Update

First I would like to apologize for the lack of blogs recently. We have been so busy this fall. This year was our busiest yet. We are grateful to have had such an excellent year and really appreciate all our regular guests that still came fishing even through economic times like these. I see that as of late the economy seems to be improving and hope things shape up so the few that had to miss coming fishing this year have a chance to come back in 2010.

Our water levels have finally came back down to more reasonable levels these past few weeks, so now I am busy cleaning up the mess the high water left. The docks by the fish house took the worst hit as one will need to be replaced and one will need some repair work.

We enjoyed a beautiful September. The warmest I have ever experienced. Most days were in the mid to high 70’s and sunny. I think this weird weather pattern capped off an all around weird year weather wise. It seemed that the walleye were hard to pattern and stayed fairly scattered all summer and as far as the Northern went, they seemed to be even more scattered than the walleye. I think the only times that the Northern really turned on was when the weeds finally hit the surface and before the high water came which was a short time in early Aug. The other time that the Northern fishing turned on was this fall. The last week in Sept. The Northern came back into what was left of the weeds and started feeding hard, (Ill never figure those things out).

Steph and I have been really busy trying to get camp closed up for the season before the snow flies, which looks like sooner that later and we have already had a few flurries in the last week.

We have one cabin open for opener next spring, otherwise May and June are booked up. There are several other weeks in July, Aug and Sept also 100% booked, If you are thinking about making a booking for 2010, I suggest you do it soon to get the week you want.

I hope everyone stays warm this winter and dreams about fishing Gullrock next season.

Lee

Farewell to old cabin #3

She came down about a week ago with the help of a back hoe. It was a well loved cabin, but had a rotten floor.

We look forward to starting the re-building later this week. We'll keep you updated.

Waiting for the Sun

If you have talked to anyone recently that was in Northwestern Ontario you will not hear many stories about sun burns or sun stroke. This year has been the year of rain. Our water level is somewhere around 2 feet high this year and showing no signs of going down. We feel very fortunate that the high water has cause only minor inconveniences this year as others are very swamped.

As far as the fishing goes, I feel that it is fairly good right now. It seems that the fish are not super active but with the right presentation you can really come away with an excellent day on the water. It seems that jigging is the best technique the last couple weeks and moving really slow. Vertical action with a quarter once jig with very subtle jigging motion about an inch off the bottom, is the best method to catch walleye right now. Slow trolling with lindy rigs and a night crawler or minnow is also working decently but not as well as jigging with a minnow.

Northern are hitting pretty well this week with a 39 incher at the top of the big fish board. Most are being caught on smaller spoons, smaller inline spinners and spinner baits. Black and White seem to be the best colors.

After checking the weather I see that next week should be sunny and nice, I will believe it when I see it. It would be very welcome though.

Hot colors for walleye are Blue and Green
Northern is black and white.

Summer Has Arrived!...Finally.

Finally we are getting a little sun. Temps the last few days are in the high 70’s with wind out of the SW. With the coldest July in recorded history behind us we are looking forward to a nice Aug. We are having minor issues trying to get rid of July’s rain water. Our road washed out a couple weeks ago from over a foot of rain in a couple days which we got repaired before any problems arose. All the rain has made the water levels on the lake extremely high. The old timers from town say the highest ever. In my estimation we are close to two feet above normal, sending a lot of debris out on to the main lake which makes navigation a little tricky. We have had some decent wind the last day or so, around 10 mph, which has blown almost everything back to the shores.

The Pike have started to turn on in the last two weeks. We have had around 15 pike in the last two weeks released over 40 inches, two measuring 44 inches. Yesterday the pike action was really hot with one boat of two guys boating 24, with a couple in the mid 30’s, for about half a day.

Walleye are biting well, with the majority being smaller fish, (12-23 inches) Larger walleyes are hanging deep, around 22-24 feet and are fairly active with one 27 and one 27 ½ so far this week. A slow presentation is working well for walleye, more vertical the better. ¼ oz jig and minnow or leech is the best. Back trolling is working fairly poor this week.

Hot colors for Walleye are blue, gold and chrome.
Hot baits for Northern are Little Cleo, medium size Bucktails and Daredevil, for good numbers and Suick or Bobbie Baits are catching the larger ones.

