Beltrami decent on Mem Wknd

[Steve Foss]

Went to the cabin for the long weekend.

Caught pike, largemouth, sunnies, pumpkinseeds, rockies, 'eyes. Caught enough of decent size for a couple dinners. No slabs. Crappies not in shallow muck bays, since cold weather dropped shallow temps and drove them deeper.

Caught the 'eyes on countdown Raps of medium size thrown over sloping shallow portions of main lake points in the evening, a pattern that's pretty consistent through June and again from September on, and works as well even in high summer when you get a couple days' strong wind blowing across a point or into a shore. Most folks jig and rig for 'eyes, and miss this particular boat. There are four main lake points that are understated or not shown at all on most maps and are invisible when you try to figure out where they might be based on shoreline contour. One in particular is better than all the rest, and will darn near guarantee you a few 'eye fillets when the jig and riggers only find the 10-inchers in traditional deeper-water haunts (go find 'em on your own instead of asking, that's part of the fun.)

Fishing was pretty steady, though slow, and the early warm spring (which, of course, cooled off the couple weeks before opener) must account for the accelerated cabbage growth on Beltrami and Fox. Most places that typically don't have cabbage until June (except when a low snow winter keeps cabbage green all winter, which this last winter was not) had lots of it. Even the deep cabbage lines in main lake areas were nearly to peak levels. I suppose the lawns and fertilizers that development always brings may also explain it, since those fertilizers run off into the lake and help aquatic vegetation as well as they do grass on lawns. We've been on the lake 23 years now, and there are a lot more 612-style lawns running down close to the shore than there used to be. To be expected, certainly. I'd be interested to see long-term average sechi disk water clarity readings to see if the data back sup what I believe: That the water is less clear than it was 20-plus years ago.

No musky this time out. Last year I caught a 5-lb musky (yep, got pictures) and a couple smallies (yep, got pictures), species that are not native to the lake. Hmm, five-gallon bucket and livewell brigades going on?

[DANK]

Hey Steve,

Thanks for the report! Tried emailing you the other day to see if you've been around this year. Three weeks and counting til I get up there for 11 days - can't wait!

DANK

[CommonSense Guy]

Had a 10-15 lb muskie follow right up to the boat last weekend.

[DANK]

Muskies in Beltrami? I've never heard of such a crazy thing! I suppose someone is going to claim they've caught smallies in there too! Matt Breuer will back me up on this one.

[Matt Breuer]

I've personally seen one smallie in Beltrami, roughly a month after Dank gave me proof of smallies in Beltrami!

As for muskies, yep, they're in the chain. Very infrequent, and extremely rare to see, but there are a few caught in Beltrami or Movil every year. Someone caught one in the LETS last year on Beltrami.

[Chris Haley]

The smallies and muskies on Beltrami are two special strains that come from the genus "resilienttraveler"