I am heading up over the 25th for a few days, I am trying to put a game plan together. Let me know what you think or if you you have any other ideas that would be sweet. My plans are for two different lakes Namakan and a small hike it lake(lots of fallen timber) mostly northern and smallies.


eyes
Deep diving cranks
-grey silver, blue silver , perch
Shallow cranks (same as above)

lindys 3'-9' red hooks char. leeches and worms
may be slip bobbers?

Smallies
slip bobbers
senkos
tubes
shallow cranks like DT's or other bass style cranks
buzzbaits

Northers
dare devils
spinnerbaits
buzzbaits
larger cranks


eyes: I am going to look at points and reefs around 20-30' and some sandflats, weed lines, steep breaks
smallies: rocky shore lines, wessline points
northerns: calm bays and weed lines

Thanks and good luck on the water!!

tons of lookers but no ideas?

any one?

last year at that time we caught our pike on deep diving cranks in a big basin between two drops. It was also a lot hotter though last year and we had some unexpected catches like walleyes on huge husky jerk-baits in the middle of the day with 90 degree sun beating down in fairly shallow water. Add the classic jig and curly tail to each of those list too. Swim it, dont jig it.

thanks great idea with the curly tails, what do you think 1/4or or heavier 3/8? I can't wait to get up these 6 day are really long! thanks

I would add an orange or red spinner to the Lindy rig. If they are slow biting may induce a bite. Replace the weight with split shots be good for fishing close to and over weed beds. switch baits to minnows or suckers and you may hook a pike or walleye. Them spinners drive them pike crazy. Though a larger hook than what you would use for walleye be better for pike.

Thanks croixflats, how have you been doing on the croix? I was at bayport on Saturday, little slow but awsome day on the water, not a lot of traffice. I am counting down the days to head up to my fav place in the world!!! I am going to pick up some spinners any other color ideas? I thought red and white as well. Thanks again have a good one!!!

Its been a while since Ive been out. I dislocated my shoulder 3 weeks ago. I planned on going out Thursday and this weekend But I reinjured again it wednesday. Im shootig for this thursday again.

Gold would be another good color. You may want to try a larger spinner for the notherns. Those shake-e blades might work to. I bought some right before I injured my shoulder so I have'nt had a chance to use them yet.

Just came to me, also try those Slow Death hooks for your
night crawlers. I got them same time I got the shake-e blades been hearing lot of good reveiws on them

Have a great time. The wating is the hardest

1/4 ounce is usually what i used up there for swimming them, but on windy days, go heavier. I know what you mean about the long days before you get to go, I'll be heading up there the 26th and these last 5 days of work are going to seem like an eternity!

Snipezilla where are you staying?

snipezilla......when you say you caught some pike in a basin between two drops what do you mean by basin (flat area) and what kind of depths we talking? I am heading up there in the next couple weeks as well but we usually don't chase pike but I like the sound of long lining some with cranks as that is quite a fight with a lot of line out the back so might have to give it a try. Sounds like the eyes relate to the weeds all summer even in the shallow areas with those large Husky jerk-baits. We always tend to fish em deep (25 - 45 feet) but don't always find very agressive fish down there and I know those shallow fish would be agressive if you find em. Not looking to hear all your secrets but I've never fished pike with cranks in deeper open water so wanna give it a try. thx.

Just returned from the Sandpoint/ Nam area, and found the 1/4 oz. red head with white twister worked great on eyes---10 to 12 ft and outside of the weed beds---Tipped with a crawler it was very effective---have a safe trip.

I'm staying at Pine tree cove on Kab. By basin i meant a U-shaped part parallel to the shore. Kind of like a half pipe, but with a gradual slope. As far as the pike, we would drop our lines in at like 15ft of water, and start trolling. we would then hit the drop off where we would gradually get into deeper water. the deepest we would hit would be about 30-35ft. Then it would come back up to 15ft and we'd start over. This probably covered 1/4mile. Only real problem was cranks hitting the bottom before the drop off since we were using 20-25ft deep divers. If I remember correctly, I think giving the motor a little juice and speeding up for like 5 seconds during a pass would trigger fish into striking a couple times. And wow is it fun to have a big pike hit your line trolling at 3+mph! And on lakes like these up north, i'm not too worried about giving out "secrets" (if thats what you want to call them). Its not like giving away the only hot spot on a metro lake where you'd have 200 people there the next day if you even thought about the spot or tactic too loud. These lakes are so expansive, its hard to really ruin a good thing by talking about whats going on, so ask away.

thx Snipe. Will keep some of those pointers in mind and yes I know what you mean by expansive water. Thank goodness for expansive water and thank goodness more for expansive water with hundreds of islands, points, humps, drops, basins, rocks, sand beaches, cabbage, creeks, and wild critters.

Fellas,

I'm trying to expand my playbook for Crane Lake/Sand Point/Grassy Bay/Staege smallies. I usually know how to find them relating to shore, but my deep-water tactics are lacking.

Questions:

What do I look for on the graph? (I don't have side-imaging technology, just your average Eagle fish finder).

What size and type of lure? And on what kind and test line? I'm guessing flouro to get it deep, but how important is the test stregth?

Baitcaster or spinning? For largemouths, I'll use a baitcaster for diving cranks, but can i cast the smaller smallie cranks on a baitcaster?

Thanks for any tips you might be willing to share. We'll be staying on Crane Aug. 9-16. I'm guessing the deep-water bite will be better than the shallow bite at that time. Thoughts?

thanks,

lazy ike

Sorry for the late reply, but we had a blast, caught two canadian eye limits for all four of us. Man they taste good when they where swimming free an hour before dinner. Just jigs and crawlers and fishing the wind over some points. Otherwise we hammered the smallies and a few nice pike over an after noon in a portage lake, they really liked big green spinner baits. Hope everyone has been having lots of fun on the water. Heading to leech this weekend can't wait!!!