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Posts: 18
| Will be headed up to Canyon Lake in late August and staying at McIntosh. I've never been on the lake, so I was curious if anyone had any pointers. We will be primarily targeting muskies, but a couple of the guys will be after walleyes. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. |
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Posts: 1901
Location: MN | Sent you a pm |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | Really fun lake with lots of fish, mostly smaller ones but you will occasionally find some 45s and up here and there every so often.
Not a lot of baits that won't work but...BLk/silver bucktails ( pretty clear water), great topwater lake ( prop baits), Bulldogs work great ( straight black), and cranks here and there.
any of the sandy bays or weed beds by the resorts and cabins are good and fish can be caught all day. Small back weedy bays always hold fish, mostly smaller ones though.
Ton of 24-36" fish, some 42-44s sprinkled in the right types of spots.. I think the biggest I have caught was 48" on opening week one year and have seen 1 or 2 that were probably 50.
Edited by Musky Brian 1/26/2016 8:25 PM
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Posts: 785
| McIntosh is a good resort. I moved on to bigger fish water after a couple visits to Canyon but it is very easy water to fish, just look for the classic stuff, weed beds, rocky points, garages, etc. All the classic lures work and I've had equally good luck throwing bright colors there as I have throwing natural patterns. Fish there are easy to get in the figure 8 as well. You have a real chance at an upper 40's fish but expect the majority of your action to be between 28-38"es. |
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Posts: 18
| Does a topo map of this lake exist?? I've done a fair amount of checking around and haven't seen one yet. |
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Posts: 257
Location: Madison, WI | Canyon is very clear water, and absolutely LOADED with smaller muskies. Fished it for a week in 1990 with my dad, and I think we ended the week with about 400 follows.
Best day: 140 follows - had 3 different occasions that day where I had 2 follows on the same cast.
Most muskies seen at one time was 3 (I had 2 follows, my dad had a simultaneous follow)
But I think we maybe only caught 3 muskies total for the week (we weren't the most talented figure 8ers back in the day).
As others have noted, the fish tend to be on the smaller side. The VAST majority of fish were under 40 inches. (Lots and lots of fish in the 28 to 38 inch range).
If I remember correctly, there are no pike in there, so the musky spawning survival rate is much better than anywhere else, thus the ridiculously high musky population.
I have talked to walleye fisherman who caught numerous accidental muskies while trolling crawler harnesses. They got so sick of catching muskies, that they decided to do their walleye fishing elsewhere.
Last time I fished Canyon, we stopped in for a day on our way home from LOTW in 1997. Fished for about 4 hours, and had about 40 follows, with the vast majority being in the 28 to 38 inch range.
If you are truly interested in CATCHING the muskies in Canyon, I think night fishing would be a good idea.
Or troll crawler harnesses (seriously). I think if you have walleye trollers in your group, and you limit yourself to daytime fishing only, your walleye people will catch more muskies than your musky people. This is due to the ultra clear water, and the difficulty in converting followers during clear sky conditions.
Good luck! |
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Posts: 1039
Location: North St. Paul, MN | Fished here one year back in '98 when I first started musky fishing. Got one at 38" on a bucktail. That was it for the week though, caught. Saw a bunch more and my uncle lost a giant on a jig and minnow. Most of our action came on overcast days and duriing the evening. So, yep, clear water tactics for sure. Big walleyes were caught fishing deeper, 20-30' of water on jig and minnows. At the time I got my biggest walleye of 24"...since surpassed that over and over heading to Lac Seul. Decent smallmouth too, if i remember correctly. Although we did go to a few other lakes that had smallies and we caught them there, too. |
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Posts: 72
| I was there about 10 years ago and caught 13 in a week and I think 46" was the largest with 38" being the avg. 2 things that worked:
1. Wind- the right spots with heavy wind (20mph+) were very productive. They were also very hard to fish safely but one of the spots we caught 4 fish in a day on and lost several more. These spots also yielded the larger fish of the week.
2. Small baits- we downsized with good success, even went down to walleye size lures like a #3 mepps. One guy throwing double 8's would get follows, and the other guy throwing #3 mepps would get bit.
I have heard from a person with a cabin on Canyon that the size structure and catch rate has gone down since I have been there, but I'm sure there are still plenty to be caught!
Good Luck |
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Posts: 1901
Location: MN | We went to Canyon one afternoon just up the road from the Indian Chain. Only caught two but they were 44 and 47, on double 9's and double 13's. This was in July |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | definitely don't need low light conditions to catch fish on Canyon. There's actually an awesome sight fishing bite that takes place in some of the sandy beach areas on bright sunny days. You can also pull them out of the right weeds in the day as well.
They like the smaller bucktails for sure....but will also eat bigger blades. Top Raiders over weeds work very often. Straight black bulldog caught me a ton of fish out there...
I was out there about 4-5 years ago. Size seemed smaller than it once was. Numbers definitely not, caught 22 in 2 days, biggest only 42" |
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Posts: 18
| Thats for all the information, this is some really great stuff. |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | Mringler, if you end up going there I'd be happy to mark a map for you. It's not a difficult lake to fish by any means, but there a few spots that can produce bigger fish that are very easy to overlook. |
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Posts: 1901
Location: MN | Brian, I already gave him a bunch of the stuff you gave me way back when. Hope you don't mind  You helped me get started, and even though we went a bit different way than lots of what you had, it was a great starting point. |
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | Propster - 2/10/2016 9:51 AM
Brian, I already gave him a bunch of the stuff you gave me way back when. Hope you don't mind You helped me get started, and even though we went a bit different way than lots of what you had, it was a great starting point.
nope, don't mind at all
90% chance I will never be out there again
...kinda funny this thread came up as I stumbled upon an old photo album full of me holding Canyon Muskies back when I first started college. It's where I hooked into and caught my first big one (48")....still remember feeling those head shakes for the first time. Great place to learn how to musky fish
Edited by Musky Brian 2/10/2016 10:03 AM
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Posts: 7038
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | Not a monster, but nice to catch fish without casting (we just trollllll) at Canyon.
We fish it in the fall (3rd week in Sept, mid October) one day a year and have caught 10 fish in about 22 hours combined.
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Posts: 1901
Location: MN | I figured you wouldn't mind Brian, you've always been awesome about helping out the next guy. One of the few who has been over dang near every bit of water NW Ontario has to offer, or at least researched the heck out of it, and still willing to share some info. I am pretty sure I won't be back to Canyon either, but glad I went. |
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Posts: 785
| Yeah I agree that the daytime hours will do you just fine.
Edited by musky-skunk 2/10/2016 10:35 AM
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Posts: 7038
Location: Northwest Chicago Burbs | and...it might be a fall thing, but we have caught fish trolling with depth raiders, large sized cisco kids, 10" jakes and perchbaits. none of which I would consider small.
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | any of those smaller lakes, try throwing this monster of a lure (#5), especially in June and July...
....bring a good pair of pliers too.
Edited by Musky Brian 2/10/2016 11:07 AM
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