Isle Royale Forums

Hi, and thanks for any advice in advance.

My girlfriend and I are headed up to IR for our first time! We are going to backpack for 5 days next week, just starting at RH and heading southwest. Any tips on where to go to catch some fish and enjoy the scenery?

I'm an experienced bass fisherman, but have rarely fished for pike, and never for salmon. Can you give me some tips on what tackle to use? Do I need steel leaders? Is 10lb monofilament ok? I was planning on shallow diving plugs, like Baby 1s, Rapalas, and also using spinners. What about jigs, they should work well for waleye?

Thanks again!

When fishing for walleye, you would need to be at Chickenbone or Whittlesey. From shore, yes jigs would be an option. I would use floating jigs with a slip sinker as to minimize hangups on bottom - as you will not be able to retrieve with canoe if snagged. Slip bobber rig would aslo be an option.

But really, there is little fishing pressure that the fish have not been conditioned to not bite on any set-up. JJ

5 days will get you to Lake Ritchie and back.
I would bring steel leaders, pike are toothy critters.
10# test is fine.
I would bring a couple of Daredevils too (I like 5 of diamonds)

I just returned from a trip where I did a little fishing on Feldtmann Lake. I had luck with a baby blue and chartreuse Bomber model "A" crankbait. I was using a steel leader with braided line. The leader really gave the crankbait a crazy erratic action that would dive and then skip back up to the surface. I caught three good Pike in about 15 minutes with this setup. The only reason I stopped was the last fish actually cracked the lure in half lengthwise.

We spoke with a couple of guys that had a canoe on Lake LaSage (just North of Ritchie) and they said that was hands down the most productive lake they had been on for pike. I'm not sure how easy it is to fish from shore though as I haven't been there. There is a weed bed at Moskey Basin just north of the dock by the inlet that you could reach from shore and my son and I took 3 northern out of there but put them all back for you We became partial to anything orange for our lures but anything works. If you're fishing weeds from shore you might want to consider a few Johnson Silver Minnows as they are weedless and the pike really seem to like them, especially with a grub tail And yes steel leaders are a pretty much a must and you might to bring some jaw spreaders and a pair of needle nose pliers to stay from the teeth.

offthegrid wrote:We spoke with a couple of guys that had a canoe on Lake LaSage (just North of Ritchie) and they said that was hands down the most productive lake they had been on for pike. I'm not sure how easy it is to fish from shore though as I haven't been there. There is a weed bed at Moskey Basin just north of the dock by the inlet that you could reach from shore and my son and I took 3 northern out of there but put them all back for you We became partial to anything orange for our lures but anything works. If you're fishing weeds from shore you might want to consider a few Johnson Silver Minnows as they are weedless and the pike really seem to like them, especially with a grub tail And yes steel leaders are a pretty much a must and you might to bring some jaw spreaders and a pair of needle nose pliers to stay from the teeth.

Good info, first I have heard of folks fishing the weed bed off the creek. What were you throwing 'orange'?

Using an orange/silver Cleo (1/2 oz) and a Johnson Silver Minnow (Silver) with an orange grub tail. Wood lake was pretty slow at first then we switched to that color and started catching fish. Not sure if it mattered or not but we were catching fish so we didn't change back to test the theory, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

offthegrid wrote:Using an orange/silver Cleo (1/2 oz) and a Johnson Silver Minnow (Silver) with an orange grub tail. Wood lake was pretty slow at first then we switched to that color and started catching fish. Not sure if it mattered or not but we were catching fish so we didn't change back to test the theory, if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Was it sunny or overcast?

It was sunny most of the trip. We actually started to do a lot better fishing after it rained the third day. We had a lot of fish following to the boat with Rapala's and spoons in greens and blues but they seemed to strike the orange/silver combo much better. Seems like I remember reading somewhere that clear water/bright days go bright, and cloudy/murky try darker baits. I might have that wrong but we caught fish, rules were made to be broken

offthegrid wrote:It was sunny most of the trip. We actually started to do a lot better fishing after it rained the third day. We had a lot of fish following to the boat with Rapala's and spoons in greens and blues but they seemed to strike the orange/silver combo much better. Seems like I remember reading somewhere that clear water/bright days go bright, and cloudy/murky try darker baits. I might have that wrong but we caught fish, rules were made to be broken

I always thought, at least for Mepps, sunny days throw a brass/copper blade, cloudy days a silver blade, and dark waters a dark blade. That said, in dark waters I have always thrown a Five of Diamonds (yellow spoon with 5 red diamonds) or firetiger. A black and white spoon also. I have caught pike on KO wobblers and litlle cleos throwing blue/silver mostly. My friend Dan swears by a sinking rappala red/yellow or blue/silver.

If I could figure out the right combos, I guess I would be fishing the circuit (or a circuit!)

Has anyone tried to fish with an umbrella rig?
Something like this:
http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product. ... 4AodBC8A1A