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Posts: 114
| Spent the week up on the Angle recently and all I can say is wow was it tough. The trip started off with a half day on Saturday in which he had 4 lost fish and 1 boated. I thought after the 1st day it was going to be a good trip. I could not have been more wrong. This was my 7th year up there so I have a pretty good knowledge of Angle. We worked everything from submerged humps, small and large islands with pencil reed rock combo, sandy bay's and cabbage. There was no consistent. You would pull a fish or 2 from the spots I previously mentioned. By the second day we started to encounter bloom which shut things down real quick. Each day after that there was maybe a 25 minute window to catch a fish, but that was about it. We fished hard the whole trip 11 plus hour days with a 1/2 lunch break.
This was by far the worst trip I had experienced up on the Angle by a long shot. The final tally was 3 caught fish and 8 lost fish including 1- 50 plus.
We were dealing with high pressure and 75 degrees with minimal wind or fronts the whole week. This will be my last time going up there in August.
Edited by bbradley 8/15/2016 11:37 AM
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Posts: 151
Location: Chippewa Falls, WI | we were down in Sabaskong area the same time and we also had it really tough. I fished with my brother and my parents fished in their boat. We've gotten to know some of the other guys in camp that fish the same week as we do and they also really struggled this week. I caught 8 with a 45 and fat 49" topping the list. My brother only caught one 41", my mom got a little one and a 40" and my dad had a 36". They both had a couple throw the hooks near the boat but my brother and myself never lost a fish. We converted all 9 hookups into catches. We saw a few fish each day but the best day we had was 2 fish caught and 12 seen. That was all in a 2 hr period though as a front came through. I was considering the angle next year or switching weeks to be up in July but with full moon next year during our week (5th-12th) we kept it the same. By the sounds of it, LOTW's has been off this year in general with a few people having good weeks now and again. By far the fewest sightings and catches we've had in the past 4 years that we've been up there. |
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Posts: 925
| I spent the 3rd week of July in Sabaskong and the 1st week of August up near Wiley Point. Both weeks, no question, were 2 of the toughest (if not the top 2 toughest) weeks I have ever had on LOTW and I have about 20 weeks on LOTW in the past 15 years. Weird, weird year.
Is the algae typically that bad the 2nd week of August? I know the later you get into August, the worse it gets. |
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Posts: 470
Location: Blaine, MN | We were up the 6-13th in Sab and although it wasn't a great year. (Size was down) we saw more fish than I can remember seeing. Almost all around the 3' range though. A few bigger ones with a 48" kicker on the last day, but everything seemed to be 34" - 38" otherwise. We had one 7 fish day and on the same day another boat in our group got 6. Our traditional spots went dormant, or required an entirely different approach to get the little shy ones to show themselves. We explored to locate more fish and found some new gems I can't wait to revisit. |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | I was in the Angle for 5 days and just got back, it was definitely a bit challenging. We boated 15, which is fine, but overall action/contacts was way down from what it should be. Saw absolutely zero patterns for spot types. Fished fast and furious on known spots and avoided the dirty bloom water. Caught quite a few on Double 8. Finding spots with at times 3-4 fish on it after Maybe running 10+ in a row with zero was the life raft for us. |
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Posts: 63
| MuskyMidget - 8/15/2016 2:06 PM
I spent the 3rd week of July in Sabaskong and the 1st week of August up near Wiley Point. Both weeks, no question, were 2 of the toughest (if not the top 2 toughest) weeks I have ever had on LOTW and I have about 20 weeks on LOTW in the past 15 years. Weird, weird year.
Is the algae typically that bad the 2nd week of August? I know the later you get into August, the worse it gets. Lived in Kenora for many years and algae blooms can occur quite frequently.When this occurred I would focus on the deeper clear water of Whitefish and Clearwater Bay areas where the blooms were non-existent and the fishing consistent.
Consider planning a trip to these types of waters if a summer is trending on the hot side. |
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Posts: 897
| Just got back from 5 days in the angle. 15 fish, biggest 47. Caught 8 of those after sunset. We were dealing with very short windows of fish activity despite the perfect weather. We didn't see a lot of fish (7-10 per day), but those that we did mostly ate...which is a good thing. Not sure what the issue was but it certainly was a different trip. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | my take on lotw this year was the warmth pushed many fish off structure, our week we caught an alarmingly low # of pike ..we usually get 2-5 a day at least.. I think it wasn't until the 4th day we caught a pike! many fish were simply not 'up' on structure, you would see them on your locator, and my take is many fish were out in open water or deeper than the boat was casting to structure... windows were short, that is more weather related than anything imo... pressure has caught up w the lake.... figure 8 skills on LOTW are getting to be on par with Eagle... ie, you better be good at reading fish or you'll come up empty more times than not...to me that is from pressure and seeing so many more lures now than they use to.... we had a decent trip... I did get 3 over 51.25 in the net... not the #s we were thinking we would hit but 20 isn't all bad... 2 yrs in a row now our trip there has been no real pattern, as we got fish on every type of structure up there....
Edited by BNelson 8/16/2016 11:14 AM
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | I'm going to have to agree with Brad on all counts. When fish aren't showing up in numbers on structure in non cold front situations, I tend to lean to the "they aren't here" train of thought. I had more fish eat out this past trip % wise versus in the 8 than I can recall on most trips....it told me if I found them, they'd eat...and that they weren't necessarily watching my bait buzz above their head all week.
I have left a few runners on base over the past 2 years on upper 40-50" class fish that were nose to nose with baits. The general lack of weeds up there takes away many reaction strike opportunities, and I have no doubt that with just some subtle difference at my feet I could have batted a few more in.
