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Posts: 251
| As I have mentioned in other posts, A friend of mine and I are planning a trip to LOTW in mid July. We were discussing and are trying to figure out what to expect for the trip. What would be expected/probable in the way of number of fish caught/number of follows? maybe your number for an under/over? Thanks for you opinion. |
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| - 5-10 fish would be a good week on Lake of the Woods.
- You cant expect a fish every day no matter where you go.
- You have a shot at one or two and then there are those special days.
- Expect to be overwhelmed by the sheer size of lake of the woods in real life in comparison to looking at photos online and a lake map in hand.
- Expect to see a healthy population of natural muskies in various sizes only certifiable by the use of a flat bump board and a pinched tail after being caught.
- Expect to receive follows and bites from time to time on lures such as bucktails, bulldawgs, and topwater.
- Expect various weather conditions.
- Expect the unexpected.
- Expect for any information on this websites to be helpful whether it is relevant, true, or false.
- Expect a great response from Mr. Canada (Big Bri)
- Expect something dumb from Pointerpride.
Edited by Anonymous 6/24/2013 12:28 AM
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Posts: 251
| Great. Is that 5-10 for both or per person?
I look forward to hearing what other peoples experiences have been. |
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Posts: 13688
Location: minocqua, wi. | a long drive down a gravel road and a pain in the butt unload, load and parking spot for your truck and trailer. good thing is you get to pay for the service too. hope it's not raining ... and cover your boat.
get an RABC |
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Posts: 256
Location: plant earth | It's a vast body of water. If you you have never been the there I would strongly suggest and good gps system with a detailed view of the lake. If you go around a few islands you can get lost easily. Everything looks the same till you get familiar with it. There are also shallow rock bars all over hit one and you are done. Suicks , nickel w/ black and orange / black blades and topwaters are a good start.That worked good for me. First time I stayed there I was getting the boat ready and my parter got one right off the dock. Enjoy it. We were staying out of morson. Sabaskong Bay Area
Edited by jdeezay74 6/24/2013 10:30 AM
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Posts: 173
| Where are you going? I've known people that haven't gotten any on a trip and heard numbers in the low teens. In my specific group the range has been 2 to 11 a person. My first year I got 3. In a week I've come home having seen 50 fish out of my boat and as high as 100. Alot of that variety is based on water clarity and the quality of who's in the boat with me. My dad's buddy could spot a ton of lazy/deep follows that my wife and others would never see. |
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Posts: 171
Location: indiana | my average is 8 to ten fish caught with around 70 fish seen. had one week in 2010 where i boated 17. several four and five fish days. one to two per day per man is pretty respectable. |
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Posts: 251
| We will be going to the angle. Likely out of Flag Island since they seem to have the nicest boats to rent. We will be fishing 7-8 full days.
I will likely bring my phone navionics-gps, My own portable humminbird with a lakemaster chip, and they will have (I believe lowance with naviaonics chip) in the boat. So between all that redundancy we can keep from getting lost. |
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Posts: 83
Location: minnesota | If the lake is "on" I often see a fish on every spot. If it's "off" I might go a whole day without seeing 1. I caught 17 last week but they were all small, most 30-40".
Watch out for hazards, there are a lot of surprise rocks out there.
Learn some smaller areas really well |
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Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | Eh..pretty difficult to answer. It's entirely a combination of weather, skill level, spot knowledge, luck, and effort...the more time you spend casting and the less time you spend napping in the cabin or jigging for white eyes will greatly effect your results.
If you are a first timer on the lake and are the type who does the once a year trip to Canada thing I would set modest goals. 8-10 fish for the boat for 2 guys sounds about right. Even though it is arguably the baddest lake on earth the fish do not just automatically jump into the boat...but use the right baits, your head, and get on some of the many. many good spots and good things should happen.
edit...Another big thing that really, really has an effect on results are your figure 8 mechanics. Even though it is dark water I would have to say the vast majority of my bigger fish are caught on figure 8's and often not on the first turn. That's not really something you can practice on without seeing fish but train yourself to not pull the bait out of the water even if you don't see fish...nice wide circles/8's. Can absolutely make or break results
Edited by Musky Brian 6/24/2013 12:57 PM
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Posts: 173
| Very true, the advantage I had was going with experience people as the #2 in a boat for 5+ years before running my own boat. If they are going truly blind and have no guides to show them things it could be tough. You can get lucky too...I keep venturing out into new territory each year but I also fish some staples every day. Regardless, it should be a great trip. |
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Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | jonnysled - 6/24/2013 8:12 AM
a long drive down a gravel road and a pain in the butt unload, load and parking spot for your truck and trailer. good thing is you get to pay for the service too. hope it's not raining ... and cover your boat.
get an RABC
ha...you'd get along well with my dad, you 2 have about the same stance on that. The drive/load to the island doesn't bother me whatsoever. But a week later when that alarm goes off in the cabin on Saturday morning and you know you have to drive across the lake, load up the boat, load up the truck, cover the boat, then drive home 14 hours...it can be "challenging" to have the will to get out of bed.
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Posts: 251
| We plan on having a guide for the first 2-3 days. I have already talked to Joe Cooper and will likely book him for those days. But as said, we are pretty much newbies when it comes to Musky fishing. No experience with figure 8's. Is there a good way to practice other than while fishing for musky? |
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Posts: 251
| I also have another question, How many/often are you catching other things while fishing for the muskie up there? Mostly pike, I assume? |
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Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | timhutson1 - 6/24/2013 1:59 PM
We plan on having a guide for the first 2-3 days. I have already talked to Joe Cooper and will likely book him for those days. But as said, we are pretty much newbies when it comes to Musky fishing. No experience with figure 8's. Is there a good way to practice other than while fishing for musky?
Coop is the man....He will put you on proven spots with fish and teach you the mechanics you need. You made a great choice there and you just shortened your learning curve big time.
The Figure 8 thing? Well...that takes a lot of fish encounters to master your craft. Basic line of thinking is keep the bait moving, speed up when needed but not too fast that they lose sight of the bait. Once your in the boat with Joe watch what he does, it will all make sense. |
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| timhutson1 - 6/24/2013 2:24 PM
I also have another question, How many/often are you catching other things while fishing for the muskie up there? Mostly pike, I assume?
Not very often mid July. - You are going to be fishing a lot of main lake rocks and generally the big pike are deeper mid july. I get more jigging walleyes in18-25 ft...I do get a lot of big pike mid/late June and then again late august and early Sept. with conventional muskie gear - Sometimes if its tough fishing mid-july, I'll get a cast off the structure and throw dawgs and DDD's....get some big pike doing that occasionally mid-July. Now if you want to target pike (especially 3-8 pound range)there are some good areas of the lake for that but they would generally be poor area's to target muskies in mid-July. You could get some smallmouth I guess if you really downsize your baits - but I like big baits Mid-July. Last year I don't think we caught anything but muskies - maybe one or two pike? |
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Posts: 256
Location: plant earth | On that question it would be how many skis will i see or catch when fishing for other fish smallies and walleye. If you need a break from chuckin big baits have a handy bass rod with a rapala or spinnerbait. you will be amazed at what you can catch. lots of pike, walleye, smallies, and yes skis. braided line is a must. Im not sure why but sometimes when i was casting small baits i had seen bigger fish. maybe different action, looked better, or more realistic. Its a truely awsome fishery. |
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