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Posts: 66
| My buddy and I are considering taking our "trip of a lifetime" in a year or two. Neither of us have been to Canada before (for fishing.) We have heard that it is best to go for two weeks so we can "wait out" any bad weather patterns etc that we may encounter.
We feel like we have it narrowed down and would like some input.
Andy Meyers Lodge on Eagle
Sandy's Blackhawk on LOTW
Somewhere on Lac Seul
Big fish are more important than numbers, but we would not mind catching a fish or two either. Cost is obviously an issue, but not necessarily the main concern to a point.
Feel free to offer any inputs for other resorts/areas as well. Also tell me about your experiences if you have been to these places.
Thanks in advance. JB |
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Posts: 91
| Same here. Will be following this thread. |
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Posts: 1735
| If you are going for two straight weeks I would do LOTW. Exploring isn't a bad thing when your back needs a rest. |
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Location: Athens, Ohio | Two weeks, two lakes; one one week and one the next with a break to travel in between? m
Edited by mikie 12/22/2019 9:18 AM
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Posts: 2327
Location: Chisholm, MN | Personally my bucket list trip would be Lac Seul. Second would be Eagle. |
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Posts: 32886
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Dryden area there's a number of really interesting lakes in the area including Eagle and Wabigoon. Some unique smaller water as well.
Lake of the Woods would be a good choice too. |
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Posts: 66
| Thanks everyone. Keep it coming. We appreciate it. |
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Posts: 613
Location: Michigan | Never been to LOTW or Lac Suel, but have been going to AML for the past 15 years or so and I highly recommend it to anyone! The fishing can be tough as it still is muskie fishing and Eagle isn't a great numbers lake. However, the staff will do their best to put you on fish; they will mark maps for you, show you bait choices/colors, how to work baits, etc. They main boats they have are 18.5' Lund Alaskan tillers with power drive trolling motors. Their cabins are all really nice, they just put in a boat launch on site, and they just redid the main cabin in the last couple of years. There is also really good fishing close to the lodge so you don't have to travel to far if you're not familiar with the lake or hazards. |
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Posts: 612
| Kesagami Lake Lodge in James - Hudson's Bay lowlands (Ontario). Musky sized pike countless walleye, incredible adventure lots of caribou, moose, etc. |
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Posts: 93
| Not sure where you are from or what your prior experiences are, but I can share what I experienced and you can use it to help with making your decision.
After a very long run of a very busy work/life schedule (13-14 hour days 5 days a week and 8 hour days on the weekends for 10 years) I decided last year late spring I was going somewhere "wonderful" to go Musky fishing. using a weeks time, with travel.
After a little research I settled on visiting Lac Seul, main reason was for the supposed possibility of connecting with a +50" fish, although it was well know not to be a numbers lake.
For experience I only had 6 previous musky fishing trips in my past. All in Northern Wisconsin and most with guides. Had not been to Canada since I was a kid, too young to remember for the most part. Musky PB sat at 48".
We flew into Sioux Lookout from Chicago to shorten the travel time as much as possible. Overall not bad travel but the baggage costs doubled the transportation costs. Over sized a big issue as was the Pelican case I used for reels and other gear. I would not recommend this brand/style of case to anyone in the future for air travel as it raises too many questions.
SL has rental cars at the airport but they are closed on Sunday. That added a layer of inconvenience.
SL is not much of a town. Very little in the way of choices for dining, grocery, tackle, liquor, etc.
The place we stayed I would not recommend, to anyone.
You would have to look at if you want to stay somewhere with a meal plan or not. Some folks offered opinions and spoke of exact meal times at some places shortening fishing time. Also some places not allowing after sunset fishing. Not sure how those things fit into your plan. One thing I know is having to prepare your own meals is time consuming and becomes monotonous. Not exactly trip of a lifetime qualifications.
You will have windshield time to and from the lake, then boat travel time to and from prime areas.
Do you want to troll or cast? One more than the other or one exclusively?
A couple of notable things: Lac Seul is huge, not big but huge. Its similar in shape to a big backwards L with the lower leg extending west and the upper extending North. From SL (launching at Deception Bay) you can travel something like 60 miles north and 60 miles west. From what I was told and seems to be common knowledge, the western basin has less or few musky and the northern basin is more the prime musky area. I assume walleye and northern to be found throughout.
From what I know, there are only 2 places to stay on the lake in the Northern basin. Lac Seul Outpost and Anderson's has an outpost. Both are located in/close to very good, if not the best areas for musky on Lac Seul.