Edited by Musky Brian 8/16/2016 12:20 PM
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Location: Contrarian Island | opposite for us... with bucktails I believe we only had 3 or 4 hit out the whole trip.. more ate in the 8.. we did have topwaters hit out tho...
Edited by BNelson 8/16/2016 4:04 PM
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Posts: 897
| At least half of our fish ate out on bucktails. One day we got 5, all of which ate away from the boat. I agree there didn't seem to be many up on structure most of the spots...but then you'd find a wolf pack. We had a number of boats in our group and many times multiple boats had action at the same time of day with no change in weather. I'll have to check against moon phases. This year I've been up twice and the windows have been obvious. When they've been off, they've been off, and vice versa. |
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Posts: 222
| Up here now and I say its tuff for #'s but sizes are good 42", 46 1/2" 49 1/2" 50 1/4" the 50 1/4" was on second spot of the trip and the 49 1/2" was on that same spot the first spot we made the next morning. Very low wind today so the bloom is showing its ugly head :(.
Darren |
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Posts: 897
| I would keep pounding that spot. I found a few that produced most of our fish. |
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Posts: 215
Location: Twin Cities | Bnelson- you caught 3 over 51 in one trip over how many days? |
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Posts: 52
| Todd from Tamarack Island Wilderness Lodge here with my perspective.
It has been a weird year out here to say the least. Season started off real good with excellent Musky fishing starting right at the beginning of July. The bite basically stayed hot for the next 2 weeks. The 3rd week of July, which has traditionally been a real good week for us started off basically one month of (except for a day here and there) real tough fishing. Water out here has been chocolate milkish since about the beginning of July. For most of this time, many customers have caught almost as many as they have seen, which is far from the norm. I would say that normally our customers would see 15-20 fish a day and on a good day catch a few, on a poor day catch one. One of our customers despite catching some big fish including his personal best 51.5" said, that the trip was disappointing because they saw so few fish. Even Walleye fishing is weird, the last 4 years, 100 fish days were quite common this year it has not been so automatic. We are still able to grind out some good catches, we just need to work a little harder at it.
Now having said all of that it seems to be turning around. On Sunday and Monday this week we have had 4 fish over 50" caught and only have 3 groups in camp chasing them. There was also a 49, a 47.5 and a 45 caught by those groups. Even the Walleye fishing seems to be improving over the last week or so.
It has not all been bad though, we have the most 50" fish since we first bought the camp 5 years ago at 27 and counting. Walleye fishing is heating up and the Crappies will be turning on real soon too!
A couple theories I have is that the weather has almost been too stable, a good storm now and then, or even a front will turn the Muskies on, and this summer has been pretty nice so far. This gets to my second point, I don't think we have had long stretches with optimal water temps. I think surface temps have been 75 to 79 degrees for a lot of that 1 month stretch from mid July to mid August, however that 70 to 74 range would be much better. I also think we are still getting lots of follows that are not seen because of our reduced water clarity so far this year.
There has been no real patterns this year it seems as far as color, lures, or even rock vs weeds it seems. The one thing that has basically held true all summer is that you want to fish that dusk period, the last 2 hours of daylight. There has often been a short "window" during that time.
Lately mornings have been real good too, which traditionally are not usually all that great.
Just thought I would offer some of my observations from what I have picked up from our clientele. My 2 cents, hopefully it helps someone out there.
Todd
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Posts: 153
| Tamarack - 8/17/2016 2:14 AM
Todd from Tamarack Island Wilderness Lodge here with my perspective.
It has been a weird year out here to say the least. Season started off real good with excellent Musky fishing starting right at the beginning of July. The bite basically stayed hot for the next 2 weeks. The 3rd week of July, which has traditionally been a real good week for us started off basically one month of (except for a day here and there) real tough fishing. Water out here has been chocolate milkish since about the beginning of July. For most of this time, many customers have caught almost as many as they have seen, which is far from the norm. I would say that normally our customers would see 15-20 fish a day and on a good day catch a few, on a poor day catch one. One of our customers despite catching some big fish including his personal best 51.5" said, that the trip was disappointing because they saw so few fish. Even Walleye fishing is weird, the last 4 years, 100 fish days were quite common this year it has not been so automatic. We are still able to grind out some good catches, we just need to work a little harder at it.
Now having said all of that it seems to be turning around. On Sunday and Monday this week we have had 4 fish over 50" caught and only have 3 groups in camp chasing them. There was also a 49, a 47.5 and a 45 caught by those groups. Even the Walleye fishing seems to be improving over the last week or so.
It has not all been bad though, we have the most 50" fish since we first bought the camp 5 years ago at 27 and counting. Walleye fishing is heating up and the Crappies will be turning on real soon too!
A couple theories I have is that the weather has almost been too stable, a good storm now and then, or even a front will turn the Muskies on, and this summer has been pretty nice so far. This gets to my second point, I don't think we have had long stretches with optimal water temps. I think surface temps have been 75 to 79 degrees for a lot of that 1 month stretch from mid July to mid August, however that 70 to 74 range would be much better. I also think we are still getting lots of follows that are not seen because of our reduced water clarity so far this year.
There has been no real patterns this year it seems as far as color, lures, or even rock vs weeds it seems. The one thing that has basically held true all summer is that you want to fish that dusk period, the last 2 hours of daylight. There has often been a short "window" during that time.
Lately mornings have been real good too, which traditionally are not usually all that great.
Just thought I would offer some of my observations from what I have picked up from our clientele. My 2 cents, hopefully it helps someone out there.
Todd
Todd, please keep an eye on Chris for me....hopefully will get over there soon for a few nights! |
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Location: Contrarian Island | We fished 8 full days |
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LOTW AUG 6th - 12th