Lake of the Woods report

[Fisherpete]

As an avid musky fisherman hunting for that first 50 incher, if you could pick one body of water to have a chance to fish, where would it be? I have a few dream destinations on my list, including Lake St. Clair and Georgian Bay, and both are relatively close to home. But there has been one lake on my list that was simply a must do. Watch enough episodes of the Musky Hunter, or Simply Fishing, and you will understand why Lake of the Woods is the destination of choice for many a fishing show and serious musky angler alike. It is a huge body of water, with tons of fish in it, which means plenty of food for the toothy dragons that swim there. Walleye, bass, pike, trout, cisco… LOTW musky have their choice of premium forage readily available. Fishgreg (Greg) and cowanjo (John) found out this summer what kind of fishing can be had up there when they attended Jim Saric’s musky camp – and both came back with big smiles and new PB’s, with John landing a beautiful 51.5”. Early this year, Lunkerhunter (Andrew) gave me a call, and asked if I would be interested in joining him and 4 other guys on a LOTW trip this August – and without hesitation or even looking at my schedule, I replied “HELL YES!!!”. It was really going to happen! Four of us were avid musky fishermen, and the other two were all around fishermen, hoping for some great walleye, bass and laker fishing. Perfect - they could take care of shore lunch while we hunted for trophies!

 

My Kawartha musky season has been relatively slow, with decent numbers but only a few nice fish to brag about, but truly everything just felt like a warm-up for the LOTW trip. It was my full intention to do everything possible to catch a true giant on this trip, from equipment to spending as much time on the water as possible, no matter the weather. In the past few months, I added many weapons to my arsenal, and got some great tips from Greg and John which further refined my lure choices. One day while at Sail, I was having a tough time choosing a musky rod, and one of the salespeople stepped up and helped me pick one out. We moved on to talking about lures, and this conversation happened:

 

Pete: “Yeah, I’m still looking to pick up a few more weapons for my trip to Lake of the Woods later this month.”

 

The salesman gave me this strange look, and said : “Lake of the Woods? I’m also heading there later this month! Where are you staying?”

 

Peter: “Near Sioux Narrows, there are six of us going.”

 

Salesman: again with a strange look: “Um, are you with Andrew???”

 

And that’s how I met Josh for the first time – one of the four musky nuts on the trip! Small world indeed.

 

So here are the six cast members for this trip : Andrew (Lunkerhunter here on OFC), Scott & Ryan (brothers), Jonathan, Josh and myself. Ryan and Jonathan are all-around fishermen, the rest of us are esoxheads. The four of us primarily fish the Kawarthas for muskies, and were all stuck around the 48” mark – so the quest to join the 50 inch club was a common theme for us.

 

Scott, Andrew and I met at Costco the day before we departed, and took care of picking up the majority of the food and drink supplies for the week. Have you ever approached the cash register at Costco expecting the cashiers to be overwhelmed by the amount of stuff in a purchase? I did, but they didn’t even flinch. As we paid, the cashier with a well educated guess said “Fishing trip?” We laughed and were on our way. We were not going to eat lightly on this trip, plenty of good eats here.

 

We met at Andrew’s place on Thursday evening, packed up the boats and trucks, and set out after a minor setback and trip to Canadian tire for a hitch (darn old school 1 and 7/8ths Scott!)… The plan was to drive straight there, only stopping for gas and refreshments along the way. Hopefully this would get us there Friday night, and we could get in a good night’s sleep either in the trucks or a motel. This would allow us to start fishing as early as possible Saturday after checking in to the lodge. We drove until 6am or so, but then had to pull over to a rest stop for an hour or so and grab a power nap. That did the trick, refreshing our stinging eyes, and after that we drove all day, except for a brief stop on the north shores of Lake Superior. The raw beauty of this area is a sight to behold - and as you stand on the shore looking out, you have no choice but to feel the raw power of the clean cold blue water.

 

 

Sometime in the afternoon we called the lodge and arranged to check in a night early, avoiding sleeping in the trucks or having to deal with a motel. We finally arrived at the lodge around 8pm or so. What a beautiful area – it seemed like every island had its own bald eagle soaring above it, with rocky cliffs and islands everywhere.

 

 

As we unpacked the gear, it soon became apparent that at least 5 of us were total tackle junkies, and the cabin soon looked like an overstocked tackle shop. Bundles of rods stood in every corner, and tackleboxes and bags filled much of the floor space, along with enough cases of beer to keep everyone sozzled for the week. The fridge, cupboards and countertops were piled with food. We were truly ready to do battle with this lake!

