Pooped out

[bigcreekdad]

Just spent a week at Crane's on the French. Fishing not so hot. Weather was not the best for muskies......too much sun and too warm for September. Only had one half day of overcast , and my brother in law caight a 40" lunge that morning. I only managed one 34" muskie. Even the pike were pretty much closed mouth. On the other hand, spent a morning taking a break from casting and found a smallmouth hole where I had a hit virtually every time I lowered a minnow. Caught scads of them on minnows up to 16''......far from lunkers, but a lot of fun on an ultralight.

 

Tried braided line for the first time (Power Pro 50lb and 65lb) and was quite pleased with it. Great feel and no stretch. Only downside is that occasional backlash is tougher to unravel than mono, but not that big adeal.

 

As usual the accomodations, food, and hospitality at Cranes was well above average. Ed, Sue, and the staff really take a personal interest in you.

 

That's it for me this year tripwise. Believe it or not, took 5 trips to Canada this year, my first year of retirement. Three trips to Cranes, one each to LOTW and northern Quebec. For muskies this year......2 in 30's, one 44", and my personal best 50" from LOTW. Not to mention, some pretty awsome brookie and laker fishing on a fly rod in Quebec. To sum it up.....pretty damn good summer! Kinda blew my trip budget though, and will have to trim back to no more than 3 trips next year.....still more than I should, but I figure it's better to do what you can while you can. Actually though, I can say for the first time that I'm a bit fished out.

 

So, is fishing over for me this year?....not really....just the big trips . I will still fish the Au Sable River in Michigan thru November and steelhead in Vermillion River in Ohio.

 

So....a lot to be thankful for this year, and my son will be home early November from Iraq .Life is good.....hope you all feel the same.

[OhioFisherman]

Bigcreek, are you in Ohio?

[bigcreekdad]

Yep.....live in Toledo, have a cabin in north mich

[Rizzo]

5 trips is awesome! I'm lucky if I get out 5 times. Usually Lakair is my one trip of the year, but even that didn't pan out for me this year. Congrats on the pb musky!

[OhioFisherman]

Bigcreek I wondered when you mentioned the Vermillion river. Used to get steelhead there myself bass fishing around the river mouth. Good walleye action there offshore in the fall also.

[DonC]

Bigcreek,

What lodge did you stay at on LOTW? We stay at Birch Island Resort in Minaki. It has changed hands. We also fish the Upper and Lower french. This year stayed at Casa Blanca Lodge on the Upper French. That is up for sale. Enjoyed our stay. We fished Crane's in 1990. Accomodations were nice, fishing so-so, but our skill level was not as good then. I am just perusing information on good lodges with good fishing, with American Plans and looking for recommendations.

Don C

[bigcreekdad]

Don

 

On LOTW I stayed at Crow Rock Lodge. It's about a 35 minute boat ride from Kenora.A very good lodge.....very well maintained, excellent food, and run by the Defcik(sp?) family....excellent hosts. They also had good guides, and their boats are made for fishing......17' crestliners with 50 hp Yamaha 4 strokes. They also have boats on several inland lakes you can hike into.....I had onre day on one of them where I had nonstop topwater action n smallmouth up to 18.5 " on a 6 wgt fly rod. If I go back to LOTW I will definitely return to Crow Rock.

 

I had over 20 trips to Casa Blanca over 10 years before going to Cranes 3 years ago. I quit Casa Blanca after Liz and Brian spilt up......my sons went yearly with me and sorta grew up with Liz's daughter, and Liz was quite close to my boys......felt it just wouldn't be the same without Liz and her daughter.....nothing against Bryan, he's a great guy and really turned that camp around from something pretty run down when they bought it.

 

Got the recommendation for Crane's from Liz and have not been disappointed. It too is a personal touch camp run by Ed and Sue Crane. My son's ae both quite happy going there too, and the Crane's and their staff have gone out of their way making my son Jeff, who is developmentally didsabled, welcome there.

