Isle Royale Forums

Ok, I didn't want to ask if a depth finder / graph would be valuable to improve fishing success on IR because I already know that answer would be 'yes'.

My question is rather the weight vs fishing success increased potential. I have my kayak set up to accept a small portable fishing graph and I use it most (not all) times I fish from my kayak. I will be portaging from Chippewa through Whittlesey, Wood, Siskiwit, Intermediate, Ritchie and finally Moskey Basin. I don't want to carry the extra weight of the battery / graph unless it's a HUGE increase in potential.

Part of my reason for asking is that I've been on several fly in fishing trips to Canada as well as fishing many, many different lakes for northerns. In the spring, patterning notherns is usually pretty easy. Start in the shallows and work your way deeper. I realize a lot of the hidden 'humps and bumps' in the lake are invisible without a graph, but I have to imagine unless you are spending a month on the island, I won't run out of shoreline to fish.

I also plan on trolling for Lake Trout in RH and Siskiwit, but I undertand the 'greasers' run shallow early in the spring and I should have no problem running diving cranks and even small dipseys to target them. I realize they relate to structure and without a graph, i will be kinda working blind. Are there any topographical maps of Siskiwit online anywhere that I could use for reference?

Thanks!

I can give you my experienece with a depthfinder. I paddle a 17' Dagger. First, there is a hydro map of Siskiwt on the wall in the little cabin at the dock. It will give you a good idea of dropoffs, humps ect in the lake. I used a fishfinder and was able to locate structure not on the map. I did catch lakers in these areas whcih I would have paddled by.
You can get by w/o a fishfinder in Ritchie, Wood, Whittelsey ( don't know much about Intermediate). If you have the DuFresne book, there is good info about the inland lakes.
The neck leading into Moskey is a place I would spend some time in RH.

Is it worth it, can't say, you may not think so on the first 2 portages and the portage from Ritchie to Moskey!
Hope that helps.