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Posts: 24
| Headed up to Eagle the week of Labor Day. Can someone give me a general game plan for attacking this large body of water? We are staying at Temple Bay and have a guide for a few days during the week, but I'd like to try and get on some fish right off the bat. PM me if you feel like you'd rather do that. This is my one and only week of musky fishing for the year, so any pointers would be appreciated.
p.s. The tackle box has about a dozen cowgirls/showgirls, some Grandma's, a Triple D and some topwater and I'm prepared to use any and all of them!
Much appreciated. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | that's the same week i have been up there for about 10 years and there have been a variety of conditions and success/struggle stories. there is a ton of information on Eagle in this site that you should be able to search and benefit from.
for me, i used one of about 4 or 5 baits. double 10 black/smoke or christmas tree/smoke ... if you have one that has been beat up and re-bent to almost straight even better, grandma in tennessee shad, natural pike depth raider, pike (the brown/light brown) shallow invader and a walleye medusa. All these baits have caught fish ... 90% of casts with double 10, 80% of all fish caught at boat side in a figure 8. many partners throwing "magic bullets" aka baits other than the ones on this list and caught zero fish.
typical week 13-15 fish, 1 50 or over, 6 - 8 screw ups ... with one notable terrible week.
i focus on what has been wind-blown and fish it regardless of conditions (calm or crazy) ... love it when they are on rocks, but have seen the biggest fish relating to the transition of sand/weed/rock. the one really bad year i noted there was a guy who scored fishing sand ... i think it's water temp. related that if it's cooling down rapidly fish will use the sand.
boat control is huge ...
double 10 always being thrown
shallow invader as second
when fish are finicky start going to dr
when fish are neutral or negative i go to ripping grandmas and breaking reels
when i get tired and the other guy is throwing a double 10 i'll throw a medusa
all this is not original ... i learned from the smartest and most experienced guys on the water and did what they showed/told me and it worked reliably with the exception of one really tough year when i learned the sand thing, unfortunately i learned it the last day of that trip.
not being ready on each and every cast assuming you do everything else right could cost you 5 fish or more.
good luck ... wish i were heading up there with you.
Edited by jonnysled 8/24/2015 2:09 PM
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Posts: 42
| Do you know who you have for a guide? |
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Posts: 24
| We fished with one of the Temple Bay guides Brian last year and regardless of the weather conditions, he put us on a few fish, so we requested his services again. |
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Posts: 42
| Yep, Brian grew up on that lake and knows it well. Good choice |
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Posts: 24
| I'll be leaving at the end of the week. Was anybody up on Eagle last week that could give a report? It seems that the reports from the resorts have been few and far between lately. Thanks. |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | bcampr1 - 9/1/2015 2:16 PM
I'll be leaving at the end of the week. Was anybody up on Eagle last week that could give a report? It seems that the reports from the resorts have been few and far between lately. Thanks.
The weather in Canada was atrocious last week. Don't think a report is going to do you much good |
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Posts: 24
| I'd rather have decent weather than a good report! It looks like it's going to be a not so horrible week next week. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | throw it at that rock ... |
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | I was on Eagle in your area last week. The worst possible cold front came in and dropped water temps by 6 degrees. By the end of the week the flat calm blue skies started warming the waters up and getting fish active. The last day we had action from 16 fish, should of had 5-6 in the boat but only kept one pinned. The big fish didnt really show up till later in the week. I did see one pushing legal the first day of the cold front.
Both weeds and rocks held fish. Double 10's worked but eights put a lot of fish in the boat as well for folks including us. Pay attention to wind blown if it had blown from that direction for several days, otherwise it wasn't as critical because the fish hadn't set up. So I spent a lot of time fishing ALL the structure and not just the money spot/wind blown spot and it showed a lot of the fish doing this.
This week up there with the warm up I know fish are snapping... one guide I know I think got 7 in the boat yesterday or the day before. But we all know that changes daily. If you get a gradual cooling its best. The fish can be ultra shallow, and I am not just talking those overcast wind blowing days, but talking on the blue bird flat calm days. I have gotten 50 inch fish in less than 2 feet of water mid day with no clouds and and not a puff of wind. Did the same thing this last trip, got a 46 in same conditions and she was holding shallow on rocks (Pic below). Some structures need almost two passes if you hadn't got them dialed in. A deep pass first working the first major break, and stay off the break a ways so when the fish comes up off the break its not right under the boat. Then a second pass where you can literally hit the rocks with your baits. you will be suprised how many fish show up on the first or second crank off the rock.