 

After speaking to the lodge owner Jim, and getting some tips and maps of our area, we ate dinner, had some drinks and crashed for the night. The next morning, we had a hearty breakfast, launched the 3 boats, and set out fishing. Here`s our little fleet:

 

 

Day 1. Andrew and I headed out to a group of islands that was quite a distance from camp, but the wind was howling (40-50k) and the water rough, so the other two smaller boats (Scott & Josh, Ryan and Jon) had to stay in the bay closest to camp to fish. After seeing pictures at the lodge of 25+ pound lakers the night before, Andrew and I started out trying for lakers for a bit, and were immediately marking fish on the sonar, but with the wind and waves jigging for them was nearly impossible. Andrew’s jig came up once with a good sized scale on it, but that was it. We soon gave that up, and plowed through 4 footers to get to our chosen islands. Thankfully, there were many smaller bays and coves, and we were able to fish pretty comfortably. There was so much promising structure that we didn’t even know where to start. EVERYWHERE looked like it could hold a fish! The first weedy bay that we found gave up a few chunky pike, and this worked all week – find weeds, ANY weeds, and you find the pike. If one chose to, 100+ pike days are easily had, with many of them being smaller fish, but with the odd good one mixed in. As the afternoon went on, we had 3 musky follows, with two of them being good fish, but no takers. An amazing dinner of fried chicken drumsticks with 4 different and unique sauces (one of them memorably scorching) whipped up by Ryan finished off the night, along with a bevy of ice cold beverages.

 

 

Day 2. We woke up to another rough and windy day, much to the chagrin of the two smaller boats. They still caught fish, lots of pike, bass and then walleyes in the evening, but nothing too big. It must have been rough for Scott and Josh to have been there for two full days and not have been able to reach the musky grounds yet. As for Andrew and I, pike were being caught at will, on everything from traditional pike sized spinners and spoons to musky sized cowgirls and bulldogs. They were more than willing to cooperate, and kept us entertained throughout the day as we hunted for the big girls. We had 4 follows on this day, two of them hot, one even following Andrew`s lure for 4 full figure 8`s and taking several unsuccessful swipes at it. Where we were fishing has relatively clear water, and watching big muskies follow in and around the 8 really gets the blood pumping – not something we were used to on many of the Kawartha lakes with low visibility like Scugog. We headed in for the day, with no muskies to report, but at least with a pretty good feel for where they lived. Dinner – charcoal grilled striploins.

 

 

Day 3. Andrew and I had set up a morning musky trip with a local guide named Jamie, and drove and met him in Sioux Narrows. We launched his boat and headed out on a LONG boat ride – 45 mins or so at WOT, to his musky fishing grounds. As we drove, the water became more and more murky – maybe a good thing after all the follows we had been having. After a few hours of casting promising looking areas, we went for a troll – and my rod soon went off. The initial hit was hard, but not much of a fight followed, and I soon had a really chunky 34 inch pike in the net. We resumed trolling, and soon after my rod went off again – this time the fish fought well, and another nice pike was soon in the net, a solid 35 incher.

 

 

We trolled a bit longer without any other fish, then resumed casting. We came to a spot where there were two islands close together, and had a deep 15' channel running between them. Near the end of the channel was a large fallen tree. It looked like a perfect ambush spot for a muskie! The three of us cast a variety of lures around the fallen timber, and just as we were finishing the drift, I had a BIG follow, probably a 50+. I had been retrieving my lure really slowly, and she lazily rose up, took a look, and sank down into the branches of the tree. My heart was in my throat! We tried a few more casts, and got snagged in the branches. After freeing up the lure, we left the spot for an hour. When we returned, Jamie got another follow, but it looked like a different fish! Could there be two big fish sharing this one spot? We continued fishing for a few more hours, and had one more follow from a decent fish, but that was it. At this point, Andrew and I were honestly at a bit of a loss. We had put in almost 30 hours, including 8 with a guide, had seen a few fish, good ones too, but what would it take to get one of them to finally bite? When you drive almost 2000km to get to a destination, these are not questions that you want to be asking!

 

Back at camp, the other boys finally had calm enough waters to venture to the musky grounds, and like us, had done quite well with the pike and had a few musky followers. Jonathan and Ryan had caught plenty of pike and some nice bass as well, and even managed to try downrigging for some lakers – they got 3, but all small. We all headed out jigging for eyes that evening, and did quite well. Josh bagged the best one at 25” or so, and most were in the 16-21” range – good fun and even better eating. We kept a limit of eaters and later that night a fabulous fish fry followed.

