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Posts: 5
| I am going to McGregor bay this year end of aug or 2nd week of sep . Does anyone have any info or suggestions they would like to share this is my first trip
Thank you |
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Posts: 572
Location: Germantown, WI | i thought i knew where most places for muskie fishing were, but i had never heard of it and needed to look it up.... Looks like it's a northern section of Lake Huron?
on the map, looks like a cool location... good luck with the trip |
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Posts: 443
Location: Indiana | Great potential there. Look up the LaCloche area, and Baie Fine. Bit of a drive, but doable depending on where you are staying. |
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Posts: 761
| Refer back to "A few things I learned " thread. I never even heard of Mcgregor bay as well, but the information is just a finger's tip away. Kdawg |
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Posts: 51
| A beautiful area with huge potential. Where are you staying? Check out Bill Hamblin's book 120 days. He is a guide on Georgian Bay and McGregor Bay is part of Georgian Bay. Great read and has some insight to McGregor Bay. Georgian Bay has everything from huge shoals and bars to weed beds. Can cast or troll.
I fished McGregor as a kid. We would stay at Forbes Holiday Resort ( Whitefish falls ) by Espanola; in the Bay of Islands and go thru Little Current into McGregor Bay.
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Posts: 59
| Southern Muskies - 2/3/2022 10:16 AM
A beautiful area with huge potential. Where are you staying? Check out Bill Hamblin's book 120 days. He is a guide on Georgian Bay and McGregor Bay is part of Georgian Bay. Great read and has some insight to McGregor Bay. Georgian Bay has everything from huge shoals and bars to weed beds. Can cast or troll.
I fished McGregor as a kid. We would stay at Forbes Holiday Resort ( Whitefish falls ) by Espanola; in the Bay of Islands and go thru Little Current into McGregor Bay.
Came here to say this. Hamblin's book may give you some insight (just don't expect a comprehensive treatment of how and (specifically) where to catch Georgian Bay muskies). He has a couple of chapters on McGregor Bay.
I had looked into McGregor Bay for a spring pike trip but it seems inaccessible and to lack accommodations. Forbes looks nice but its not on McGregor Bay itself? In any case would love to hear details of your trip. I've resigned from fishing musky on the Bay opting to put more fish under my belt in productive waters, but definitely have my eye on that area for northerns.
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Posts: 51
| Forbes is in the Bay of Islands; as I mentioned above. We would go thru Little Current to get to McGregor. There are not any places on McGregor that are accessible that I know of. Still would love to go back and fish that area. I fished the area back in the mid 70's. Bill and Phyllis Forbes ( original owners ) were great people.
We did a lot of pike fishing there in that area ( North Channel and McGregor ). I just wish I had the gear and knowledge I have today back then. We mainly trolled pikie minnows, rapala's ( really did well on blue and silver ), daredevils and Mepps # 5 minnow. Those were the biggest lures we had.
Timpken Bay was close to Forbes and always caught fish there. Also trolled areas around Flat Rock, the train tracks by the Boy Scout camp, Judy's Bay, Old Women harbor; just to name a few. Brings back a lot of memories. McGregor was about a 30 minute plus ride from Forbes from what I remember. Biggest Northern we got was about 40". To me that was a monster. Got several in 34-38" range. |
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Posts: 443
Location: Indiana | Yeah its a solid 30 minutes to mcgregor from Forbes. You pass right by some good muskie and pike fishing on that trip too.
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Posts: 187
| Find a local guide, Gbay is a tough gig. The further north you get from Severn the harder it gets. |
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Posts: 119
| Big fish there. Spent two days in that area in 2010 and and got a 46.5" and a small but the really memorable thing about that trip was the Toronto horticultural genetics. Food expensive and mediocre; got a Tim Hortons breakfast sandwich with one end black and another part frozen, add on a forgettable expensive restaurant meal, a McD's with no coffee in self-serve after paying, a "steak and cheese" that was chopped up roast beef lunchmeat, smothered in oil and fried. God, I almost ate that fish.
Edited by curdmudgeon 2/10/2022 10:15 PM
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Posts: 59
| How about the Bay of Islands rather than McGregor? |
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Posts: 5
| thank you for the info |
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Posts: 443
Location: Indiana | Bay of islands definitely has muskie. Ive caught them myself while fishing for pike. I know some other groups who do quite well in the bay of islands for muskie.
Edited by mseybert 4/18/2022 6:18 PM
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Posts: 119
| a great friend holding that 46.5" He moved to Maine and now fishes Haddock on the inner ledges. After a couple dud pictures I said, "give me that big fish smile!"
Edited by curdmudgeon 4/21/2022 8:00 PM
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Posts: 1
| Just saw this older post...McGregor Bay is a beautiful area and as others have said, this area has a very low density musky population, but huge fish are there. There is very little pressure, but there are definitely some hard-core musky guys targeting them-esp. in the fall. I've fished McGregor twice: 2018 first week of August and first week of July this summer. I didn't target musky too often because I wanted my kids to have some bass and northern action. We rented a boat from the lodge we stayed at both times and fished old school by setting up drifts as best as possible and had no electronics. We saw three muskies-all mid 40's+ and my son caught a 35" on the last day.
I would definitely recommend hiring a guide. I also got some really helpful information from several posters here. Not sure if they still frequent this forum, but they were great guys willing to help. This area is huge and so much of it looks great. The best areas for big fish require a bigger boat because they are in the open water areas that get very rough. You can fish the channels and smaller bays to the north of the main bay to stay out of the wind, but the best odds for the biggest fish is in the open water areas of McGregor. I hired a guide in 2018 for a day and we moved a giant and I lost a decent one at the boat. Within an hour or two you can really see some good big fish spots and begin to see where to look for them.
I've also fished fished Bay of Islands and did really well in the big, wide open areas. I fished with a guide. I learned a lot about summer trolling the huge shoals that were surrounded by deep water.
Don't make me pick a favorite; I love both areas. |
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Posts: 51
| Frank119; how did your trip to McGregor Bay go ? Would love to hear how you did and our experience in the area? Such a beautiful area. |
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