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Posts: 51
| I'm an original here most the muskie information i have gotten from this page has always been good. I have also purchased alot of lures when that was running. So even though this site has slowed down I always have checked back in. Was up on LOTW for the last two weeks pressure was high and sightings were low I heard alot of people were have the same issue. Over that two weeks seen 20 plus caught 4 and one over 48. In the past though you would see 20 a day. Alot of the videos you are seeing on social media of LOTW huskies have torn gills and handling marks. Fish i moved up there you could see recent hook marks. Used to be able to throw a dart at the map and have it all to yourself. Now you run 20 minutes to a bay pass 15 boats and two are sitting in that bay. I would have never thought a lake the size of LOTW would recieve enough pressure for it to show up? You guys that go there more often seeing the same or was this year a fluke with the water temps so high? Definitely had an effect on them for sure but just seeing fish was rough. I also fished it all. Besides flat open water. Just wondering what you older users think or are seeing. Thanks |
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Posts: 423
Location: Selkirk, Manitoba | Curious as to thoughts as well given your report.
A couple musings: a 20 minute run doesn't get you far, and if you see that many boats (mostly walleye I would guess) then you are probably close to the launch or a fair few lodges. LOTW is huge, but the muskies are not distributed evenly everywhere and there are not a lot of them even where densities are higher. Pressure is a factor on LOTW given more intelligent fishing pressure on it and folks fishing with improved technology.
The days of seeing lots of follows are over for a lot of waters given with FFS folks will be putting lures in front of fish that are neutral and negative and those fish clearly losing the curiosity that naive fish have that are not exposed to lures on a regular basis. We've abandoned the place we used to fish (from '93-2025) for other waters (more remote or FFS resilient) given the last two years we literally caught more muskies (during high wind or pre-post frontal storms) than we had follows. Like you, we would get follows on every spot - including some true giant fish which kept us going there. Guys running the shoreline with one guy running screen and calling out fish or follows, followed by guys only going out from dusk to dawn last sort of straw when combined with literally not seeing any classic follows. We don't get the pressure like you folks in the States do, but frankly we could get away from it and count on finding fish that hadn't been bothered - even if they don't bite seeing them gives you energy, motivation and hope.
That said, the high temps shallow are going to really affect where muskies are located and their movements given their preferred temperature is high 60s - low 70s F. Unfortunately where they are going is where FFS is most effective - although the new low separation iteration is going to be deadly everywhere. |
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Posts: 39
| Interesting you say that as this was a common discussion point in our group that was up there all of last week. Note, there was a big bass tournament out of Kenora that was running all over the lake, so there were tons of bass guys out there which may have made you feel more pressure. That said, one of the fish we caught had multiple hook marks in it's snout...
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Posts: 2106
| Yes pressure is way higher, if you are "older" like me  and Its not just LOTW in Ontario - would I rather have LOTW or we can just say NW ontario in general the way it was 20-25 years ago .. of course - do I let it bother me...no. Have fish moved to less obvious spots - sometimes... are feeding windows usually shorter - yes most weeks...do you need to be really really good boatside -for sure...but - I promise you there were many days even 20 years ago you were better off putting the bucktails and topwaters away. a 4 footer is a great fish anywhere, congrats - if you don't enjoy the grind, there's always other species to fish for...more and more there are days I do that especially mid-day. Then prime-time rolls around and you remember the next cast can very easily be the one on those waters - NW ontario is special!
Edited by IAJustin 8/12/2026 3:38 PM
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