|
|
| Staying on woman lake on labor day weekend. Never been there. Not looking for directions to anybodys honeyhole but any advice would be appreciated. Thanks |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1144
Location: Minnesota. | Obviously you won't be fishin' muskies...unless you go over to Little Boy, Wabedo or Leech etc.
Have fun. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 536
| Jeremy - 8/13/2012 8:54 PM
Obviously you won't be fishin' muskies...unless you go over to Little Boy, Wabedo or Leech etc.
Have fun.
He could be fishing muskies there!!! Why not, it's not like they arent in there! I fish them from time to time in there! Not alot of them obvousily if that's what you mean but in my opinion wabedo and little boy arent much better anymore either!! we need help with stocking and no more dnr bs about needing to find more out about the natural genetics in there and losing them to the stocked leech lake strain! Guest as far as woman lake goes go up into girl there seems to be the highest population of muskie in there or there easier to find maybe, biggest down fall in there is the boat traffic so fishing at night could be the ticket! Good luck! As Jeremy said Leech is a option and probably alot better one! |
|
| |
|
Posts: 151
Location: West of the metro, MN | There are are very few skis in Woman. Better off going to Wab and Little Boy, Got a good number of fish and a shot at a big one. Little boy and Mann are just down the road, both have alot of fish but the good majority are in that 36" range. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | There is a catchable population in woman... Look to the deep humps with weed & rock. The lake is full of perch, so you may want to stick with natural perch pattern colors. I've had luck trolling from hump to hump. You may want to try that too. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 437
| You will not get into Mann unless you stay at that resort. Each year a 50 inch musky comes out of woman. Perhaps if the OneStop didnt have the cooler in there for 30 years memorializing these fish there would be a lot more in Woman because it was every summer a good number of big fish in there from Woman.
Aside from that, they are in there, but not easy to find. If you do find one it will likely be a decent one.
If you want multi-specie action the smallie fishing is unreal. We have tried woman for muskies a handful of times and all we end up with are hog walleyes. |
|
| |
|
| Leech Lake Strain,
Agree with your comments 100%! The sad thing is our local MI chapter and a local business owner had a proposal in to the DNR to supplement the population by stocking 200-300 fish. This would have been paid for by the business owner and the MI chapter, and would have cost the DNR absolutely nothing.
As you can probably imagine, it isn't going to happen. One email from the Woman Lake association, and the DNR decides it can't be done because they aren't on board. Unfortunately I know how messed up decision making is at the DNR through my day job, but denying stocking on such a low density water makes no sense at all. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 437
| Does it have anything to do with the fact that Walleyes are being stripped out of there in the Spring you think? |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1243
Location: Musky Tackle Online, MN | The walleye stripping never came up as a concern. Invasives came up in the initial meeting as a concern, but was not mentioned when they relayed the message to Doug Schultz (area fisheries manager) about their vote. The DNR is currently working on a walleye project on Woman Lake (nothing to do with the stripping) and they said they just want them to concentrate on that. (Not like they couldn't do both.) The lake association stated that "if this was a good environment for them (muskies) they would have increased in numbers instead of staying the same."
My reasoning here tells me that a stable population of native fish suggests a good environment. And if we stock some fish, we could bump up the numbers a bit and then back off on stocking to keep that slightly higher (more fishable) number stable. This is the goal when stocking new waters. Get the population up to where they want, and hopefully be able to stop stocking due to enough natural reproduction. It's unfortunate that the DNR won't take more of a stance on these issues. We have 100,000+ musky anglers in the state, the majority of which are looking for additional opportunities. Yet we don't take advantage of a lake like this that would take a very minimal investment, as compared to trying to add new lakes that have never had muskies at significant financial costs.
On another note, the resort owners on Woman Lake were in favor of stocking some muskies. It was the other property owners that voted against the idea.
I don't see the DNR revisiting this any time soon. But it would be great to have the Walker area fisheries office contacted to let them know there's a lot of support for stocking muskies in the Woman Lake chain.
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/areas/fisheries/walker/index.html
Aaron
Edited by AWH 8/14/2012 4:44 PM
|
|
| |
|
| Captain,
If it had something to do with the stripping, I would think that the DNR would have informed us of that, but I don't think that is the case.
I think its easier for the DNR to just say no to the stocking so they don't have to deal with the lake association. We really weren't informed of any info on the denial other than the lake association wasn't on board. |
|
| |
|
| My family has had a cabin on girl for over 40 years. In the late 80's I saw muskies on girl quite often, its now been over 20 years since i've seen one in there. Growing up it was always catch and kill. The 2 lakes have never been all that good for numbers but from what I have seen there are very few left. Other lakes in the area are better and as far as I can remeber they always have been. My question is why go through all the effort to stock a few more muskies in girl/woman when there are some of the best lakes in the state are just a short drive away.