 

As for comparing the water there vs. at Casa Blanca, I found to upper French to be a bit more picturesque, and there's a bit more water. However, the lower has some rapids you can fish, and these are pretty slick. As for the fishing, the biggest difference I have noticed is with the muskie.....on the upper I landed only 3 muskies in the 20 odd trips ( although my son Norm also caught 3 including a 47 incher), however in 7 trips so far to Crane's on the lower French I have caught 6 muskies up to 44", and have seen many others.

 

Curious to hear about your trip to Casa Blanca.

[Rich Clemens]

Well Bud - I just got back from the area as well. We were at Wolseley Lodge last week and I ran down around Lockhaven a couple times early in the week, but didn't see your boat around. Was hoping to meet up and say hello. I'll be putting my report up soon, but my luck was the same as yours. Between my wife and I, we may have caught a total of 8 fish during two weeks on the French. Largest was 25 1/2 pike. No musky, but raised 4.

[DonC]

Bigcreek,

 

Four of us brothers fished 4 days at Casa Blanca this year and last year. Bryan had a different woman working for him each year. This year the food was outstanding. The woman had worked as a chef for years. We were the only ones in camp in mid July. By oldest brother brought his modified Lund 18 foot SSV boat, which if you are interested in how it was created, is at http://www.correllconcepts.com/boat_conversion.htm. It fished great. Using the lodge boats would have made the trip less enjoyable.

 

We averaged for 4 days on the Upper French and 1/2 day on the Lower French around 35 fish in the boat per day. Mostly smallmouth. I did have around a 40-45 inch muskie on fishing from shore below the Chaudiere Rapids when my brother and I walked around the dam on the trail. On 8 pound test, I was unable to keep is on more than 2 minutes in the rapids.

 

We did have a mosquito problem in cabin 6. There was plenty of rain, with standing water under the cabins. If the mosquitos are factored out, it was very enjoyable. It is sad to see lodge owners struggle with the exchange rate.

 

We have been going 2-3 times per year to Birch Island Resort in Minaki. Last year the lodge sold. Their business is way down this year. The change in ownership has been both positive and negative. We will go back next year but I am looking around.

 

I have looked at Crow Rock on the web many times over the years and wondered how it was. My wife goes occasionally to Canada, but does not fish. She relaxes around the lodge, and occasionally goes with other women in to Kenora or the countryside for lunch and shopping. I suspect that will be difficult at Crow Rock. Do you think a non-fishing wife would enjoy relaxing at the lodge? Are the accommodations nice with indoor cabin plumbing etc? How is the main lodge? Anything else to do?

 

I fish smallmouth primarily. How is smallmouth fishing on that section of LOTW? I see that the inland lakes are good, but just wondering about local smallmouth around the lodge.

 

Thanks for your earlier detailed reply,

 

Don

[bigcreekdad]

Don

 

I can't tell you about the smallies around the lodge as I didn't fish for them. I do know thatothers were catching smallmouth, but couldn't tell you where they were. As I mentioned before, their inland lakes can have spectacular smallmouth fishing, and the one I fished was only a couple hundred yards walk from where you get dropped off. Email KurtDefcik atCrow Rock for more smallmouth info....he fishes bass tournaments up there ad was in the money twice this year. Something I didn't mention was the pike fishing.....I caught about 6-8 pike while fishing for muskie and none were lss than 30 inches, with the largest at 38". This is quite a difference from the upper and lower French from my experience where most of the pike I caught were less than 30".

 

I found the cabins to be extremely well maintained....a step above Casa Blanca, and Cranes. Most cabins, from my memory, have screaned in porches. indoor plumbing ( ie bathroom) was on a par with a decent hotel, so nothing to worry about there. THe main lodge is comfy with a couple couches, several chairs, and a large screan TV. Being by mysef, I spent some time there and felt both comfortable and welcome.....staff were all very friendly. Outside of the main lodge are several chairs that are on the water. As for getting off island, there seemed to be boats goingback and forth to Kenora daily. Their boat guy handles all this, and I'm sure ifa boat isn't going, you can certainly request a lift.....they may charge you ( I don't know), but my point is that the option is certainly there.

 

Any other info, let me know.....feel free to email me if you like at [email protected]

 

Joh O'Neil