Clearwater/Pipestone Chain

I am going to this area over the Memorial day weekend and was looking for an early season fishing report on these lakes since this is the the first time my crew is heading there. Your experiences and suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks, Mark

Thanks Guys! Yeah, this is the first time for us: I see lake despair on the map: We will certainly check it out: It's a big body of water, so anything to cut down the learning curve is greatly appreciate. It seems like when heading out to new water, it takes 2-3 days to find what you need to do to find bigger fish, when you only have a 4 day trip, the more digging I do now, hopefully the less time it takes to find the fish! :-) Muskie season won't be open yet, so we will be targeting pike (probably at moving water, and weedlines) and looking for eyes.

I stayed at true north out post last august. to me pipe stone seem to be the best lake with a lot of sm bass, good northern and some muskies. the owner from our cabins guided up on pipe stone for walleyes. clear water we found some walleyes. the last day we found the weeds that held northern. we had good number of follow ups from muskie on clear water with my dad landing the only two of the trip. there are lakes to the south to that you can mechanical portage to that had walleye, northern, and sm bass. boating on clear water is pretty safe with only a couple hazards to look out for. if I where you I would see if the cabin owner or guide would mark a map up for you. where different types of fish might be. that helps the learning curve out.

Tony, I fished on the chain and stayed on Clearwater lake in 2000. My brother and I did very well on lake despair. It was easy to fish, the water was stained and the walleyes bit well all day long smaller eater sized walleyes. I did get some really nice 26 and 28 inch eyes on Clearwater lake at first and last light. Good luck and have fun!

Any report? Leaving a week from today! Very excited! We are staying on Clearwater, but plan to head to Pipestone if need be. I'd love to hear how it went for you guys!

Mark, I'd sure like to hear your reports when you return: We are going June 4th for a week up to clearwater lake on the chain. Never fished it before so I too am looking for any tips or advice. thanks

Mark, Our group is also heading to Pipestone on May 26th, ice pending lol, for the week. This is our 6th trip to Pipestone in the last 10 years and we really love it. The latest that I can remember the ice coming off was middle of May so I'm hoping we will be ok for our trip. We like to fish for sm, walleye, lake trout, and northern. I think the sm are going to tough this year unless it really warms up. The rest of them should be in the shallows. We are counting the days... We rent an outpost cabin near James Bay. Maybe see you on the water!!! Rich