follows from pike of similar size. Decided to go for a drive up the trail after fishing, instead of going back to camp. Good decision! We saw a moose and a lynx!

 

Wanted to fish Two Island on our way home, but it just didn’t work out. Things in town were a mess! Between the road construction, and the coronavirus, it just wasn’t the same fun atmosphere. Unfortunately, it looks like the road construction will be even worse next year. Oh well, we still had fun. As always, wished the trip lasted longer.

 

[Dash 1]

Looks awesome. Thanks for sharing.

[JBMasterAngler]

My dad just got back from Grand Marais. This was his makeup trip for not being able to go last month. When he would call me, he mostly complained about all the people up there, or the road construction. But to my surprise, it sounds like the fishing was pretty good. They fished devil track, two island, crescent, devil fish, and greenwood lakes. My nephew caught a 40 inch Muskie out of crescent, which is the biggest I’ve ever seen come out of there. They also caught a 28 inch lake trout in front of the motel on superior, from a canoe. They also caught a couple smallies in the 18 inch range. He got us all booked up for next year too!

[macgruber]

Those are awesome reports.  We just got back from Flour Lake Campground as well.  It was crazy how busy everything from the North Shore scenic turnouts to the campgrounds, etc were.  Last year at Flour the campground wasn’t full on the 4th of July.  This year I saw multiple trucks pull through and not find a first come first served site last weekend- non holiday.  Place was crazy busy.  We fished and swam off the boat in Clearwater briefly on Friday morning and caught a handful of small bass- a little limited there as my boat has a 15 hp so most of the lake was off limits.  It was our first time there, what a gorgeous lake.  Tried briefly for lakers and were literally cut short when my wife’s line got tangled in the prop.  
We were camping with another family who joined us late Friday so to keep things simple I just left the boat tied up on shore at Flour and fished there instead of West Bearskin or Hungry Jack.  I was pleasantly surprised by the bass fishing.  Not much luck working shoreline but we switched to slip bobbers off some deeper boulder areas and caught lots of small bass and a few pigs mixed in.  Even got a three lber on the fly rod which was fun.

Kind of annoyed I’m not still up there.
Our puppy’s first time on the boat and my daughter’s friend’s first fish caught all by herself.

 

Edited July 27, 2020 by macgruber

[macgruber]

Honeymoon bluff hike

 

Edited July 27, 2020 by macgruber

[JBMasterAngler]

Nice to hear you had some luck on Flour. I don’t fish it, for the simple fact it’s not very good. Give Aspen Lake a try next time. It’s a nice little lake with a nice mix of bass, pike, walleye. But yeah, we skipped a lot of the sightseeing stuff this year, because there were too many people everywhere.