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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | We've had two solid weeks of stable weather and the fish activity has been pretty good as a result.
Several big fish taken over the past couple of weeks. The only common report is that fish are active on lots of structures on lots of baits. It is frustrating from my point of view because people want to know what is going on and it's tough to give them a pattern to go from.
For example, last Thursday (July 31), we saw fish on the following structures: bare rock next to a buoy, bay with rubble shoreline leading to sand (sand flooded) with some cabbage, both rock points on the each end of a small island, bulrushes, cabbage/coontail mix, small sloppy bay.cove with every kind of week and some rock point.
That night, nothing hit at the boat while catching three. Last night (Aug 4), 3 of the 5 strikes were boatside. Boatside strikes were Double 8s. Biggest fish hit a crank bait about 10-15 from the boat after following the previous cast.
Definitely still feeding windows where you fish will eat for awhile. Just before sunset has been good for me.
My boat has had the most success with crank baits and bucktails. More-so from rock and rock related structure than weeds, but we have seen fish in the weeds as well.
Water temps are getting in the 72-76 range most places.
Water is brown west of the resort and gets worse the further you go. All reports from the East are much clearer water. Algae starts to settle on the surface in some areas during calm periods, but otherwise isn't much of a factor for the most part..
Weather looking stable for the time being.
Good luck on the water. Please let us know how your trips go this month!!
J-Man
Edited by MyliesPlace(Justin) 8/4/2014 8:36 PM
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Posts: 1901
Location: MN | Justin, which online weather service do you find most accurate in your area, the Accuweather one on your web site? Thanks |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | I do like use that one (accuweather) the most for long range when checking wind later in the week on days I hope to get out fishing.
I like the 14 day trend as well to see what temps might do.
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Posts: 103
| Just got back from Sab. Fishing was decent. More musky pressure this summer than I have seen before tho. Needed to take a number to fish some of my favorite spots. At least the weather was finally good.
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Any insight into pattern you may have uncovered? Baits? Structures?
This is summer peak! The only time there will be more muskie boat traffic is during Gil Hamm week. |
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Posts: 103
| Saw fish in weeds and rock on a variety of baits... so, sorry, no real pattern to report. Moved more fish in the morning than evening tho.
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| First time fishing Sabaskong and honestly am at a complete loss for what to do out there anymore. I've been here for 2 and a half days and have to put one in the net. I have talked to a few other guys at camp and they are all saying it's been strangely tough as well. I've tried rocks, pencil reeds, shallow weedy bays and have only had a few follows. Throwing everything I can think of and just can't seem to find them. Water is around 75 surface temp and have had stable weather so I was hoping some of you vets could point me in a better direction. |
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Posts: 32935
Location: Rhinelander, Wisconsin | Look for sandy shorelines in the bays, even small bays, and fish 'em shallower than you'd think you need to. Spinnerbaits if the weeds are tough to get anything through. The corners should get particular attention. Then, rock walls leading into bays. Look for cracks and fissures that may create a rubble pile on a ledge, and pitch bass sized cranks at them. Hope you find a couple! |
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Posts: 720
| Sling
Try to find pencil reeds close to deep water. Its the best thing we could come up with and that was iffy at best. But we did boat a few off of that pattern. I hope things pick up for you. |
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Location: Not far enough north! | Just returned from the bay. Fished the 2nd-8th. It was the worst year we've ever had. Could not find a consistent pattern at all. We did everything and anything we could think of even trolled for most of one day. The one thing that we really noticed was that there was way more baitfish in the bay. Not just in the normal spots but everywhere we went. I think this might have something to do with the lack of activity. The musky activity was so slow I even took a day out and went up to whitefish to catch a bunch of pike. Visibility up there was only about 8' cause of the inflow from sabaskong... There was one morning where we caught two and raised three others in 2 hours but that was the best action all week. Big lures did not work at all. Small stuff showed us more fish towards the end of the week but didn't catch much... It was a great weather week and of course had a great time even though the muskies did not cooperate. Our numbers were less than half of fish seen and boated. |
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| Thanks for the all the advice. Fishing is still tough but I have managed to boat 3 these past 2 days by downsizing as much as possible. Definitely seem to still be on feeding windows as most of my action comes within an hr in the morning and then right at dusk. Just about have abandoned rock humps and islands because I'm just not seeing them as much as I have been off the pencil reeds. Still here through Tuesday morning so hopefully can get a few more. |
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | My boat went 1-4 (confirmed muskies eating) .....Saw fish today in/on the following structure:
small sloppy bay (lost an absolute monster that manhandled me and left my thumb burnt from pulling drag),
small bay with a little cabbage in front of sand that you cant really see because of high water,
big cabbage bed in front of sandy beach..again you cant see much of the beach,
small island with boulders/rock around it...saw 2 fish on this island, caught one..it was a big one,
re-raised fish in the cabbaged bed or saw a couple more fish,
re-raised fish in slop bay.
