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| Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [30 messages per page] Muskie Fishing -> Fishing Reports and Destinations -> Upcoming Canyon Lake, Ontario trip |
Aaron B |
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| Musky Brian |
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Posts: 1767 Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | |||
| Jacko |
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| Aaron B |
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Thanks guys! Brian, sounds like we fish a little opposite. We should go together and we'd probably learn a lot from each other!  I fish more main lake rock structure, points and islands, but again we usually go in late July/early August and the fish are generally deeper. We have fished a fair amount of weeds and shoreline structure, but seem to see/catch bigger fish on rock structure adjacent to the deep water. Obviously the shorelines are often adjacent to the deep water as well in most cases, but I'm thinking with the cooler water and later summer that the fish might be a bit shallower and on the shorelines in the wood more. Hopefully we can establish the more effective pattern early in the week by fishing a lot all types of areas. I've found weed growth to be sporadic from year to year as well so it will be interesting to see how the growth is. Thanks for the bait ideas as well Jacko. Our best bait has probably been the walleye colored jointed depth raider over the years, but have also had quite a bit of success on the small walleye phantom, weagles, Sebile stick shads and bulldawgs. I haven't ever done really well there on blades, but maybe I have to throw them more this time around. Weather looks to be cooler Saturday-Mon and then warming and stable the rest of the week so hopefully the fishing is good! Either way, I'll report when I get back. | |||
| Jacko |
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| Aaron B |
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| Well, just got back from the week long trip to Canyon and had a lot of fun. I am pretty sore and tired from pounding it pretty hard, but it was well worth it. Unfortunately for me, it was the trip of "what could have been". I am still learning muskie fishing and made some mistakes this week that cost me fish and a couple that I really don't think I could have done anything about. We boated 19 muskies over the course of the week (we had an additional 20 muskies on a little lake that we don't count, but they are a lot of fun anyway, but mostly 22"-32") . The biggest was 42.5", with several fish in the 35"-38" range and a bunch more in the 28"-33" range. The main lake rocks that I usually fish seemed to be completely vacant. At least the fish were not showing themselves if they were there so we adapted and fished more weeds, islands and points and saddles between islands and shore or other islands. Deeper wooded shorelines were also void of fish for the most part. Just a different year from what we have been used to, but adapted and learned a ton of new spots. I lost a 45" or so which would have been my personal best. I was burning a #5 Mepps over some deeper cabbage and she was coming hot on my bait so I went into the 8 and she blew up on it right into the first turn. I set the hook back into her and the fight was on. I managed to thumb the spool to give her some more and she took me down in the weeds and buried herself. I thought I wouldn't get her up, but managed to pull her out and she took me on some thrilling tail runs at the top of the water and then dove in the weeds again. I managed to get her out of the weeds again and had her about 15 feet from the net when I turned her head to come toward the net and the bait came unbuttoned. I was thrilled and devastated at the same time. Fight probably lasted a minute or so and I had everything but the picture to show for it. I lost another about 36" that came hot and missed my bucktail 4 times before finally connecting. That fight was much shorter as I didn't have the fish hooked very well and lost it after about 10 seconds. Also pulled another bait out of a hot fish in the mid thirties. Set the hook back into the fish after it hit for the second time, but a little early and didn't get the hooks in her. (completely my fault) Also had a topwater explosion right at dark and made the classic mistake of reacting to the splash instead of waiting to feel the fish and pulled the bait away. (again completely my fault) Do you sense a trend here? Had a 46"-48" fish launch out of the depths to eat my magnum bulldawg and she just completely fanned on the bait and returned to where she came from and didn't see her again. Don't think I could have done much on that one. Other highlights included my buddy landing a 38.25" fish after figure 8-ing the fish for no less than 5 minutes. Could not believe the fish hit after that long. Also had my brother-in-law get bumped on a crankbait, but the fish missed the hooks somehow and as she followed the bait in, we realized it was the biggest fish we'd seen that week. Right around 50". She followed again, but didn't show herself again the rest of the week. Overall, it was a great week of fishing, pounding it for about 12-14 hours a day. Best baits were #5 Mepps Giant Killer bucktails, 6" phantoms and hellhounds, and a custom 8" twitch bait in black/orange that my buddy had. He had another one, but gave it to my brother in the other boat and the bait caught a total of 8 fish during the week between the 2 of them. Also had a lot of luck getting swipes on topwater, but only managed to catch 1 fish on topwater in spite of having about 10 swipes on top water baits. The fish were either missing them on aggressive strikes or just nipping the baits on more passive strikes. Weather was very stable and warm, which helped at first, but then got the fish in a more lazy mood toward the end of the week. I'm more than willing to help anyone else out on an upcoming trip to Canyon as far as locations. Hopefully, you'll do a better job closing the deal than I did! | |||
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