My Aunt and Uncle along with their his brother owned the lodge up until just this winter for must be around the last twenty years. They are still managing it but i think the entire place sold for 700 000. Not bad for six cabins with three on deeded land in the north, cook shacks and a ton of boats. I would have used my soul as collateral if i could afford the place right now.
I recently picked up fly fishing and have asked about the grayling numerous times and from what i hear almost nobody fishes for them anymore. What ever is there likely has never seen a lure or fly before. My uncle said there were a few guys who go up there with fly gear and do well closer to spring over ten years ago and from what i remember the biggest grayling he has seen was 2.5 lbs. Jednstka I stated fishing up there the year before the road blocks and didn't fish it the last year it was blocked and have been there ove half a dozen times since. The twenty pound pike aren't as abundant as before and their concession of lakes has gown.
They allow people to keep what ever fish they catch and the spots close to the camps do have fish up to 25 lbs but your more likely to catch a twenty pounder or two in the spring before they get knocked out by another fisherman. If you travel around the shores of Forest you can find the big ones late in the summer, most guys just fish forest for lakers so they are largely untouched. The Pike get up to thirty pounds in some of the shallow sandy bays. Last summer lakers were biting like mad. From what i heard almost no one went home without their limit. They had one entire crew limit out within and hour and a half on lakers in Forest. If you fish Patterson there are a higher number than usual of Silver pike, and they have a really nice blue color to them. A truly beautiful fish worth mounting. Without getting out of your boat you can hit up five different lakes and three different creeks.
Keep in mind fishing is called fishing not catching, and we have gone up there and had bad luck fishing and bad luck with the weather with snow in july before, but it is still worth checking out and is truly a great fishing experience. You may also want to check out the black sands beach on Forest lake. I have never seen anything like it. Bring pails you will likely want to take some of it home with you.
Here are the maximum sizes i remember for the lakes they guide. These are not guaranteed sizes.
Patterson- Lakers - 20,
Pike - 25,
Walleye - 7,
Forest - Lakers - 25,
Pike - 30
Beete - Lakers - 12,
Pike - 25,
Walleye - 7,
Naomi - Pike - 20,
Walleye - 7,
Ace in The Hole - Lakers - 15-20,
Pike - 15,
Clear Water River - Pike - 15,
Grayling 1-2,
Also if you have quad
Vermeerrsch lake has monster pike in it. We caught 14 pounders with huge fresh gaping wounds on them. After catching a fourteen pounder on one rod we had one fish peel line right off the rod non stop even after cranking the drag the whole way it snapped the rod and pulled the line off the reel without even coming close to the boat.
Wickenkamp lake is the best walleye lake out of all of them. We have never been skunked there. We usually go and limit out within a couple of hours, and we pick and choose which ones to keep. Pike up to 10 lbs, and walleye up to 8 lbs.
On a different note you make want to enjoy those lakes sooner rather than later. Fission energy just intersected 18 meters of economic grade uranium mineralization 120 feet under paterson lake (likely mined as open pit mine... bye bye Paterson). Their follow up drilling is looking good as well. Its likely going to turn into drilling central and the place will likely be over run for the next five years to assess if there is a mine there and if there is... Well let me put it this way Im working at a Uranium mine at Wollaston lake right now that has been operation for almost 40 years and it looks like theres at least another 10 years of mine life with the deposits they know about around it. Not to mentions the new ones they are finding.
|