Now if you want to talk about putting a slot on smallies in woman I would be all for it. hate seeing 6lbers dead in the cooler all the time.
If I was heading to longville soon I wouldn't even consider musky fishing on woman.
|
|
| |
|
Posts: 540
Location: Leech Lake, Walker MN | Don't rule out Women I've caught several big fish in the lake over the years
They are there.is it easy NO Muskie fishin is easy unless you just want to catch 30 s
All day long go fish it have a great time but don't tell any one .LOL |
|
| |
|
Posts: 1144
Location: Minnesota. | Hmm, I never realized there was a fishable population of muskies in Woman. This is news to me, although I'd put in on Leech before most of 'em.
My apologies! My bad...
Jeremy. |
|
| |
|
| Thanks for the info on women lake. I'll probably give woman a shot but will probably end up on leech unless something cool happens. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 437
| Thanks AWH and B420 for the info. I know Woman is a very important resource for the DNR when it comes to walleye stripping so I saw that as a potential barrier. I think the nature of a chain of lakes connected by a river allows these fish to migrate elsewhere. Not because Woman isnt a good habitat for them, fish always tend to move upstream during the spawn.
To the question of why put efforts into stocking a lake with a low native population when there are lakes already in the area with great numbers, well, its always better to have more options. I honestly do not think it would take much to make woman a great fishery for muskies. It would be nice to have a few more options in the state.
|
|
| |
|
|
Woman, Winnie, Inguadona, Little Boy, Wabedo, I think they all should get some stocking for a few years.
In the early 90"s we put fish into Little Boy and Wabedo to help the population.
I don't know why they won't consider doing it now.
Personally I'd much rather see us beef up our native waters then try to keep creating new ones.
JS |
|
| |
|
Posts: 437
| Guest - 8/15/2012 10:01 AM
Personally I'd much rather see us beef up our native waters then try to keep creating new ones.
JS
Agreed!!! |
|
| |
|
Posts: 536
| I live in this area grew up here lived here all my life! Wabedo 15yrs ago could have been considered the best muskie lake ever, now your lucky to see one! Little boy a little bit better chance at seeing one but very lucky to catch one, Inguadona gets netted by natives and speared by darkhouse guys so that answers that, woman lake in my oponion does'nt have a fishable population anymore, people seem to forget the muskies they've caught out there were probably 20yrs ago , these are native waters people they dont get stocked! too many fish have disapeared due to resorts and harvest over the yrs and these lakes need help, growing up here I've seen these things decline terribly but know one can do anything to help it's very sad!!!! I feel like I have all these waters close to me but I'm pretty much forced to go north myself just to catch one that might be over 40" |
|
| |
|
| Leech Lake Strain,
I could not agree with you more! Folks have had a place on Little Boy for over 20 years and the fishing on both Little Boy and Wabedo has definitely gone WAY down hill. I have personally seen over 20 boats at a time musky fishing these lakes and these lakes are only a little over 1000 acres a piece. WAY TOO SMALL!! I still consider Leech a SLEEPER because of all the water there is. You just have to do your homework like Vermillion and learn the spots that NO ONE fishes and you will be successfull! |
|
| |
|
Posts: 767
Location: Ames, Iowa | Guest staying on Woman Lake- I would be hitting the smallies hard there and fishing walleye at low light. Couple other lakes to try are Baby Lake west of Longville- the access is on the extreme south end, and Leech- the access is off 200, up 39 and up Partridge Point Drive. Agree with others that Wabedo has gone downhill- last 5-6 times over 2 years on that lake have seen no muskies. In the past, 2 biggest fish I ever saw were there. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 670
Location: Otsego, MN | Wabedo needs help bad. I have really cut down my outings out there because it's just flat out hard to catch them or even see one now. I know muskie fishing isn't easy, but way better options to invest my time in than on that lake. 7-8 years ago I loved fishing Wabedo, now it does not even compare to what it used to be. I agree quit stocking these new waters that we have to struggle to get, why not beef up wabedo, little boy, iguadonna, woman, girl. |
|
| |
|
| throw some in moose and deer as well to help replace some of the shoepac genetics that pollute the gene pool |
|
| |
|
Posts: 173
Location: Minnesota | Big boy lake needs some to. |
|
| |
|
Posts: 61
Location: Anoka | Could not agree more we've had a place on big boy 30+ years i remember when women had a healthy population
everytime I would turn around someone would have a pic of a monster at the one stop and wabedo and little boy have been
Fished really hard it's really sad they use to be those sleeper lakes you would here about not anymore I wish they would stock big boy period it would only help inguadona fish would travel down the boy river back into inguadona helping some and then have a good stocking plan that rotated one year wabedo then the next little boy then indguadon and then repeat just my thoughts
|
|
| |
woman lake help