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Posts: 24
| Hey muskie addicts. I'm looking for a little experience to help me out the last week of August. We're staying at Temple Bay and hope to get on some fish early. I haven't been to Eagle in a few years and have historically stayed at North Shore Lodge and fished out east by Rice Bay/Osbourne, but would like to fish west of Temple Bay. Anybody willing to share some good spots. I did search the threads and found some good information, but wanted to see if anyone else is willing to share who has been up to Eagle recently.
Thanks in advance. |
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Posts: 306
| Actually, I was about to post a question in the Destinations / Fishing report section to see if anyone's been up there recently and can speak to the health of the vegetation, water temps/color, etc., because we'll be at Eagle Lake Island Lodge the week before you.
I take a trip to Canada every year. Been to Eagle several times (including Osbourne Bay), and 4 of our last 6 trips have been to this place, which is south of Temple near North Twin Island. Hard NOT to find hot spots in the area. There are so many options and we spend most of our time south and southwest of Temple. Never been to Viking (heard that's a treacherous trek) and we rarely head east over the big water anymore.
All I can say is make the milk run the first few days and mark down good weeds. Come back and hit them hard throughout the week with some big blades or top-water. That's what we'll be doing. Color depends on the water, but you can usually fall back on black and orange.
Good luck! I'll probably post a report when I return, but you'll likely be on the water by then.
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| the further west you go, the clearer the water. Sometimes that clear water can be tough. But there are some MONSTERS over there too! I like Stanton island and bay, Meridian bay, Muskeg bay, and of course don't forget Temple bay. I have seen some real good fish right by the lodge. Good weed and rock combos have always been best for me. |
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| Just got back from Eagle Lake a week ago. Temple bay itself has plenty of musky alone. In the back of the bay we saw multiple fish in the weeds. You can spend time close to the lodge and have plenty of action. We did notice that fish seemed to be more on the rocks than weeds alone. If you find rock and weed combination fish it! Saw a lot of fish was able to land a 54" pig. Threw a little bit of everything. Best bait by a mile was top water. Fish really didn't seem interested in bucktails tried double 8's and 10's. Shallow cranks worked as well. Best colors had black or gold. Natural seemed to work better than bright. Hope this helps. |
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Posts: 306
| That's awesome Fish On. Nice Job! Thx for info, might have to hit Temple Bay one day. And, thanks for making me more anxious for next Saturday than I already was! |
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| Went to eagle lake last year and stayed in Littleneck bay. We fished temple once but the winds kicked us out pretty fast. Also noticed temple can be shallow in a lot of places. How deep were you fishing when you contacted fish?
My father, brother and I will be going up on wednesday for 10 days really looking forward to it.
Thanks for the update that you put up, helps a lot |
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| TR,
Wind was our worst enemy the last couple days the wind was STRONG on parts of the lake there were 3+ footers so fishing a lot of the spots that we saw fish was impossible. Most of the fish we contacted were shallow. We were casting tight to shorelines with rocks or on the tops of main lake reefs. Throw topwater in low light conditions and I'm sure you'll get some action. |
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Posts: 24
| I'm leaving on Saturday. Anybody just get back in the last week or so that could give me some info on what's working to give me a good start? |
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Posts: 270
Location: brooklyn park mn | Heading up sat to big eagle lodge out of temple bay area for a week. Anyone have any fishing reports or suggestions that work this time of year? |
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| Hello Musky Jim,
My father brother and I were up a 2 weeks ago for a trip. We stayed in Little Neck Bay, right beside temple. This was our second time up at Eagle. We had a hard time getting fish to follow this year. The fish would either hit right away if they were there or nothing at all.
Walk the dog, top waters seemed to move the most fish. Especially at dusk. Big Jakes with silver in them too seemed to work. Blades did not do anything for us, but a group of guys in camp the same week nailed a 50incher on double 10s.
For us it seemed that the fish were looking for silver in the lures. Behind perkins island was a good spot, as well as partridge point.
All the fish we saw or caught were on rocks. Rock points or rock saddles. Rocky island chains too, thats where that 50 was caught.
Good luck! |
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Posts: 306
| I'm a little behind on my report... We were just up there Aug 18 - 25 at Eagle Island Lodge. We covered everything from Temple, down to Meridian, and slightly east and west (Rendevous, Hole in the Wall, etc.). Lake was down 2 feet, water was 68 and green. Somewhat of a bloom, and worse the farther south you went. Calm days, your lure would leave a trail in the water.
Despite the somewhat depressing lake conditions (compared to what we are used to), it was my most successful musky trip to date (keep in mind, I only fish muskies once a week annually). But, there wasn't much going on besides muskies (very few menacing pike were caught). All of our action was on big blades. I started with black/black double 8s. Raised (several times), hooked and lost a ~40". Then a 39" pike destroyed the lure but it was worth it! Switched to a blaze orange / red double 10 and had a 45" in the boat within 30 minutes. That lure produced another 39 and 36, and raised 2-3 fish a day for me the remainder of the week. A few pushing 50 (one 50+, because I walked her right along the boat next to the tape a few times!). Another in our group landed a 44" on copper/black double 10s. Supposedly, a group the week before caught a 57"! Yes, I said "fifty seven"... probably jigging minnows for walleyes.
The few patches of small cabbage in at least 8' of water usually showed fish. But most action came off of rocky points, reefs and those "king of the hill" rocks (about the size of a car, surrounded by water). Hoping you don't have as many clear days as we did, because we didn't bring a fish within 20 feet of the boat on them.
Find some rocks, start with the big colored or dark blades. We ran ours mostly below the surface (not burned). A few came up from under the boat or deep so be sure to figure 8 every cast - the 3 bigger ones we boated came on the 8. I made it a point to throw other lures (top water, cranks, bulldawgs, flashy blades) for variety, but they did nothing. Guides in the area were hammering rocks with big bright blades and pounders, too.
The best news though... we didn't have any flies or skeeters.
Good luck!
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Posts: 24
| Had a decent week, but it could have been a lot better. We must have had 35-40 follows with three fish boated (Brown/Brass M&G spinnerbait, Orange/black spot Suick, blue Grandma), none bigger than 40". Most fish showed themselves on the rocks, but we did have a few smaller (35-40") following out of clumps of cabbage. Had a decent fish attack a walleye bulldawg fishing the submerged rock structure around Deadmans Reef. It is still a mystery how the fish didn't find a hook as the bait was hammered. I saw the side and this fish would have been 45+. Another guest at Temple Bay boated a 50 on a bulldawg and there were several reports of other fish being boated. All in all, it was another good trip. If the weather wasn't so warm with the sun blasting all week, we may have put some more in the boat. |
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