 

 

Day 4. Tough choices. Do we head out on the long route that Jamie had taken us on, and try fishing the dirty water up there? Maybe pull that giant out of that tree? Or should we see if some of the followers close to camp were finally ready to commit? We chose to give the clear waters one more go, and as it turned out, it was a bad move. Once again the pike were there, with Andrew bagging a trip-best 38”er, but we had even less muskie followers – only two if I can remember. None of our follower fish from day one or two showed themselves. Scott finally broke the musky jinx for the group, landing a small one that had a very cool marking pattern (looked like a St. Clair spotty – pics to follow when I get them from him) Another good night of jigging for eyes took some of the sting away, but we were all seriously beginning to think that we may return home without any big muskies to brag about.

 

 

Day 5. Andrew and I had opted for a bush plane fly out on this day to a remote lake that was supposedly chock full of walleye, pike and bass. Honestly, at this point, with only 3 days left, I was feeling a bit of regret to having committed to this – as I really wanted a big muskie to show for this trip. But as I saw the plane come in and land, I knew that this was going to be a really cool experience. In fact, I have only ever been on a plane once before – and never one like this tiny 3-seater Cessna! We loaded our gear in, and took off – WOW. I’ll let the pics do the talking. Landing was as smooth as silk, and we soon pulled up to the island where the boats were kept – nice little 14’ Lund tinners with 4 stroke 9.9 yammies on the back! It was a bit strange to not have any electronics on board, but the pilot had given us a tip – “Fish by that rock and that point and you will be good”. He wasn’t kidding. Andrew threaded on a minnow, dropped it in to the very murky water, and 5 seconds later a chunky 17 inch walleye was in the boat. It was like this all day, with very few lulls in the action. The wind picked up a bit around noon, making our drift (no anchor unfortunately) pretty fast – we just started backtrolling into the waves and continued to catch fish. One of the walleye Andrew caught had been deeply hooked, and surfaced soon after he let it go – immediately catching the attention of a large bald eagle perched on a nearby treetop. “Is this really going to happen???” Andrew said after seeing the eagle get ready for flight – and it sure did, she swooped down and grabbed that walleye seconds later! (Although she subsequently dropped it and it sank lol)

 

 

We also caught a few smallies, with Andrew getting a beauty, and we both caught a few pike as well. Near the end of the day, we tried casting a few weedy bays for pike, but it appears that they were mostly small fish in there. We didn’t even keep count, but probably landed close to 100 walleye in the 7 hours we were there. And the coolest part – all of the walleye were caught between 1 and 5 feet of water! The flight home was interesting for several reasons – the wind had really picked up, making it a quite bumpy, and we also flew by a forest fire that had started that morning, and witnessed a water bomber plane dump it’s cache of water on the fire, and then skim a lake to scoop up another load. How many people can say they witnessed that first hand? We arrived back at camp, and I felt really nauseous – not sure if it was from the hot sun or the plane ride, but it took several hours to go away.

 

 

Thankfully I felt better by evening – and we headed out and put another beating on the walleyes. I was really starting to get the hang of it by this point, and did very well, including a really nice pike that had me thinking (hoping) it was a 10lb eye when it hit my minnow!

 

The other boys had fished a few hours in the morning, but then had to head to Kenora to get Scott`s truck fixed, so missed out on some fishing time. They did however get to see Figure 8 baits in Kenora – one of the best stocked muskie shops around. Yes they spent some $$$ there lol. Oh yeah - dinner tonight - bacon wrapped walleye dipped in thai sauce!

Edited September 9, 2012 by Fisherpete

[Fisherpete]

Day Six. Two days left to fish - crunch time. Clear skies and no wind made our choice an easy one – head for the dirty water. There was no way that we were going to try the clear water again when it was this calm. All 3 boats trailered up and we headed to the narrows and launched. Our destinations were all between 20 and 30 miles away, so we wasted no time and took off.

 

 

Jon and Ryan headed to a well known walleye hotspot, Andrew and I retraced the route we had fished with Jamie, Josh and Scott headed to a spot suggested by the guys at Figure 8 baits. Jon and Ryan did very well, landing 35 or so walleye, with Ryan landing one pushing 5 pounds.