You can also rent a house boat which may be an option for you?
Lac Seul itself is a interesting body of water. Typical Canadian lake as I imagined it with a lot of granite and wild untouched softwood forests right up to the waters edge. A great deal of the area on the Northern basin was lost to a huge fire years ago. Things are growing back but one can tell the difference between the old growth/untouched areas and where the burn occurred.
Without experience on the water or a lot of trust in your GPS/chart plotter there are water hazards that could be very damaging. Large rock reefs in the middle of what seems like vast expanses of water, right at or just under the surface. Without experience I would take it easy until one got to feel things out. the water is tea colored (tanic?) and has a feeling of darkness to it. The lake seems to go on forever, it would be as overwhelming as I could imagine a body of water to be without experience and without a guide.
We musky fished hard for 5 days, 3 of which it rained either non stop or for most of the day. A couple of the days we never saw a fish. This may have been due to the fact we wouldn't have been able to see them because of the dark weather and rain. One day was stellar as we boated 3 and raise 8 others. 49" was our large fish for the week.
In hind-site I don't regret the trip but don't consider it a trip of a lifetime. I plan on fishing other waters as there are plenty to fish, and now I know more of what is/will be more important to me. Knowing what I know now and with speaking to others the next musky fishing target I have is LOTW.
The "trip of a lifetime" will be reserved for Cabo or somewhere warm.
Hopefully this helps and if I can assist more I will. |
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Posts: 2327
Location: Chisholm, MN | Windy City's story is helpful. Since you are new to Canada I'd pick the NW Angle of LOTWs. Much better odds and depending on your standards, there are plenty of big fish there. When you say big fish, I immediately think 55 or better. Not many of those in the woods but plenty of 50-51s. You'll run into them in 2 weeks for sure. Also, consider the time of year you go, so you hit it right.
Edited by Kirby Budrow 12/23/2019 2:15 PM
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Posts: 540
Location: Leech Lake, Walker MN | Rowan Lake ! |
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Posts: 1247
Location: Walker, MN | All the lakes and resorts you mentioned sound great. Personally, if I had two weeks I would go to Georgian Bay. |
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Location: Contrarian Island | might want to look at some of the out east stuff too.. with Thorpe or Laz or guys like that. |
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Posts: 639
Location: Duluth | I'd take a week guided on the St. Lawrence/Georgian in late November. |
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Posts: 66
| Thanks again everyone. |
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Posts: 257
Location: Madison, WI | DonPursch - 12/23/2019 5:10 PM
Rowan Lake !
Yup, I would have to agree with Rowan Lake.
I have fished Eagle Lake 2 times, and Lake of the Woods 6 times, as well as having taken trips to Pipestone / Clearwater chain, Cedar, Perrault, Cliff, Crow (Kakagi). Rowan Lake, in my experience, was far and away better than any of the other lakes.
Of the 150 biggest muskies I've seen in my entire life, I'm guessing that about 125 of them were seen on Rowan Lake. The average size fish on Rowan is simply off the charts when compared to any other lake I've fished (in my experience, anyway).
I think Eagle definitely has the potential to show you some big fish as well, but personally if I'm fishing clear water (like would be found near Andy Myers), I would definitely like to be able to fish after dark. And since night fishing is prohibited on Eagle Lake, I personally would choose somewhere other than Eagle if I were going to fish a clear water environment. I have had some success daytime fishing on Eagle, but it was in the shallower darker section near Osbourne Bay and Niven Bay. However, most of the fish we encountered in Osbourne / Nivens were in the 38 to 44 inch range, which is a smaller average size than what we encountered on Rowan.
In any case, if I personally were going to take the "musky trip of a lifetime," and I were focusing exclusively on TROPHY muskies, I would require the following two criteria:
1. It would have to be LAKE TROUT water (because the average size musky is much larger on trout water)
2. Night fishing must be legal (this eliminates Eagle as an option for me personally).
In my experience, the lake that best meets both of these criteria is Rowan Lake.
In my opinion, it is BY FAR the best experience in musky fishing.
Good luck in whatever you decide,
"Jackpot" John Schroeder
Edited by jackpotjohnny48 1/5/2020 6:19 AM
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Location: On the O | BNelson - 12/31/2019 11:03 AM
might want to look at some of the out east stuff too.. with Thorpe or Laz or guys like that.
Does Laz even take new guests? Saw a couple guys practically begging him to let them book him at the Odyssey last year, pretty sure the answer was no.
