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| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [30 messages per page] Muskie Fishing -> Fishing Reports and Destinations -> Big Sand Lake/Long Lake in Vilas County-Questions |
dward |
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| Mr Musky |
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Posts: 32886 Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | |||
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| Beaver |
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Posts: 4266 | I can't resist. As Steve said, I am very close to Long Lake, because we had a summer home there from the time that I was in high-school, until my dad had a stroke in the 80's. Long Lake used to be a beautiful lake, because I remember it when the entire south shore was vacant. I don't consider multi-million dollar mansions with golf carts parked outside of them to be beautification. I remember when the walleye fishing was good. Never outstanding, but good. Huge fish were in that lake. My PB walleye of over 33" came out of there with 28-30" fish caught every year. The DNR has been playing with Long Lake for as long as I remember too. They stocked it with thousands of brown trout and rainbow trout every year. They hoped to make it a trout fishery, and still do. With water depths of over 100', they figured it would be a natural for trout. The mysterious appearance of rainbow smelt is still a puzzle, but after talking with a DNR person he sort of leaked that there were plans to make it a Lake Trout lake. I talked about my concerns about the walleye fishery, and he said that the walleye fishery had been going downhill since spearing began, and now since the smelt miraculously appeared and are eating the eggs and fry, natural reproduction is a thing of the past. It never held a very big population of walleyes, but it got hit every year anyway. Then he told me that I could catch walleyes almost anywhere in WI, but where could I go to catch a Lake Trout? Let's see......Lake Trout feed on smelt, don't they? A lake that is steep and deep with trout in it....but you still can't troll! I have been back there every year, and last year saw that milfoil was pretty abundant. Not a bad thing for a lake that steep, because it would never get choked. I think milfoil would improve the fishery in fact, but it would ruin the swimming and choke up the jet skis. I have seen and done battle with lure-breaking muskies in that lake that are as big as my leg, and have caught many nice ones. It's not a numbers lake. If you get one or two fish up a day you are doing good. But there is always a chance for a slob. As far as I am concerned, Long Lake may appear beautiful to you if you like to look at big houses. But I remember the days when the fishing was good and the lake was quiet. What I remember most is the last trip that I took there with my dad before he died. We drifted some spots with leeches and caught some smallies and a walleye. He cried and told me, "I never thought that I would ever catch another fish again in my life." Then he looked around the lake and shook his head and told me, "Now take me home before I puke. I can't stand to see what they've done to this lake." One of the last gems of the north where you could get away from jet skis and power boats, and now it's gone. I don't care about the milfoil. The charachter of the lake died a long time ago. Edited by Beaver 9/23/2008 2:07 PM Attachments ----------------  A Fisherman.JPG (158KB - 198 downloads) | ||
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