looking for a nice, quiet lake to try muskie fishing n

[skrillaguerilla]

I've never gone musky fishing before, but 2 or my friends and myself are planning to go in 2 weekends to try our hand at catching some. We live in Kitchener and are willing to drive up to 4 hours. We're using a 14' aluminum that is light enough that 3 of us could hand-bomb it, but we'd rather use a launch, rudimentary or not. The boat is equipped with a fishfinder, and downriggers, and i'm willing to spend about another $200 on equipment if it's absolutely necessary to catch muskie (special lures, planer boards or trolling motor etc.). We'll be camping 1, maybe 2 nights, and we don't need power/water hookups on site, but it would be nice to have power. We are also avid pike fisherman (i know you seldom to find both in the same lake) and we also like fishing for pickerel and the odd bass. I have a lot of bigger rapalas for lures, but nothing really musky specific. if someone could recommend a lake or river for us to try as well as good bait/lure to try, i sure would appreciate it.

 

We were orignally considering Sturgeon Lake, but i though it might be better to try something a little further north.

 

thanks.

 

nige

 

edit, i added a report and pictures

Edited October 6, 2008 by skrillaguerilla

[ecmilley]

any of the kawarthas are a great choice if your looking for numbers, sturgeon, pigeon, scugog have all been producing good numbrs in the last week

[skrillaguerilla]

are there any individual camp sites for rent along sturgeon lake? or is it just the group site in Ken Reid Conservation area?

[jediangler]

Try Emily Provincial park at the south end of Pigeon lake. Camping right next to a great chance for your first ski. Not much boat traffic at this time of year.

[danbo]

LungeHaven Resort too.

 

http://realontario.ca/index.php?option=com...16&pid=4412

Edited September 23, 2008 by danbo

[skrillaguerilla]

we decided on renting a cottage at pigeon lake resort. It was a really good price for 3 guys over 2 nights for $225 with a spot to keep my boat tied at night. I am pretty excited to try musky fishing for the first time. I am searching through everyone's threads about pigeon lake and checking out the pictures. I think i should make a trip to the tackle shop first because i hear that white lures are working really well right now, and i have none besides one small bucktail. Does anyone have any tips on what methods we should use? I always like trolling because it keeps your bait in the water the most time. Also, are there any pike on pigeon lake or is it stricktly musky?

 

thanks for all your suggestions and advice so far. Garry2r's, I will have to come fishing with you when it's just me and my buddy, not 3 of us.

Edited October 1, 2008 by skrillaguerilla

[jediangler]

No pike, just musky. I get most of mine on black bucktails with gold blades.

[drwxr]

quiet lake that holds musky.... will be hard to find.

[Pigeontroller]

Make sure you have proper release tools! Long nose pliers, jaw spreaders, and mini-bolt cutters( to cut hooks that don't easily come out) can all be bought at Canadian Tire. A Net or Cradle is also a must, hand landing is dangerous for the fish and novice Muskie anglers alike...

 

If you have the right release tools I'd be happy to give you some tips on spots and lures, If you're planning on going Thanksgiving weekend I can even show you some gear and spots as I'll be just across the bay at my Trailer!

 

PM me if you want to chat.

[Whitemikeca]

skrillaguerilla, if you like trolling then Pigeon lake was the right choice. I ussually start my trolling run on South west tip of Big Island and I troll up along the island and then up and over to the to Bobcaygeon river entrance. Get a map of the lake and look for the big drop off west of the northern tip of the island. It drops to 30+ feet deep and there is usually fish suspended there this time of year. Belivers and ernies have always worked well for me on Pigeon.

 

If you are casting then you should look for the shoals in the north end of the lake (be careful a few of them are not very well marked) and throw jerkbaits at them.

 

Good luck

[bigbuck]

You'll have trouble finding pike in the Kawarthas (there aren't any).

But, that said, there are muskie a'plenty. Make sure you have proper muskie rods/reels, and as was mentioned before, proper release tools, they are critical, big muskie are too few and far between and you don't want to kill one because you were not prepared, that's a big sin in muskie fishing.

With about $200 to spend, I'd pick up a couple of big muskie sized bucktails, and a couple of body baits like the Believer and the like. Use good quality leaders and braided line that's at least 65lb test.

Good Luck!!!

[skrillaguerilla]

thanks for all the replies guys. We intend on releasing every musky we catch, so we have a cradle, grippers, 2 sets of long nose pliers, and i have a set of channel locs to cut hooks that are troublesome. The only think is should pick up is a set of jaw spreaders incase the hooks are deep. We might keep a couple of pickeral if we catch some, i can't resist the cheek meat

 

I have been studying this map i found on the fishhawk website. I'm not sure if the spots apply for this time of season, but by the sounds of it, trolling the shoreline should get us at least one i hope

 

Hawk Talk Pigeon Lake

 

We're gonna stop at bass pro tomorrow on the way up, so i will get a couple big spinnerbaits. I made my own bucktail spinners that have claimed a couple pike so i will try those up there

 

1 more sleep

[DRIFTER_016]

Little Bald on the north end of Pigeon never let me down when I lived in Ontario. The add plus is it;s quiet and can be accessed directly from Pigeon. It's good for trolling but is even better for casting.

