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Location: Woodstock, IL | Fished the chain from opener to Tuesday. A ton of lazy follows and one small hot one, but no takers.
Surface temps were around 56 on Friday morning, but skyrocketed to 65 late Tuesday due to the 80 degree temperature.
Anyone up there in the next week or two should see the feedbags put on! |
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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | Good to hear. I will be up there next week from Thursday untill Sunday. Were the fish still in the channels, or are they moving out to the mouths of the lakes? Looking to do a huge amount of water pounding. What were they moving on?
Joel |
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Location: Woodstock, IL | The follows I had were mostly in the channel between Alder and Manitowish, as well as Rest and Stone. I also had a couple in the bay on Clear, as well as the Trout River inlet on Wild Rice.
Wild Rice is where the hot follow happened. Actually, it wasn't a follow - it came from the side like lightening. Had the lure not been trailing weeds, it may have hit. That was the only place I saw green weeds.
They all followed a 6" Jake with a slow, twitching retrieve. One was a golden pattern and the other was silver. Small bucktails didn't seem to produce.
Good luck. I'm jealous. I'm already counting the days until my next trip up there (41 days)!
Anyone have recommendations on what I could have done differently to trigger a strike? |
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Posts: 3240
Location: Racine, Wi | Just got back from the Mani Chain. We boated 6 fish from 28" to 40". They came on just about everything. We got them on suckers, jerks, minnowbaits, and bulldawgs. Most of the fish were up shallow in the rivers, and the mouths of the lakes. The weather was great. Overcast, and rainy the whole weekend. Looking to get back up there next month. |
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Location: Woodstock, IL | Since my last post showed up blank, I thought I'd try again - Fished the chain again this past weekend, but only received follows. The follows were a little more aggressive, so I think we're getting there. They're still shallow - 2 to 6 feet of water. Surface temps were in the low 60's. Did have a ton of luck with pike and walleye, all CPR'd. My father-in-law is still up there and called last night to tell me he caught a 42 incher in a stump field on a small Mepps and 8 lb. test. It took five minutes before he even saw the fish. He got it boatside, but then it spit the lure, gave him the fin and was gone. Did manage a picture in the water. It hit shortly after the wind switched from the north to the south. I'm jealous, but I'll be back up after the busy July 4th weekend. |
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Location: Woodstock, IL | Fished the Chain again 7/9 - 7/13. A cold front swept through the area and daytime highs struggled to get out of the 50's through Friday. Fishing was tough but I managed one small musky (25" - 30")and a few pike. All were caught on bucktails.
Surface temps started at 70, dropped to 66, then came up to 70 again by Sunday. Saturday and Sunday were beautiful days with highs in the upper 70's, low 80's and plenty of sun. Unfortunately, conditions were still tough because all the pleasure boaters, skiers and tubers were out in force. |
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Posts: 2
Location: Lincoln, NE | Was there for three days last week. Things were very slow. Had a good follow south end of Fawn and a couple a striles in the river off Island. No hookups AGAIN. Someday I'll get one outa there. Or Grandma is gonna have to move to a better lake!! |
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Posts: 376
Location: Cudahy, Wisconsin | The week of the 10th the chain was hot. We had the most action on clear. The smallest fish out of clear was a 29" and the biggest was a 47". Every time out we would see at least 10 fish all on hawg wobblers or topraiders. |
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Posts: 45
Location: Brooklyn Park | Fishing up in the Manitowish Chain and Eagle river area Sept 13-20. Never fished the area before and would not like to go in blind. Have read some articles but would appreciate some insight as to which lakes are going to be my best choices for size vs. numbers. and just pure great fisheries. Heard little Spider Chain has some nice fish. Please Help |
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Location: Woodstock, IL | On the Manitowish Chain, your best bet for size would be Clear, Island and Manitowish. All three have cisco so there is some nice fattening forage for them. My biggest, a 46.5", came out of Manitowish Lake. I've heard Rest is good too (where I ususally stay); however I've never had much luck there.
My experience has been that the chain is not a numbers body of water. The only thing I've caught in quantity out of there are small pike that voraciously attack my medium bucktails.
I'm heading up this coming Wednesday for a week or so. I'll post when I get back.
Edited by dpratt 8/23/2003 8:41 AM
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Posts: 20231
Location: oswego, il | Just spent a week up there. Never seen a legal, we boated 4 and seen several others. Kids, mom and grandfather boated some nice bass, pike and panfish. Helped them mostly and did not put in as much time for musky as I could have. Temps were upper 70's and were in the lower 70's when we left. Had our best action on alder lake. Talked to the local tackle shops and they said it was slow and were surprised at our action. |
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Location: Woodstock, IL | Spent time on the chain Wednesday night 8/27 until this morning. Unfortunately, due to boat problems, didn't get to fish as much as I had planned.
I didn't hook anything, but I've never seen them so active. Follow after follow, surface boil after surface boil. One jumped at my Doc topwater after dark right next to the boat and darn near gave me a heart attack!
