Here is something you don’t see every day on Clearwater

Most of you that have experienced fishing on Clearwater in the past probably enjoyed the tranquility of a lake that rarely has many boats. Well….things were a bit different this fall with the high water.

While traveling up the river to Clearwater lake we came upon some huge Andy Myer’s lodge boats with props full of weeds and grass. The motors were so big they couldn’t reach the prop. We pulled over and gave them a hand and motored up ahead to our favorite spot on Clearwater. We arrived at our spot for jigging and we were the only two boats on the lake.

The water was calm, the sun was out, and it was a nice mixed bag of whitefish and trout. All fish were caught jigging with the “lewie rig” on light tackle. Drop me an e-mail if you want to know more.

Then we experienced something we had not seen before. A stream of boats who all headed within a few yards of where we were fishing. Yes its a big lake, but evidently this is the only place you can actually catch fish. Seriously, it was like the flotilla of boats we see fishing perch in Wisconsin when the bit is on.

The interesting twist this year, is the other boats were fishing with lures tipped with minnows. Without much success I might point out. Even Gord arrived at the scene and was kind enough to point out his “secret spot”.

Well there is no such thing as a secret, ever since the “Woods and Water” television show a few years ago. We all know John Gillespi has a difficult time keeping a secret. The good news? The fishing was great in our two boats. The better news? Nobody else was catching much. After catching our limit we decided to mess with the other boats a little bit. We rigged up the trolling rods and proceeded to troll about 30 yards out from the flotilla. We consistently caught double after double in both boats. This attracted some attention. One of the other boats was curious enough that they motored over to Shawn and asked him what he was using. Shawn, always the helpful angler pointed out that anything shiny seemed to work. In fact that was true. We were trolling 4 different spoons, and all were catching fish. E-mail me for details. Fascinating. We discovered that the fish were not concentrated in this 40 yard area. In fact, you could catch trout in all parts of the lake that had depth and fish on the locator.

If you have never tried trolling for trout or jigging for trout and whitefish….give it a try. Its a beautiful lake with great fishing opportunities. And the truth be told, this kind of boat traffic is unusual, and thus the post. In fact, during low water periods, Gord is the only lodge with portage boats on the lake. Can you taste the smoked trout and fish cakes?

3 thoughts on “Here is something you don’t see every day on Clearwater”

  2. Andy
    Reply

    Dustin,

    The trout and whitefish are together in about 50-70' of water this time of year. In the trout holes on Eagle the fish could be in 90' of water. I have had great luck in the trout holes the last few years pursuing huge lakers. I got skunked this year. One of Gord's guests (George and his mother) had better luck with a top secret lure that Gord can tell you about. This lure actually produced trout on Clearwater for Bill.

    Gord's locator's are more than adequate in locating these schools. You need to do some searching and then just stay on top of them. Keep in mind that trout can adjust their bladders when coming out of deep water. I have had some trout follow the lure all the way up to the surface out of deep water.

    Also, don't worry, there are plenty of places to explore on Clearwater and I have never had a day on this lake where the fishing wasn't good or great. Maybe the Perchmaster can teach us his "backing out" move on the rare occassion that this lake gets this busy. While it ticked me off at first, it simply got comical. Keep in mind that people made this trip and went to this spot for a reason. The fish were definitely biting. But they were biting in other parts of the lake and these boats never tried. This may be an excuse to find some other Whitefish spots, and I have some ideas in mind for next year.

    Andy

  3. Kurt
    Reply

    "Backing out move" Sounds like Gord is giving away our secrets….
    Not fare you guy's get so many trips to VBL just not fare.
    Anyways GREAT job Andy in showing up those other camps that is always a plus…
    Nice pics and you can have the zoo fishing for now time to focus on hunting in Wisconsin..

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Testimonials

On behalf of the Boyes Group, I would like to pass on our sincere thanks for hosting the Muskie Madness Week and we thoroughly enjoyed our stay at VBL and had a great time!! This was our 7th year on Eagle Lake and we have stayed at a few other lodges but VBL takes the cake hands down! You can definitely count us in for next year. I’m happy to see you post some of my pics, they turned out well. Thanks again Gord for a wonderful week of fishing and your stellar hospitality, you run a first class operation, we look forward to seeing you next year!

Trevor Benner

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