[skrillaguerilla]

right on, i'll make my way to that side of the lake for a couple hours too. I am not used to fishing on such a big lake!, The Mattagami was the last big one i was on. I don't really count lake ontario 'cause you never have to go very far to get into salmon and trout

[musky66]

Pike are slowly working into the Kawarthas- may not be in Pigeon yet but Balsam has them. Troll large spinner baits at a moderately fast clip along weed lines and out over deeper areas.

[skrillaguerilla]

well i'm back from the weekend. That was a really nice (and weedy!) lake and the cottage was great. We fished friday, saturday and sunday morning. We caught a few pickerel (one really nice 21.5" 3.6 lbs) and one bass, but had no musky by saturday night. We had trolled and casted to all the spots everyone had suggested, but came up empty handed. To make matters worse my motor was acting up a little (starved for fuel, which we later accredited to a cracked fuel pick-up tube inside the tank). We were a little bummed 'cause we had tried so hard.

 

We woke up this morning and decided to top up the gas on the boat (we had to cut the pick-up tube short) and give it another shot. We could have just jigged for pickerel and went home with a full cooler, but we really wanted to catch a musky before going home especially after seeing pictures of our cabin neighbors with a 17 lb musky on saturday afternoon! For those of you familiar with pigeon lake, we trolled down the northwest side south to bobcaygeon and had no luck.

 

We the crossed the channel eastwards and trolled south along the west side of the big island. It was there we were certain we had a musky strike because my friend was trolling a believer on the shallow setting and he got a big hit. Thinking it was a weed snag, he let his guard down. I saw the rod jerk and we were in 25 feet of water with rock bottom according to the sonar. He reeled the lure in and sure enough it had no weeds on it. I put on my j-13 blue and silver rapala because it had been catching pickerel and bass on Saturday and i wasn't having any luck with the big spinner tails. I let it out about 75 yards or so and my other friend got his lure back down as well.

 

We continued to troll south (i learned to go a little faster than pickerel troll speed) and approached the small group of exposed rocks near the orange channel marker. As soon as I began my right turn toward the channel marker, the rod jerked and i quickly set the hook. I thought i had a nice pickerel on the end until I saw a musky rocket 2 feet out of the water! I have never fought a fish like that before. Rainbows are pretty tricky, but this musky tested every single thing i've ever learned about playing fish! I even got a break when she darted underneath the boat like a pike only to come flying out of the water behind me on the other side! If i hadn't had my rod tip in the water under the boat, i may have lost her right there! After a few more quick hops and runs, she started to tire (me too!) and i was able to coast her along side of the boat where my friend had the cradle ready. The fish still had energy and didn't like the cradle very much so she thrashed about and tore the hook from the corner of her mouth. Before she could escape, my other friend quickly grabbed her tail like we do with salmon and hauled the whole mess in the boat. We were blown away just to get one on the line, let alone have it in the boat. So here she is; my 1st musky!

 

 

We know it was longer than 36 inches because it went off my fishing regulations sticker on the bench. It felt like it weighed around 10 pounds or so, but i was shaking like a leaf after i caught it so I'm not sure. We got her back in the water quickly and it took about 15 minutes to get her revived and she kicked up a big splash and headed back to the depths. i put a short clip on youtube of me reviving her.

 

 

We learned that cradles are one of the most frustrating items to use and they are way tricker than using grippers or a rubber net. i could see the cradle helping with larger fish, but it was so annoying to use it because the hooks would instantly get stuck in it and the fish could break free. I almost lost this nice pickerel when landing it.

 

 

it would be nice if they made the cradles out of the good rubber webbing that the salmon nets we use are made of. The hooks are way less prone to getting stuck in it and it sort of keeps it's shape when you put it underwater.

 

i want to thank you guys that gave me tips and pointers, i was really getting worried that we would leave the lake without seeing one. I am definitely going to chase these fish a little more often! they are waay more fun and challenging to land then a big pike!!

Edited October 6, 2008 by skrillaguerilla

[Whitemikeca]

Congrats on the catch! I know exactly where you caught that fish and I have caught several at that spot over that last couple of years. Watch out! The muskie bug is an expensive habit!

 

I was out on Pigeon myself on Sat and we managed 2 skis. I will try and post the pics in the next few days.

[jediangler]

Congrats on your first. Pigeon has always been very good to me for musky as well. I usually fish with bucktails but have caught a few trolling or casting J-13's in orange too.

[dizzidevil]

Now i'm really excited to go! Only two more days of work and i'm off to get me a musky

[ecmilley]

wtg on your first ski, thanks for sharing

[Leecher]

Congratulation on your first ski

 

Leechman

[corvette1]

nice ski and wally congrats

[Rizzo]

looks like another victim of the musky bug. Now go take out a loan and head to the tackle store1

[ehg]

That's a nice musky! Pigeon really produces decent fish.

All i used when i started fishing muskies up there(20 yrs. ago) was a chartreuse J-13.

Congrats on achieving your goal.

ehg