It's Eastern Ontario/Western Quebec , with the St. John's muskies now that's the real "out east" these days. |
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| Curious, why is night fishing banned on Eagle? I probably will never go there, just wondering what the reasoning is. |
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Posts: 8782
| North of 8 - 1/10/2020 12:20 PM
Curious, why is night fishing banned on Eagle? I probably will never go there, just wondering what the reasoning is.
It was done back in the late 80's to save the walleye population. Apparently they'd pile up at night on the shallow flats to feed, (I'm sure they still do) leaving a situation akin to fishing in a barrel. Pretty soon you had 50 - 60 boats at a time limiting out night after night... As you'd expect the fishery started to decline. The resort owners got together, formed a conservation group and got the MNR to ban night fishing. I think that was when they changed the size/slot/creel limits as well.
That's the downside to Eagle. But then I caught 29" and 30" walleyes a few minutes apart a couple years back, so maybe it's not so bad after all.
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| esoxaddict - 1/10/2020 12:56 PM
North of 8 - 1/10/2020 12:20 PM
Curious, why is night fishing banned on Eagle? I probably will never go there, just wondering what the reasoning is.
It was done back in the late 80's to save the walleye population. Apparently they'd pile up at night on the shallow flats to feed, (I'm sure they still do ) leaving a situation akin to fishing in a barrel. Pretty soon you had 50 - 60 boats at a time limiting out night after night... As you'd expect the fishery started to decline. The resort owners got together, formed a conservation group and got the MNR to ban night fishing. I think that was when they changed the size/slot/creel limits as well.
That's the downside to Eagle. But then I caught 29" and 30" walleyes a few minutes apart a couple years back, so maybe it's not so bad after all.
; )
Thanks, that is an interesting explanation for the regulation. |
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Posts: 425
Location: Roseau | Flag Island Resort
Doug Wegner and or Forest Huset
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Location: Northern Illinois | To me lake of the woods is not a trip of a lifetime.. I would say the St. Lawrence river, Georgian bay or lake Nipising. Those are the places where you will catch an absolute giant fish not a bunch of dinks and maybe break 50 like LOTW
Edited by muskyhunter07 1/13/2020 5:22 PM
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Posts: 2015
| Every muskie fisherman should do Lotw and Eagle...either trip likely won’t be a trip of a lifetime .. you’ll probably be back. As far as catching a fish of a lifetime, I’d say for many that starts at 54” ..well that’s tough to do anywhere and Lotw and Eagle give a legitimate shot for fish of a lifetime, top end fish chances are similar in both systems. If you can swing Wiley point (little pricey) on Lotw you’d be close to great water in all directions. Good luck
Edited by IAJustin 1/13/2020 9:15 PM
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Posts: 1767
Location: Lake Country, Wisconsin | I like Eagle, I love LOTW....but, as said above, I don’t think either necessarily equates to “trip of a lifetime” trips.
The NE Corner of Lac Seul was probably the coolest trip I have ever been on as it’s so remote up there and the potential giant factor is real. I think it’s the best place to crack 54 in NW Ontario, although you will be working hard to find them.
Edited by Musky Brian 1/15/2020 8:39 AM
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Posts: 75
| Not muskie, but what about a trip to Taltson Bay or another NW territory fly in for monster pike? That for me would be the trip of a lifetime. |
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Posts: 833
| You have said you want some numbers, but would like a reasonable shot at size as well.
If I were you I would set some base requirements to narrow it down: First thing I'd probably settle on is whether or not you want clear water. As has been mentioned in here already, Trout water will positively influence size, but as also has been mentioned it can make daytime fishing challenging. If you do not get an overcast day your numbers will likely be down.
Another question is pressure. How much are willing to tolerate? I'd also keep in mind that the more pressure there is the higher quality your casting will need to be. Be honest with yourself on your casting quality. If you go somewhere small that gets hit hard, it will impact your results. (Especially in conjunction with clear water...)
Then I'd consider things like Do you want to use your own boat and How important is the quality of the lodging/resort? How important is remoteness in the equation? Etc.
Then pick the spot that makes the most sense for you.
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Posts: 3147
| I agree with others one week each on two lakes
One week at Myers on clear trout water
One week at sandys on dark water
That way you get the Canadian experience. |
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Posts: 639
Location: Duluth | Lifetime trip would be bouncing between Georgian Bay and St. Lawrence river for all of October and November. |
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Location: Northern Illinois | CincySkeez - 2/5/2020 10:05 AM
Lifetime trip would be bouncing between Georgian Bay and St. Lawrence river for all of October and November.
100% Agree!!!! |
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