My brother-in-law hooked a nice one but with 10-pound test he couldn't get it to the boat and once his line got wrapped around a log the topwater was spit out and that ended that. He now takes my advice and upgrades his tackle!
Air temp: 65 - 75 degrees
Water temp: 66 - 72 degrees
Conditions: High, sunny skies
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | For me the best lakes were Stone and Island. I've hooked several monsters on Island(sadly never boated them) and got some good #'s off Stone and or Fawn...its been a couple years. If memory of the chain is correct Stone and Fawn are between Spider and Clear and Rest. Biggest boated fish from the chain was 41.5" on Island. Biggest hooked was Island, over 50", hooked that one twice in 30 minutes, same spot, same giant boil, same lost fish... I'm still blamin' the rod.... |
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| Man oh Man, my father and i havent fished in 3 years and we made our way back to alder lake Wild rice lake and manotowish lake. I had 3 follow on a 10' jake and dad had one on mepps 5 minnow spinner. Im coming up for the tournament in october. I need some advice for Minocqua lake and Tomahawk. |
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Posts: 45
Location: Brooklyn Park | Just got back from Mani. Hard fishing but boated five in five days with 45.5 being the largest. Lost at least three that were over 50. Last three days sucked due to crappy cold front with bright cold days to follow. tried to slow presetaion down with a Manta and had two follows in final three days. Going back up in mid November if anyone has any fall strategies for me.
thanks Bmax |
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Location: Woodstock, IL | I'm heading up this Thursday morning for an extended weekend. Water temps were reported to still be rather high for the time of year; however there is some very cool weather in the forecast.
I'll be staying on Manitowish Lake, but I'm willing to try any of the lakes, specifically Island and Clear. We'll be soaking suckers on quick-set rigs while casting cranks and jerks.
Any tips on where the toothy critters may be hiding on this chain given current conditions? |
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Posts: 45
Location: Brooklyn Park | On Manitowish lake, Fish the Island and drift all the way accross the lake from the west side down to the island. There are about six or seven rock and sand humps that you will come over. If you seee bait fish on your screen fish them. we raised 5 or 6 50" inch fish on bulldawgs with teasers here. Also there is a sand bar that comes out from a green boathouse. We lost a fifty plus here on a countdown depthraider.
Good luck and let me know how you did.
Bmax
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Location: Woodstock, IL | Fished the chain Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning in miserable conditions. Rain and WIND!
Managed a few follows and missed one on a quick-set rig. All action happened on the channel between Spider and Island. We hit all the lakes except Alder and Wild Rice, but didn't see a thing.
Others we talked to had similar results.
Water was a little lower than normal, but not due to the drawdown. According to Greer's Pier, they will probably begin lowering the level a couple of inches per day beginning October 1.
Good luck!
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Location: Woodstock, IL | Fished the chain Thursday afternoon through Sunday morning in miserable conditions. Rain and WIND!
Managed a few follows and missed one on a quick-set rig. All action happened on the channel between Spider and Island. We hit all the lakes except Alder and Wild Rice, but didn't see a thing.
Others we talked to had similar results.
Water was a little lower than normal, but not due to the drawdown. According to Greer's Pier, they will probably begin lowering the level a couple of inches per day beginning October 1.
Good luck!
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Posts: 1906
Location: Oconto Falls, WI | Fished the chain all day Sat., and the only 2 fish seen were in my net. I boated a 40" over 30' of water on a Triple D, and a 42" on a sucker on the bottom in 28' of water. Both fish were on the same lake. Lakes have turned (except Manitowish), and are in the clearing up stage. Water temps were anywhere from 49-52°. Water level is still pretty good. I don't think they are drawing it down very quickly yet. |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | My brothers are up there now. Heard from them yesterday on their cell phone, they said some kid at the dam caught a 9lbs Walleye but phone was crackling too much to hear how they did, they caught something but who knows what yet... |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | Turns out all they caught the first day were a Largemouth, a Smallmouth and a Walleye all between 15-16". Smally was like a football they said. Second day My younger brother caught a Trout about 2 foot long, by the dam... Once again cell was crackling maybe misunderstood on the trout... |
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | Yep, the crackling phone made me misunderstand..badly..24" Walleye not trout...They only raised one Muskie on the trip and that was casting off the dock before heading out in the baot...The walleye was caught early morning. |
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Location: Woodstock, IL | To sum it up - Beautiful weather and beautiful Fall colors - aweful fishing......
Spent Wednesday through this morning on the chain and didn't even move one fish. Are there any muskies left in this chain? 
Most time was spent on Island, Spider and Manitowish. I wanted to hit Clear, but the water is down about 1 1/2 feet and I doubt I would have made it. The launch at Greer's is still very usable.
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Posts: 1335
Location: Chicago, Beverly | They only fished Rest and Wild Rice. Launched at Wild Rice when fished that lake, not sure where they launched when they fished Rest. |
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Posts: 376
Location: Cudahy, Wisconsin | they probably launched on rest. |
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