After the cold Nor’easter that came barreling down last Saturday, I would have guessed that fall was going to pass faster than Rachelle’s beef stroganoff. Fortunately the sun decided to make another appearance this week and enough leaves held on to their branches for us to enjoy a little more autumn.
Many of the Gunflint Trail hilltops are completely stripped of foliage from the high winds this week while a few tucked-away areas are still teeming with fall colors.
High winds are expected this time of year and they enable the bigger bodies of water to churn up the warm and cool sections of the lake. It is often called “turning over” when the cold deep water mixes with the warmer surface water to create an even temperature throughout the water column. It takes a lot of wind to mix things up but once the lake turns over, deep water fish like the lake trout are able to survive throughout the water column. The female lake trout will lay their eggs on the shallow rock piles, usually adjacent to deeper water, while the males stick around and protect their eggs—a trait that walleyes need to adopt if they want to survive.
Walleyes are supposed to come up shallow in the fall as well, but I have not had any luck with this phenomenon on Saganaga Lake. When the water temperature drops into the 50s a majority of the walleyes drop to depths of 50 as well, and they tend to stay there throughout the winter. There are some years that the walleyes are still 50 feet deep on the spring fishing opener in May. They usually run a little smaller and are most likely too young to go through the typical springtime spawning rituals.
Sag is a unique lake that has a long reputation of being a hard safe to crack, however the numbers of fall walleyes being caught this year have been impressive. We have been averaging 20 walleyes a day with at least half being eater-sized fish or better. The hawgs seem to be more common in the 29-31-inch range and are swimming side-by-side with the little ’eyes. The numbers of juvenile fish are looking good but we are missing a few year classes that would be in the 20-28- inch range. That means seven or eight years-worth of premium spawning-aged walleyes that are barely present on a lake that was self sufficiently producing walleyes every year for five decades. We might go a few years without seeing any big fish but with a little luck the population will rebound.
P.S. Rachelle makes a wonderful beef stroganoff; I just like to make her smile.
Cory Christianson has worked as a fishing guide on the Gunflint Trail since 2000. If you have any fishing or wildlife reports or stories to share, send an email to: christiansoncory@hotmail.com or call 218- 388-0315. You can also visit Cory’s website at Gunflintfishingguide.com.
Leave a Reply