 

 

They caught bass and pike as well, and a half dozen sauger – very cool. Josh and Scott raised a bunch of fish, including several beasts – but no takers. They also landed several nice pike. Andrew and I casted and then trolled for hours without a sniff. The winds started to pick up, and a nice chop was now on the water. We finally arrived at the sunken tree, and Andrew cast out a bulldog which landed with a massive splash. A good sized muskie immediately took a rip at it right at the surface, tearing the tail! Andrew felt the tug, but I was the one to see her. A few more casts and she followed me out – four hard charging turns on the figure 8 again – then she took off. HEARTBREAK! Next cast Andrew got snagged badly on a branch – and we had to pull the boat right in the thick of things to save his lure – and with the wind funnelling the waves down the channel, it was a minor miracle that we were able to save the lure, not break his rod and keep the boat from smashing off the rock walls. I had to lay down, and pull up the large branch while Andrew unwrapped the line and leader. We thought that all this commotion probably ruined the spot, and left it for a few hours to try other waters. Nothing came of this, not even a follow, and as the afternoon faded to evening we decided to give the tree another go. We approached the tree carefully, staying as close as we could to the opposite side, and began casting. Nothing. One last drift, and I pitched a tiny bulldog (the smallest size they make LOL!) into the heart of the tree, and on the second lift, THUNK! ``Holy crap, I got her, I got her!`` I yelled. Luckily, she swam out from the tree, because if she had dove down into those branches it was game over. She came in without too much fuss, and we both breathed a sigh of relief – the musky curse was over. She was thick, and when I saw her in the net thought she would go 45, but as it turns out she was only 42, but a really nice looking specimen. She probably weighed twice what some of my skinnier Kawartha 42’s have! She took off immediately, splashing my face as soon as she hit the water. I was one very happy camper. We fished a bit more, then started the long trek home, almost running out of fuel in the process.

 

 

Day 7. Dirty water finale. The forecast called for 20k winds, but it was glass calm out there. Jon and Ryan returned to their walleye grounds, Scott and Josh to the spot where they had raised 5 fish the day before. Andrew and I had studied a map the night before and decided to gamble – we came up with a game plan and stuck to it. Fish only prime structure, and fish as much of it as fast as possible. We all brought extra gas this time to make sure that there was no more arriving on fumes like the night before.

 

Ryan and Jon did well again on the walleye grounds, as expected.

 

 

Scott and Josh fished their butts off, from dawn till dark, and could not get any of those followers to commit, although Josh did manage a gorgeous thick 37” pike for his efforts (pic to follow).

 

Andrew and my plan was working out well, and we had already had several aggressive follows, including one psycho ski that came out like a missile 4 times, at 4 different lures! The very next spot that we approached looked very promising, having many key elements to being a big fish spot, and it did not disappoint. Andrew made the first cast, dropping a twin ten perfectly a few feet from the rocky shoreline. A few turns on his winch later, he set the hook on what he said felt like a rock – no give. Then she began to move, and he shouted “Fish on!”. I asked “Feel big?” to which he replied “Not sure…” but then she broke water, and a MASSIVE green head thrashed from side to side, almost in slow motion! “HOLY CRAP, IT’S A BEAST!!!” I yelled, and as Andrew dragged her away from the rocks, she began to show her strength, going deep and staying there. She took him for a walk all around the boat, with thumping headshakes and pulling him dangerously close to the trolling motor at times. She dove straight down at one point and literally doubled his sling blade in half. Andrew had loosened his drag off, but she never really made any runs – just staying deep and bulldogging. She finally started to tire, and I waited for just the right moment to slide the net under her. This was not a net job to botch – I don’t think Andrew would ever have spoken to me again if I had messed it up!!! I looked at her in the net, looked up at Andrew and quietly said “Dude, I think she is going to go 55” Did anyone hear that joyful scream last Friday afternoon? Yup, that was Andrew from 2000km away. She was only hooked by one hook of the back treble, just in the corner of her massive mouth, and on her first thrash in the net popped the hook out. We readied the measuring tools and cameras, and lifted her into the boat. I was spot on with my estimate this time – fifty five glorious inches of LOTW beauty, with 24 inches of girth. Several different weight calculators put her at just over 40 pounds. Andrew kneeled down to pick her up, but did so right on top of one of his lures. “Andrew – dude – your knee!” He looked down, and saw a 7/0 deeply buried right to the bend in his left knee. The only thing that had stopped it from going deeper was the bone of his kneecap. He looked up at me, and I said "Man, that’s not good”. Before I could even think about grabbing my Knipex and cutting the hook, Andrew, filled with adrenaline, grabbed the hook and tore it out. It took two hard rips, but he didn’t even feel it at the time!!! He picked her up, and had a hard time holding her – that much length and weight flopping around actually knocked him back into one of the boat chairs, but that actually worked out perfectly for the next two shots.

 

 

After those shots, Andrew got her back in the water, and I took some video of her revival and release – but had to break away from filming several times to keep the boat from drifting into the rocks. I did get some good footage, and took the following stills out of it, but unfortunately missed the moment when she swam away and dove down. What an absolute monster, I still can’t believe it. Notice the bulldog attached to Andrew’s leg in the last two pics? That was the second lure to get stuck in him – but this one was thankfully not deep LOL!!! The moral of that story – put your lures back in the box after use, or at least hang them outta harm’s way, not in big piles all over the casting deck!

