Lake Muskoka - Fishing Report

[hutch4113]

Been a while since I have posted anything - pretty much since it has been a while since I did any fishing (I did catch one fish out of season - not on purpose, but figured I wouldn't post it).

 

The family cottage week this year was July 2nd to 9th, on lovely Lake Muskoka. Unfortunately the report will not contain any Lunkers - due in part mostly to me. Normally before I go to any new Lake, I do a lot of research, usually involving:

• Looking at Nautical Maps and marking potential areas to try.
• Searching forums for other fishing reports and possibly spots to try. This would also include colours to use, etc.
• Pestering people on OFC to give me their honey holes <grin>.
• For some reason this year - I could not be bothered - and it showed up in my decision making through the week (more on that later).

 

The other thing that impacted - I had no idea how big Lake Muskoka was. I mean sure, I looked at it on a Map, but when I was tooling around the size really hit me. This probably meant I was fishing in the wrong part of the Lake, at the wrong time - but hey - live and learn (I know where the fish are not now).

 

The start did not go well. I use an App to show Sun/Moon phases (two of them actually) and the week should have been awesome. But after fishing Sunday/Monday/Tuesday with nothing to show for it (big anyway), I was getting really discouraged. (ok - I did not get totally skunked, but the fish were tiny). To make it worse, while trolling on Tuesday evening for Walleye - something big hit and I lost it. Pretty sure my knot let go - > which goes back to my earlier point on decision making/focus. At any rate, I think it was a big Pike, but never got to see it, which quite frankly was agony (took me a day to let it go).

 

Here is the Monday report:

 

 

I call this picture - Fish Mustache. That is what you get for doing selfies in a boat. What made me excited was I caught this guy using Top Water, and while he was thrashing around a bunch of his buddies (much bigger buddies) came in to look - so got him in the live well so as not to spoke the others and tried again - and NOTHING. Sat over the spot for another hour trying all sorts of stuff - but that was it for the day.

 

At least I had awesome water conditions (I love it when it is like glass - of course does not always help in the catching of Fish)

 

 

 

 

 

Moving on to Wednesday (I have already described the Tuesday agony)

 

 

Things finally started to look better on Thursday (sorta). First I had a friend up fishing with me for the day, so went to a spot I had tried earlier in the week but stopped going due to boat traffic on the weekend (big mistake). I had two Pike follow my spoon - the 1st was 30+ no question - scars all down the back. He is sitting there looking at my lure, as I am jigging it like a mad man trying to get him to take it - and then off he goes. 2nd follower was about 10 minutes later - smaller, but still picture worthy. But again just followed it to the boat. I am of course thinking - here we go again.

 

Anyway moved on after about 3 hours of casting, jigging, trolling (and maybe a little crying). Found some more Bass:

 

 

 

Friday was my last day on the water, and Sun/Moon phase said it was going to be the worst. Went back to the Pike Spot - and spent another 3 hours with nothing. Managed to spook a 5 pound Large Mouth, while trolling through a shallow spot (why oh why did I not cast in front of me while moving - which I normally do) - but hey at least my Polarized Glasses were letting me see below the surface (more crying).

 

 

 

But over all it was a good week. Away with family, awesome weather, the boat ran great (including my trolling motor which had some issues last year).

Edited July 11, 2016 by Tupelo

[aplumma]

A fishless week is better than a week at work so you did good. Thanks for the pictures and report.

 

Art

[msp]

Looks like a successful fishing trip to me . Well done

[MCTFisher9120]

Nice job up north! The big ones will come! Looks like the weather treated you good too....and yes working trolling motor is always a good thing.

 

Thanks for sharing

[the spirit of fishing]

Nice report.

Too bad you couldn't find the more aggressive larger fish.

However the weather looks fantastic and you managed to get some fish to cooperate.

Good going.