Anyway, My Dad called Sunday morning. They didn't get perching on Saturday, but got an 18" & 29" eye before dark. The 18 went toward the Man Food supply & Dad's partner put back the 29 for you to play with. Said both fish fought like pike.
They fished east of the west end island. No action on cranks. Drifted & cast into the wind with 1/8th & 1/4 oz jigs with white 2" & 3" twister tails tipped with leeches. I guess the 29 came on a split/double tail body.
I'll post a soon as I hear more.
Went to whitefish 7 years in a row starting when I was 12 so it’s been about 20 years now since I’ve been there. The last couple years we started exploring other lakes, Sandstone was our favorite, lots of nice smallies and walleye! Very shallow launch as I remember, I actually ran into the side of my Dad’s car with the boat loading up there but that’s another story! Lol. We used to go to the dump up there to watch the bears until they put a gate at the entrance. There was another lake we went to up there the name I don’t recall, I think it was past sandstone but on the left side of the road. When u launch u can go to the left but then it gets shallow, park the boat and walk through the water until you come to some rapids. Casted leeches into the rapids and we killed the big smallies! That tip we learned from a local at a bar. He was being a dick to my dad, he assumed we were rich snobs up there on vacation. Once he found out my dad was a heavy machinery mechanic and “worked” for a living he eased up and gave us fishing tips.
I fished Whitefish in the 70-80's. No limit on perch back then and no size limit on walleye. As for other lakes down the road, Iron Range is like a smaller Whitefish. good lake. Sandstone good bass lake and huge walleye but hard to catch. Arrow good bass and lake trout beautiful lake deep huge walleye hard to catch. Northern lights lake trout bass huge walleye, extremely large, beautiful poor landing. Whitefish, largest walleye 31" 12lb, caught on what was a new bait at the time a perch Shad Rap, drift west of east islands in the thickest weeds you can find, cast with the wind and reel and twitch back to boat, the more the wind the better.
I fished Whitefish this past June 22-28th. I have fished this lake 25+ times over two+ decades. It is definitely not what it use to be but the walleyes you catch are extremely healthy. Dealt with a nasty cold front that dropped the lake temperature 6 degrees. I caught 35 walleyes with only 5 below 18 inches. I am not a leech fisherman. Nicer walleyes are caught on crankbaits. I would love to hear more comments on any of the lakes in this area.
I have been to Whitefish lake from 2014 until now with no problem with weeds in the summer. I call it a fishing trip. Yes it's across the border, but I wouldn't call it a Canadian fishing destination either. There are better lakes also, but none with a 100 perch limit. Not very many with perch as a main fishery. I enjoy going because it's a short drive for us ( 575 miles) and we always have fun. Do we always catch our limit? No, we usually get 75-80 a person and eat a few also. It's very reasonable too, usually $450-$500 a person total. Other places I want to go to in the near future are $500 a person just for the cabin and nothing else. I heard they got a season coming for cormorants. That's a plus. As far as I know I'm going back this year. Maybe I'm crazy, but I like the lake. It's easy to learn and usually good weather in july. Well good luck to all and there's my 2 cents worth.
Went to Whitefish for my final time last month, and I knew it was a BIG MISTAKE !!!.....Cormorants have overwhelmed the lake and have pretty much destroyed the fishing - No locals fishing at all, and just a few fools from Wisconsin (me included) on the water - Perch and walleye fishing both TERRIBLE !!! - Spoke to locals who said DNR can do nothing cuz birds are Federally protected, and to make things worse yet, pelicans have joined in the demise of this once great fishery - Don't be fools and waste your time going here..........and Peanut if you are out there, I would like to talk to you, as you have not given up I see !.......text me (9204287726)
Well our trip was screwed up to say the least, but we caught afew fish. It started with 5 of us going but 2 had trouble at the border so only 3 of us went. We had 200 perch and 6 northern and a couple walleye to bring home. We ate a few walleye for fish fry. All in all it was okay but I, not going with that crew again. My partner and I will get a new crew for next year.
I just talked to a friend of mine that just got back yesterday. 3 in the group and had to work to get their perch. Usually they catch a fair amount of walleye, but not this year. They only caught 2. Plenty of northern I guess. I'm going in three weeks, I'll give report after I get back.
