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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Temps are still soaring in the heat wave with it being seen as high as mid 80s in some areas. Not many casters in camp this week, but activity started to pick up over the weekend with follows coming at a more regular pace. Almost everything had been on rocks for our muskie hunters, with a veteran of multiple trips per year saying things seemed to be looking like August out there with choked out weeks and fish on the rocks.
Bucktails were the ticket for most, but also some better action for a group downsizing with smaller baits.
We have a large group of muskie anglers coming in this weekend and will have a good number of casters each week pretty much right through the Gil Hamm Chapter Challunge in late August.
I haven't been able to get out myself and it's starting to give me the shakes. Go find some big girls for me so I can see some pictures at least!!
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Buddy of mine we call the Godfather spent most of the day on the water and saw plenty of fish, all on rock. Not a thing in the weeds spots they fished. They had an upper 40s fish on and another one on that both fell off. Both fish hit double 10 bucktails. Various other fish, including another upper 40s chased a variety of baits, including topwater, but would not hit. They were out from before 8am and back before 5pm. |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Still nobody reporting much acitivity in the weeds. Rocks, Rocks/Sand, Rocks, more rocks. Did I mention rocks?
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Still nothing doing in the weeds. A few guys are getting some action by downsizing to bass size lures. One boat picked up 3 that way two days ago. Heat wave with high skies masking conditions tough. Better action has been right as sun is going down.
Concentrate on prime times (follow our twitter feed for morning posts of Sun/Moon Data) and consider downsizing and slowing down your presentations. The "usual" stuff doesnt seem to be working the best at the moment. |
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Posts: 1169
Location: New Hope MN | Keep it up Justin! This is helpful! 2 weeks until my trip! |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Finally some cloud and overcast skies today (07/13)...add a few storm system cells moving through and the muskies were active and agressive. multiple fish caught in several boats..biggest heard so far is 46"....will get some more intel on lures, structure etc this evening when I have my annual wrap-up the week cold one with the big crew that is here. Check back in tomorrow..still some boats out there chucking...those out of the water might wish they had waited out the rain a little longer before calling it a week.
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | dtaijo174 - 7/12/2012 8:22 AM
Keep it up Justin! This is helpful! 2 weeks until my trip!
Thanks, DT. Seems as if I'm strictly reporting on the news now, no longer making the news. HAHA. |
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Posts: 104
Location: Hudson, WI | Thanks for the reports! Heading up tomorrow for the week. Will post a report after the trip. |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Buckatils & rock were the most common threads amongst reported action yesterday. The two biggest mentioned (48", 46") were on a Double 10 and a Mepps just before or doiing some of the storm cell activitiy and weasther fronts moving in. Lots of hitters yesterday, one boat with 2 landed and 4 lost without seeing another fish.
Back to sunny, humid and HOT today. |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Overcast day with light winds and a good report from a guy fishing solo. He told Ellen he'd caught 3 already a little after noon when he was gassing up. Knowing him as long as I have he was likely throwing a jerk bait on rock structure (possibly topwater). I don't think he owns a double 10. |
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Posts: 91
| Just spent last week o
n LOTW in the nestor falls area to s-kong entrance a very contrary pattern, to whats been reported; fish on rocks lathargic,fish on weeds occasonally active, activity was gone in the classic early am or late pm; 9 fish boated to 45. Never saw any destroyers out ther there the 45s the biggest i saw.
Karl |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Getting some good reports the last couple days, especially from yesterday under overcast skies. one boat landed 5 muskies up to 44", more northerns than they could count (they lost track after 75) and 12 or more smallies up tp 4 pounds. All caught with black bass size spinner baits and red/brown crayfish coloured cranks (bass size.) Fish were all over sand beachs...some of the muskies came from rubble shoreline near aforementioned beaches. The guy that owns the boat has been coming to LOTW multiple times for 30+ years and hasn't had an action day like in 15 years. They were west of Morson and fished about 11 hours total.
A guide friend that fishes mostly walleyes but loves to throw for muskies any chance he gets had all kinds of action in small bays and on beaches. They had 15 different fish up in a 6 hour period (landing the 45 and 46 inchers mentioned above) after catching a few walleye to eat for lunch in the morning. He throws nothing but black/nickel double 10 and the occasional topwater. Suspect there was bucktails and spinner baits involved with the two anglers he was guiding from what I know of their lure preferences.
If you aren't here right now..you might wish you had been.
