Big Manistique help

[bubbagill]

Hello my name is Chris but everyone calls me bubba,. I am planning on making one last run north for the season and I have a few questions maybe one of you can help me with.
  Are people driving trucks out still?  I am hoping to be able to drive out in 10 days when I'm up.  Much snow on the ice?    Also how is the walleye and perch bite been?  I've caught two walleye up there before and it was the coolest thing I was so excited.  Where I come from a guy has a better chance of seeing Sasquatch riding a unicorn than catching keeper walleye consistently.  Thanks in advance for your help folks. Not looking for hot spots, I'm happy to find my own way.  Basically just looking for a general report on ice and fishing.

[bubbagill]

Bump. 

[gschuetter]

Bubba, yes there were trucks driving around the areas we fished over the weekend on the northwest side of the Big Lake.  We had about 24" of ice on average.  I was out on Sunday and may 4-8" of wet heavy snow, but still pretty easy to get around.  The perch and walleye bite have been extremely slow for us the past number of weeks, but should pick up through the end of the season.  Good luck

[TCcrawdad]

Well I was on south manistique this weekend, not the big lake I know, but as far as ice there was a lot. no trucks on it but you could've. The bite was good for us, lots of hammer handles, but we managed 9 keeper eyes on Saturday with quite a few throwbacks. Hope this helps.

[bubbagill]

Thanks for the help guys I appreciate it.  When we were up in January we fished Wolf's bay on the south lake and got a few walleye on flags the bite was pretty rough but the weather was brutal so I am sure that didn't help.  Are they still picking up a few on Wolf's bay or have they moved out? 

[bubbagill]

The best thing about going to The South lake is its a guaranteed stop at Micks to chat a little and get another pack of those yummy ginger snap cookies 

[bubbagill]

Thanks for the help guys, it's about a 450 mile drive one way so I am just trying to get as solid of a game plan laid out ahead of time as possible.  I am from northern Indiana and I sure have grown fond of how beautiful it is up there.  Sure beats our miles upon miles of corn or bean fields we have here at home. 

[bubbagill]

Anyone have a report for Milliacokian as far as walleye or perch are concerned?  Thanks in advance.

[woody63]

I will be up with a few guys from downstate to fish eyes the weekend of the 9th with some locals on the NW side of the big lake. We usually do pretty good as they should be starting to put the feed bag on with these longer days. Always some bonus perch on tip ups too. Stop by for a cold one Saturday, look for a red crew cab Ford

[bubbagill]

Right on Woody63 thanks man.  We'll be in a silver trailblazer you do the same. 

[bubbagill]

Any updates on the bite, is it still pretty consistent?    How much snow is on the ice and have you lost much ice with the daytime temps?  We will be coming in late Wednesday night and fishing through Sunday thanks so much for all your help guys.  Have they been running more towards the shallows yet? Thanks in advance for your help guys.  Tight Lines to you all.

[woody63]

Just got back from the Yoop, decided to skip Big Manistique as our friends reports were less than good so we tried another lake in the area. What a suprise, walleye in the weeds in 4 foot of water. We ended up with a nice meal Saturday for about 10 guys and Sunday we hit it for 2 hours on the way home and 3 of us got 7 nice eyes all about 19" give or take. About 3 foot of ice , even cars on the lake, driving conditions are perfect right now. Wish we could stay for the season.

[bubbagill]

We should have followed you Woody we did not have any love from manistique.  Between Thursday and Saturday we had 28 hours on the ice 13 miles driven on the ice and way north of a hundred holes drilled.  We couldn't even find fish let alone catch them.  We went from 4ft of water to 12.  Got on pike by Greenfield island and one pike over by Helmer no Wally.  Ended the trip on a much smaller lake and got four pike and a walleye.
  I am fortunate enough to have a great friend who owns a home in engadine.  So this will not be my last.  We still look at our time on manistique as time well spent.  Learning the lake is important and nothing is a better teacher than failure,so we should have learned a lot lol.

[fishlessyooper]

Just a FYI tidbit about Big Manistique Lake; it doesn't get very much stocking of walleye.  Also the native Indians hit this lake very hard; they don't have to follow the same size limits, bag limits, or season times.  I wanted to share this with you that drive great distances to come fish it & wonder why you can't find/catch any fish.  Great ice fishing to all; around 30" of ice on inland lakes here in U.P.  Jeff