Papa_Ron
07-05-2005, 09:20 AM
Hello everyone. I hope you ya'll have had great fishing while we've been on vacation. Also hope ya'll've had a nice 4th of July Holiday.
Our vacation on Gun Lake was as nice as I believe could have been expected. The cottage we rented was okay, and the Pontoon we rented was okay. The 'fishing' I would have hoped to be a little better...however...we had lots of fun with the grandboys, and we didn't get skunked. We honestly really weren't disappointed.
I didn't 'count' our catch but, keeper or not, we boated a fair number of Largemouth. The largest of which, I'm sorry to say, only reached 13 1/4"<--(9 year old grandson caught it). But, over the course of our 7 days of fishing, we caught 'many many' a Largemouth in the 11" to 13" range, and many others a bit smaller.
As for the Crappie...we caught lots of them. A majority being in the 8" & 9" & 10" range. However..."1", 12 1/2" Crappie was caught<--(9 year old grandson caught it). Excellent!
A few slabber gills & Rockies were caught. Never caught but one reasonably keeper size Perch. Caught three smallies, all 10". Caught two decent keeper size Bullheads.
Did some Pike fishing, but never so much as a single strike. "Saw", what we were told by several anglers there, was a *HUGE* Muskie. It surfaced about 35 yards from our Pontoon, plowed water with its mouth wide open for about six feet, and disappeared. Saw from its head to the back of its big top fin, which at a 'guess' appeared to be every bit of 3 ft. Who knows how much more of him there was left beyond that?!
Whispering Pines Resort was an okay enough place to stay for the money. Being under new ownership for a year now, and also undergoing some remodeling of cabins, replacing of boat docks, and the repairing of the three Pontoons they have. The 'main' house/lodge (which sleeps 10) is 'LARGE', not to mention quite beautiful inside. All-in-all, and again, for the money, I wouldn't have a problem with going back again.
We fished 'primarily' the West side of the lake. Only ventured through the Channel to the East side twice. On the West side, we fished from North to South end and everywhere inbetween. Deep & shallow and all depths inbetween. And, we fished pretty much every time frame of any given day. All fish we caught on the West side were between the depths of 4 ft. to 10 ft. None of the DEEP holes really produced anything. Also, the vast majority of the fish we caught were during mid and hot part of the days. We had a couple of partial days of a little rain, and some BIG wind. Caught fish pretty good during those times as well.
We fished the East side through the Channel first to the North back behind that first Island. Shallow, as well as that DEEP hole near it. The shallows produced some real scrappy non-keeper Largemouth. Then, we fish the South end of the East side. Found that deep hole there, fished in and around it, caught nothing.
Baits:.....Crawlers, Crappie Minnows, Sucker Minnows, Leaches, Crickets, Wax Worms....Silver Weedless Spoons, and an assortment of other things I had in my box. Drug DEEP bottoms with'em, and shallows with'em, and weed beds with'em, and the gravels and rice bed with'em. Every color/size/shape. Even did a bit of trolling. 'Nothing'!
A 'couple' of anglers were swearing by the "Crickets". We had virtually no luck with them ourselves. And very little action with the Crappies minnows, but a 'little'. Leaches and Wax Worms were pretty much a total bust. "Crawlers", were what was doing the trick for all species, far more than all other baits combined.
Gillette's Bait/Tackle/Hardware is where we bought the majority of our baits. I mean...once I found out that Gillette's existed.
We stopped in at 'The Bib' Restaurant one afternoon to cool off with some of their ice cream. We never did get back there for a 'meal' but, I felt like they were way over priced. We also stopped for dinner one evening at a little Mom & Pop Restaurant, and for the life of me now I can't think of its name. It was a bit North of us and not far from those two little Putt Putt Golf Courses. They had the All-You-Can-Eat batter fried fish (Atlantic Pollock)...or was it 'Alaskan Pollock'?...well anyway, every Tuesday & Friday nights. It was quite good! 'Only' complaint we had is that they weren't frying their fish fillets quite done enough and had to bring it to their attention. After that, the fillets were great!
When...'IF'...I can figure out how to post pictures here, I will pop a few on a thread. Haven't tried it before, so not sure I'll figure it out.