Best pattern info today was mini 8 Juice bucktail, though the fish landed was on a crank bait ripped over the boulders in front of rushes on the island's shallow point.
6-7 nice pike and a smallie in the mix today as well.
also saw a couple on big mama twis'td sis'tr click'r.
previous trip out on Thursday last week.....all 5 strikes came from rock and all but 1 of the dozen or so we saw were on rock...1 caught on 9mm Dadson and 3 on crankbaits.
both days, action was throughout the day from noon-1 pm til dark.
Good luck tomorrow. I'll be on a lot of rocks Monday afternoon.
Edited by MyliesPlace(Justin) 8/10/2014 11:08 PM
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | We had our first full day at Mylies yesterday, and Justin did better than us.  We saw 4 in total, and caught one of them at 35 inches. All of the fish we saw were in fairly heavy weeds, on a double 9 Spanky, Shallow Invader, and Slither Tackle Spinnerbait.
All came between about 12:30-2:00 or so. Nothing the rest of the day, surprisingly.
Back at it today!
Tucker |
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Posts: 151
Location: Chippewa Falls, WI | My dad and I fished out of mylies the 2nd-8th. I agree that the fishing was wierd this year and we didn't boat as many as last year but we boated fish everyday. We ended up with 10 for the week with a pair of 45's caught within an hour of each other. We averaged between 10-15 fish sightings a day which was down from last year and we found them everywhere. There is no pattern to where they are at all. The two biggest fish we found all week came off completely different structures. One was pulled from reeds (on a psv spinner) from as far back as I could throw it in. That fish was 48+ and then on friday while going to our last spot I noticed a little shelf on the HB graph off an island we were going to drive right by (spot wasn't much bigger than my boat. I pulled over to it on and as we were floating off I tossed one last cast off the edge in 12' of water. As I worked my twitch bait and shared stories with my father about the week we had I kinda forgot about what I was doing...then the line went slack for a second between jerks and I reeled it up and gave another good twitch which got the bait gliding again... in the back of my mind I realized immediately what had just happened and shortly after SHE showed up following in hot. The giant followed us as we drifted off the shelf and gave us about 20 seconds to get a good judge on her. By far the fish of the week (50+) and I know she ate the hellhound and swam with it creating the slack. I've never had it happen but should have known better and set the hooks the second the line went weightless but I didn't. Only one fish was boated on a fig 8 and we didn't have many more chances boatside. A LOT of lazy follows and one turn fish that would just swim off. Fish we caught were on a creeper, hellhound, psv spinner, 9mm bullet, topraider, and shallow invaders. We pulled fish off mid lake humps, weedy bays, reeds, rock shorelines, and rock points. It made it hard because you didn't know where to go and we only found the two big fish (reeds and wind blown shelf) for the week. Just couln't find the big girls...Still a great time and we'll be back next year for sure.
Adubs
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Posts: 151
Location: Chippewa Falls, WI | try these video links...
search- kwidiker 45. (go to 2:15 mark to watch action) or follow this url
https://www.youtube.com?watch?v=J28f0zSvy0U&list=UU4DqkoZXedg-jgi4p5...
search Awidiker topraider. or follow
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHdBzvrckvc
Awidiker LOTW or
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4niqPgVrmdM
Edited by adubs 8/11/2014 10:38 AM
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Posts: 153
Location: Antigo Wi. | We also just got back from that area of the lake and had the same experiences. No real set pattern and found fish almost everywhere but rock points with reeds seemed to produce the best. Ended with 9 fish for the week, two 43"s as the best. Lost 8 others at the boat. We stayed at Tamarack and mostly fished the Basil area. The best fish seemed to favor the wind blown rock shelf's in less than 4' of water. It was really nice not to see a brigade of boats around every island. Already booked for same week next year |
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Posts: 897
| Justin,
How much do you trust Accuweather out 14 days? I'm seeing low 60's and mid 50's for highs starting 8/23...the second day of my trip! WTF? I think it has to be a joke.
Chris |
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Location: Contrarian Island | was up 2 weeks ago, we found what everyone else did... no real pattern, we got fish from weeds, sand, humps, points, boulders you name it... fish were spread out... had to really work for em this year... many fish came hard into the 8 only not to eat..which is not typical for lotw.. weather was fairly bunk when we were there, sunny, high winds from the NW first 4 days then flat and hot.. would have loved a few cloudy days! we managed to get 18 in my boat (2 guys) and had 40 hits for the week... 52 biggest, 49.5, 49.25, etc.....other boat had 9 with 2 50s but were down a couple days due to boat issues... bucktails, topwater, and cranks in that order produced the best action for us
Edited by BNelson 8/13/2014 1:59 PM
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Posts: 439
Location: Lake of the Woods, Morson, Ontario | Cannot trust it 14 days out.