Don't over look erratic baits. Our most consistent bait for seeing fish and getting hits was a Granny style bait worked agressively to give kick outs and pauses. I was fishing in the back of my boat and getting a lot of action fishing behind the blades. Also had action on Depthraiders and triple D's. Rubber did raise the biggest fish, but sometimes all rubber does is show you fish.... SOMETIMES.
I think Sleds numbers are a little high for the average trip to eagle. 12-15 fish is more like a great week. I typically average 8 fish with usually 1-2 big fish in there, some trips better some trips worse. Plan on losing fish too. We lost 9 fish this last trip. Now you could have a 25 fish week on eagle, if so, that is the magical week to be there. But 2-5 fish trips are not uncommon... for a BOAT, not an angler. And, if your boat side 8's are not good, or you can't trip fish to eat, those numbers can drop significantly. Of the fish we get to eat, I think 80-90% of them eat at the boat, and of them i bet 50-60% we MAKE eat versus the suicide fish.
Don't be afraid to hit spots multiple times in a day and even after someone else had just fished it. These fish slide up and slide off these spots, and become active in a blink of an eye. We fished a spot right after another boat this trip and raised 3 fish, one of them we caught. This spot was getting POUNDED too... we just came onto the spot at the right time. Timing is everything it seems up there.
Temple bay is a great area. I hit it hard as well as the big eagle area all week. If you get a big W, SW wind for days prior or when you get there, hit every west facing point you can find and keep pounding them, they hold fish in those conditions. If the wind switches... the fish just don't leave right away, if they held fish, keep on them till they prove you otherwise.
Good luck! Let us know how you do!
Cory
Edited by C.Painter 9/2/2015 10:05 AM
(cory 46 bucktail 8s in the 8.jpg)
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 cory 46 bucktail 8s in the 8.jpg (124KB - 258 downloads)
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | i was reminiscing 6 great weeks and have tried to forget about the 4 bad ones. there were a few low single digit years ... |
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Location: Contrarian Island | yah if I remember right you had a year with like 1 or 2 for the week Sledster!  what year did you get 15? first year double 10s were hot?
since you are getting a guide a few days you will be in good shape... learn as much as you can from him
Edited by BNelson 9/2/2015 10:25 AM
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI | Yeah the bad years suck Jon, Hence why 12-15 fish is not TYPICAL for a trip... and is a good/great trip... I wish all my trips were 12-20 fish per boat.... I came home early in my career with not landing a fish... my partner got some, I lost some... but no pictures for that trip... now those trips SUCK!!
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Location: Contrarian Island | come to LOTW sometime Cory... |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | there was a year when i sat in my boat on a thursday around 7pm. without a clue where i wanted to go and what i wanted to do ... that was a rough year.
there was also a year where it was a tough week and 4 went in the bag on the last day by noon to save the trip.
i still would prefer to go to Eagle. all it takes is one cast ... just one time she comes out hot. seeing that happen was enough ... |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | I think the most we ever did in a boat for a week was 12. 6-9 was more likely
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Posts: 8789
| Should be a blade bite this time of year, rocks, with quite a few heavies starting to move shallow at the first signs of the start of the fall cooldown period.
I don't think you can use last week as a guide for much, as the cold front that moved through Sun/Mon pushed surface temps down close to 60. We did move a few fish those days working bulldawgs off the secondary breaks. Most fish action was the adjacent weedy areas to the typical rock structure you'd expect to be fishing this time of year. We had a fair amount of window shoppers and fish swiping at baits as things finally started to pick up a bit as the water got back up around 65 Wednesday into Thursday. Found one aggressive fish that ate, fat 45"er on Thursday on a shallow point tucked up in the black rocks in skinny water when the wind finally turned around to the SW and as you'd expect the fish was set up on a point where the wind was hitting it pretty good. From there we concentrated on every point we could find that was facing the wind. Moved a few solid fish, but they all bolted about 10 feet out.
