Isle Royale Forums

I'm headed to the island for the first time on the 30th of june and will be staying until the 10th of july. To say I'm pumped would be an understatement. My buddy and I are heading out with a 12 foot canoe with the intention of fishing everyday, starting at Chippewa Harbor and making the loop eventually back to Rock Harbor. While I'm excited about the whole thing, I'm particularly excited about getting into some inland lakers on Siskiwit.
Anyone have any experience in this field? I plan on bringing some 2-3 oz inline trolling weights, spoons, a few stickbaits, and some heavy bucktail jigs--so I'll be prepared to troll, do some casting, or drift and jig.
Where do the fish like to hang in early july? Are there any particular drop offs, reefs, or other structures that anyone is aware of?
Also, weather pending, how's the fishing off Chippewa and Malone Bay?

Cheers,

Dan

Hi Dan, I just returned from a similar trip and also had high expectations for catching some lakers from Chippewa Harbor and Siskiwit Lake. I don't intend to sound negative, but I trolled for approx 10 hours total with my main focus on lakers and only had 2 hits to show for it. I used Little Cleo spoons, several different colors of typical salmon / lake trout spoons behind small dispsey divers and snap wieghts. I also tried flies and squids behind small dodgers all to no avail.

I can tell you that we spoke to the water taxi captains who are also charter captains and they told us the lakers (at least in Rock and Tobin Harbor) were hitting very well (several successful charters during our stay). They also mentioned that the fish were all within the top 10-15 feet of water (again, in the cold waters of RH and Tobin Harbor) at this time of year. They also revealed that they hit on just about everything they tied on.

I'm not sure how much warmer the water will get in the next month until your trip, but you may consider spending a bit of time in the harbors - just a thought. It was my first time on Siskiwit and I was intimidated by the sheer size of it. Without a fish graph and / or good topographical map, I felt like I was looking for a needle in a hay stack.

In hindsight, I would suggest taking the time and heading to the cabin / station on Siskiwit and viewintg the map to get an idea of the depths in the lake.

I can recommend that you bring along some Mr. Twisters in grey / watermelon / dark blue with dark jig heads in 1/4oz and throw them along the steep breaks any time after sunset and before sunrise. We caught over 40 walleye while fishing Whittlesey........

Good luck and enjoy the island!

Wilderness Junkie wrote:Hi Dan, I just returned from a similar trip and also had high expectations for catching some lakers from Chippewa Harbor and Siskiwit Lake. I don't intend to sound negative, but I trolled for approx 10 hours total with my main focus on lakers and only had to hits to show for it. I used Little Cleo spoons, several different colors of typical salmon / lake trout spoons behind small dispsey divers and snap wieghts. I also tried flies and squids behind small dodgers all to no avail.

Disappointing that you did not do better fishing Siskiwit. Where were you fishing? What was the weather like?
Nice you did well for Walleye and Pike.
When you were in Chippewa, did you try the little bay behind the pennisula as you head to the Whittlesey portage?

johnhens wrote:Disappointing that you did not do better fishing Siskiwit. Where were you fishing? What was the weather like?

As soon as I left the channel connection between Wood and Siskiwit lakes and the depth appeared to be 20+ feet, I began my troll. I have my kayak decked out with 3 rod holders, so I was trolling 2 baits at all times. I trolled from the channel along the south shoreline (zig zagging back and forth in deeper water hoping to cross the breakline) almost 1/2 way down the lake (incidentally, I ran across a moose on the the large island that's very close to the south shore of Siskiwit). I then circled back north and circumnavigated Ryan island and few of the other visible reefs on my way back to the Eastern shoreline.

We had blue skies and low to mid 60s with a breeze from the East.

johnhens wrote:When you were in Chippewa, did you try the little bay behind the pennisula as you head to the Whittlesey portage?

I did not. Once I realized the rest of the guys had moved out of sight (after trolling for approx 2 hours), I busted butt down the harbor to catch up with them. At that point we were only 100 yards or so from the portage.