Yes, they could be right, but more than likely it will change some. Hopefully for the better.
Water temps 75 a lot of places (higher in shallow bays) and it has been hot..i don't think some cooler weather will hurt anything, but don't want frontal conditions for your trip of course.
Don't even check again until a few days before your trip! |
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Posts: 1901
Location: MN | I'll tell you how accurate it is - not very! We just left about 1pm today. Forecast last night said wind WNW 4 mph gusting to 6. It was more like 14 gusting to 26. |
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Posts: 897
| So I should quit checking it 4 times a day?!? I usually bring nice weather up there with me, it'll change! |
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Posts: 192
| I'll be there for a week starting this Saturday and I always bring a cold front with me. |
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Posts: 925
| We were in the NW Angle the week you guys are talking about Aug 2 - 9. It was definitely a weird year. We are usually used to seeing fish throughout the day. What we found last week was we would go 3 or 4 hours without seeing a fish and then catch 1 and see 5 others in a 20 minute window.
What it confirmed to us that we have been learning over the past few years is the feeding windows are crazy. We never give up. We don't go take a nap, we don't troll, we don't go pike fishing.
We grind it out and keep pounding because we firmly believe the fish are there, they just are not active or feeding when we have lulls. Because we have been on spots that have nothing special about them and then see the 5 fish and have flurry of activity.
We have also learned that we pretty much only use 3 baits. Cowgirls, a crank bait, and a top water. When the fish do start moving, the guy in the front of the boat is going to get 90% of the action on the buck tail.
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Posts: 925
| By the way, I don't want to sound like a dick in the post above. There is nothing wrong with trolling, napping, or pike fishing.
I am just saying that from experience, if you keep pounding all day, at some point they have to eat. That's our experience.
Ball Cap |
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Location: Not far enough north! | What's wrong with trolling? We were seeing bait and hooks all over the place off the structure in 15-20 FOW. We were not seeing much action casting the typical structure so we tried a different technique. It didn't pan out though and went back to casting but had to give it a solid effort. If we would have boated several fish doing that in a few hours it would have been worth it and maybe the answer to the tough conditions. Had to give it a try... This fish was one fish of a 3 fish day where I spent several hours walleye fishing...
Edited by Farmer Rick 8/15/2014 6:57 PM
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Posts: 1901
Location: MN | We also found bait off structure, and tried trolling and casting deeper running baits off structure. It didn't pan out but I'm guessing that's where many of the fish were. Someone told us that they heard there was a high number of smelt in the lake this year, and he reasoned that's why the fish weren't consistently on their normal spots - they were feeding heavily on those baitfish. I don't even know if LOTW has smelt, but they were chewing on something nice and fattening, as even the smaller fish we caught, and including the bigger ones, were chunkier than ever this year.
Edited by Propster 8/15/2014 8:17 PM
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Location: Not far enough north! | I totally agree all the fish we boated were fat too. Not November fat but heavy. One of the locals said there was an incredible shiner hatch this year. I think the fish were off feeding on them somewhere too, just couldn't get them to eat baits. I think they were all full of what ever those big bait balls were. We did contact fish casting away from structure but none would commit. |
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Posts: 925
| If you read my follow up post I said there is nothing wrong with trolling.
I'm actually hoping to take a fall trolling trip to LOTW one of these years. |
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Posts: 222
| Yep I also had a very tough week on the woods this week but after 3 days and not seeing any big girls I knew they where some where so yesterday I decided to troll well eating lunch so went to my favorite fall island seen a lot of bait and big hooks trolled for 20 min. and got a 49 1/2" :) Today seen only 2 follows then started to troll at about 3ish to 5ish and got 6 BIG pike! A tuff time up here this year!
Edited by musky1969 8/15/2014 11:32 PM
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Posts: 2687
Location: Hayward, WI | My wife and I got home today from a week at Mylies. By LOTW standards, we had it pretty tough I think. Saw about 4 fish a day, and ended the week with 5 fish from 30-42 inches. On a high note, my wife caught her first and second muskies (38 and 30). I have to agree with the windows. Most days we saw our fish within about a 1-2 hour time period, often mid day. 3 of the 5 we caught were right around sunset though.
We actually saw and caught more fish on weed/rock combos than rock only, but started seeing more rock fish later in the week. Part of that could be due to my relative inexperience fishing rocks, on my first LOTW trip. Bucktails showed the most fish, with a Mepps Double Marabou being the best, and then the rest on a mix of double 9's and 10's. Also saw a lot of fish on a Krisco but only one smaller one caught on it. One fish on topwater (the wife's 38).
Overall it was a pretty mixed bag with no solid pattern. For a first timer on LOTW, I already want to go back. I also have to say the accomodations at Mylies were great, and Justin was extremely helpful with getting us going and on fish. My wife is already talking about our next trip!
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