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Posts: 1057
Location: Medford, WI | Couldn't agree more!!! If you're not here......stay away so you don't take any away from our boat! Excellent fishing for us. In the first two days of fishing, we have: 41, 42, 43, 44, 47.5, and 48 - oh yeah, and one verrry shorty. All of the fish except for the 41 and 47.5 came on the 8 (the 41 was caught bass fishing with a crayfish crank). Not getting much action in the morning to early afternoon but after that - look out! One big plus is all the bigger fish are eating.....only have two fish that are 45+ spotted to come back to that followed multiple times.
Hope several of you are up here to enjoy it and sure hope the trend continues!!!
Thanks for the reports Justin.
-Jake Bucki
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Medford Fisher - 7/16/2012 4:10 PM
Couldn't agree more!!! If you're not here......stay away so you don't take any away from our boat! Excellent fishing for us. In the first two days of fishing, we have: 41, 42, 43, 44, 47.5, and 48 - oh yeah, and one verrry shorty. All of the fish except for the 41 and 47.5 came on the 8 (the 41 was caught bass fishing with a crayfish crank). Not getting much action in the morning to early afternoon but after that - look out! One big plus is all the bigger fish are eating.....only have two fish that are 45+ spotted to come back to that followed multiple times.
Hope several of you are up here to enjoy it and sure hope the trend continues!!!
Thanks for the reports Justin.
-Jake Bucki
Great stuff, Jake. Love the reports of fish hitting in figure 8s. I might have to try and sneak out and cut you off on a spot somewhere tonight at 9! J/K of course. Keep that average size up there!! |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Fish activity is picking up, but still not hearing more thwen 2-3 per day lande, but not uncommon for people to see 15-20 fish a day without beating the water to a whote froth from sun up to sun down.
Several nice big fish spotted and a couple of them lost yesterday. Variety of structures and baits now. Rocks, bays, even some weeds. A couple 49 inch class fish in the past couple days. One from grinding a crank bait in the rocks, the other on a spinner bait in the weeds.
Heat wave returns tomorrow. Please remember to take extra caution when angling in warm water temps. Nobody would expect you to come up to LOTW and not fish, but all the extra precautions you can take will help.
I have a "note" on the resort facebook page (link below in signature) with some safer warm water fish handling tips. Please take a moment to check it out and share with other anglers if you aren't used to worrying about these kinds of conditons.
Thank you!! |
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Posts: 173
Location: Minnesota | Trip in 10 days!!! Keep the reports coming! |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Water temps 76 close to home when I fished for an hour last night @ 9pm. Had one hard follow (low to mid 40s) that went around a few times on a double 10 off a bald rock. Fished 3 other rock spots but didn't see anything else. |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Back to the heat. Overall, numbers wise a bit slow the past week. Periods of hot bite here and there with one boat have a three fish night with good size (44, 47, 49.5). Size was good for the fish that were caught. Week ended with a 50.25" for a guest's first ever 50 and personal best. Shorelines with multiple structural elements were the ticket for the big girl and one MUCH BIGGER than that o the same stretch of real estate. Fish were following more than hitting with bucktails and tail spinning topwaters the most productve fish attractors. The biggest fish of the week hit 10 inch Slammer cranks (47, 49.5) and Double 9 bucktails (48.5, 50.25). Have some pics on facebook in the July 2012 Album. Also have the 50.25 on twitter.
Still not a lot of activity in the weeds, but there was some. A bit more action in some shallow, sandy bays. Bald rocks were the best place to find fish.
Good luck this week!
Edited by MyliesPlace(Justin) 7/21/2012 10:17 PM
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Posts: 173
Location: Minnesota | Can't wait to get up there!!! Coming in exactly 6 days and 10 hours! |
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| Justin - Thanks fo the reminder on safe handling. My buddy Tom caught a 50 incher on Thursday night in the Angle. The water temp was 81 in the bay. His lure was babrless. It was his first 50 (although he has caught a bunch of 48 to 49 inchers) and really wanted a photo. The fish looked good on the release (I have handled many big fish, and really felt good about the handling and release). The next day we returned to the spot. On the way in there were three bald eagles on shore. The fish was on shore.
My friend was really bummed out, as I was. I am fairly certain that the water temp had to do with the fishes passing.
I am certain in my years of muskie fishing there were others that passed away.
DanKlis |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Hi Dan,
That sure is a bummer. It will probably take something away from his joy of breaking 50, but it sounds like you did everything you could to minimize the risks associated with the high water temps.
