brianz

great report and photos thanks for taking the time to post it all. very enjoyable!!!

gave up on snapfish, imageshack seems to work ok. just a few pix: shore lunch. yum. a double header off our dock. the larger one was a large slot around 25" my bud with a decent one at dusk. this one was just a bit bigger than our average, it was 8# on the boga and 28" releasing a 9 pounder.

had a great trip! pike fishing was off for us, but ew did make a lot of casts looking for some nice pike. we ahd a few but nothing larger than 30". walleye fishing was pretty good. my buddy and I managed 98 walleye for 6 nights of fishing. the first 3 nights we didnt even pull the all nighters and took a break/nap between midnight and 3am. they were all caught in a 150 meter diameter area. dusk they ate jig/minnow pretty well. in dark and pre dawn we could get them on rapalas stick, shad raps, x raps, rebel fast tracks, red fins, and jigs jigs jigs!! my buddy had a 31" 10.5# (boga grip) on a 4" sassy shad on 1/4 oz head. i tied my personal best @30" 10.5#, it ate a black/gold f11. we each had 4 fish over 9#'s up to 10#. our best night was 21 fish landed. our average size was ~26" but our range was 22" - 28" most nights. split was pretty even between slot and large keepers. we only had 3 small keepers (<15.7"). we kept 3 walleye during our stay. 2@ 26" and one 29". i am having issues uploading pix from snapfish other wise i would have attached a few. bigcreekdad, it was great meeting you and spending some time together, maybe next year we'll do it again!

the first video is priceless!!! thanks for sharing that.

Deal! but if you're spilling the spots i am buying the beers! thanks for your help.

"that American" , to me is the guy that asks for "x marks the spot" locations for catching. the guy that wants things handed to him. the guy that thinks they should bypass teh use of a guide but has no problem trying to squeexe as much free info as possible... didnt mean to open a can of worms here. to be clear, i am quite certain i will be enjoying some fun dialogue with Ed and many of the rest of his staff while visiting. some of that dialogue may even be discussing the fishing/catching. but i won't be asking Ed where i should be fishing. for me its just rude (thats me not saying anything about anyone else). i think discussing patterns and colors and depths is fine but being pointed to an exact location takes teh fun out of it for me. i know Ed has a vested interest in me having a good time, and i can tell you that even if teh fishing is off i would still choose that lodge because of all the reasons OTHER than the fishing that enhances the fishing experience. thanks again for all the tips.

thanks for everyones tips and help...truly a great community of fishermen/women. although Ed is a great guy i try not to bother him with "where should i fish" questions, i dont want to be "that american". hunting these fish is more than half the fun for me. i also have plenty of bug juice, last time i was there the black flies were pretty insane at times and even though i only got a couple of bites, the welts lasted a couple weeks...small price to pay for that type of exceptional fishing. i will be taking a waterproof digi camera this time and hope to capture some pix of beatiful fish and scenery and share them with you all on my return. thanks again everyone.

thanks for the tips. i will definitely report back with photos upon my return.

good morning! new poster here, but i have been following your forum for a few weeks. great community you guys have here, very friendly and informative. i will be heading up to the French River staying at Cranes Lochaven Lodge on 5/27- 6/4. from what i can tell the river is up about 1.5 meters over historical norms. the last time i fishe dup there was the same week in '05 and the river was just slightly lower than normal. we had tons of walleye fishing at night casting stickbaits to points and jig and minnows on weed edges. i am curious how you guys think the higher water will impact our fishing. i presume the fish will be in basically the same type of post spawn spots as normal and its just a matter of finding the right combination of depth and sturcture that teh bait and walleye are relating to. how about the northern pike? will they be doing anything differently because of the higher water? any thoughts or opinions are very welcome and i appreciate your help in this thread and all the others that i have read along with. Brian