Well, that's kind of the 'short winded' version of our experience on Gun Lake. Oh...we were there from June 25th thru July 2nd.
Our vacation on Gun Lake was as nice as I believe could have been expected. The cottage we rented was okay, and the Pontoon we rented was okay. The 'fishing' I would have hoped to be a little better...however...we had lots of fun with the grandboys, and we didn't get skunked. We honestly really weren't disappointed.
I didn't 'count' our catch but, keeper or not, we boated a fair number of Largemouth. The largest of which, I'm sorry to say, only reached 13 1/4"<--(9 year old grandson caught it). But, over the course of our 7 days of fishing, we caught 'many many' a Largemouth in the 11" to 13" range, and many others a bit smaller.
As for the Crappie...we caught lots of them. A majority being in the 8" & 9" & 10" range. However..."1", 12 1/2" Crappie was caught<--(9 year old grandson caught it). Excellent!
A few slabber gills & Rockies were caught. Never caught but one reasonably keeper size Perch. Caught three smallies, all 10". Caught two decent keeper size Bullheads.
Did some Pike fishing, but never so much as a single strike. "Saw", what we were told by several anglers there, was a *HUGE* Muskie. It surfaced about 35 yards from our Pontoon, plowed water with its mouth wide open for about six feet, and disappeared. Saw from its head to the back of its big top fin, which at a 'guess' appeared to be every bit of 3 ft. Who knows how much more of him there was left beyond that?!
Whispering Pines Resort was an okay enough place to stay for the money. Being under new ownership for a year now, and also undergoing some remodeling of cabins, replacing of boat docks, and the repairing of the three Pontoons they have. The 'main' house/lodge (which sleeps 10) is 'LARGE', not to mention quite beautiful inside. All-in-all, and again, for the money, I wouldn't have a problem with going back again.
We fished 'primarily' the West side of the lake. Only ventured through the Channel to the East side twice. On the West side, we fished from North to South end and everywhere inbetween. Deep & shallow and all depths inbetween. And, we fished pretty much every time frame of any given day. All fish we caught on the West side were between the depths of 4 ft. to 10 ft. None of the DEEP holes really produced anything. Also, the vast majority of the fish we caught were during mid and hot part of the days. We had a couple of partial days of a little rain, and some BIG wind. Caught fish pretty good during those times as well.
We fished the East side through the Channel first to the North back behind that first Island. Shallow, as well as that DEEP hole near it. The shallows produced some real scrappy non-keeper Largemouth. Then, we fish the South end of the East side. Found that deep hole there, fished in and around it, caught nothing.
Baits:.....Crawlers, Crappie Minnows, Sucker Minnows, Leaches, Crickets, Wax Worms....Silver Weedless Spoons, and an assortment of other things I had in my box. Drug DEEP bottoms with'em, and shallows with'em, and weed beds with'em, and the gravels and rice bed with'em. Every color/size/shape. Even did a bit of trolling. 'Nothing'!
A 'couple' of anglers were swearing by the "Crickets". We had virtually no luck with them ourselves. And very little action with the Crappies minnows, but a 'little'. Leaches and Wax Worms were pretty much a total bust. "Crawlers", were what was doing the trick for all species, far more than all other baits combined.
Gillette's Bait/Tackle/Hardware is where we bought the majority of our baits. I mean...once I found out that Gillette's existed.
We stopped in at 'The Bib' Restaurant one afternoon to cool off with some of their ice cream. We never did get back there for a 'meal' but, I felt like they were way over priced. We also stopped for dinner one evening at a little Mom & Pop Restaurant, and for the life of me now I can't think of its name. It was a bit North of us and not far from those two little Putt Putt Golf Courses. They had the All-You-Can-Eat batter fried fish (Atlantic Pollock)...or was it 'Alaskan Pollock'?...well anyway, every Tuesday & Friday nights. It was quite good! 'Only' complaint we had is that they weren't frying their fish fillets quite done enough and had to bring it to their attention. After that, the fillets were great!
When...'IF'...I can figure out how to post pictures here, I will pop a few on a thread. Haven't tried it before, so not sure I'll figure it out.
Well, that's kind of the 'short winded' version of our experience on Gun Lake. Oh...we were there from June 25th thru July 2nd.