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well for all you Musky hunters out there that think there is a hiden honey hole down south in johnson's res.. then think again..
i just got back from a overnighter down that way.. we spent the whole day casting everything i could think of and then some at them..
we did catch 1 musky, it was all of 22"long and about 3 lbs..
i got talking to the nice DWR guy that stoped in.. and he said that they did a gill net study of the lake some time ago.. and did not find many Musky in there and no rainbows at all..
so about 10 min's after he left i got back in my tube to try again.. on about the 10 th cast i hit a 21" around 2 1/2 lb rainbow.. go figure..
all in all a real crapy day fishing.. how ever it's a very beautiful lake and not very many pepole fishing it. after we fished all day i could see why..
it looks like the lake is realy good at growing chub and suckes and not much else..
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It is also excellent at growing a huge number of stunted perch. Back in the good old days, we used to catch lots of nice rainbows out of Johnson Reservoir. On one occasion, later in the fall when they were drawing the reservoir really low, we caught many large rainbows in the river below the dam. They were so thick it was like fishing in a fish hatchery .
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hey kent it does look as if before leveing the lake the musky that were in there did do some damage to the perch..
perch catch's are way down this year..
i tryed a worm and bobber and jigging a small worm set up for about 3 houres yesterday as well.. no perch that i could find.. did see one kidd on the banke catch one about 3" long tho. it took him 3 or 4 houres and 5 or 6 chub to do it tho..
the lake seams to be in bad shape all the way around..
i would not recommend this lake for a fishing trip..
but for a beautifull place to camp and just getting into the outdoors it's great! not to far from fishlake so you can do some great fishing there and camp at Jhonson's..
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Just out of curiosity; what made you want to go to Johnson to fish for Musky? The DWR has been stocking them for a number of years, and there has been almost 0 angler activity. The DWR hasn't found them in gill nets, and there haven't been any reports that I know of to the DWR of any TM's being caught by anglers.
But
"it looks like the lake is realy good at growing chub and suckes and not much else.."
Wouldn't that explain the lack of success? If there's plenty of food, why would a TM take your bait? If there is that much food in Johnson, I would think there should be a fair number of big fellers in there. Especially if you caught a 22"er.
So, what's the skinny? You just decide to try it because of a Blue Moon?
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i went and fished it because the guy i went with last year caught 5 tigers out of there in one day with the smallest one being 29" and the biggest one being 38" and around 18 lbs! i would not have beleved it either if he did not show me the pic's he took.. and he went down 4 or 5 times last year and did very good every time.. so i thought well if he is catching fish like that then i'll give it a try..
but even he said something has changed in the lake and they are not what they were last year..
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ahhhhh..... I see. So, there ARE some big boys in there. You just had a bad day of fishing...
No Tiger Slam for Fuzzy.
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or it might be that there favrit munchy is now not in the lake.. that being perch and they have set off to find more of the same?
who knows?
your right no tiger slam for me i only caught 1.
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my personal opinion, is that the larger TM's (under 10") are not leaving the lake. I think that only the small ones leave after they are first planted. Once they get a bit bigger, I don't see them making it up Lake Creek. I don't think those fish have much of a preference for perch over chubs and suckers. It would be nothing for a 20" Tiger to eat a 12" sucker, let alone smaller chubs. That lake is so full of forage, that the TM's that are actually in there are not hurting for food. In fact, they probably don't have to do much to get a meal. Just sit with their mouths open and wait for something to swim in.
I don't think Johnson will ever be a destination Musky fishery. The lake just doesn't have the prototypical musky areas that fishermen like to target them in. But, I do think that Johnson will kick out some 40-45" Tiger Musky, and maybe even bigger, for the angler willing to put in the 10,000 + casts in search of one.
FWIW -- The DWR is going to continue the TM program at Johnson. I wonder why?
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[crazy] I wonder! My curousity has been raised![sly]
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for the last 6 to 8 years, johnsons has been tired and will continue to be tired until something changes.
that is encouraging though that you did get something.
however, your best is to fish the river below the dam.
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