A tough example of what the heat can do.
Thank you for sharing the experience. Hopefully it can help spread the word.
Chin up. We can't stop fishing completely.
J
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| dan you should really post this to the General discussion forum, sad you had one die but others should be made aware. Couple questions. Was the fight fast? did you net it asap? was it netted "green" or fought long? How long was it out of the water? under 30 seconds ? 15 seconds? this is a sad reality that more need to realized . fishing in 81 degree water can and does kill BIG fish for nobody to ever catch again. Eagle food.
sucks it happened and I know you know how to handle fish so it's even more sobering.
To the guys fishing in warm water. Take notice. you are chancing a big dead fish.
sad. |
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Posts: 32879
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Need to let the cold fronts on the way do some magic, hopefully the cooler nights and lower top end daytime temps will cool things off enough.
Hope so. People and losing their 'cool' because they can't fish where they want to. |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | fish seem a bit sluggish during the heat of the day with high skies. has been more action when people have gone out real early and then as the sun is going down. might be worth getting on a Dick Pearson like schedule at the moment. Though there has been some fish caught mid-day, activity seems to be much higher during low light periods.
chart green/black bucktail got all 3 follows for our new guests last night in their first outing in this area...two of which were from the 3-hole in the back of my boat after topwater and black/organge went through the area in front of chart/black.
Suicks got a some good action action in one boat yesterday. they were sharpening hooks and tuning some more of them at the dock this morning before pulling out.
rocks and rock combinations have been better.
water temps still high..77-78 last night at 10pm. rain in the forecast tomorrow. we need it. bad. two fires in the area this week. one still burning on a small island..the other put out with water bombers just a couple miles from the resort. scary stuff. |
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Posts: 2024
| It's been really interesting reading the reports before, during, and after our trip which spanned July 15-22nd. We found some similarities with our results and some that differed.
I felt the action was a little slow, considering the number of spots fished. You had to work your tail off for strikes. We had four days where we went 12 hours between strikes. That's a lot of nothing in between brief moments of glory! Not a whole lot of follows to keep things interesting, either. That said, our results seemed to confirm what Justin noted (early and late were by far the best times to be out there).
Before the trip I read here and heard from other friends that it was all rocks. We did find fish on bare rocks, but also put several others in the boat that came out of weedbeds or tiny bays with rocky shorelines and weed patches in front.
We caught fish on a myriad of baits: Spanky double 10 (chart/silver blades with a perchy-type skirt and black/silver), Red October Tube (through-the-nose rig), small Eagle Tail, jointed shallow-diving crank, Top H2O. Bad topwater bite, with only one caught and a few follows (some nice strikes though).
We had a 3 fish window one morning between 9-11AM under a shroud of clouds. Once the clouds disappeared that was it for the day. I would agree that the bite would benefit from cooler temps and storms pushing clouds into the area.
Stay up late if you can and you might be rewarded with a Northern Lights show like we were treated to. At least check to see if they're out if you get up to empty the tank 
(Northern Lights 640x480.jpg)
(Northern Lights star trail 480.jpg)
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 Northern Lights 640x480.jpg (128KB - 130 downloads)
Northern Lights star trail 480.jpg (161KB - 135 downloads)
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Location: New Hope MN | esox50, thanks for the report.
That picture is SICK!!! |
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Posts: 173
Location: Minnesota | Nice pic! Hopefully the fish will start biting again when I get there this weekend! |
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Posts: 253
Location: Birchwood, WI. |
Awsom pics-esox 50 thanks for the info!!! On our way to the BIG POND friday!!!!SEE YA SOON JUSTIN! |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Tuesday was a great day for a couple of anglers in camp. Aaron & Tom boated 7 fish for the day with 6 over them over 40". The peant of the day was 35" and the two largest were 49" and 50". First 5 fish of the day came on figure 8s, the last two on the cast. Mostly bucktails with chart green blades/black skirts off rock structure.
An average of 43.5" for 7 fish is pretty sweet. Finally a pattern. Will it hold for more than 1 day? Stay tuned.
Collage of all the fish is on facebook now. Will get some of the inviduals up sometime today. |
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| The other thing we noted was good action around moonrise and moonset. Couldn't confirm that with other anglers though. Perhaps others up there around the same time noticed that.
Here's a short video of one of the fish we put in the boat: https://vimeo.com/46383062/ |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Storm cell through last night with 8/10's of rain. Thunder and lightning as well. More of the same today with a slow moving system that dumped rain and brought temps way down.