 

 

If you do the math (which as true fishing nerds we did), we estimated that Andrew was likely around cast #9000 for the week when she hit – so the old saying “Muskie are the fish of 10,000 casts” was not far from the truth. Heck, I feel honoured just being able to net a fish like that. Andrew – congratulations bud, nobody fishes for them harder than you (except maybe me lol) – you deserve it. You set the bar pretty high for yourself now – so what’s next? 60”? 50 pounds? I can only imagine.

 

Scott, Josh, Jon and Ryan – it was a true pleasure to meet all of you and share this amazing week with you – somehow I think there will be many more of these epic trips in this groups future. We made a great team and every day was a blast. There are so many more stories to be shared from this trip, including Jon’s priceless quotes, ie "Fuzzy Wuzzy was a whaaaat?... "Josh “The Butcher” murdering $40 lure after $40 lure to 'improve' them... Ryan sadly NOT getting to IV anyone... the Tracker somehow staying afloat... Josh and Andrew and the porcelain debacle... but those are for another day, and to be relived on next years trip.

 

Pete

Edited September 9, 2012 by Fisherpete

[danc]

Awesome report man! I spent a lot of time in the Sioux Narrows area myself, and it doesn't get much better than that. Thanks for sharing..

[mistaredone]

Great read Pete! Man that 55er has a funny looking head.

[Andrew Grant]

.

Edited January 30, 2014 by XxX

[Pigeontroller]

Great report! You got me pumped for my week-long trip to the Upper French/Nipissing in two weeks!

[Gregoire]

Great report and a beast of a fish. Thanks for sharing.

[asdve23rveavwa]

Epic report Pete!!!! I've seen a few pics of Andrew's fish on Facebook, great to read the story that goes with it.

Thanks for an awesome evening read

[cowanjo]

LOTW - what can you say - great story and epic fish, tough when ultimately your partner is as important to get the giant not sure who should get all the credit - I count the days to next year

Great report I have to ask was it an oprah?

[LefroyFisherman]

Amazing report! great fish! well written!

[sneak_e_pete]

What a great report! I love reading detailed reports like this... thanks for taking the time to put this together!

[Jigger]

What a muzzle on that brute! Great read, looks like you couldnt have had a better time!

[Skud]

Wicked report and great pics. Nothing like hard work paying off in the end.

[TennesseeGuy]

Thanks.

 

Great trip.

 

Great report.

[corvette1]

awesome trip guys congrats

[spincast]

great read Pete - thanks for taking the time to put that all together. What an awesome trip. That 'ski is a real brute

 

love the wall-to-wall walleye shot too. that there is a bunch of filets

Edited September 7, 2012 by spincast

[Handlebarz]

Great pics and lots more to read but I gotta go to work dang I will be finishing reading tonight when I get home from work looks like a great week. But with out reading about it how do you catch so many walleye musky fishing???

[Live2fish85]

Awesome report. Some nice fish there. That musky is a beast.

[Steve Piggott]

Nice report Pete,You got to love NW Ontario. Some of the best fishing around.

[Fish Farmer]

Great report thanks for sharing.

 

Nice report Pete,You got to love NW Ontario. Some of the best fishing around.

Can't wait to see your pictures Steve at the next meeting

[adempsey]

Great report, thanks for putting it together! Some real nice fish too.

[Dontcryformejanhrdina]

Wow, great report and what a massive musky! Thanks for posting. Lake of the Woods is on my bucket list for sure.

[Lunkerhunter]

amazing report pete! it really brought back some amazing memories and i cant wait to go on the next musky hunt with you man. we made a good team out there thats for sure.

 

the big girl definetely had a funny looking melon but thats what makes her unique besides from her size. we couldnt believe how big her head was though, extremely wide! i was happy to get that hook outta me so i could take my time releasing her and watched her swim away with power.

 

Mike P. that is hilarious. after casting big baits from sun up to pretty much sun down there were a few evenings where we decided to give the wrists a break and do some jigging. was also a fun time to fish with the group and lots of laughs shared during that time.

 

i never thought i would want to do another 24 hour drive up north again so quickly but you know what i would do it again next weekend. haha

[SlowPoke]

Well done boys! Thanks for taking the time to prepare that report.

[Joey]

Excellent morning read Pete. What an awesome vacation for you. Glad you both caught a muskie. That beast sure has an odd head on it!!!

 

Thanks for sharing your adventure