Doe Lake Report

[solopaddler]

Well, we decided at literally the last minute to head north to Doe Lake just north of Huntsville for a couple of nights. My brother in law and his family were up there for the week. We don't get to see them that much and we had the time, so why not?

It was a tight fit in the car though. My mother in law joined us so Joanne was crammed into the back seat between the 2 child seats. No room to move and a kid on each side of her grabbing at her.....she was glad when we arrived .

We rented a pretty decent little cottage on Little Doe Lake at another resort right next to the one my in laws were at.

Small private beach right at our doorstep was nice, my daughter loved it.

Now, before I left I solicted the board for help in finding walleye up there (thank's again everyone for the info, especially Joey!). In all honesty I didn't get a chance to fish all that much, and when I did get out it was tough! My brother in law Dale owns a boat that looks eerily like the one Relic on The Beachcombers drove ...not a great fishing boat, we tried for a bit in his boat, but you coudn't troll in it (too fast), and there wasn't a breath of wind for a drift, so that was out. I was getting frustrated so I broke down and rented a small tin boat Thursday evening and brought my 13 year old nephew Ryan out to a small rockpile on Little Doe.

We tried our best, but other than a few Rock Bass and one undersized smallmouth, we came up short. Real nice evening and sunset though...

Friday the weather continued it's trend of hot, hazy, flat calm conditions. I went out for a bit by myself early Friday morning, but man, conditions were tough!

Here I am entering the narrows from Little Doe into Middle Doe.

Once on Big Doe I tried a variety of spots, but it felt like fishing in the Gobi Desert!

Caught a bunch of dink smallmouth and that was it...

Now I've got to say these lakes were unbelievably busy. Jet skis, waterskiers and pleasure boats churning up the water all day long. That combined with the weather conditions made for pretty tough conditions (that's my excuse and I'm stickin' to it!)

With those conditions combined with the near full moon what I should have done is troll all night long with some of my modified oversized floating Rapalas. Unfortunately that wasn't an option on this trip.

Ah well, it was still fun! We capped off our mini trip with a huge barbecue on our last night

No complaints, it was still a fun little getaway.

Headed north to my place in Quebec with a bud later this week for some serious back lake fishing. One lake in particular is reputed to have numbers of big pike over 20lb's (and never gets fished) so it should be interesting, hopefully we'll put a few more fish in the boat!

 

cheers, Mike

[Carp]

Sounds like your family had a good time on this trip.

Your cottage looks fairly new.

Too bad you didn't get much time to fish.

Some nice pics though.

[Joey]

Well that's too bad you didn't get out as much as you wanted. Maybe next time you go up you can try trolling some of the areas we talked about.

 

Great report and thanks for the pics. I recognize all those places

 

Joey

[Clampet]

Hey, half the fun is getting there and trying yer luck.

 

Sweet resort, although that is one small bedroom.

 

Nice steaks!!

[solopaddler]

Well that's too bad you didn't get out as much as you wanted. Maybe next time you go up you can try trolling some of the areas we talked about.

 

Oh I did. I think you guys cleaned it out already

[steverowbotham]

My tournament partner has a cottage on Doe Lake, and he's reported some tough fishing these past few weeks. Pike are hitting well, but he travels 10 mins or so to another lake for bass and eyes.

[LesCulpJr]

Doe Lake has been getting hammered since the walleye opener. No doubt it would have been a tough bite.

The fishing has been tough everywhere around here lately.

[Mike the Pike]

Too Bad Mike but I think with the heat the fishing has slowed down.I think boat traffic does hinder the fishing.

 

Your wife must be proud from the looks of that bedroom pic it shows you know how to make the bed very well ,neatly too

 

Looking forward to the Monster pike report MTP

[lunkerbasshunter]

to bad the fishing was tough! I had a tough time this weekend fishing as well so dont feel to bad.

 

Cheers!

[scuro]

Nice report with good pics to give one a sense of the location. Love the pic with the Nephew. I understand your plight with children. My daughters are all older now and my wife now likes fishing