Two Moon Lodge June 29 - July 6, 2024

[BigChief]

All,
Our trip started with a call from Julie on Tuesday that the folks in our cabin the week prior were leaving early. So we decided to drive straight through from PA on Friday. It was nice getting there and unpacking/getting things ready without having to rush because we wanted to get out fishing. Plus Saturday was raining pretty good and unpacking in that weather would not have been fun. Plus it was nice to get out on a Saturday morning for once.

For weather it was mid-70's on Saturday with water temp around 68. Sunday brought in cooler weather with a North wind. Water temps dropped to 63 and air was 46 overnight. Needless to say we had the wood burner going that night. It did not get nice again until Tuesday with fishing heating back up Tuesday evening/Wednesday morning.
It took til Wednesday afternoon for the water temp to get back to 67 which remained the high the rest of the week.

For fishing, it was not our worst week but by far not our best. And it seems others in camp were not doing as well as us. Saturday night we had a fast/furious bite deep back in one of our favorite bays that lasted from 830-900. After that we never had that same bite again. We had to constantly work for it.

The rest of the week most of our sucess came from the islands/points in/around the Narrows. And by far the area that treated us best was Smith Bay. We pulled a 22" and 28" out of there, our only two over slot eyes for the week. We were usually fishing in 12-16 FOW with slips set at 7-12 feet. We did use harnesses while trolling/drifting but most of our success came on the slips.

Most common size walleye was around 16.5", so not sure if it is something about that years class. We did catch some 18, 19 and one 20". Early in the week we caught a large number of Fall Fish, which we had never caught up there before. Bass were plentiful as usual.

All in all, we had a good fish fry and brought back a 7-man limit.

Largest fish for the week:
Walleye - 28"
Bass - 19.75"
Pike - 31.5"

Good luck to all going up in the near future.

@ziggy6 Smith Bay camp was empty until Thursday when a group of 4 came in.

[RHYBAK]

Thanks BigChief
Smith bay was empty when we were there also.
We could not catch a fish in Smith Bay.
I think we were early.
We did catch against the Wall coming into the bay.
We had very good luck there including a 29.5" fish one night

[BigChief]

@RHYBAK how far from the wall do you fish? We rode through there a few times and been wanting to try it out.

[RHYBAK]

BigChief
Obviously it depends on the wind but we like to site about 20 feet from the wall and to the left of the Inuksuk ( the wind must be blowing against the wall)

[Jay Thomas]

Thanks for your report BigChief. Congrats on landing the 28 incher.

Speaking of larger walleye, it's somewhat surprising to me that even though we're in the eighth year after the implementation of the 37 cm - 53 cm harvest length limit for walleye, trip reports don't seem to indicate that more larger walleye are being caught. Any thoughts?

Jay

[RHYBAK]

Jay
our biggest was 29.5 inches
we had lots in the 23 to 27 range
I just don't report anymore so you Don't hear it from me.

[BigChief]

@Jay Thomas last year I would say we had 10 over the slot and most common size was around 18 inches.

For some reason this year we only had the two and most common size was 16.5. Although we did have a few on that were definitely over the slot that we lost.

It does seem to me that the slot was having an effect in years past. This year was hopefully an anomaly.
Although I will say our overall numbers seem to be going down.

[T-Bone]

Speaking of larger walleye, it's somewhat surprising to me that even though we're in the eighth year after the implementation of the 37 cm - 53 cm harvest length limit for walleye, trip reports don't seem to indicate that more larger walleye are being caught. Any thoughts?

Well...Mattie and I only caught a handful of fish UNDER the keeper slot, most within the keeper slot, and maybe 15% OVER the slot. In years past, we mostly caught only fish under (95%), few in keeper, rarely over. Seems to be working perfectly for us. Only we don't keep any of them.

[Jay Thomas]

Thanks for responses everyone. Much appreciated.

Jay

[reelpro]

Thanks for your report BigChief. Congrats on landing the 28 incher.

Speaking of larger walleye, it's somewhat surprising to me that even though we're in the eighth year after the implementation of the 37 cm - 53 cm harvest length limit for walleye, trip reports don't seem to indicate that more larger walleye are being caught. Any thoughts?

Jay

I have been thinking the opposite this year, 20 days out fishing in 2024 and only a handful of under the slot size walleye.
A dozen or so between 27"- 32" and on all trips out 95% of walleye have been in the slot or over.

Concerning about the lack of smaller fish, it seems there have been some poor spawning years recently and those year classes have really poor numbers, so we will see a few years soon with very few walleye.

Perhaps the Ministry could work on some stocking for walleye as well as the lake trout .

Be more than happy to help them anyway I could.