Will be interesting to see how the fish respond in the next couple of days. As is often the case, the fish went a little nuts during the storm fronts with multiple boats reporting good action. |
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Posts: 173
Location: Minnesota | Heading out at 12 tonight. I'm super pumped!!! |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Pretty decent day for fish activity on Friday. Common thread was had to be rocks involved. Welcomed another first time member of the 50" Club after a big girl hit a double 10. They had raised the fish two times perviously on other baits. Suicks and topwaters also produced some action.
Water temps "down" to 76 mid-day after the air temps cooled off.
Should be another great week of fishing with more excellent anglers on the way to fill the resort again this week.
Sure wish I was fishin!!! |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Quality fish being seen, if not a lot of numbers for some. Overcast periods and low light periods have been noticably more productive for most of our anglers, though fish have been caught here and there during sunny, high skies as well.
Great action Sunday morning the first few hours before the clouds broke up and the heat & humidty jumped with the sunshine. Storm front through last night dropped 7/10" of rain in our gauge overnight and it is a lot cooler today.
Another 50" fish caught yesterday (Sunday), this one on a topraider. The fish hit right at boatside.
It will be interesting to see what anglers find out there the next day or two after all the thunder, lightning and wind that was part of the front. You can't catch a fish sitting in the cabin so get out on the water and find a hungry big girl.
Only two more fishing days in July before August is upon us. Where did May, June and July get to? WOW, time flies.
J-Man
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Posts: 122
| Thanks for all the postings, I always look forward to hearing what you have to say |
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Posts: 3
| Keep the posts coming Justin- I will be up fishing out of Greg Johnson's cabin 8/1 to 8/5 with 5 guys and 2 boats. I stopped in at the end of June for some ice I was with the wife and little ones so fishing was limited to say the least. My wife did stick her first 40-right at 40", but it was pretty exciting. My 5 yr old daughter was in the boat and she was a little leary of swimming in the lake after that fish hit the net. I will be Thur am with a group of guys to buy their licenses, gas up etc. How are the temps and algae??? Any reports of cleaner water- we did best in the Hay island area as that seemed to be cleaner water than Sunset channel area. Moved and caught most fish on black and nickel-was thinking of putting together some bucktails tonight any hot colors and sizes you might reccomend?
Jay |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Thanks Dave & Jay. We have some great guests that are comfortable sharing structure, lures, and other general info that can help others get on fish. Just one of the many reasons we feel like we have the best guests in the business.
Not sure I can say a hot colour yet this year. Seems to change every few days..one of the more common reports is copper blades...but has been different coloured skirts. Double 8s, 9s, 10s have all been productive this year, but more so the 9s and 10s, but I firmly believe that it's mostly just more people throwing the larger lures so keep that in mind. I like the double 8 northland boobie trap as my go-to lure to start fishing and save bigger stuff for times/places where fish are really going. Just my method, which has not been tested this year. LOL
Water temps were 76/77 this afternoon from one report. Algae has not been too bad. Water has been pretty clean without much wind and run-off without rain. Noticably stirred up a bit today after wind and rain last night though so have to expect it to dirty up a bit. |
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Posts: 114
| Esoxunplugged that video is sick man! |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | July is going out with a bang.
Last night a personal best 48.5" on a shoreline rock complex with a double 8 black/orange northland boobie trap. There is a reason i have a few on the office wall for sale.
Morning session today gave up a personal best 51" on a suick in the weeds. Yup, a weed fish.
Patterns? hmmmmm...back to the drawing board. fish good looking stuff.
J-Man
Edited by MyliesPlace(Justin) 7/31/2012 2:18 PM
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Posts: 171
| every spot is a good looking spot, justin! lol. the big fish are eating thats for sure. |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | bshep - 7/31/2012 2:25 PM
every spot is a good looking spot, justin! lol. the big fish are eating thats for sure.
Tell me about it. Sometimes I think it is more amazing when we catch 1 than we catch 5-6+ in a day with all the great looking places for them to hang out. |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Great end to the month with a 51", 47" and 48" caught on July 31.
Thank you all very much for reading and contributing to this thread.
See you over on the August reports.
J-Man
Edited by MyliesPlace(Justin) 8/1/2012 4:08 PM
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Posts: 173
Location: Minnesota | I just got back I caught a 25" and a fat 45" last night on my last cast of the trip. Both on a double baby girl chartruese colored. |
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