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Posts: 28
| Heading up July 21st-July 28th...anybody been up this year to Canyon yet?
Don't need spots. Just general conditions and water levels and any baits that worked well would be great. Been going here every other year since 2002 so know the lake pretty well. PM me if you'd rather.
As always, I'll give a full report when I return. Taking my 11 and 8 year old sons for the first time so might be doing a little more walleye fishing than usual, but will still get out quite a bit for skis. |
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Posts: 52
| Aaron - I learned about this lake last winter and it's now a place I really want to visit. I can't offer any advice since I've never been there (OK, I think Showgirls might be really good on Canyon) but I know I'd appreciate a trip report when you get back.
Will help whet the whistle.
Enjoy! |
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Posts: 3
| I hope you had a good trip and the youngsters had a blast! I'll be heading up to Canyon this coming weekend. It's been 4 years since I made the trip and I can't wait get back! Bringing some first timers as well in search of a first musky, first walleye, and first smallmouth for the newbies.
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Posts: 28
| As promised, my report. We had a good week on Canyon Lake and it was a great trip. I spent a lot of my time walleye fishing with my boys as expected, but did get out for muskies quite a bit as well. The walleye fishing was tougher than usual with the fish holding in 20'-30' for the most part. Caught plenty of fish, but only managed about a dozen from 24"-28". Mack's smile blades with slow death and 1.5 oz bottom bouncers were most effective method for us. Easily caught 500-600, but a lot of 10"-14" fish.
Musky fishing was good. Fish were very active. We (group of 8 including my two boys) boated 22 fish on the week including 5 tigers (we had only ever caught one or two before in all our years). Biggest fish were twin 42" fish on topwater caught about a minute apart (we caught 5 total in about 45 minutes and lost 3 more in the best window of the week, all on topwater). Saw a few mid-upper 40's and lost a couple in that range. I know losing fish is part of musky fishing, but we lost more fish than I can ever remember and had countless other strikes. We estimated that we had another 30 fish hooked (some for only a second or two, and others lost at the net). We had a mid week cold front that slowed the bite a bit, but still managed at least one musky every day. Our average size fish were mostly 35"-40". We only had one under 30" so decent average size.
Fish were relating more to weeds and shorelines/islands/points than they were to mid lake rocks. We usually go up first or second week of August so I'm guessing the fish transition to the mid lake reefs in the next week or two. Best baits were #8 bucktails (Dadson Lazers with silver blades and darker skirts), perch walleye depthraiders, flaptails and propbaits for topwater, and poseidons. The topwater bite was really good earlier morning and at dusk.
The highlight of my trip was simply spending great quality time with my boys. Thankfully, both of my boys were able to boat their first skis. My 8 year old got on the board first with a 37.5" on a flaptail topwater explosion. The fish fought pretty hard and jumped a few times on the way to the boat and then just before getting the net made a power run that just about pulled him into the water. My 11-year old reeled in a small tiger I caught on a figure 8 before catching a fat 34" pike (pike are not common on Canyon) and a 33.5" musky on the flaptail all by himself. It was a pretty amazing experience for both of them. They got to witness a lot of musky action and have an extremely warped view of how difficult musky fishing really is most of the time. They even inquired why we weren't fishing for musky all the time when we were catching the smaller walleye. They are hooked!
Canyon Lake has been very good to us over the years. Again, if you are looking for a lake for big fish only, Canyon is not your lake. We have seen plenty of fish in the upper 40s and one that was 53-55" a few years back, but in general, most of the fish run 34"-44". If you want to hone your skill as a musky fisherman and see a lot of fish and likely catch some too, I highly recommend it.
Message me for more details if you want and I'll be happy to help.
Edited by Aaron B 7/30/2018 11:07 AM
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Posts: 28
| Some pics. Nevermind, file too large.
Edited by Aaron B 7/30/2018 12:05 PM
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Posts: 1901
Location: MN | What a great report and trip. Thanks for sharing |
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