We only have a couple openings left for Sept.
If you are thinking about making a fall trip and haven’t booked yet call soon since there are not many openings left

More Cool Weather ahead

So far this year we have had unseasonable weather overall. Normally we find morel mushrooms in mid may, this year we picked them in mid June. We didn’t have leaves on most of the trees until June. This weather has affected almost everything. With many cloudy and cool days, the weed growth on the lake is way behind. There are very few visible weeds on the clay banks and most bays that are usually packed with weeds by now are just starting to get some growth. This has really affected the Northern Fishing the last few weeks. Finally today we have had some better reports for Northerns. The biggest for today was 34 inches and a couple reports of lunkers that managed to slip the net. In the last couple weeks there has been many reports of big northern hitting walleye while fisherman reeled them in and with that knowledge trolling deep with rapalas has worked O.K. Ranger Bay and the Hog Trough (behind three sisters) are finally getting some decent weeds and gator hunters had some success in those two spots today.

Walleye fishing has been good the past couple weeks. The ratio between over and under 18in has gone down a little. It seems that the bigger fish have moved deeper with many being caught in 26-30 feet. Most of the smaller fish are still being found in 14-18 feet. Biggest walleye today was 26 inches, last week the biggest was 28 inches.

We are forecasting mid 60’s for the rest of the week with plenty of rain, perfect weather to keep the walleye feeding hard.

Minnows, Leeches and Crawlers are all working well this week with a slow presentation.
Northern are starting to hit top water pretty decent. Suick, Reef Hawg and a fast retrieve with a spoon seem to be the best.
Hot color is purple and black

I had my first Iowa, garden fresh, cucumber and tomato sandwich of the year today.
Almost as good as the first fish fry of the year.

P.S. We are in need of 2009 pictures, so if you have some already, send some our way via e-mail, and if you've yet to come, don't forget to pack your camera!

Early July

The wind has been blowing the last couple days here on Gullrock. 20-30km winds have been pretty constant keeping our mayfly hatch at bay. Normally, if the mayflies have a large hatch the carcasses will litter the top of the water providing an easy meal for sport fish. Walleyes will gorge on them making them less likely to bite a fisherman’s lure. Over the last couple years we have had pretty decent wind through the hatch, blowing the bugs into shore before they can get eaten. We have seen really no change in the fishing quality this week in normal fishing areas and normal depths. Sometimes when a mayfly hatch happens during a calm period (Which is usually the case since they will wait to hatch until it turns calm which will offer a better chance of survival and egg laying) the walleyes will slow down on the bite because of this new easy food source. Now it has been a couple years since it was really calm for a large mayfly hatch but the last time this happened we found out that in this case, a lindy rig with a red or brown (normal mayfly colors) floating jig in shallow, shallow water with weeds worked like a charm. This technique baffled me since normally when the mayfly hatch happens when the water is warm and normally when the water warms up the walleye seek cooler water and move deeper. I am sure there is a legitimate reason for this and it is probably published in IN-FISHERMAN magazine somewhere but I haven’t found it.

Pike still seem to be following the walleyes and many reports that they have been latching on to walleye on the way to the surface. Yesterday I had a report that a father son duo netted two Northerns that were not hooked up but on the walleye they were bringing in. It is uncommon to net a northern this way since when they see the boat they will typically let go. To net two in two days is a real rarity. The weed growth is still very behind this year. Sully’s bay and Clay banks have very few visible weeds and no cabbage weeds to speak of. Once those weeds start to pop up the Northern fishing will surely improve.

Hot colors have been pink and light blue, minnows, leeches and crawlers are all working pretty much the same

The sun is back!

It has finally stopped raining. For a while I didn’t think our guests this week would see the sun. The forecast looks like decent weather in the near future with temps in the low 70’s. The cloudy and rainy weather this weeks got the walleyes snapping. Nice sized walleye were easy to find this week in 13-18 feet of water. Jigging with minnows or leeches was working really well with the hot colors being pink and gold. The biggest walleye so far this week has been 27 ½ inches and last week a 13 year old girl for camp caught a monster 30 incher. In the 13-18 foot range there seemed to be more walleye between 22 and 25 inches than I have ever heard of, with reports that guests were catching one over 18 inches to every one under, which is a really high ratio.
The Northerns seem to be in a funk a little this week. Casting with lures is pretty much a waste of time as far as I can tell. The method working the best is finding the main depth where the walleyes are and trolling rapalas through those depths. There have been many reports of giant Pike smacking walleye on the way up which means right now they are definitely feeding on walleye. The weeds are just coming up now which should bring the Northern to the weeds soon.
Here is a pic of a 42 inch Northern caught last week. This Northern held our leader board for one day until someone caught a 44 incher which was the biggest of the week.