We hit the Hail Mary spot on Friday evening around 4:00 figuring that a warm day might just have warmed up the shallow stuff enough to get some fish moving. Had a good 5 fish going that wouldn't commit coming out of 2-4 FOW. One jumbo, one pushing 50, one 4 footer, and two other mid 40's fish all going in the same tiny area. Came back an hour later and it was the dead sea in there.
Timing. It is everything.
We had fish moving on small blades, tail props, and walk the dogs. Not much action on 10's, but that should change as the water warms back up this week.
Weather trumps all.
Read the "thermal considerations thread" for some interesting observations. Once again, the "comfort zone" seems to have come into play.
Good luck!
Edited by esoxaddict 9/3/2015 7:51 PM
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| Just got back from a trip to Eagle (8/28-8/31) that lasted 3.5 days. We stayed at Evergreen Lodge and fished in that are not going to Far East or west. Ended up putting a total of 5 fish in the net (47", 46", 45", 34" and 30"). The biggest fish came on a Jr. cowgirl the next two biggest on a Big Mama Psycho Sister and the others on a Rad Dog. We had nearly all of our action in spots that were facing the SW and had WEEDS! Found almost no fish on the rocks and found some big fish back in what I would call the jungle in terms of weeds. The best bait style for us was a rotating tail topwater followed by a Rad Dog spinnerbaits. Minnow baits never moved a single fish. |
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Posts: 8789
| jonnysled - 9/2/2015 11:09 AM
there was a year when i sat in my boat on a thursday around 7pm. without a clue where i wanted to go and what i wanted to do ... that was a rough year.
there was also a year where it was a tough week and 4 went in the bag on the last day by noon to save the trip.
i still would prefer to go to Eagle. all it takes is one cast ... just one time she comes out hot. seeing that happen was enough ...
Most of my trips have been like that, too. A few fish here and there, sometimes a day or two without as much as a sniff, lots of lazy followers that don't even make a turn...
And then after three days of very little action, 6-7 fish come out of one small area and 4 of them eat.
This was my toughest week by far with only one fish in the net, but there has never been a week where I did not see at least one or two knee shakers. It's not an easy lake, but the blond ones keep me coming back.
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Posts: 1245
Location: Madtown, WI |
Was wondering how fishing was after the 28th as it was pretty on fire the 28th and figured it stayed the same or got better. From your results I say it stayed about the same. nice work.
Cfollow - 9/2/2015 8:42 PM
Just got back from a trip to Eagle (8/28-8/31) that lasted 3.5 days. We stayed at Evergreen Lodge and fished in that are not going to Far East or west. Ended up putting a total of 5 fish in the net (47", 46", 45", 34" and 30"). The biggest fish came on a Jr. cowgirl the next two biggest on a Big Mama Psycho Sister and the others on a Rad Dog. We had nearly all of our action in spots that were facing the SW and had WEEDS! Found almost no fish on the rocks and found some big fish back in what I would call the jungle in terms of weeds. The best bait style for us was a rotating tail topwater followed by a Rad Dog spinnerbaits. Minnow baits never moved a single fish. |
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| There were three in our group and one of my buddies was there 5 years ago but he had a sweet milk run of spots that he learned from a couple of old timers he fished with last time there and those spots were magic. As you know every spot looks good but most aren't!
C.Painter - 9/3/2015 3:01 PM
Was wondering how fishing was after the 28th as it was pretty on fire the 28th and figured it stayed the same or got better. From your results I say it stayed about the same. nice work.
Cfollow - 9/2/2015 8:42 PM
Just got back from a trip to Eagle (8/28-8/31) that lasted 3.5 days. We stayed at Evergreen Lodge and fished in that are not going to Far East or west. Ended up putting a total of 5 fish in the net (47", 46", 45", 34" and 30"). The biggest fish came on a Jr. cowgirl the next two biggest on a Big Mama Psycho Sister and the others on a Rad Dog. We had nearly all of our action in spots that were facing the SW and had WEEDS! Found almost no fish on the rocks and found some big fish back in what I would call the jungle in terms of weeds. The best bait style for us was a rotating tail topwater followed by a Rad Dog spinnerbaits. Minnow baits never moved a single fish. |
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