Sag

[gunflint]

I spent a fairly productive day on Sag today. Big minnows and jigs of course. No hogs but several 17s & 18s, a 23, and a bunch of little ones. Most from 34 to 42 fow. And a wayward northern at 48 fow. This might not seem like a great day but the bite on the trail has been off for close to a week so this is a great improvement.

It sounds like about half the moose tags in this area have been filled so far.

[Northlander]

Glad to see you found a few Mark. Now make sure you have those GPS chips on them so I can track them down when I come up.

[earth]

I am glad to hear you got a few smaller walleye. I fished Sag for a week this past summer and only tangled with a few small eyes. Most were Hawgs or close to Hawgs. Is Sag in a down cycle for eyes? Has this happened before where little eyes seem non-existant or were the small eyes just not on the main lake humps in late July/early August? This pattern seems to be holding for the past few years. N. L. the same, whats the deal?

[Northlander]

I dont know about Sag but I wont fish Northern Lights until they figure out whats wrong with that lake. There is some sort of inbalance going on in that lake. I have heard everything from Low oxygen levels to polution to overharvesting. I seriously doubt the overharvesting. Of course the canucks want to blame us from the U.S. for their problem up there.

[gunflint]

It's believed by many up here that the out of control Bass population has a major impact.

[Northlander]

I can believe that one Mark. There are TONS of smallies on all those lakes. Heck you cant get threw the smallies to the eyes 75% of the time on lots of those lakes. When your in 35 plus feet of water and your catching smallies everywhere its hard to get a eye.

[earth]

I would agree with the smallies affecting the Walleye. On Sag little bass are all over and on N.L. big bass hit on nearly every past walleye spot. The same problem has occured in Wisconsin on the Turtle Flambeau Flowage, used to catch only a few bass and many walleye and now you can catch 50 bass in a day ond many times only a few walleye. I took a scientific fishing class some years back and was told on large lakes smallmouth and walleye can coexist but on small lakes smouthmouth can sometimes out compete walleye, perhaps walleye are being out competed even on large lakes.

Some I know ripe the gills on the little bass but it does not seem to be doing any good. Guess the Gunflint Trail could promote bass fishing instead of walleye/Trout.